UTech, Jamaica wins bid to host WorldCALL 2028 Conference

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica) has won the bid to host the 7th World Computer-Assisted Language Learning (WorldCALL) Conference from June 12-16, 2028, at its Papine Campus, becoming the first Caribbean institution to stage the prestigious global event.

The WorldCALL 2028 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 7th Annual FELS Conference.

WorldCALL is a global professional association for educators interested in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Through its quinquennial conference, WorldCALL 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 enhance 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 between Dr Kevin Brown, President, University of Technology, Jamaica, and Professor Ana Gimeno-Sanz, President of WorldCALL, and representatives of the University’s Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies on Friday, June 19, 2026, at the University’s Papine Campus.

Welcoming the news, Dr 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 well with UTech, Jamaica’s leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), Dr Brown added, “We’re going to be the host of the Jamaica National Artificial Intelligence (AI) 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.” With this focus in mind, Dr Brown stated that WorldCALL 2028 will add an academic and a practitioner perspective to language learning and teaching through 21st-century digital technologies.

Following her attendance at the recently concluded 6th UTech, Jamaica FELS Conference, Professor Gimeno-Sanz, President of WorldCALL and Professor of English Language at the Universitat Politècnica de València, expressed confidence in UTech, Jamaica’s ability to host the high-level global conference in 2028.

“I have to say that I was delighted and that everything ran extremely smoothly,” she said, sharing how impressed she was with the execution of the University’s 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 underway,” Professor Gimeno-Sanz said.

She explained that WorldCALL deliberately 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, noting that the aim is to attract people from different regions and bring them into the field of educational technology applied to language learning.

Professor Gimeno-Sanz also underscored WorldCALL’s commitment to developing new regional networks and supporting emerging researchers through scholarships and international collaboration. “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 Caribbean CALL organisation,” she said. She also disclosed that the 2028 conference will place significant emphasis on artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies that are transforming language education globally.

Mr O’Neil Madden, Lecturer in French at UTech, Jamaica, and a leading Caribbean researcher in language learning, said the University’s hosting of WorldCALL could catalyse 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.”

He also highlighted an important research gap in computational linguistics, which he believes 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 explained. “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.”

Dr Tresecka Campbell-Dawes, Head of the Language Teaching and Research Centre at UTech, Jamaica, said that hosting WorldCALL 2028 provides an excellent 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 noted that the conference will feature keynote presentations, research paper sessions, workshops, panel discussions, technology demonstrations and networking events.