INTRODUCTION

The precise nature of what defines a global community is far from clear. However, striving for a culturally diverse global community is a widely-accepted goal. Aspects that form the aspirations of a global community may cover linguistics, cultural, and social issues such as establishing a world language, promulgating sexual equality, promoting economic justice for all peoples and ensuring access to good education for all.  One may think that the formation of such global communities is a relatively easy task in view of advancements in technology which make the world smaller and borders more porous. However, differences such as political divergence, shifting alliances and constantly redrawn boundaries complicate the task.

This conference offers academics, educators, applied linguists, researchers, literary and ELT professionals worldwide the opportunity to debate and share their views on the role of language and culture in creating and fostering global communities. Areas that the theme of the conference encompasses include how language and culture establish connections within and between communities, how identities and relationships are developed in diverse second language contexts, how knowledge is shared within and between communities in practice, and how technology links culturally diverse communities. It is hoped that this conference will generate a better understanding of the interplay between language and culture in promoting global communities as well as engender new perspectives and pedagogies in the field of language, linguistics and literature.