An East Timorese girl speaking Bunak, Tetum, Fataluku and Portuguese (Source: Wikipedia) A response to Alexandra Grey, "We do aid, not English" In my experience English is often promoted by…
Should ‘helping with English’ be part of the brief of humanitarian aid workers? (Source: helpage.org) Over a few years of involvement in the aid sector in Asia, I became aware…
Carnatic singer Prema Anandakrishnan and her accompanists performing for the monthly Sydney Music Circle concert An important element of language relates to its aesthetic use, in other words, how we…
Yasemin Yildiz (2012) Beyond the Mother Tongue: The Postmonolingual Condition. Fordham University Press. This book review was originally published in Language in Society 42 (4), 463-466. Access pdf version of…
Bilingual Swedish-Finnish monument in Helsinki commenmorating globally beloved children's author Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn (Source: vanderkrogt.net) 50,000 people have signed a petition against mandatory Swedish classes in Finnish schools,…
Dr Xiaoxiao Chen on her graduation day at Macquarie University Language on the Move proudly presents another new PhD! Dr Xiaoxiao Chen graduated from Macquarie University last week. Her PhD…
Who profits from an early start in English language learning? 不要讓你的孩子輸在起跑點上 (Don’t let your children lose out at the starting point.) is one of the most popular slogans whenever English…
The Omidvar brothers on the road: amazing feats of discovery and language learning? In his most recent round of interviews with the magazine Særzæmin-e Mæn (“My Country”), Issa Omidvar, one…
Is this Arabic or English? Or is that asking the wrong question? (Transliteration: sbaisi tinisi tshikn and shrmb*) I’ve often wondered what linguistic theory would look like if its foundations…
In English language teaching ads English seems always fun, easy and accessible to everyone Taiwanese people’s motivation for learning English is a desire to communicate and a major obstacle to…
Hiroshi Mikitani, Englishnization in Marketplace 3.0 (Source: gettyimages.co.uk) The business and self-help section of my local Kinokuniya bookstore is currently featuring shelves and shelves of Marketplace 3.0: Rewriting the rules…
Different languages for different jobs in this Los Angeles restaurant Are there language requirements for working in restaurants in Los Angeles? These two employment signs that I saw in the…
In today’s immigration countries, adherents of the “one nation, one language” idea face a unique ideological problem: to claim that the national language is a sign of national loyalty and…
Speak English, people! says British politician Ed Miliband (Source: msn.com) Every ten years the UK government conducts a census, which every British resident is obliged by law to take part…
The Adelaide delegation at this year's Esperanto conference. Indrani is in the front right. When we meet new people we often ask straight away: where are you from? For many…
The house of the English high school teacher in the village in Sulawesi where Pasassung conducted his fieldwork In a recent post, I reviewed language policy research that shows how…