The 1st International Symposium on Cognitive Factors and ELT, due on 29-30 November 2012, will be hosted by the English Department from the University of Murcia, Spain. It will be organized by the research groups LACELL (PR: Aquilino Sánchez, University of Murcia www.um.es/grupolacell), Language and Speech (PR: María del Pilar García Mayo, University of the Basque Country http://www.laslab.org), with the collaboration of LAELA (PR: Eva Alcón, University Jaume I, Castellón  http://www.laela.uji.es) and GRAL (PR: Carmen Muñoz, University of Barcelona http://www.ub.edu/GRAL).

The types of contributions in the Symposium are plenary lectures, select papers, round tables, short papers and posters (which will be displayed during the second day of the symposium). The language of the Symposium will be English.

The contributions to the plenary lectures, select papers and round tables will be presented by the following experts on research into language teaching and learning from a cognitive perspective:

- Eva Alcón (University Jaume I. Castellón, Spain) 
- Martin Bygate (University of Lancaster, UK)
- Robert M. DeKeyser (University of Maryland, USA)
- María del Pilar García Mayo (University of the Basque Country, Spain)
- Jan H. Hulstjin (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Judit Kormos (University of Lancaster, UK)
- Carmen Muñoz (University of Barcelona, Spain)
- Virginia Samuda (University of Lancaster, UK)
- Raquel Criado (University of Murcia, Spain)
- Roger Gilabert (University of Barcelona, Spain)
- Ana Pellicer (University of Notthingham, UK)
- Patricia Salazar (University Jaume I. Castellón, Spain)
- María del Mar Suárez (University of Barcelona, Spain)

Proposals for short papers and posters are open to any researcher interested in the topic of the Symposium. These may be submitted up to October, 10, 2012, with notification of acceptance by November 1, 2012. Proposals may deal with any of the following areas:

1.- The Interface Issue in SLA (either the strong-, weak- and no-interface stands) and its implications for ELT.

2.- Cognitive perspectives on SLA –psycholinguistic and/or neurolinguistic- and their applications to ELT.

3.- Defining features of explicit and implicit instruction in ELT from a cognitive perspective.

4.- Managing explicit and implicit instruction in ELT from a cognitive perspective.

5.- Adjusting the explicit and implicit load of current ELT materials.

6.- Explicit and implicit instruction in ELT methods.
  
Applications are particularly welcome in the field of ELT, but proposals will also be accepted as related to any other foreign language or to the general field of Foreign Language Teaching.