JALTCALL 2026 – Kobe (Nishinomiya) "Prevail or Fail?"
Friday, June 12 - Sunday, June 14, 2026
Conference Details
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❗Important Dates
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1 November 2025 Call for proposals open
31 January 2026 Submission deadline
1 March 2026 Results notification + Early bird registration STARTS
30 April 2026 Early bird & Presenter Registration Deadline ENDS
12 - 14 June 2026 Conference Begins
All presenters must register for the conference during the early bird period (MARCH 1 - APRIL 30).
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🪪 Registration Fees
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JALT member
- early bird: ¥15,000 / regular: ¥18,000
Non-JALT member
- early bird: ¥17,000 / regular: ¥20,000
Student (not in full-time employment)
- early bird: ¥7,000 / regular: ¥9,000
While onsite registration is possible, we will be accepting cashless payment only.
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🏫 Venue information
- Konan University, Hirao School of Management "CUBE" (Nishinomiya Campus) is between Osaka and Kobe in Nishinomiya, Japan. The closest station, Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station (HK08) on the Hankyu Kobe Line, is approximately 5 minutes on foot.
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🏨 Accomodation Options
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More information coming soon
Note: Accommodation near the venue in Nishinomiya is limited. We recommend staying near Osaka or Kobe Station for easy Hankyu Kobe Line access and a wider range of hotels.
Conference Theme
Submissions are now closed. Reviews should be completed by March 1, 2026. If you have any questions or concerns about your submission, please use the contact form from the menu above. We look forward to seeing everyone in Nishinomiya in June!
Under the theme “Prevail or Fail?”, JALTCALL 2026 invites educators, researchers, and technologists to explore how digital tools, pedagogical innovations, and AI are reshaping language teaching and learning in an age of rapid change and uncertainty. We welcome presentations that critically examine both successes and setbacks in technology-enhanced language education—projects that worked, those that didn’t, and lessons learned in between. Topics may include experimental classroom applications, data-driven research, AI and VR integration, assessment and feedback innovations, teacher training, learner autonomy, or institutional implementation. Whether your project prevailed, failed, or continues to evolve, we encourage honest reflection, rigorous analysis, and forward-looking discussion on what “success” really means in the CALL field today.
THEMATIC STREAMS
🤖 Machine Learning in CALL (ML)
🎮 Digital game-based language learning and teaching (DGBLLT)
👩🏫 Classroom application of CALL
⚖️ Ethics and Policy in CALL practice
🌐 Extended reality (XR) in CALL (including virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed reality (MR))
🔥 Learner motivation and CALL
📚 Second language acquisition (SLA) theory and CALL
🌍 Virtual exchange & COIL
📱 Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)
✅ Technology-mediated feedback
🦆 Social Media
💻Software development
❄️General CALL
Keynote Speakers
Saturday and Sunday Keynote Speakers
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Mehrasa Alizadeh
In this keynote, Mehrasa reflects on her past work with immersive technologies in language education, examining not only what prevailed, but also what failed, and how she attempted to address these challenges. By critically engaging with initiatives that did not unfold as planned, she will highlight key pedagogical and practical lessons drawn from these experiences. She will also demonstrate how these insights have directly informed the design and direction of her current project, offering a reflective account of how learning from failure can ultimately help innovation prevail in technology-enhanced language learning.
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Brent Warner
Brent Warner is an award-winning professor at Irvine Valley College in southern California, where he focuses on integrating technology into the language learning process. He works with teachers and organizations across the globe to provide practical advice for helping English Language Learners take advantage of tech to help them communicate more clearly. For TESOL International, he blogs about technology integration in the ESOL classroom; he is also the co-host of The DIESOL Podcast, which addresses innovation in ESOL, as well as The HigherEdTech Podcast, covering tech for teachers in college and university settings.
Conference Fee Waivers
We especially encourage proposals from teachers of young learners and teachers without research budgets. A limited number of partial and full conference fee waivers will be made available for applicants in these groups. When submitting your proposal, please note your eligibility in the “Notes” field at the bottom of the submission form.
*Inclusion in one of these groups does not guarantee a waiver, but we will do our best to accommodate as many teachers as possible.
Notes on Co-presenters
All presenters (including co-presenters) must register by the early bird deadline. Presenters who have not registered by this deadline will risk having their presentations removed from the schedule.
When submitting a group presentation proposal, you do not need to list co-presenters at the submission stage. If your proposal is accepted, you can officially register co-presenters later. To do this, simply go to your presentation and click on "Invite Co-Presenter". From here you will see a shareable link to send to your co-presenters. The URL lasts for 72 hours.
Invited Speakers & Forums
This year we have invited a number of speciality speakers from a range of fields to give dedicated talks, plus a small number of focused forums.
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Tom Legge
Senior Lecturer
Thomas Legge is a tenured lecturer in the Faculty of Business Administration at Momoyama Gakuin University. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics and The Open University. He teaches courses in international business and study abroad preparation and leads a seminar entitled "Global Mobility", which focuses on overseas study, working holidays, and international career pathways. He is a strong advocate and facilitator of on-campus intercultural exchange between Japanese and international students. His research focuses on study abroad, working holiday programs, and IELTS. His recent work includes An Exploration of Japanese Working Holidays: Trends, Motivations, and Challenges, which examines participation patterns and the structural and employment-related challenges faced by Japanese working holiday participants. He is president of the JALT Study Abroad Special Interest Group.
Speaking on "Designing Intercultural Exchange through CALL: Lessons from an Online Study-Abroad-Inspired Program." For many students, technology is opening up learning experiences that would previously have required travel, resources, or opportunities that are no longer easily available. This presentation reflects on the design and implementation of an online study-abroad-inspired program that aimed to recreate some of the core experiences of study abroad (most notably interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds) through synchronous online classes.
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Cadely Paton
The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme is an initiative that aims to enrich Japan’s foreign language education and promote internationalization by inviting young adults from around the world to be employed by local governments and related organizations in Japan. The program was established in 1987, with 848 participants from four countries. Since then, the number of participants has increased significantly, with over 5,000 participants from 57 countries at present. The JET Programme is administered through the collaboration of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT), and the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR).