Estudios recientes destacan el valor de la educación bilingüe para facilitar la inserción laboral de los egresados entre otros aspectos positivos, aunque también muestran la controversia y disparidad de opiniones de las familias cuyos hijos se forman en la educación bilingüe (Martínez-Garrido, Hidalgo y Moreno-Medina, 2022). Otros estudios han abordado también la percepción de los diferentes agentes involucrados en la educación (Díaz Pastor y Jiménez-Jiménez, 2020; Durán-Martínez et al., 2016; Esparza Montero y Belmonte, 2019; Jaén Campos y Martín González, 2022; Lasagabaster y Doiz, 2016), o cómo se ha implantado la educación bilingüe en regiones como Madrid (Llinares y Dafouz, 2010).

Welcome to the 6th International UCM Predoctoral Conference on English Linguistics (UPCEL) which will be held on January 21, 22 and 23, 2026 at the School of Philology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. This conference is organised by the PhD Programme in English Linguistics of UCM, a programme which has consistently maintained an Excellence Distinction by the Spanish Ministry of Education since 2004. This conference intends to involve researchers and practitioners from different fields who wish to create an interdisciplinary space and build a community of practice; UPCEL therefore is not only a research venue but a place where people working in diverse areas can meet and collaborate. This year’s edition, with the title "Expanding the horizons of English Linguistics" aims to be a forum for reflection and dialogue on the new contexts, challenges, methodologies and conceptualisations of the construct of ‘language’ that 21st century Linguistics faces. By expanding the horizons of English linguistics, we aim to attract a spectrum of current research and interdisciplinary methods and practices that are developed in the face of an ever-changing global paradigm.