Sustainable Multilingualism conference focuses on language preservation and diversity
On 29-31 May, Vytautas Magnus University hosted the 8th International Conference “Sustainable Multilingualism 2025”, organised by the VMU Institute of Foreign Languages (VMU UKI) and the Lithuanian Language Pedagogues’ Association (LKPA). This scientific event attracted over a hundred language policy makers, language and multilingual competence researchers, lecturers and students from Lithuanian and foreign higher education institutions.
“In organising the conference, we try to look at the phenomenon of multilingualism from different perspectives. This was best revealed in the presentations by plenary speakers, world-renowned scholars from as many as three continents – Australia, North America and Europe. I believe that the conference was not only a time of sharing new research insights, having a meaningful and enjoyable time, but also of making new contacts for research and further collegial collaboration.” – says Prof. Nemira Mačenskienė, Chair of the Conference Scientific Committee.
Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann (University of Adelaide) opened the plenary session of the Sustainable Multilingualism 2025 conference with a presentation on research on language revitalisation, identity and cultural resilience. Plenary speakers Dr. Karina Firkaviciute (Lithuanian Karaite Cultural Community) and Johan Sandberg McGuinne (Saami Writers Association) focused on the importance of language preservation. John W. Schwieter (Wilfrid Laurier University) from Canada shared his insights on language acquisition from a cognitive perspective, while Professor Jūratė Ruzaitė, representing VMU among the plenary speakers, presented research on hate speech from a linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective.
The conference also featured parallel sessions on topics such as language policy implementation, language preservation and revitalisation, multilingual competence, technology-enhanced language teaching, and contemporary research on French, Latvian, Lithuanian, Spanish and Ukrainian. Traditionally, presentations at the Sustainable Multilingualism 2025 conference were given in a variety of languages. They were delivered in English, French, Latvian, Lithuanian, Spanish, Ukrainian and German by researchers from Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine and other countries. In a dynamic roundtable discussion on “From Policy to Practice: University Alliances and Multilingualism”, participants shared their thoughts on the experiences and challenges of developing multilingualism and discussed perspectives for the development of multilingual education across Europe.
The international conference “Sustainable Multilingualism” was launched at Vytautas Magnus University more than a decade ago. The biennial scientific event brings together like-minded researchers, teachers, students and all those interested in multilingualism issues. “It is a great pleasure to welcome both old-timers (e.g. Dr. Michael Loenz from Germany is attending for the seventh time!) and new participants at the Sustainable Multilingualism Conference. For all of us, languages are not only an area of research but also an expression of friendship. And sustainable multilingualism comes first and foremost from people’s communion and understanding of each other. So the discussions and sharing of experiences continued not only during the conference, but also informally or during the excursion to Dzūkija.” – Dr. Teresė Ringailienė, Chair of the Conference Organising Committee and Director of the VMU UKI, shares her insights.
The conference “Sustainable Multilingualism” says goodbye until 2027! We invite you to look back at the most memorable moments of the conference, captured in the photos of VMU photographer Jonas Petronis:
