In pursuing the writing and presenting of ‘autonomous’ conference texts –i.e., conference texts functioning in terms of meaning making on their own–, all authors deal with issues of reduction, transformation and representation of the concepts and contexts of initiation and development of their research. In this introduction, we point to challenges tied to the writing and presenting of language-sensitive mathematics education research for communication in conference formats. We discuss some ideas for the improvement of current guidelines and standardised decisions relative to processes and texts produced within the CERME culture. Drawing on experiences provided through our roles as co-leaders of the ‘Mathematics and Language’ thematic working group (TWG09), along with the insights gained from the TWG09 set of papers and posters on the occasion of CERME11, each of us brings a focus to the discussion of challenges and changes that might be feasible and worthwhile.