Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura: Announcements

Our Special Issue on Endangered Languages and Varieties in the Americas is now on line

Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura — 2025-11-12

Deadline Extended! Call for Proposals: From Data to Dialogue: How AI is Impacting Language Diversity

Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura — 2025-07-15

At a time when artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are shaking the foundations of the academy and workplace, educators face new exigencies and complex challenges while preparing students for 21st-century college education and career paths. Although AI has some features that can assist human cognitive performance, it has permeated and drastically changed communication and writing technologies, raising ethical concerns about authorship and what it means to be human in the age of AI. We seem to have crossed a line once we started using human-centered language to describe AI, saying it “hallucinates,” is “intelligent,” or even “thinking.” While AI has become an integral resource in STEM, reflection on its impact on the humanities and social sciences is crucial.

What influence has it had, and how is it situated in fields like applied linguistics, academic writing, translation/interpreting, and cultural studies?

In the field of Generative AI, very paradoxical themes emerge. On the one hand, its potential is celebrated in tasks such as facilitating communication, especially in multilingual contexts due to its ability to automate translation, create content, assist in writing and editing texts, as well as its potential for autonomous language learning, language analysis and text processing that allows us to quickly identify patterns, feelings, themes and extract valuable information in various fields such as social research, marketing, and customer service. On the other hand, attention is also being drawn to its risks, such as the possibility of generating and disseminating disinformation and fake news; the creation of harmful content and hate speech, especially with the potential for circulation in social networks; identity theft and fraud due to its ability to generate seemingly realistic texts, voices and deepfakes; concerns about authorship, originality and confidentiality of information, and the biases and discrimination that these AI language models can reproduce, as they learn from large amounts of data that already reveal biases (such as race, gender, ethnicity, territory and Standardized language). Some even speak to the possibility of losing human skills: overuse of AI for language-related tasks could lead to a decline in people's writing, critical thinking, memory skills, and written voice. In summary, there are ethical debates about accountability, transparency, training, safety and fairness that impact us and are relevant to reading/writing training, translation, and interpreting, not to mention the environmental impacts and the exploitative and traumatic conditions data workers endure.

This special issue will focus on language diversity as a critical concern in emerging AI technologies. In addition to gender, race, and ideological bias, a significant risk is the loss of language diversity, whether particular global West languages are privileged or whether the lingua franca of any technology erases or ignores the existence of Indigenous or non-majoritarian languages. Teachers and researchers are also contending with the push/pull pressures of standardization at a historical moment that is at once aspiring to be post-colonial and post-humanist, while global capitalism, neofascism, and data colonialism tax fragile economies and mobilization everywhere.

Considering these major challenges that affect our universities, professional training, and the production of knowledge, we propose the thematic issue "From data to dialogue: How AI is impacting language diversity," with the aim of celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ikala journal by compiling theoretical and methodological articles, case and empirical studies or critical literature review inquiries that help us expand knowledge about generative AI and its impact on language and culture. We are especially interested in studies and insight on the dynamics and politics of generative AI as they relate to teaching and learning in areas such as language, applied linguistics, language diversity and preservation, translation and reading/writing centered studies, and cultural studies.

Areas of interest:

Proposals should subscribe to one of the following areas of interest:

GenAI & Translation studies
GenAI & Language teaching-learning
GenAI & Professional development
GenAI & Cultural studies
GenAI & Applied linguistics
GenAI & Multilingualism
GenAI & Minoritized languages
GenAI & Endangered Languages
GenAI & Writing/Writing Center(ed) Studies

References

Albeihi, Hani Hamad M., and Rice, Mary F. (2025). Generative AI and language diversity: Implications for teachers and learners. Arab World English Journal, 16(1). https://ssrn.com/abstract=5202809

Bazerman, Charles, Little, Joseph, Bethel, Lisa, Chavkin, Teri, Fouquette, Danielle & Garufs, Janet. (2016). Escribir a través del currículum. Una guía de referencia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. https://www.uepc.org.ar/conectate/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Escribir-a-traves-de-Curriculum.pdf

Bowker, Lynne (2021). Promoting Linguistic Diversity and Inclusion: Incorporating Machine Translation Literacy into Information Literacy Instruction for Undergraduate Students. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 5(3), 127-151. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48644449

Coulson, David, & Denman, Christopher. (Eds.). (2025). Translation, translanguaging and machine translation in foreign language education. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82174-5

Ghimire, Asmita (2025). Utilizing ChatGPT to integrate world English and diverse knowledge: A transnational perspective in critical artificial intelligence (AI) literacy. Computers and Composition, 75, 102913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2024.102913

Helm, Paula, Bella, Gábor, Koch, Gertraud, & Giunchiglia, Fausto (2024). Diversity and language technology: how language modeling bias causes epistemic injustice. Ethics and Information Technology, 26(8), 7-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-023-09742-6

Hutson, James, Ellsworth, Pace, Ellsworth, Matt (2024). Preserving Linguistic Diversity in the Digital Age: A Scalable Model for Cultural Heritage Continuity. Journal of Contemporary Language Research, 3(1), 10-19. https://doi.org/10.58803/jclr.v3i1.96

Navarro, Federico, Ávila Reyes, Natalia, Tapia-Ladino, Mónica, Cristovão, Vera L. L., Moritz, Maria Ester W., Narváez Cardona, Elizabeth, & Bazerman, Charles (2016). Panorama histórico y contrastivo de los estudios sobre lectura y escritura en educación superior publicados en América Latina. Revista Signos, 49, 78-99. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-09342016000400006

Sourati, Zhivar et al. (2025). The shrinking language of linguistic diversity in the age of large language models. Arxiv: 2502.11266. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.11266

Wang, Chaoran, & Canagarajah, Suresh (2024). Postdigital ethnography in applied linguistics: Beyond the online and offline in language learning. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 3(2), 100111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2024.100111

Wang, C., & Tian, Z. (2025). Rethinking Writing Education in the Age of Generative AI. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003426936

Zowghi, Didar, & Bano, Muneera (2024). AI for all: Diversity and inclusion in AI. AI and Ethics, 4, 873-876. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43681-024-00485-8.pdf

Timetable

Submission

Please send all proposals to the journal’s email revistaikala@udea.edu.co, with the heading: "From Data to Dialogue: How AI is Impacting Language Diversity".

The proposals will be initially assessed, based on their innovation, applicability, clarity, correctness, originality, appropriateness, and alignment with the topic of the special issue and the categories of articles published by the journal. Authors of proposals that meet the criteria will be invited to submit full manuscripts of 8,000 and 8,500 words, through the journal platform. These will then undergo a peer review process. Only manuscripts that are deemed “accepted” or “accepted with modifications” by peer reviewers and that comply with all journal publication guidelines will be published. Guidelines for authors can be consulted at: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/ikala/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

For any questions regarding content or format for this special issue, please contact revistaikala@udea.edu.co

Specifications

Proposals should:

Not exceed 400 words, including references in the form of in-text citations (APA format).
3 to 5 key bibliographic references not to be included in the proposal word count.
Include the title, author(s) names, institution, and email.
Be written in English.
Fit within one of the categories of articles published by the journal: empirical and case studies, methodological and theoretical articles and critical literature reviews.
State the chosen category and area of interest.
Include a detailed description of the content of the article. If a research study (empirical or case study), make sure to include: a statement of the problem, research questions, a description of the setting (city and country, type of institution, level of instruction), the participants, the method (type of study, data collected, analysis), main findings, and implications. If an intervention is reported, please include details about the intervention (type of intervention, purpose, length, etc.)
Be clear, accurate, coherent and concise.

Key dates:

Activity	Date
Proposal submission	November 20, 2025
Notification of editor’s decision on proposals	December 18, 2025
Full paper submission through Íkala’s journal system	Up to March-31, 2026
Peer review process	March-July, 2026
Copyediting	July 1, 2026
Layout and proof-reading	August 1, 2026
Publication	September, 2026

Multilingualism on the Speaker - Our Special Issue to the Radio

Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura — 2025-02-21

Deadline Extended! Call for Proposals for the Special Issue on Endangered Languages and Varieties in the Americas

Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura — 2024-08-16

This monographic issue is framed within Unesco's Indigenous Languages Decade (2022-2032) (Indigenous Languages Decade (2022-2032) | UNESCO), which aims to “draw the world's attention to the plight of many Indigenous languages and to mobilize stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalization and promotion”. It focuses on the description and, especially, the positioning of endangered languages and language varieties in the Americas with a view to their revitalization and vindication.

For minoritized languages speakers across the Americas, their mother tongue often represents much more than a mere communication tool —it can become an identity symbol, articulate social relations and bonds, convey wisdoms and traditions from one generation to another, structure thinking, and heal, among many other roles. Nevertheless, it is known that languages, as social representations, allow both empowering and subordinating, creating stereotypes and, often, determining individuals’ social status. This is why many endangered languages are linked to discrediting and stigmatization, stereotypes linked to marginalization and underdevelopment, invisibility or some perceived uselessness. This compels speakers to processes of abandonment and substitution, seriously affecting particularly Indigenous languages in the Americas.

In light of this, we propose the monographic issue Endangered Languages and Varieties in the Americas, dedicated to endangered languages and language varieties in the Americas, with special emphasis on Indigenous languages, given their vulnerable situation, with the aim of revitalizing and vindicating them. Also, we will consider contact-induced linguistic variations (Delforge, 2012; García Tesoro, 2023; Haboud, 1998; Mick & Palacios, 2013), those stemming from migration phenomena or cross-border languages (Avilés González & Ibarra Templos, 2016; García Tesoro, 2017; Haboud, 2023; Kendal & Haboud, 2014; Moreno Fernández, 2013), and others, sharing minoritization or endangerment, across the Americas.

For this monographic issue, we expect works focused on critical sociolinguistics (Arratia & Limachi, 2019; Niño Murcia et al, 2020) or social semiotics (Hodge & Kress, 1988, Kress, 2009), addressing revitalization efforts and initiatives, languages in contact, language rights, language ideologies (Barrett, 2006; Jansen et al., 2021) (on Indigenous languages, Spanish variations among Afro-America communities, or contact with Indigenous languages, and so on), as well as emerging languages and variations in cross-border areas, or stemming from migration processes or translanguaging situations (García & Wei, 2014). Similarly, works dealing with the study of language practices will be welcome (Sánchez Moreano & Blestel, 2021) as instruments informing social relations, reproducing or transforming power relations between minoritized language speaking societies, and hegemonic language speakers.

Thus, we intend to make visible and draw attention on the plight endured by numerous languages and substandard variations across the Americas, along with contributing to their positioning and revitalization.

Research Lines

Critical sociolinguistics
Cross-border sociolinguistics
Policy, planning and implementation of endangered languages and varieties
Revitalization and vindication of endangered languages and varieties
Linguistic ideologies and attitudes towards languages and their varieties
Displacement of endangered languages and varieties
Linguistic rights
Linguistic practices

Types of articles:

Fit within one of the categories of articles published by the journal: empirical and case studies, methodological and theoretical articles, and literature reviews.

References

Arratia, M. J. & Limachi, V. P. (2019). Construyendo una sociolingüística del sur. Reﬂexiones sobre las culturas y lenguas indígenas de América Latina en los nuevos escenarios. Cochabamba: PROEIB Andes / Facultad de Humanidades/ Universidad Mayor de San Simón.

Avilés González, K. J. & Ibarra Templos, Y. M. (2016). Identidades sociolingüísticas y migración internacional. Reacciones frente a la discriminación. Alteridades, 26 (51), 73-84. https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0188-70172016000100073&lng=es&nrm=iso

Barrett, R. (2006). Language ideology and racial inequality: Competing functions of Spanish in an Anglo-owned Mexican restaurant. Language in Society, 35(2), 163-204. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404506060088

Delforge, A. M. (2012). ‘Nobody wants to sound like a provinciano’: The recession of unstressed vowel devoicing in the Spanish of Cusco, Peru. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16(3), 311-335.

García, O. & Wei, L (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism & education. Palgrave Macmillan.

García Tesoro, A. I. (2017). Valores evidenciales y discursivos del pretérito perfecto compuesto en narraciones de migrantes andinos en Cuzco. En A. Palacios (Coord.), Variación y cambio lingüístico en situaciones de contacto (pp. 79-96). Iberoamericana/Vervuert.

García Tesoro, A. I. (2023). Two contact induced grammatical changes in Spanish in contact with Tz’utujil in Guatemala. En B. Baird, O. Balam, & M. C. Parafita Couto, (Eds.), Linguistic advances in Central American Spanish (pp. 145-167). Brill Publishers.

Haboud, M. (1998). Quichua y castellano en los Andes Ecuatorianos: los efectos de un contacto prolongado. Abya-Yala/GTZ.

Haboud, M. (2023). Las múltiples facetas de la migración y el contacto lingüístico. De (re)encuentros y desencuentros. En A. Speranza (Coord.), Lenguaje y cultura. Homenaje a Angelita Martínez (pp. 381-413). Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

Hodge, R. & Kress, G. (1988). Social semiotics. Polity Press.

Jansen, S., Higuera del Moral, S., Barzen, J. S., Reimann, P. & Opolka, M. (2021). Demystifying bilingualism: How metaphor guides research towards mythification. Palgrave Macmillan.

Jansen, S. & Rosado Valencia, E. (2023). When “civilized” and “savage” languages meet: Language ideological work in 19th century travel accounts on the Ecuadorian Amazon. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 9, 1-24.

Kendal, A. K. & Haboud, M. (2014). International migration and Quichua language shift in the Ecuadorian Andes. En T. McCarty (Ed.), Ethnography and language policy (pp. 139-160). Routledge.

Kress, G. (2009) Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Routledge.

Mick, C. & Palacios, A. (2013). Mantenimiento o sustitución de rasgos lingüísticos indexados socialmente: migrantes de zonas andinas en Lima. Lexis, xxxvii(2), 341-380.

Moreno Fernández, F. (2013). Lingüística y migraciones hispánicas. Lengua y migración, 5(2), 67-89.

Murcia, M., Zavala, V. & de Los Heros, S. (Eds.) (2020). Hacia una sociolingüística crítica. Desarrollos y debates. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.

Sánchez Moreano, S. & Blestel, E. (Eds.) (2021). Prácticas lingüísticas heterogéneas: Nuevas perspectivas para el estudio del español en contacto con lenguas amerindias. (Contact and Multilingualism 4). Language Science Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5636761

Unesco (2021). Evaluation of UNESCO’s action to revitalize and promote Indigenous languages within the framework of the international year of Indigenous language. https://bit.ly/3YNjPPZ

Languages of Publication

Spanish, English, French, Portuguese

Specifications

All proposals should:

Not exceed 400 words, including references.
Include title, authors’ names, affiliation, and e-mail.
Be written in Spanish, English, Portuguese, or French.
Specify the category and research area you have chosen.
Include a detailed description of the content of the article. For research articles (empirical or case studies), be sure to include a description of the problem, your research questions, setting description (town, country, institution profile, level of instruction), participants, method (type of study, data gathered, analysis), main findings, and implication. In case you are reporting an intervention, please include details on that intervention (which type, purpose, time span, etc.)
Include bibliographic references.
Be clear, precise, coherent, and to the point.

Submissions

Please submit your proposals to Íkala’s e-mail address: revistaikala@udea.edu.co, under the Subject: Proposal for the Special Issue Endangered Languages and Varieties Across the Americas

Timeline

Activity	Due Date
Launch of Call for Proposals	August 16, 2024
Submitting Proposals	August 16–September 30, 2024
Notification of Proposal Acceptance or Dismissal	October 30, 2024
Submitting Finished manuscripts through Ikala Journal System	March 1, 2025
Peer-review Process	March 1 – June 15, 2025
Revision and Editorial Processing	June 16, 2025 – August 1, 2025
Layout and Proof Revision	August 1, 2025 – August 31, 2025
Publication	Early days of September, 2025