In Episode 16 of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Hanna Torsh speaks with Emeritus Professor Joseph Lo Bianco about his new co-edited book, Community and Heritage Languages Schools Transforming Education: Research, Challenges, and Teaching Practices (with Ken Cruickshank and Merryl Wahlin) and published by Routledge. The conversation addresses community and heritage language schooling research and practice, and our guest’s long history of important language policy research and activism, as well as the interconnections between the two. Enjoy the show! This is early days for the La ..read more

In this latest episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Yixi (Isabella) Qiu speaks with Professor Yongyan Zheng about the Shanghai Multilingualism Alliance. The interview explores the Alliance’s origins, research themes, and future directions. The episode not only highlights the significant contributions of this dynamic research group but also provides a glimpse into the personal and professional journeys that have shaped this academic endeavor. Enjoy the show! This is early days for the Language on the Move Podcast, so please support us by subscribing to our channel on your pod ..read more

A chapter by this site’s founders set me off on a path to doing a Ph.D. and made me re-evaluate my linguistic practises and my position as an English teacher in Japan. In the article, Piller and Takahashi examined how the English teaching industry in Japan used the image of an ideal white male as a marketing tool to attract female Japanese students. They describe how some Japanese women feel desire (“Akogore” in Japanese) for the Western world and how this leads them to study English. Reading this article and Takahashi’s subsequent book on the same area as a postgraduate student made me reflec ..read more

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks with Dr. Michael Chesnut, Professor in the Department of English for International Conferences and Communication at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea. His work includes researching second language writing, TESOL teacher development, curriculum theory, linguistic landscape research, and translingual academic publishing practices. Brynn and Michael speak in general about an area of study in linguistics known as the linguistic landscape, and in particular about a 2022 paper that Michael co-authored wi ..read more

*** Yasser S. Khan and Rizwan Ahmad *** The offending dress (Image credit: BBC) Recently, a woman in Lahore was accused of blasphemy for wearing a dress printed with Arabic calligraphy. The crowd had assumed that the sartorial motifs must be verses from the Qur’an. In reality, the words on the dress were hayah and hulwah meaning ‘life’ and ‘sweet’ respectively. Islamic scholars had to be called in to verify this to eventually disband the crowd. How did the misunderstanding come about? The calligraphic style of the print on the dress loosely resembles the Thuluth style of writing. Thuluth lit ..read more

Flag for autism rights (Image credit: Deviantart) In this post written for autism acceptance month, autistic anthropologist Gerald Roche discusses connections between the communication styles and life expectancy of autistic people, and encourages sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists, and applied linguists to help work towards a better life for autistic people.  Content warning: This post discusses suicide, sexual and physical violence, discrimination, and negative attitudes about autistic people. If you are in Australia and find this post distressing, you can call Lifeline on 13 1 ..read more

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks with Dr Elizabeth Peterson about language ideologies and what we think when we hear different varieties of English. This episode’s conversation centers around Dr Peterson’s 2020 book Making Sense of “Bad English,” which is available open access. The book discusses how the notions of “good” versus “bad” English came about, and some of the consequences of these views of language. The book is a must-use for teachers and professors who introduce their students to sociolinguistics as it contains discussion questions at the end ..read more

In Episode 12 of the Language on the Move Podcast, I speak with James McElvenny about his new book History of Modern Linguistics. This book offers a highly readable, concise history of modern linguistics from its emergence in the early nineteenth century up to the end of World War II. Written as a collective biography of the field, it concentrates on the interaction between the leading figures of linguistics, their controversies, and the role of the social and political context in shaping their ideas and methods. In the conversation we focus on the national aspects of the story of modern lingu ..read more

In this latest episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, I spoke with Jasna Novak Milić, the director of the Croatian Studies Center at Macquarie University. The Croatian Studies program at Macquarie University celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. One of a very small number of Croatian Studies programs at university level outside Croatia, Jasna and I took this opportunity to chat about Croatian language learning in Australia, Croatian migrations to Australia, languages in higher education, and heritage language learning. Broadly speaking, Croatian Studies in Australia attracts three ..read more

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (1940-2023) The Global Coalition for Language Rights is pleased to announce the first annual Language Rights Defenders Award. This award aims to recognize and honor individuals who demonstrate outstanding commitment to language rights.  This year, the award is dedicated to the memory of Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, a world-renowned language rights advocate and scholar who passed away in 2023. Tove’s life demonstrates the sort of attributes, efforts, and passion we are hoping to inspire and recognize through this award. You can read more about Tove’s life and work here.&nbs ..read more