ALAA Master's and Postgraduate Conference Scholarships - Call for Applications 16th August

Five ALAA Postgraduate Conference Scholarships and two MA Conference Scholarships—each offering up to $1,000—are available to students whose abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 2026 Joint ALAA-ALANZ-ALTAANZ Conference. The scholarships can be used towards conference registration, travel and/or accommodation. They will be awarded as a reimbursement for documented expenses after the conference.

The awardees will receive a certificate at the ALAA conference and their presentation will be highlighted in the conference program.

Eligibility criteria:

To be eligible for a scholarship,

HDR applicants must:

• Hold current ALAA membership before application,
• be enrolled as a higher degree research student or,
• not have been awarded their PhD degree before 30th June of the current year,
• not be in full-time employment at the time of the conference,
• have a presentation accepted for the 2026 Joint ALAA-ALANZ-ALTAANZ Conference to be held at the University of Queensland,
• not have been a recipient of an ALAA postgraduate travel scholarship previously.

MA applicants must:

• Hold current ALAA membership before application,
• be enrolled in a Master’s by Research program (i.e., a program that includes a thesis, not coursework only),
• not be in full-time employment at the time of the conference,
• have a presentation accepted as first author for the 2026 Joint ALAA-ALANZ-ALTAANZ Conference to be held at the University of Queensland.

Application Procedure:

To be considered, applications must include:

• a completed online scholarship application form,  
• a one-page summary of your research project, addressing the following aspects:
  • aims, context, rationale, & methodology of the project
  • the project’s potential contribution to/significance for our understanding of issues related to the field of applied linguistics
  • innovation and potential impact
•  a copy of the abstract accepted for presentation at the 2026 conference in Brisbane,
•  your CV,
•  a letter of support from an academic commenting on the quality of your research.

All applications should be submitted online. Successful applicants will be notified in due course. For further information, please email Associate Professor (Vice President, ALAA) at Helena.sit@newcastle.edu.au

* The amount awarded will relate to the travel costs involved in attending the conference.

Past HDR awardees:

2025:
Hoang Han Le (University of Wollongong)  “What they know about it matters: Exploring how students’ field knowledge strengthens their argumentative writing” 
Keith Cheng Lin (The University of Sydney) “The Development of TESOL Postgraduate Students’ Knowledge and Beliefs of Translanguaging through a Professional Development Program” 
Sammanie Kandambi (Griffith University) “Exploring Affective Dimensions of Language Learning in Early Childhood Settings, Australia” 
Sophie Munte (Macquarie University) “Parent-School Communication in Linguistically Diverse Schools: Overcoming Language Barriers through Child Language Brokering” 
Nurlaily Nurlaily (Monash University) “Investigating the Perspectives of Students in an English for Specific Purposes Course at an Indonesian University: A Q Methodology Study” 
Franciele Spinelli (The University of Queensland) “AI as a Thinking Partner? Exploring the Role of GenAI in Supporting the Academic English Needs of International Students” 

2024:
Thu Ha Bui (Deakin University) "Using digital technologies with English as an Additional Language children in Australian classrooms: A systematic review"
Itsaraphap Moonthiya (University of Sydney) "Identities of Non-English-Dominant Teachers-in-Training: Alignments and Tensions"
Skye Playsted (University of Queensland) "Exploratory Practice puzzling as praxis-oriented pronunciation teacher learning in Australian adult migrant EAL education"
Michael Sadeghi (University of Melbourne) "The effects of input (multi)modality on learner engagement in task performance"

2023:
Ruri Ueda (The Australian National University) "The relationship between speech perception and production in the perceptual learning of English /l/-/r/ by L1 Japanese learners"
Naomi Fillmore (University of Queensland) "(Re)imagining linguistically sustaining early education in Queensland"
Tuyen Nguyen (The University of Newcastle) "Developing a context-based framework for training ICT skills for in-service EFL teachers in Vietnam"

2022:
Boya Zhang (University of Queensland) "A case study of collaborative writing for L2 English learners"
Burhanudin Syaifulloh (University of Canberra) "EFL Lecturers’ Concerns regarding the Implementation of the Higher Education Curriculum (HEC) in Indonesia"
Putri Gayatri (University of Newcastle) "Blended Learning Model for English as Foreign Language (EFL) Teaching in Indonesian Higher Education"