The IAISLC was founded in 1998 and has members in more than twenty-five countries around the world.

It is managed by an international Executive Committee, whose current members are: Stephen J. Cowley (University of Hertfordshire, University of KwaZulu), Daniel R. Davis (University of Michigan), Harjeet S. Gill (Patiala University), Roy Harris (University of Oxford), Jesper Hermann (University of Copenhagen), Christopher Hutton (University of Hong Kong), Nigel Love (University of Cape Town), Talbot J. Taylor (College of William & Mary), Michael Toolan (University of Birmingham).

Anyone wishing to join the Association can do so by sending their name and address to the Secretary: Professor M. Toolan, Department of English, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Park Road, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. email: M.Toolan@bham.ac.uk

IAISLC members will receive information about meetings, publications and other activities. There are no membership dues.

IAISLC holds biennial conferences, of which there have been three. A fourth is planned for 2008.

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nt in the theory of communication. The integrationist approach emerged from the work of a group of linguists at the University of Oxford during the 1980s and has since been developed internationally.

Integrationism has far-reaching implications for many social, political, legal, philosophical and psychological issues of our time. It offers a radical departure from traditional Western assumptions about language and communication. it abandons the idea of communication as a 'sender-receiver' discards the notion of separate, independent 'channels' of communication

The radical integrationist alternative is to treat communication as an open-ended continuum of integrated activities, shaped by the initiative of individuals.This means From an integrationist perspective, the primary function of the sign is to integrate an individual's past, present and (anticipated) future experience. That is an essential prerequisite for making sense of any situation in which we are involved. Without it, there can be no question of communication.

The integrationist agenda for a modern literate society is a programme of demythologization. It includes the following interrelated