UTech to host WorldCALL Conference in 2028

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech Jamaica) has won the bid to host the World Computer-Assisted Language Learning (WorldCALL) Conference from June 12 to 16, 2028, at its Papine campus, becoming the first Caribbean institution to stage the global event.
The conference will be spearheaded by UTech Jamaica’s Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies (FELS) through its Language Teaching and Research Centre (LTRC) and will coincide with the university’s seventh annual FELS Conference.
WorldCALL is a global professional association for educators interested in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Through its conference, the organisation brings together educators, researchers, students and industry leaders for a week of knowledge exchange, showcasing innovative research, developments and best practices in education and language learning. The conference also seeks to expand opportunities for knowledge and skills transfer to countries that are underserved in the field of CALL.
The successful bid was formally acknowledged during a courtesy call involving UTech Jamaica President Dr Kevin Brown, WorldCALL President Professor Ana Gimeno-Sanz and representatives of the university’s Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies last month at the Papine campus.
Welcoming the news, Brown said, “We are so honoured to have been given the opportunity to host this prestigious conference and to promote computer-assisted language learning here.”
Noting that the conference aligns with UTech Jamaica’s leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), Brown added: “We’re going to be the host of the Jamaica National Artificial Intelligence Lab later this year. Hosting the WorldCALL Conference here will present more opportunities for us to do more research on AI, and languages as well.”
Brown said WorldCALL 2028 would add both academic and practitioner perspectives to language learning and teaching through 21st-century digital technologies.
Following her attendance at the recently concluded sixth UTech Jamaica FELS Conference, Gimeno-Sanz, who is also professor of English language at the Universitat Politècnica de València, expressed confidence in the university’s ability to host the global conference.
“I have to say that I was delighted and that everything ran extremely smoothly,” she said, referring to the FELS Conference.
“Yesterday I publicly congratulated the team of people who did such an excellent job of organising it, and this morning we’ve been in discussion in preparation for the big event in June 2028, and I think everything is already under way.”
Gimeno-Sanz said WorldCALL intentionally rotates its conferences to regions where the discipline can grow.
“We organise a conference every five years, and we try to organise it in areas of the world where there isn’t already an established organisation,” she said.
She noted that the aim is to attract participants from different regions and bring them into the field of educational technology applied to language learning.
Gimeno-Sanz also underscored WorldCALL’s commitment to developing new regional networks and supporting emerging researchers through scholarships and international collaboration.
CAPACITY BUILDING
“One of the missions of WorldCALL is capacity-building. When we met in Chile in 2018, we were able to establish LatinCALL. Hopefully, we’ll be able to set up a 
CaribbeanCALL organisation,” she said.
She disclosed that the 2028 conference will place significant emphasis on artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies that are transforming language education globally.
O’Neil Madden, lecturer in French at UTech Jamaica and a leading Caribbean researcher in language learning, said hosting WorldCALL could serve as a catalyst for greater regional participation in computer-assisted language learning.
“When I first started attending WorldCALL, I was the only representative from the Caribbean,” he recalled.
“I’m really trying to get more people from across the region to participate in these conferences, and to see what insights we can gain and apply to our own systems.”
Madden also highlighted what he described as a significant research gap in computational linguistics that Caribbean scholars are well positioned to address.
“A lot of the AI models have biases towards dominant languages. Some of them don’t really capture Caribbean reality,” he said.
“There’s a gap between linguistics and technology. It’s now time to strengthen computational linguistics so that we can build our own applications and tools that better capture our realities.”
Tresecka Campbell-Dawes, head of the Language Teaching and Research Centre at UTech Jamaica, said hosting WorldCALL 2028 provides an opportunity for Jamaica to “plant the seed” for stronger regional collaboration in technology-enhanced language education across the Caribbean.
Dr Nicole Cameron, lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies at UTech Jamaica and co-chair of the WorldCALL 2028 Conference, said planning has already begun for what promises to be a landmark event.
She said the conference will feature keynote presentations, research paper sessions, workshops, panel discussions, technology demonstrations and networking events.