The 5th International Conference ‘Crossroads of Languages and Cultures: Languages and Cultures at Home and at School’ (CLC5) organized by the University of Crete took place from 1st June to 3rd June 2018 at the University of Crete in Rethimno, Greece. The conference covered areas like fore transformative and empowering theoretical models and pedagogical practices, implemented either at school or at unofficial settings of learning.

According to the press info released by the Directorate of Press and Public Relations office of Near East University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavuşoğlu from the Department of English Language Teaching of Atatürk Faculty of Education represented Near East University at the 5th International Conference ‘Crossroads of Languages and Cultures that organized by the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Crete. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavuşoğlu stated that the conference was very fruitful as it brought together scholars investigating the complex interplay between languages and cultures and how these factors affect the bicultural and bilingual development of students with an immigrant background. She also underlined that the conference was of great importance in terms of providing platform to investigate non-standard language varieties spoken among immigrant groups.

The theme of the conference was ‘Languages and Cultures at Home and at School’. Participants from different countries including the UK, Canada, Iceland, Germany, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Australia made presentations in English or Greek and discussed the issue under different headings. With their presentations, the scholars shared information regarding their studies on language policy in bilingual families, teacher training in the area of bilingualism and intercultural education, language accumulation of young people, and language learning experiences at school, developing bi-literacy at school and at home, innovative teaching methods to empower students with a different cultural background and to implement Intercultural education.

The Place of the Language Varieties used by Immigrants in Multicultural Settings hasn’t been investigated Sufficiently....."
Participated in the conference with a co-study, which she conducted with Dr. Petros Karatsareas from Westminster University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çise Çavuşoğlu made a presentation on 'Non-standard Languages in Diaspora and Immigrant Groups: School, Home and Beyond' and addressed the problems encountered by Turkish language teachers in teaching Turkish properly to bilingual students studying in Turkish schools in London. Taking five different presentations into consideration, it was emphasized that sufficient studies regarding the place of non-standard languages in multicultural settings hasn't been carried out so far.

Language Policies at Schools in London was addressed...
Taking into account the new communicative needs because of the population movement and the creation of multilingual societies in which language users need to participate meaningfully, the conference was very useful in bridging the linguistic gaps by proposing new descriptors related to the parallel use of languages. The necessity of developing of appropriate pedagogies, language programs, curricula and syllabi for migrants and refugees respecting the diverse linguistic resources and making translanguaging possible was underlined in the presentations throughout the conference. In their other presentations, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cavusoglu with Dr. Petros Karatsareas and Alexandra Georgiou drew attention to the the approaches and attitudes of the students and their teachers towards the Cypriot language in the Greek schools in London. In Her presentation, Dr. Birgül Yılmaz addressed the approaches of Kurdish immigrants in London towards language learning, language use and language maintenance. The current approaches to the linguistic diversity of Ukrainian within the frame of diaspora and language policies for non-standard language varieties among Spanish-speaking groups in London were discussed in the presentations made by Katie Harrison and Dr. Darren Paffey respectively.

Conference brought together many Respectable Scholars Investigating the Complex Interplay between Languages and Cultures…..
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çavuşoğlu stated that the conference, which was organized by the Centre for Intercultural and Migration Studies of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Crete, brought together many valuable researchers working in the fields of language and culture. She added that they initiated works towards organizing and hosting such conferences at Near East University.