PacSLRF History and the current conference

The PacSLRF organization was first established at the University of Sydney in 1991, primarily through efforts by Manfred Pienemann, then Director of the Language Acquisition Research Center. PacSLRF conferences were begun to provide a forum for dissemination of SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference was patterned after the North American SLRF (Second Language Research Forum), that is to say, to feature data-based studies or theoretical innovations in any area of SLA research. With its special emphasis on SLA work in the Asia-Pacific region, it was expected that PacSLRF would provide a needed complement to SLRF and EuroSLA.
The inaugural PacSLRF conference was held at the University of Sydney in 1992, in conjunction with the Australian Linguistics Society’s inaugural summer institute. The conference co-chairs were Manfred Pienemann and Catherine Doughty, both at the University of Sydney at the time. The members of the original PacSLRF Steering Committee were: Edith Bavin, Catherine Doughty, Rod Ellis, Joseph Hung, Michael Long, Howard Nicholas, and Manfred Pienemann. Since then, PacSLRF has been held at the following institutions:

PacSLRF 1996 at the Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)
PacSLRF 1998 at Aoyama Gakuin University (Japan)
PacSLRF 2001 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (United States)
PacSLRF 2006 at the University of Queensland (Australia)
PacSLRF 2008 at Beijing University of Foreign Studies (China)
PacSLRF 2016 at Chuo University (Japan)

PacSLRF 2016 at Chuo University (Japan) was effectively a REVIVAL of PacSLRF after a hiatus of eight years! The hosting organization, the Japan Second Language Association (J-SLA), was founded in 2000 and has been active hroughout the intervening 15 years, with an annual conference, summer seminar, and autumn seminar every year as well as the annual publication of its scholarly journal SECOND LANGUAGE.

Contact pacslrf@j-sla.org