91 posts · 70,949 views
Language on the Move is dedicated to language and communication in multicultural and transnational contexts: language learning, multilingualism and intercultural communication, in short, in Language and Communication on the Move (L.CoM)! The blog is part of the sociolinguistics portal www.languageonthemove.org created by Ingrid Piller and Kimie Takahashi. Visit www.languageonthemove.org to find out more about our work.
Ingrid Piller
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Kimie Takahashi
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Jie Zhang
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Language on the Move
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Lachlan Jackson
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- August 16, 2011
- 08:10 AM
- 1,079 views
Free language choice?
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Pretty much everyone I know wants to learn English or improve their English – with the exception of those who consider themselves native speakers, obviously. What is more, everyone I know knows that everyone else wants to learn English (the … Continue reading →... Read more »
Clayton, S. (2008) The problem of ‘choice’ and the construction of the demand for English in Cambodia. Language Policy, 7(2), 143-164. DOI: 10.1007/s10993-008-9084-9
- August 10, 2011
- 10:59 PM
- 1,108 views
iBoyfriend
by Lachlan Jackson in Language on the Move
Having lived and taught English in Japan for more than fifteen years, until last night I’d thought I’d seen it all. That was until I stumbled across the もし彼氏が外国人だったら英会話 (What if my Boyfriend was a Foreigner English Conversation [my translation]) … Continue reading →... Read more »
Takahashi, Kimie. (2010) Multilingual couple talk: Romance,identity, and the political economy of language. D. Nunan , 199-207. info:/
- July 20, 2011
- 12:51 AM
- 1,083 views
The cult of personal responsibility
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Ads for a campaign to speak German are currently all over Germany. The campaign is called “Ich spreche Deutsch” (I speak German) and aims to convince migrant youths to learn more German or learn German faster. The campaign’s clever slogan … Continue reading →... Read more »
VIRGINIA P. COLLIER. (1989) How Long? A Synthesis of Research on Academic Achievement in a Second Language. TESOL Quarterly, 509-531. info:/
García, O. (2011) Educating New York's bilingual children: constructing a future from the past. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(2), 133-153. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2010.539670
Yates, L. (2011) Interaction, language learning and social inclusion in early settlement. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(4), 457-471. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2011.573068
- June 27, 2011
- 01:06 AM
- 1,172 views
Not knowing English good for business?
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
The current global orthodoxy holds that learning English is good: individuals who know English are supposed to have an advantage in the job market and countries with large English-learning populations are supposed to be “developing” and “modernizing.” Critical sociolinguists have, … Continue reading →... Read more »
NEIL M. COE, JENNIFER JOHNS AND KEVIN WARD. (2012) Limits to expansion: transnational corporations and territorial embeddedness in the Japanese temporary staffing market. Global Networks, 12(1), 1-26. info:/
- June 20, 2011
- 04:13 AM
- 1,151 views
Tyranny of Language
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Our contributor in Karachi, Md. Ali Khan, has alerted me to what seems to be a fascinating book: The Tyranny of Language in Education by Zubeida Mustafa published by Ushba Books. I’d love to read the book but trying to … Continue reading →... Read more »
Han, Huamei. (2011) Social inclusion through multilingual ideologies, policies and practices: a case study of a minority church. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(4), 383-398. info:/
- June 2, 2011
- 07:44 AM
- 1,182 views
Language revitalization and liberation
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
I’ve recently come across the story of Chibana Shoichi, who burnt the Japanese flag in 1987 to commemorate the Okinawan victims of WWII Japanese militarism. The story is intriguing not because of the flag-burning incident but because Shoichi also keeps … Continue reading →... Read more »
Heinrich, P. (2004) Language Planning and Language Ideology in the Ryūkyū Islands. Language Policy, 153-179. DOI: 10.1023/B:LPOL.0000036192.53709.fc
- May 23, 2011
- 08:17 PM
- 1,128 views
Learning to be marginal
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Much of my research over the past decade has involved talking to migrants to Australia and overseas students about their experiences of language learning and settlement. In these conversations, I have often been struck by the strong sense of disappointment … Continue reading →... Read more »
Karuna Morarji. (2010) Where does the rural educated person fit? Development and social reproduction in contemporary India. Contesting Development: Critical Struggles for Social Change (ed. Philip McMichael). Routledge, 50-63. info:/
- May 19, 2011
- 08:22 PM
- 1,246 views
Glocalization à la Suisse
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
When I lived in Basel, a city in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, I often found myself performing an involuntary field experiment in language attitudes. As likely to speak English as German in public, I was regularly confronted with strangers’ … Continue reading →... Read more »
Moser, Urs . (2010) Entwicklung der Sprachkompetenzen in der Erst- und Zweitsprache von Migrantenkindern. Do you speak Swiss? Verlag Neue Zuercher Zeitung, 105-107. info:/
- May 9, 2011
- 06:04 AM
- 784 views
Bilingual math
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Over the past year or so I’ve started to make my daughter do daily arithmetic practice in German. My reason for doing so stems from my dissatisfaction with the ways in which rote learning and memorization as a learning style … Continue reading →... Read more »
Aneta Pavlenko (Ed.). (2011) Thinking and Speaking in Two Languages. Multilingual Matters. info:/
- May 6, 2011
- 02:26 AM
- 1,154 views
Can foreign languages drive you crazy?
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
On The Science Show they recently had a program about how unfamiliar sounds, rhythms and tonalities can drive people crazy. I learnt that neuroscientists have been experimenting with the idea that when confronted with unfamiliar musical patterns the brain releases … Continue reading →... Read more »
Lehrer, Jonah. (2007) Proust was a neuroscientist. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. info:/
- March 3, 2011
- 06:29 PM
- 1,177 views
National Languages Curriculum
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
My daughter attends a public elementary school in NSW where the children are taught French for one hour each week. In 2009, she was away from her school for one year and did not receive any French instruction during that … Continue reading →... Read more »
Clyne, Michael. (2005) Australia's Language Potential. UNSW Press. info:/
- February 26, 2011
- 06:59 AM
- 885 views
Where is home?
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Many of the people close to my heart are transnationals such as myself. Belonging is a frequently discussed topic in my circles, and often a topic that is surrounded by considerable angst. Where do we belong? Is it really worth … Continue reading →... Read more »
Kim, Y. (2011) Diasporic nationalism and the media: Asian women on the move. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(2), 133-151. DOI: 10.1177/1367877910382184
- February 17, 2011
- 04:08 PM
- 1,535 views
Long-term English language learners
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
When I first started teaching in Australia, I had a Korean-Australian student in one of my undergraduate classes who sounded like most of the other students in my class, like a native speaker of Australian-English. The daughter of Korean immigrants, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Menken, K., & Kleyn, T. (2010) The long-term impact of subtractive schooling in the educational experiences of secondary English language learners. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(4), 399-417. DOI: 10.1080/13670050903370143
- February 13, 2011
- 06:09 PM
- 1,557 views
Do you speak Swiss?
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
A most amazing book has just landed on my desk: Do you speak Swiss, edited by Walter Haas, is the final report on a Swiss National Research Project devoted to Linguistic Diversity and Language Competence in Switzerland. Initiated by the … Continue reading →... Read more »
Walter Haas (Ed.). (2010) Do you speak Swiss? Sprachenvielfalt und Sprachkompetenz in der Schweiz. Nationales Forschungsprogramm NFP 56. NZZ Libro. info:/
- January 27, 2011
- 08:13 PM
- 905 views
Language learning and height
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Are you tall enough to learn English? Have you ever reflected on the relationship between height and language learning? Well, I haven’t, and I’ve been in language teaching and learning for almost 20 years. So, I assume that most of … Continue reading →... Read more »
Chang, Leslie T. (2009) Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. Spiegel . info:/
- December 7, 2010
- 08:58 PM
- 876 views
A tale of two foreigners in Japan
by Lachlan Jackson in Language on the Move
This is the first in a series of blog posts about my experiences undertaking an ongoing research project. In this series I will be detailing some of the methodological challenges I encounter as well as the strategies I adopt to … Continue reading →... Read more »
Maher, J. C. (2005) Metroethnicity, language and the principle of cool. International Journal of the Sociology of Languages, 83. info:/
- December 4, 2010
- 07:35 PM
- 1,144 views
Happy birthday, UAE!
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
The United Arab Emirates are celebrating their 39th national day this month. Trucial Oman, as it was then known, became independent from their semi-colonial relationship with Britain in December 1971 and the country has since experienced some dramatic changes: its … Continue reading →... Read more »
Karmani, S. (2005) Petro-Linguistics: The Emerging Nexus Between Oil, English, and Islam. Journal of Language, Identity , 4(2), 87-102. DOI: 10.1207/s15327701jlie0402_2
- November 6, 2010
- 02:44 AM
- 1,269 views
German is so funny. Not.
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
Earlier this term I intercepted a note my 7-year-old had written to her teacher: “Ger Ger Ger; Don’t be so rude.” She was objecting to a reading comprehension exercise about sneezing, which included the following information: If someone nearby sneezes, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Roberts, C. (1997) Transcribing Talk: Issues of Representation. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 167. DOI: 10.2307/3587983
- October 29, 2010
- 07:58 PM
- 996 views
In memoriam Michael Clyne
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
I was saddened this morning to read the Australian Linguistics Society’s news about Michael Clyne’s passing! Australian sociolinguistics has lost its doyen, and we have all lost a strong advocate for a multilingual, multicultural, diverse and tolerant society. Michael has … Continue reading →... Read more »
Clyne, M. (2005) The use of exclusionary language to manipulate opinion: John Howard, asylum seekers and the reemergence of political incorrectness in Australia. Journal of Language and Politics, 4(2), 173-196. DOI: 10.1075/jlp.4.2.03cly
- October 25, 2010
- 07:23 PM
- 1,092 views
Providing bilingual education since 1689
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
I’ve been teaching about bilingualism for more than a decade and when I speak about bilingual education and dual-immersion programs I draw on examples from Canada and the USA. These are the examples that fill the literature and the textbooks. … Continue reading →... Read more »
Meier, G. (2010) Two-way immersion education in Germany: bridging the linguistic gap. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(4), 419-437. DOI: 10.1080/13670050903418793
Sugimoto, Yoshio. (2010) An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. info:/
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