Ingrid Piller

Language learning

How the presence of a bilingual school changes the linguistic profile of a community

German International School Sydney It is one of the great narratives of our time that the market will fix everything. In education this means that parental choice is assumed to…

Ingrid PillerJuly 31, 2014

Linguistic landscapes

Multilingual mismatch

Auburn parking ticket (left: quadrilingual on back; right: city logo on front) In Australia with its persistent monolingual mindset coming across any kind of official institutional multilingual communication always feels…

Ingrid PillerJuly 7, 2014

Language and tourism

English in the Global Village

Yangshuo's West Street (Source: chinatravelca) Tourism has been found to be beneficial for minority language maintenance in a number of contexts from around the world. For instance, Anand Torrents Alcaraz…

Ingrid PillerJune 23, 2014

Language and migration

Superdiversity: another Eurocentric idea?

Website of the German Club Montevideo, founded in 1866 The current issue of Begegnung (“Encounter”), the magazine of German International Schools, has a feature about the German School in Montevideo,…

Ingrid PillerJune 4, 2014

Language at work

Linguistic penalty in the job interview

Success levels of different candidate groups in job interviews for low-skilled jobs (Source: Roberts 2013, p. 89) A common explanation for the un- and underemployment of migrants is that their…

Ingrid PillerMarch 31, 2014

Intercultural communication

Inventing languages

Excerpt from "The Haunted Lotus" by Australian-Hazara artist Khadim Ali (Source: Milani Gallery) An objection that is commonly raised against Esperanto and other auxiliary languages is that they are “invented.”…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 13, 2014

Intercultural communication

Emergency service provision in linguistically diverse societies

The challenges of providing equitable services in linguistically diverse societies A few years ago, emergency service provision to speakers of languages other than English in Australia came under scrutiny when…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 6, 2014

News

Multilingua

Multilingua 33 (1&2), Special issue "Multilingualism at Work" I have recently taken over from Richard Watts as Editor-in-Chief of Multilingua and am delighted that the first issue of 2014 has just…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 2, 2014

Language learning

On learning languages and the gaining of wisdom

The National Institute of the English Language in Tehran has used the slogan "A new language is a new life" for more than 50 years I’m preparing my lecture on…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 13, 2014

Language at work

Monolingualism is bad for the economy

Losing their heritage language decreases the earning potential of 2nd-generation migrants In most countries of immigration, linguistic diversity is by and large ignored by policy makers. If there are language-related…

Ingrid PillerDecember 4, 2013

English as a global language

English is excellence

Are university rankings like an iron cage that leaves no option but to submit to its logic? “Using English is the sign of a great mind. Discuss.” Sounds like an…

Ingrid PillerNovember 26, 2013

“Speak English or Die!”

"Speak English or Die!" Vilification on a Melbourne bus caught on camera About a year ago, a video of a language-related altercation on a Melbourne bus was widely reported in…

Ingrid PillerNovember 19, 2013

Language learning

Bilingualism delays onset of dementia

Multilingual Hyderabad (Source: Wikimedia) It is by now widely known that bilingualism delays the onset of dementia. What is less widely known is the fact that this knowledge is almost…

Ingrid PillerNovember 11, 2013

Research reflections

Saussure, the procrastinator

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) Procrastination is a fact of academic life, particularly during the PhD period, as every academic supervisor knows. However, judging from ever-increasing institutional efforts to control procrastination…

Ingrid PillerOctober 30, 2013

Next Gen Literacies

Beyond the mother tongue

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…

Ingrid PillerAugust 30, 2013

Multilingual histories

Erasing diversity

Barely legible today but evidence of 'super-diversity' in the 9th century: Runic graffiti in Hagia Sophia On a parapet in Hagia Sophia’s gallery there is an obscure little graffiti written…

Ingrid PillerJune 21, 2013