Group photo, New Technologies in Intercultural Communication Symposium (Image credit: Language on the Move)

On a crack-of-dawn flight early Monday morning last week, I flew to Sydney for the day to attend “New Technologies in Intercultural Communication“, a symposium hosted by the Language on the Move Team at Macquarie University.

The presentations explored intercultural communication ranging from the use of digital technologies by elderly migrants and their families (Dr Earvin Charles B. Cabalquinto), GenAI as digital shadow care support by international students (Dr Julia Kantek and Dr Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi), language learning tools by transnational parents for heritage language maintenance (Dr Ana Sofia Bruzon), learning technologies in primary science classrooms in Australia and Korea (Dr Hye-Eun Chu), and social media in language learning (Dr Yeong-Ju Lee). And to think the new technology promising proficiency and fluency “back in my day” (I find myself relating to a joke Professor Piller made about technological development) relied on cassette tapes at the language lab!

The symposium showcased a fascinating catalogue of digital technologies enabling intercultural communication. We heard about high school students in an Australian classroom connecting with Korean students to hypothesize why the seasons differ between their two countries. We heard of transnational parents employing creative ways to encourage their children to connect to their heritage languages, especially to communicate with family members. It was also intriguing to hear how social media platforms such as Tiktok offer features such as “duet”, creating opportunities for speakers of different languages to collaborate and co-construct meaning.

While we heard of these novel and exciting ways technology can be used to enhance intercultural communication, each presenter emphasized the human element in communication. I could not help but think about how language learning tends to be marketed as fun, brain-boosting, or career-enhancing. And yet, language in human relationships is messy, and missteps happen! Even so, whether you already speak the language or are learning an additional one, I believe empathy and deeper understanding are borne out of the struggle to communicate and truly connect with each other.

The most striking point for me was that some uses of technology actually stem from institutional failures or social exclusion, leaving the vulnerable members of our society even more marginalized. Earvin reminded us that although much of the discussion seems to be on the importance of digital literacy skills, many still lack basic access to technological infrastructure that we often take for granted in urban Australia. Julia and Thilakshi’s presentation highlighted the isolation that international students experience, turning to GenAI for immediate advice on legal matters, polishing their resumes, or easing homesickness. Ana pointed to multilingual parents’ struggles of heritage language maintenance in the face of pervasive monolingual mindset across Australian schooling and public discourse.

As I flew back to Brisbane that evening, reflecting on the presentations, discussion questions, and conversations I had with fellow attendees strengthened my resolve to keep pushing for equity in language learning and digital access.

We need to keep asking: How do we use technology for intercultural communication? Who gets left out? And how can we keep working towards digital and social inclusion?

I want to thank UQ School of Education for making it possible for me to attend the symposium, and to Distinguished Professor Ingrid Piller, Dr Loy Lising, Dr Ana Sofia Bruzon and the Language on the Move team for bringing together a rich program and creating the opportunity to hear from and exchange ideas with other scholars.

“Read – Learn – Grow – Be Kind” – this street library says it all (Image credit: Language on the Move)

The Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge 2026 is out!

Now in its ninth year, the goals of our reading challenge have remained broadly unchanged since 2018: to encourage reading in the discipline and beyond, and to make linguistics reading fun.

These goals have become even more relevant, due to two converging trends:

On the one hand, book reading is in freefall internationally while, on the other hand, screen time is rising exponentially.

If you think this is just a case of one medium replacing another, you are unfortunately mistaken.

In its most prevalent form – social media use – screen time has negative effects on our ability to concentrate, to think deeply and critically, and to develop empathy. These negative effects are now so widely felt that their popular designation “brain rot” was selected as the Oxford Word of the Year 2024.

Book reading, by contrast, is the antidote to brain rot. Book reading challenges us to concentrate and to deeply engage with an extended argument or a narrative universe.

To train your brain you need to read long form. You can’t outsource your reading to AI-generated summaries, either.

Furthermore, many of our readers are (aspiring) researchers and Stephen King’s advice in On Writing is valid in our profession, too:

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

The Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge is here for you develop, enjoy and extend the habits and pleasures of reading, particularly in the field of linguistic diversity and social participation. For each month of 2026, we are suggesting a category and one of our team members offers a recommendation in that category.

Enjoy and feel free to add your own recommendations in the “Comments” section below.

And don’t forget that, in addition to the categories and recommendations suggested here, the Language-on-the-Move Podcast will also continue to bring you regular reading ideas in 2026.

Happy Reading!

Previous Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenges

• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2025
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2024
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2023
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2022
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2021
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2020
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2019
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2018

January: a book about new technologies in intercultural communication

Recommendation: Cabalquinto, E. C. B. (2022). (Im)mobile Homes: Family Life at a Distance in the Age of Mobile Media. Oxford University Press.

Earvin’s presentation about the myth of digital inclusion of older migrants in Australia was one of the highlights of our recent symposium devoted to “New technologies in intercultural communication.”
Whether you missed out on the symposium or want to deepen your engagement with Earvin’s work, (Im)mobile Homes offers a gripping exploration of the use of smartphones, social media, and apps in the family and care practices of transnational families. (Ingrid Piller)

February: a book about settler colonialism

Recommendation: Simpson, A. (2014). Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Duke University Press.

This book completely reshaped my understanding of Indigenous politics, border, nation, and sovereignty in North America. It also made me reflect on my reliance on the extensive literature on Indigenous cultures and languages – ritual speech, performances, tales, or beliefs – produced over the last century by anthropologists and linguists, most of which are dismissive of the scene of dispossession, the complicated history of places, or simply what people say about themselves and their struggles. (Gegentuul Baioud)

March: a book stirs that your social imagination

Recommendation: Bregman, R. (2017). Utopia for realists. Bloomsbury.

In this book, Rutger Bregman stirs our imagination by inviting us to re-think the way modern society is organized and by offering us a glimpse into a potentially better future for all. He calls for a new vision that would more effectively address current global challenges such as increasing inequalities or the progressing automation of labor.
But what does he exactly propose?
In short, a 15-hour work week, universal basic income and open borders. The author invites you on a journey between time and spaces with real examples of communities that have taken utopia seriously and have started to experiment with it. (Olga Vlasova)

April: A book about the philosophy of language

Recommendation: Le Guin, U. (1974). The Dispossessed. HarperCollins.

Le Guin constantly fluctuates the reader´s receptors between the old and the new, roots and progress, personal and professional, politics and philosophy. We follow the life and work of a physicist who travels back and forth between two historically connected but contrasting planets and political systems.
The protagonist commits to seeking the truth not only by understanding his own context of origin but also by defying it; how do we find our truth? And is it ever objective? The novel is considered a post-feminist utopian fiction raising discussions on whether linguistic innovation is necessary for conceptual change.
A story of intergalactic migration trying to answer the long-standing question: to whom does knowledge belong? (Mara Kyrou)

May: A book about the experience of growing up as the child of a migrant

Recommendation 1: Vuong, O. (2019). On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Penguin.

Vietnamese-American history, language, and generational trauma come together in the form of a poetic letter with utterances such as “I am writing you from inside a body that used to be yours. Which is to say, I am writing as a son.” Dedicated to someone who will never see it: the author’s mother, who never learned how to read.
Through the eyes of a young man named Little Dog discovering his homosexuality in a space for undocumented immigrants, this book tells the story of a Vietnamese immigrant family in the US and their complex relationship with the English language. It chronicles their migration history escaping the atrocities of war, the fragile family dynamics that emerged from that experience, and the love for words that connects the writer with himself, while ironically separating him from his mother. (Juan Felipe Sánchez Guzmán)

Recommendation 2: Toxische Pommes. (2024). Ein schönes Ausländerkind. Zsolnay.

Ein Schönes Ausländerkind is a fictionalised autobiography of the author’s childhood, after her family fled to Austria due to the Yugoslav Wars. The book made me laugh a lot, as the author (who writes under the pseudonym she uses to post satirical sketches online) pokes fun at the many absurdities of migrant life. But I also found it very powerful in its depiction of a messy, painful, but loving father-daughter relationship where the adult struggles to learn the local language, leading to child language brokering. (Jenia Yudytska)

June: A book about narrative research in a migration context

Recommendation: Stevenson, Patrick (2017). Language and migration in a multilingual metropolis: Berlin Lives. Palgrave Macmillan.

This book offers a highly engaging and innovative exploration of Berlin’s multilingualism through personal migration narratives. Working ethnographically, the researcher situates his analysis in a single shared apartment in Neukölln, using the linguistic repertoires and biographical trajectories of its five residents—a Russian-speaking woman, two Polish-speakers, a Kurdish-speaking man, and a Vietnamese-speaking woman—to demonstrate how migration, identity and sociolinguistic practice intersect in everyday life.
The book portrays the apartment as a microcosm of the city’s wider linguistic landscape, tracing how individuals navigate language ideologies, negotiate belonging, and construct social relations within a complex metropolitan environment. (Martin Serif Derince)

July: A book exploring linguistic diversity from multiple perspectives

Recommendation: Aguilar Gil, Y. E. (2020). Ää: manifiestos sobre la diversidad lingüística. Almadia.

Language loss, resistance, indigenous literature(s), prejudice, identity, autonyms and exonyms – these are just some of the topics discussed in this collection of essays by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil, an Ayuujk linguist, writer, translator, and activist. An interactive work edited by the author’s colleagues, this book presents texts written for an online magazine over several years alongside links to related social media posts, as well as a speech given by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil at the Mexican Chamber of Deputies and a closing epilogue by herself. A great read – refreshing and profoundly reflexive – for anyone interested in linguistic diversity in Mexico and beyond. (Nicole Marinaro)

August: A book about translation and interpreting

Recommendation: Shuttleworth, M., & Daghigh, A. J. (Eds.). (2024). Translation and Neoliberalism. Springer.

This book examines how neoliberalism shapes translation and interpreting across diverse regions, focusing on four themes: market-driven translation and interpreting curricula, policy impacts on language services, technology’s role in translation and interpreting markets, and intersections of translation and neoliberalism at a discourse level. It offers critical insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers into the socio-economic forces transforming translation studies, industries and curricula. (Jinhyun Cho)

September: A book about digital migration studies

Recommendation: Leurs, Koen, & Ponzanesi, Sandra (Eds.). (2025). Doing Digital Migration Studies: Theories and practices of the everyday. Routledge.

This open-access edited volume serves as an introduction to ‘digital migration studies’, an umbrella term for research on migration in relation to digital technologies. The articles examine topics ranging from migrant agency on TikTok to the use of automatic dialect recognition during the asylum procedure.
Although most contributions don’t explicitly focus on language, the breadth of topics and methodologies covered still sparked ideas for new research directions for me as a linguist. (Jenia Yudytska)

October: A book about an under-recognized diaspora

Recommendation: Bald, V. (2013). Bengali Harlem and the lost histories of South Asian America. Harvard University Press.

Film and other information: http://bengaliharlem.com

Historical Harlem, New York does not conjure up images of South Asians going about their daily lives, but Bengali Harlem tells us the story of immigrants who arrived from the 1800s onwards from the Indian subcontinent.
This book focuses on migrants who were ethnolinguistically Bengalis (from what was known as Bengal) and came as merchants, seamen, or laborers to be absorbed into working class America. In the face of racism and discrimination, they built homes and lives, leaving behind generations of Americans with Bengali cultural and linguistic heritage. (Tazin Abdullah)

November: A book of migrant poetry

Recommendation: Saleh, S. M., Syed, Z., & Younus, M. (Eds.). (2025). Ritual: A Collection of Muslim Australian Poetry. Sweatshop Literacy Movement.

Billed as “evocative, unsettling, and unafraid,” this rich collection of Muslim Australian poetry offers a rich treasure trove of poems to come back to and savour again and again. The poems invite the reader to not only reflect on the diversity of Muslim identities but what it means to live on Indigenous land as a designated migrant within a White settler colony. (Ingrid Piller)

December: Cozy fiction for when you need a break from your research

Recommendation: Arden, K. (2019). The Winternight Trilogy. Del Rey.

I’m now 1.5 years into my PhD and I find that, now more than ever, I need good fiction to read after a long day of academic reading/writing. The Winternight Trilogy is set in the harsh winters of a folkloric version of medieval Russia and follows Vasya, a young woman whose difficult peasant life collides with those of chyerti, the demons and devils of Slavic folklore.
The settings and creatures described in this trilogy are nothing short of magical, and reading the prose makes me feel like I am tucked away snug in a winter cabin with a roaring fire and hot chocolate.
A lesson that I am learning along my PhD journey is that it is imperative to nourish myself while I work so hard, and reading these books is part of that nourishment for me. Knowing that I have the winter snows and rich folklore of these books to look forward to at the end of the day helps me to persevere through the daily ups and downs of PhD life. (Brynn Quick)

(Image credit: © Gert Albrecht für DIE ZEIT, Stiftung Lesen, Deutsche Bahn Stiftung)

Editor’s note: Shared reading – the practice where adults read to children – has many benefits: it improves children’s language and literacy development, as well as their interactive and communicative skills. Additionally, shared reading can be a lot of fun and, like any joint enjoyable activity, strengthens emotional bonds.

In Germany, shared reading is promoted through a dedicated annual “Vorlesetag” (“Shared Reading Day”). In this post, Larissa Cosyns explains more about the event and shares a reading recommendation.

This post was first published on the Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS) Research Center website.

***

This year’s “Vorlesetag” (“Shared Reading Day”) will take place today (November 21) under the motto “Shared Reading Speaks Your Language.” The initiative aims to highlight the unifying power of shared reading and show that every language and every voice counts. Let’s use our voices and read together!

If you’re still looking for a suitable book, you’ll find it in the Global Digital Library. As part of the Global Book Alliance, the digital library wants to provide more reading material in underserved languages. Whether it’s video books in Kenyan sign language or first reader books in Bahasa Indonesian, the digital library offers numerous stories.

I would like to recommend this children’s book from the Global Digital Library: “Making Tormo for the Festival“ by Buddha Yonjan Lama.

Have fun reading together!

Related content

• Multiculturalism alive and well in Austria
• Are we killing the joy of reading?
• Lessons learnt from schoolbooks
• Libraries and social inclusion
• Why are academic lectures so weird?

The international research network “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” builds on the “Next Generation Literacies” network

The World Education Research Association (WERA) recently announced the launch of seven new International Research Networks (IRNs) and we are pleased to share that “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” is one of them.

What is a WERA IRN?

The WERA IRN initiative brings together global teams of researchers through virtual communication and other channels to collaborate in specific areas of international importance. “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” joins a growing list of IRNs, contributing to the vision of WERA. The purpose of IRNs is to synthesize knowledge, examine the state of research, and stimulate collaborations or otherwise identify promising directions in research areas of worldwide significance. IRNs are expected to produce substantive reports that integrate the state of the knowledge worldwide and set forth promising research directions.

What does the IRN “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” do?

The IRN “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” aims to initiate and extend international collaborative research on literacy in the context of language diversity and migration. The joint focus is on literacy development and practice in multiple languages. Drawing on varied and complementary expertise from Europe, Australasia, Africa and North America, the objectives are:

1. to enhance knowledge on literacy and student diversity
2. to trace tendencies that go beyond one national, regional or local context
3. to examine literacy development across the life-course
4. to critically discuss the implications of research findings for policy and practice

Literacy is a foundation for participation in complex societies. The proposed research therefore also contributes to pathways to equity. The network’s activities will reach fundamental theoretical insights, which may be transferred to concepts of teaching/learning in educational institutions. This intervention research will attempt to generalise characteristics of successful multilingual literacy development to be adapted to specific contexts. The proposed IRN comprises senior, experienced and early career scholars (incl. PhD students), aimed towards international and intergenerational knowledge generation.

Literacy as a resource

At the heart of our network is the idea that multilingual literacy is a resource to be celebrated. Literacies across languages and scripts empower learners to create knowledge, to navigate education systems, and to participate fully in social and cultural life.

Members of the network bring expertise from early childhood to higher education, from family and community contexts to digital and AI-mediated literacies. Our shared vision is to develop research that responds to the multilingual realities of migration, mobility, and global diversity.

Building on the “Next Generation Literacies” network

The “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” network has grown out of the Next Generation Literacies initiative, an international network of researchers working at the intersection of social participation and linguistic diversity.

Based on the trilateral partnership of Fudan University (China), Hamburg University (Germany) and Macquarie University (Australia), Next Generation Literacies brought together an interdisciplinary group of established and emerging researchers to build a truly global network.

After funding for the Next Generation Literacies network ended in 2024, the IRN “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” keeps that spirit of collaboration alive, while also widening the circle: we are now connected with colleagues from the Network on Language and Education (LeD) in the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and with other WERA initiatives. Under this new umbrella, we will scale up our efforts and make a stronger impact together.

Network Conveners

The network is convened by

• Irina Usanova (University of Hamburg; Lead Convenor)
• Francis M. Hult (UMBC)
• Ingrid Piller (University of Hamburg & Macquarie University)
• Yongyan Zheng (Fudan University)
• Harkaitz Zubiri-Esnaola (University of the Basque Country)

Together with network members, we bring expertise spanning literacy research across continents and research traditions.

Kick-off meeting

On September 24, 2025, we came together on Zoom across many different time zones and continents to virtually celebrate the official launch of the Literacy in Multilingual Contexts IRN.

The kick-off meeting felt like both a reunion and a new beginning: familiar faces from the Next Generation Literacies network reconnecting, and new colleagues from around the world joining the conversation. Together, we are building a vibrant global community of researchers committed to understanding how literacy develops and thrives in multilingual settings. For all of us, it was a reminder of how much we can achieve when we put our multilingual realities at the center of literacy research.

What’s next?

Over the next three years (2025–2028), we will:

• review the state of research on multilingual literacies
• analyze existing datasets across different contexts
• share our work in joint events and publications
• build a sustainable international community dedicated to literacy in diversity

To make this vision concrete, members are invited to join thematic working groups. Topics include multilingual literacy in early childhood, in higher education, in Indigenous contexts, CLIL, multilingual writing and AI, and multilingual policy. Sounds interesting?

An open invitation

The energy of our first meeting showed just how much can be achieved when we bring our different perspectives together. The IRN “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” is open to any researcher working in these areas. If you are interested in joining, please send your inquiry to Dr Irina Usanova.

Related content

• Legacies of the Next Generation Literacies Network
• Becoming a world-ready researcher at Macquarie University
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• Publishing is an insiders’ game

Description: Digital technologies are in the process of fundamentally reshaping communication. There are significant opportunities: chatbots can personalize language teaching in a way unimaginable until recently and machine translation promises to widen participation for ever more people, regardless of their language proficiency. Yet these opportunities come with the harms caused by screen addiction, surveillance, and environmental destruction.

In this one-day research symposium we move beyond both the hype and the fearmongering to examine the real-life use of digital technologies in multilingual and intercultural communication. How can digital technologies help to bridge language barriers to social participation? What new barriers do they create? And what research agenda do we need to harness technological transformation for social inclusion in our linguistically and culturally diverse society?

Attendance is free but places are limited. To secure your place, sign up for the event at https://events.humanitix.com/new-technologies-in-intercultural-communication or scan the QR code.

Date and venue

Monday, Dec 08, 2025
Macquarie University, Wallumattagul Campus, Ryde

Program [updated Nov 21, 2025]

09:30-10:00      Arrival, Meet & Greet
10:00-10:30      Welcome
10:30-11:15      Earvin Cabalquinto (Monash U), The myth of digital inclusion: Locating non-digital influences in the migrant’s home
11:15-12:00      Julia Kantek and Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi (WSU), Sustaining livelihoods in ‘the shadows’: International students’ use of GenAI as digital shadow care support
12:00-13:00      Lunch break
13:00-13:45     Ana Sofia Bruzon (MQ), Using tech in bilingual transnational parenting
13:45-14:30      Hye Eun Chu (MQ), Bridging Language and Inquiry in Diverse Science Classrooms
14:30-15:15      Yeong-Ju Lee (MQ), Social Media and Language Learning
15:15-15:45      Coffee break
15:45-16:30      Laura Smith-Khan (UNE), “Connectivity is the central thing”: Developing legal literacy post-migration
16:30-17:00      Closing panel: Gerard Goggin (UWS) and Ingrid Piller (UHH&MQ), moderated by Sarah McMonagle (UHH)
17:00-18:30      Reception & networking

Abstracts and bio blurbs

Earvin Cabalquinto (Monash U), The myth of digital inclusion: Locating non-digital influences in the migrant’s home

Abstract: The home is a vital space for shaping an individual’s personal, familial and social relations and growth. In an increasingly digital and global economy, such domestic terrain has been reconfigured into a highly mediated and transnational space. For migrants and their networks who constantly navigate their marginalised position in contemporary societies, a home at a distance embodies the paradox of cross-border and virtual mobility. Homing necessitates digital media use, a tactic for coping with the pains of physical separation. Yet, everyday connections, impacted by intersecting social, economic and political factors, become a source of frustrations and discomfort. In this provocation, I offer a critical reflection of the principles, dynamics, and contradictions of digital inclusion by unlocking the migrants’ mediated home. I draw key insights from more than ten years of multi-sited interviews and visual ethnography among the Filipino diaspora in Australia and their local and transnational networks. Significantly, I attempt to locate and centre the asymmetrical non-digital factors – personal, cultural, economic, and political – that deeply impacts the enactment, embodiment and negotiations of the home among migrants and their distant networks. In sum, the presentation provides a critical vantage point to further rethink digital inclusion by disrupting one-size-fits-all and geographically-bounded solutions and foreground situated, relational, and transnational approaches for understanding and redressing intertwined social and digital inequalities.

Bio: Dr Earvin Charles B. Cabalquinto is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, Australia. He has held Visiting fellowships in Lancaster University, United Kingdom (2019), University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2021), Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada (2024), and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (2025). He is the author of (Im)mobile Homes: Family Life at a Distance in the Age of Mobile Media” (Oxford University Press). He is the co-author of Philippine Digital Cultures: Brokerage Dynamics on YouTube (Amsterdam University Press). He sits in the editorial board of top journals, including the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Convergence:  The international journal of research into new media technologies, and Journal of Global Ageing. His research on the impacts of digitalisation on migration has been widely published in top-tier journal outlets and specialised edited collections.  His research agenda is driven by critically exploring the dynamics and impacts of digital inclusion and exclusion among migrants and their networks who navigate an increasingly digital and global society. To know more about his projects and outputs, visit www.ecabalquinto.com.

Julia Kantek & Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi, Sustaining livelihoods in ‘the shadows’: International students’ use of GenAI as digital shadow care support

Abstract: International students are navigating a multitude of structural challenges, including rising living costs, shifting visa conditions, and an intensifying housing affordability crisis. These pressures unfold within a broader post-welfare context, marked by reduced government support for temporary migrants and limited investment in student services. This paper explores how international students use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to navigate these challenges. Drawing on focus groups (N=3) and interviews (N=21), we reveal how ChatGPT (and similar GenAI tools) function as digital shadow care infrastructures, helping students ‘get by’ and navigate everyday precarity (legal, financial, and emotional). By situating GenAI within students’ broader care assemblages, this study contributes to digital migration scholarship, highlighting how GenAI tools ‘fill the cracks’ left open by inadequate formal supports, as well as identifying the factors that shape GenAI use within these contexts. Overall, we argue for policies that not only recognise these shadowed practices, but educate and empower migrants to use AI tools safely and effectively.

Western Sydney University Research team: Dr Julia Kantek, Dr Donna James, Dr Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi & Distinguished Professor Gerard Goggin

Bio: Dr Julia Kantek is a Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. Julia has developed research expertise at the intersection of youth sociology, migration studies, and diaspora engagement. Her work explores the ways various transitions (such as those induced by migration, education, and work) shape belonging, identity formation, and wellbeing. Julia is currently co-leading two funded projects through the Young & Resilient Research Centre and the Institute for Culture & Society at Western Sydney University. One explores how digital technologies function as infrastructures of care for migrants, while the other investigates how young people from Western Sydney navigate work-related aspirations and transitions.

Bio: Dr Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi is a researcher, educator, and activist with a passion for justice, working to nurture caring, connected communities through collective action. Her interdisciplinary background spans digital media studies, media literacy, migration, feminism, higher education, and climate activism. She completed her PhD at Western Sydney University in March 2025, investigating how cultural institutions, such as public libraries, can co-design equity-centred social media literacy education interventions with women from refugee backgrounds.

Ana Sofia Bruzon, Using tech in bilingual transnational parenting

Abstract: Against the background of the digitisation of all spheres of life, including childhood, this project asks how transnational parents use new technologies to support their children’s heritage language learning and use. Guided by a conceptual framework based in language policy and a sociolinguistic ethnographic approach, interview, questionnaire and observational data were collected from 17 Spanish-speaking families in Australia to examine digital technology use in the family, particularly in relation to heritage language maintenance.

Findings show that each of three focal technologies – TV and film, digital communication platforms, and learning apps – has a primary purpose which is not related to heritage language maintenance but results in specific affordances and constraints for heritage language learning and use. The primary purpose of TV and film is to provide entertainment. This allows for beneficial linguistic input in Spanish but is also constrained by child language proficiency and resistance against particular shows and language choices. Similarly, digital communication platforms serve the primary purpose of connecting with geographically dispersed kin. This provides valuable interactional opportunities in Spanish for children but is limited by the inability of distant kin to engage in child-centred communication strategies and is also subject to practical constraints such as time differences. Finally, learning apps are largely brought into the home by school requirements and serve the primary purpose of learning. Learning apps offer precious explicit and implicit Spanish language learning opportunities but parents worry that they expose children to harms such as excessive screen time.

Overall, the project constitutes a novel contribution to the fields of family language policy and heritage language maintenance by concluding that digital technologies constitute a double-edged sword: their value in supporting multilingual practices in a monolingual society is significant but countervailed by limitations inherent in these technologies, particularly as they relate to broader developmental harms.

Bio: Ana Sofia Bruzon is a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, and a member of the Language on the Move research team. Her research interests include education policy and practice, digital technology in education, and the intersection of language, education and law.

Her PhD focuses on heritage language maintenance, language and education policy, and the digital practices of transnational families. The thesis examines how transnational parents use new technologies to support their children’s language learning and education. Her MRes research, published as Piller, Bruzon, and Torsh (2023), focused on language and education policy and practice, investigating the online linguistic practices of multilingual schools. Ana has a background in law and is a member of the State Bar of California in the U.S., where she practised as an immigration, real estate, and family lawyer. Ana is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian.

Hye-Eun Chu, Bridging Language and Inquiry in Diverse Science Classrooms

Abstract: Science classrooms are becoming increasingly multilingual and digital, raising urgent questions about how to integrate inquiry-based learning with language support. This presentation synthesises four studies that examine these challenges across Korean and Australian contexts. A survey of 144 Korean teachers revealed strong self-efficacy in inquiry teaching but low confidence in supporting the language needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Classroom observations in Korea showed that CLD students, despite linguistic difficulties, contributed creative and reflective ideas during model co-construction, enriching group learning. An intervention with Korean elementary students developed a Digital Science Text Reading Literacy (DSTRL) program, which significantly improved their abilities to search, read, and evaluate multimodal science texts. Finally, interviews with Australian and Korean physics teachers highlighted both enthusiasm and concerns about Language-Focused Teaching (LFT), balancing benefits for engagement and conceptual learning against practical constraints. Together, these findings call for teacher professional development that embeds language as integral to inquiry and leverages digital tools for inclusive participation.

Bio: Dr Chu is a Senior Lecturer in Macquarie’s School of Education. Her research has focused on several key areas, including monitoring students’ understanding of science concepts, implementing formative assessment in science classrooms, interdisciplinary approaches to teaching science, affective factors affecting science learning, and the integration of the arts into the teaching of science and related subjects (STEAM). Additionally, she has conducted research in conceptual development in science learning, tracking students’ concept development through text (language) analysis, interdisciplinary teaching of environmental literacy with science, and the influence of student beliefs on science learning. Recently, her work has expanded to include studies on the application of AI in education.

Yeong-Ju Lee, Social Media and Language Learning

Abstract: This presentation draws on my new book ‘Social Media and Language Learning: Using TikTok and Instagram’ (Lee, 2025), which investigates how visual and multimodal technologies transform informal language learning and intercultural exchange. The book analyses two studies: a comparative analysis of online data from Instagram and TikTok posts, and a multiple case study based on ethnographic data of narratives from international students in Australia. These studies show how learners use multimodal features such as sound, captioning, and visual composition to create and share meaning across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Based on these findings, in this presentation I will discuss how social media platforms have become everyday spaces where linguistic agency, creativity, and belonging are negotiated in transnational contexts. I will also consider how AI-driven features in social media such as automatic captioning, real-time translation, and personalised content feeds are creating new opportunities while posing pedagogical challenges for multilingual learning.

Reference

Lee, Y.-J. (2025). Social media and language learning: using TikTok and Instagram. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003543541

Bio: Yeong-Ju Lee obtained her PhD from the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Australia. She teaches courses in Applied Linguistics, TESOL, and Literacy. Her research interests include digital language learning and teaching, especially on social media and AI. She is a Chief Investigator of the Data Horizon Research Centre-funded project on a customised AI chatbot for language learning at Macquarie University, and the Teaching Development Grant-funded project on AI and literacy at Australian Catholic University.

Laura Smith-Khan, “Connectivity is the central thing”: Developing legal literacy post-migration

Abstract: Developing a sound understanding of the law is essential for social participation and access to justice, and in the context of migration, can form a crucial part of integrating and flourishing in a new country. Yet there can be a range of challenges for new arrivals when it comes to developing legal literacy, and for service providers seeking to assist them. This presentation will share emerging findings from pilot research on Australian government and non-government service providers’ efforts to help educate the public about Australia law, legal processes and legal services. Drawing on an examination of research interviews, survey responses and public texts, the preliminary findings indicate that while online resources and technology are one element of such efforts, human connectivity and care remain crucial.

Bio: Dr Laura Smith-Khan is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of New England, Australia and an external affiliated member of the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Gent University, Belgium. Her research is interested in the participation of minoritized groups in legal settings, especially migration processes. She was the 2022 recipient of the Max Crawford Medal, Australia’s most prestigious award for achievement and promise in the humanities. She is co-founder and co-convener of the Law and Linguistics Interdisciplinary Research Network, a member of Language on the Move and Next Generation Literacies and serves on the editorial boards of Multilingua and the Australian Journal of Human Rights.

Dr Smith-Khan has written extensively on language and credibility in Australia’s asylum procedures. Beyond her continuing work in this area, she has undertaken research on the education and communicative practices of migration practitioners, on media representations of migration, and on disability rights in forced migration. Aiming for impact, her research has been cited and adopted by the EU Agency for Asylum, the Australian Human Rights Commission, UNHCR and UNESCO, and is used in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. She has tertiary qualifications in both law and linguistics and has been admitted to practice as a lawyer.

“AI can’t teach our kids to be curious and think critically” (Image credit: ABC News, Jason Om)

UNESCO’s ‘Digital Learning Week’, which focused on AI and the future of education, was held earlier this month, and debates about the role of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in the classroom have taken centre stage in education policy research. Around the world, educators, school administrators, and government officials are grappling with ethical questions surrounding the use of GAI and related technologies, such as commercial Large Language Models (LLMs), in teaching and learning.

The use of GAI in school poses serious and urgent questions: Should GAI be implemented in schools, and do we have sufficient knowledge about its educational merit (if any)?

Despite the hype, there is little positive evidence that this technology can actually improve student outcomes. But there is plenty of negative evidence that is cause for concern: it may lead to the dehumanization of learning. This is not surprising given that, even in commercial settings, the promise of increased productivity is not being fulfilled.

Still, schools are rushing to adopt GAI despite a wealth of evidence showing that the recent uncritical adoption of mobile phones and social media has in fact been harmful to children’s development. As a society, we are trying to pull back from feeding these technologies to our children. Still, even with these precedents, schools are adopting commercial AI technologies in the classroom uncritically, without fully considering their potential harms.

The challenges of GAI use in education are multifaceted and multilayered, ranging from concerns about ethics and academic integrity to privacy issues related to the ‘datafication’ of learning and childhood, to actual physical threats and harm to students. Beyond the psychosocial and physical harms to children, research has shown that “LLMs exacerbate, rather than alleviate, inequality” in learning, given that a few large corporations control the computation infrastructures on which these models run. So, against this background, what does Australian policy state regarding GAI in education?

In Australia, the latest guiding framework for the use of GAI in education is the ‘Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Schools’ (The Framework). Developed by the Federal Government in partnership with states, territories, and other regulatory bodies such as the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), The Framework aims to define what “safe, ethical and responsible use of generative AI should look like to support better school outcomes” (p. 3).

As a guiding principle, The Framework highlights that critical thinking must be at the forefront of GAI use in schools, and that GAI should not replace or restrict human thought and experience.

However, what does it mean to use GAI “critically”? The research is clear that the regular use of GAI in learning quickly leads to over-reliance, which negatively affects cognitive abilities. Arguing that critically engaging with AI means empowering students to evaluate the machine’s output for themselves is similar to suggesting that we should teach students incorrect content and then ask them to form their own opinions.

The promise of GAI in education is that it will enable personalized learning. Unfortunately, machine-based ‘personalized learning’ forgoes the human-centered approach needed for a successful education. Instead, it relies on the datafication of students through continuous monitoring and surveillance. This shift in educational policy has sparked debate within academic circles about issues such as student privacy and safety, the ‘datafication’ of childhood, and how children’s data harvesting is used to shape their futures, effectively turning students into ‘algorithmic ensembles’.

Despite these real dangers, the latest iteration of the Australian school curriculum has explicitly incorporated GAI into the curriculum, supporting its use for whole school planning and providing teachers with the option of content elaboration using GAI (Australian Government Department of Education, 2025). The incorporation of GAI into the curriculum raises safety and welfare concerns for children, as they could be exposed to harmful materials and dangerous interactions, and a recent tragedy has brought to the surface the dark side of this technology. This heartbreaking case highlights that this technology may not be suitable for children, given their vulnerability to certain features of GAI, such as agreeability and dependence, which are design features aimed at engineering addiction. These technologies are still in their experimental stages, and we know little about the effects they may have on developing brains.

The premature and uncritical adoption of GAI in schools rings a too-familiar note to the uncritical adoption of social media in youth, which many governments around the globe are now trying to reverse, including Australia.

Vague policies that encourage the use of AI in schooling mean that teachers and schools are using the tool without a clear evidence base, in inconsistent ways, and without obtaining full parental consent. In my PhD research, I found that parents often resent the amount of technology schools use for education, and I also discovered that these technologies follow students home, encroaching on their private lives. Schools are taking away the parental prerogative of deciding when and how they introduce technologies such as GAI to their children, forcing them down a path they might prefer their children not to go.

Overall, the “critical” use of GAI in education must mean that rejection of GAI is an option. An option that is increasingly precluded by the headlong rush into the GAI hype.

Related content from our podcast

• Episode 57: The Social Impact of Automating Translation: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Ester Monzó-Nebot (03/08/2025)
• Episode 55: Improving quality of care for patients with limited English: Brynn Quick in conversation with Leah Karliner (26/06/2025)
• Episode 50: Researching language and digital communication: Brynn Quick in conversation with Christian Ilbury (22/04/2025)
• Episode 46: Intercultural competence in the digital age: Brynn Quick in conversation with Amy McHugh (12/03/2025)
• Episode 41: Why teachers turn to AI: Brynn Quick in conversation with Sue Ollerhead (09/01/2025)

Being an academic mom has given Brynn a huge head start when it comes to managing her supervisors (Image credit: Brynn Quick)

You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you’ve climbed to the top of a rollercoaster, and you look down to see that first huge drop that’s rapidly approaching? That’s exactly what it can feel like to be at the beginning of your PhD. You have a vague idea about the direction that the rollercoaster track will take, but you also know that there will probably be twists, turns and loops (plus some screams and tears) that you can’t anticipate yet.

So, let’s talk about how to make that PhD rollercoaster ride as smooth as possible while also acknowledging that some upside-down moments are inevitable.

One of the most crucial elements of your PhD is your relationship with your supervisor. We’ve all heard the horror stories (The Thesis Whisperer Professor Inger Mewburn has compiled many!). Some PhD students experience bullying, harassment and outright abuse from their supervisors. We all want to avoid a toxic supervisor/student relationship, so it’s vital that every PhD student has a firm idea of how to build and maintain a partnership of trust with their supervisor.

I’m very lucky to have three fabulous supervisors on my team (Distinguished Professor Ingrid Piller is my primary supervisor, and Dr. Hanna Torsh and Dr. Loy Lising are my associates). Recently, Ingrid asked me to talk to other members of our research group about how I “manage” my supervisors while I conduct my research.

In response, I created a slideshow with key principles. What I realised by examining my own management processes was that I hold two principles to be most important:

1. Explicitly discuss your expectations of your supervisor, and your supervisor’s expectations of you.
2. Honour your supervisor’s time, and they will honour yours.

Let’s talk about these in more detail.

Setting Expectations

We’ve all heard about how communicating clear and mutually-agreed-upon expectations in marriages can lead to healthy partnerships, but many of these same communication principles also apply to working (and therefore, supervisor/supervisee) relationships.

You might send your supervisor a thesis chapter that you’ve just written, and you may assume that they will be able to email you with feedback within a week. However, what you might not know is that your supervisor is also writing their own research paper, preparing a lecture, working on a grant application and getting ready to present at a conference in two weeks.

Therefore, it’s incredibly important that you ask about expectations when you send that chapter. In your email with your thesis chapter, tell your supervisor how many pages (or words) you are sending. Tell them if it’s a first draft, a ninth draft, which changes you have highlighted, what uncertainties you have, etc. Explicitly tell them what task you will work on while you are waiting for their feedback (supervisors love productivity!).

Ask them what date will work with their busy schedules for you to expect feedback by, then trust that they will get back to you by that date. In clearly and explicitly communicating an expectation, you both avoid assuming that the other person has the same expectation that you do, and that reduces the chances of a big misunderstanding down the track.

Another element of setting expectations includes setting and managing expectations of yourself as the PhD student. During our undergraduate and even master’s by coursework degrees, it is often the professor or lecturer who is acting in the role of “manager”. They set reading tasks, and we do them. They assign a 4,000-word essay, and we write it. They tell us to be in class at 8:00am for a final exam, and we sleepily show up with an extra-large coffee. In these degrees, we get used to being told how to successfully be a student. As long as we follow directions, we will probably succeed.

During a research-based degree like a PhD, however, suddenly we become the managers, and this can be whiplash-inducing. Many of us have never had that type of teacher/student relationship before, so we have to learn quickly how to take the lead. This means acting as our own boss in one way – setting daily tasks for ourselves, tracking our own progress, troubleshooting, working towards both external and self-imposed deadlines, etc.

But at the same time, we have to be ready to adapt to expectations that our supervisor has of us and our work. This can be tough when we do eventually get used to being our own boss and managing our own work by ourselves for weeks at a time. This is exactly where clear communication comes into play. Begin and maintain your working relationship with your supervisor from a foundation of honesty and open conversations. If you both respectfully and clearly communicate expectations with each other, the PhD rollercoaster ride will have far fewer stomach-turning drops.

Honouring Time

Time is simultaneously something that we feel like we have far too much of and far too little of during a PhD. The idea of writing for literal years sometimes makes me want to curl into a ball, but also having “only” a few years to complete a PhD feels like a panic attack-inducing Herculean task. But do you know who else has a rough relationship with time? Your supervisor.

Like I said before, they might be teaching/researching/writing/lecturing while supervising. I myself teach every other semester, and doing that while researching (and let’s not even talk about trying to balance family life and parenting in that schedule somewhere!) can be exhausting. So, I honestly don’t know how my supervisors do all that they do in the limited time they have.

Therefore, I try as best I can to honour their time. This means that I keep my emails to them as organised and concise as possible. I come up with agendas for our supervision meetings and take notes during said meetings. Then I make sure to highlight any actionable items that we discussed, and I send the meeting notes to them with a summary of what actions each person has agreed to take by the next time we meet. I also try to figure out as much of the bureaucratic work that is involved in a PhD that I can before involving them (no but seriously, there is SO MUCH bureaucracy).

I have found that by taking these steps to be as proactive as possible and be mindful of my supervisors’ time constraints, they have been reciprocally mindful of mine.

Conclusion: We Can Make the PhD Rollercoaster Ride an Enjoyable One

I’m what we euphemistically call a “mature age student” (I just turned 40 a few weeks ago!). That is to say that this isn’t my first rodeo – I completed my bachelor’s degree in 2007 and was in the workforce and busy raising kids until re-entering academia in 2019. I think that, because of my age and life experiences, I have a unique perspective on the PhD process and working relationships. I truly believe that mutual respect and open communication between supervisors and supervisees is what will make this rollercoaster ride as easy as possible.

If you are on your own PhD rollercoaster, I hope that reading this post will give you the confidence to put “managing up” policies into practice. May your rollercoaster ride be as smooth as possible, and I hope you get to eat some fairy floss after it’s over.

Isabella’s Award Certificate (Image credit: Yixi Qiu)

Congratulations to Language-on-the-Move team member Dr Yixi Qiu (Isabella) for winning an award under the Shanghai Magnolia Pujiang Talent Program (上海白玉兰浦江人才计划) for her project “人工智能赋能双一流理工特色高校学生学术论文写作能力培养” (“AI Empowerment for Enhancing Academic Writing Skills among Students in Double First-Class STEM Universities”).

The Shanghai Magnolia Pujiang Talent Program was launched in 2005 by the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the Science and Technology Commission. It aims to attract and support overseas-returned scholars to contribute to research, innovation, and social development in Shanghai.

For Isabella, who is now an Assistant Professor at the School of Foreign Studies, Tongji University, this is a fantastic recognition and remarkable opportunity to reestablish herself in Shanghai after her time in Sydney.

人工智能赋能双一流理工特色高校学生学术论文写作能力培养 (“AI Empowerment for Enhancing Academic Writing Skills among Students in Double First-Class STEM Universities”)

Isabella’s project focuses on integrating generative AI into academic writing pedagogy, with the goal of supporting STEM students in developing stronger writing competence. Drawing on our team’s long-term research program into the relationship of linguistic diversity and social participation, “AI Empowerment for Enhancing Academic Writing Skills among Students in Double First-Class STEM Universities” conceptualizes writing as more than a technical skill. Instead, Isabella approaches it as a means of expressing agency, negotiating identity, and participating in academic and social life. The aim is to explore the potential of AI to support multilingual students in accessing richer linguistic, social, and epistemic resources, for personal and collective growth.

For background, “Double First-Class University” refers to a university in China that has been selected for development under the Double First-Class Initiative (双一流), launched by the Chinese government in 2015. The goal is to cultivate: First-Class Universities and First-Class Disciplines. These universities and their designated disciplines are given special funding and policy support to become world-leading in research, education, and global influence. Examples of such institutions include Tongji University, where Isabella is based, and Fudan University, where she did her PhD.

Next Generation Literacies and the power of global networking

Isabella’s project was partly inspired by her membership in the Next Generation Literacies network. This network connects the Fudan Multilingual Innovation Research Team under the leadership of Professor Yongyan Zheng and the broader Shanghai Multilingualism Research Alliance with the Language-on-the-Move team at Macquarie University, and the Literacy-in-Diversity-Settings (LiDS) Research Center at University of Hamburg. Next Generation Literacies is a part of the strategic trilateral relationship of these three universities but includes researchers from many other universities from around the globe.

More exciting hot-off-the-press news for the network: Next Generation Literacies has been the launch pad for a new International Research Network (IRN) devoted to “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” under the umbrella of the World Education Research Association (WERA). The “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” IRN will be led by LiDS member Dr Irina Usanova. Watch this space to learn more about the IRN as it constitutes itself!

The magnolia and the river

The magnolia (白玉兰) is the official city flower of Shanghai symbolizing openness and elegance, while Pujiang (浦江) refers to the Huangpu River, which flows through the heart of the city. Together, the Magnolia Pujiang Talent Program reflects Shanghai’s vision of cultivating global talent rooted in local vitality.

An impressive example of our maxim to think globally and to act locally. Congratulations again, Isabella! 恭喜!

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Agnes Bodis talks to Dr Masaki Shibata from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Shibata researches beach signs in Australia and how they are understood by beachgoers and what consequences this has for beach safety.

If you enjoy the show, support us by subscribing to the Language on the Move Podcast on your podcast app of choice, leaving a 5-star review, and recommending the Language on the Move Podcast and our partner the New Books Network to your students, colleagues, and friends.

Surf Rescue Australia (Image credit: Australian Government, Study Australia)

References

Shibata, M. Peden, A., Watanabe, H., Lawes, J..(2024) “Do red and yellow flags indicate a danger zone?”: Exploring Japanese university students’ beach safety behaviour and their perceptions of Australian beach safety signage. Safety Science. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106606

Shibata, M. Peden, A., Lawes, J., Wong, T., Brander, R.(2023) “What is a shore dump?: Exploring Australian university students’ beach safety knowledge and their perceptions of Australian beach safety signage”. Safety Science. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2023.106366

Transcript (coming soon)

Some references made in this episode include:

• Language and the Internet (2001) by David Crystal
• The recontextualization of Multicultural London English: Stylising the ‘roadman’ (2023) by Christian Ilbury
• The Dolly Parton meme
• What’s the difference between AAVE and Gen-Z slang?
• Shetland Islands accent

If you enjoy the show, support us by subscribing to the Language on the Move Podcast on your podcast app of choice, leaving a 5-star review, and recommending the Language on the Move Podcast and our partner the New Books Network to your students, colleagues, and friends.

Transcript (coming soon)

(Image credit: Australian Government, Study Australia)

In her 2007 ethnographic study of eight US law schools, Elizabeth Mertz traces the process through which law students learn to “think like a lawyer” in order to become one. She shows how this process is essentially about language: learning to think like a lawyer means adopting new ways of reading, writing and talking.

Crucially, Mertz demonstrates that underlying these processes is a set of linguistic ideologies – assumptions we make about language and how it should manifest in particular social contexts. For example, she identifies a practice in legal analysis and reasoning, as taught in these classrooms: the social characteristics and personal perspectives of people who appear in legal cases and problem questions are rendered irrelevant and made invisible, in favour of the legally relevant facts. Issues of morality and emotion are likewise pushed aside as unimportant.

As students undergo this transformative process of learning to think and speak like a lawyer, Mertz questions the effects this may have on how law students see the world, their ability to see social diversity and inequality and to identify and challenge issues of injustice in their future work.

But what about how students think about themselves? What if they personally face marginalization? And what of their diverse language repertoires? If thinking like a lawyer depends on speaking like one, what is this speech expected to sound like? And what impact does sounding differently have on one’s sense of professional identity and self-worth?

These were just some of the questions raised in my recent digital ethnographic research with students enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Migration Law and Practice (GDMLP). This one-year university program is required for people who do not have an Australian legal qualification to become Registered Migration Agents (RMAs) and offer professional assistance to people applying for a visa in Australia. Unlike law degrees, which remain difficult to access for many, it has been estimated that at least half of the GDMLP cohort has English as a second language (L2), and perhaps even more are first generation migrants.

I attended online workshops during which students practiced their client interviewing skills through role-plays, observing this practical work and debriefing with them. I also conducted research interviews with students at various points during their study and after graduating, over a period of three years. To have immediate impact, I also offered my interdisciplinary expertise to enhance learning, presenting on various aspects of communication, and helping the teaching team to develop and refine learning materials (see Smith-Khan & Giles 2025).

In a new article, I share some of the ways students talk and think about their study, their future professional goals, their existing strengths, and the skills they wish to improve and how. The discussions brought up beliefs about language, closely tied to ideas about proficiency, professionalism and identity.

Bilingualism: optional benefit, real risk

While every participant who speaks multiple languages planned to use them in their future job, with at least some of their clients, there was a clear hierarchy in how different languages were valued, with English appearing at the apex as non-negotiable, and other languages more as optional extras (see also Piller & Gerber 2021).

Paolo*  The English level, I think it’s very very important too.

Laura   Yeah.

Paolo    I’m Italian, as I said before, I work with a lot of Italians, and they don’t speak English. And will have, a hundred percent sure that I will have a lot of consultations within Italian community. I will go to Italy to do seminars, and that will be in Italian.

Laura   Yeah.

Paolo    So in that way, if you think in that, in that way, you don’t need English, okay?

Laura   Yes.

Paolo    I mean, ‘I don’t need to have a very high English level, because my-, ‘I’m Chinese, I just talk in Mandarin, my consultation in Mandarin, my clients are in Mandarin.’ Okay. And it makes sense. But then you have to do applications in English, you have to study the uh legislation in English. So if the legislation, if you don’t understand properly the legislation, if you mixed up a word, all your translation in Chinese, or in Italian, or in any other language, won’t be, won’t be correct.

Okay? So it’s very, very important that they understand, the people that they want to become a migration agent, that they understand everything. [Paolo, interview 1/2, 2020]

On one level, this makes perfect sense: the work does indeed require close engagement with legal and institutional texts that are only available in English, and application forms required to be submitted to the Immigration Department only are allowed in English. However, this type of discourse also assumes bilingualism is a potential risk to English language proficiency: rather than acknowledging the crucial skills bilingual and multilingual people bring to this work, the fact that they speak more than one language is regarded as a threat to their English. This resembles political and institutional discourses in which the ‘monolingual mindset’ is evident, including in the language proficiency rules around becoming an RMA, and in other areas like skilled migration and university admission, where proficiency is assumed for some, but not for others (Smith-Khan 2021a; Piller & Bodis, 2023). Such discourses are also evident in public political debates about migration and registered migration agents (Smith-Khan 2021b).

‘Australian’ native speakers and language choice

Perceptions about identity are also closely connected with these types of ideologies. As L2 English speakers discuss their experiences and efforts to develop speaking skills in class and connect these evaluations with their future language practices and career plans.

Gemma: If you have poor communication you give them the impression you’re not professional. You probably have lots of knowledge in your mind but you just can’t express yourself properly, or too slow, or I don’t know. You’ve got to give them, the client the impression that oh no, you are professional. I can trust you. You can do the job for me. So I try to, the reason why I said um, um, the native English speaker is better, probably that’s just one side about um, they easily use language um, uh, like more vocabulary than us. We can’t use like beautiful words or whatever it is to express myself uh, precisely. So uh, that will give client the impression like, you not professional like I can’t trust you…. So, yes. So that’s why I said if I speak to Chinese, probably I’ll be more confident. They, they will, will feel less, um, less suspicious. I don’t know. Um, less, how will I say? Um, more trust on you than English-speaking people. [Gemma, interview 1/1, 2020]

Evaluations like these compare L2 English speakers’ skills vis-à-vis what they consider the ideal student and future RMA, an L1 English speaker, with implications for professional identity and future work plans. They also link general professional competence with language proficiency and oral fluency, something that again also comes up in the broader discourse (see Smith-Khan 2021b).

However, these ideologies extend even further, to national identity and moral worth.

Gemma: Yes, with my, one of my classmates… Uh, at the beginning it wasn’t very good. Oh, he’s local. He’s Australian. And he’s very, I feel he pick up very quickly and easily and then he has to put up with me because I have to think. And, you know, thinking probably slower than, than him and then speak slowly. Uh, yes so I find the difference and I try to, I just want to try to improve that by talking more [Gemma, interview 1/1, 2020].

In this encounter, Gemma evaluates herself in relation to an “Australian”, “local” L1-speaking classmate. Here, speaking and thinking are closely connected, and she comes out positioned as a burden in the interaction – something her classmate must “put up with” because of her slower thinking and speaking.

While such discourse is not surprising in this particular social and political context, it sits uneasily against the facts we have about Gemma’s personal and professional background, along with the direct linguistic data collected in the project. She came to Australia as a skilled migrant and was granted a permanent visa because of her professional qualifications. She has been an Australian citizen for over a decade, working as a civil servant in a professional role, in a regional Australian city, in a highly monolingual English office environment. Her English language proficiency is indisputably high. Yet her evaluation demonstrates the power of native-speaker and monolingual mindset ideologies about languages: her capability, her professionalism, and even her nationality become inferior and vulnerable to the point that she imagines herself as at best a burden, and at worst incapable of being trusted, for an L1 English speaking audience in this context (see Piller et al 2024).

Hard work, pushback and pragmatism

However, all is not lost for this group of aspiring migration practitioners. Both L1 and L2 English speakers heavily stressed the need to practice speaking and to study hard to continue to improve their professional skills. While this emphasises individual responsibility and creates an additional burden for L2 speakers, it still allows for a degree of agency and a sense of opportunity: developing professional skills and identity are not regarded as impossible.

At the same time, students also demonstrated a critical awareness of the broader social and political contexts, and what these mean for how people are (sometimes unfairly) evaluated. For example, one student pointed to the broader political context of migration and perceptions of migrants to make sense of how RMAs are perceived: if the government is “very anti-immigration”, it follows that RMAs would be seen as “unnecessary” or a “pain to deal with”, and it would be made difficult for them to enter the profession.

Another student pushed back against the apparent need for people to speak standard Australian English. Nitin explained how whether someone comes across as rude can be a matter of the listener’s perception. He was thus able to turn the spotlight onto the interlocutor, who may misjudge L2 speakers who “don’t have those little, nice touches” in their speech, rather than the “deficient” speaker, and at the same time claim an advantage over L1 interlocutors, as more compassionate and knowledgeable in interactions involving speakers of diverse language varieties or proficiency. However, Nitin still ends on a pragmatic note, related to his own lived reality:

Nitin: People, when I talked to the native speakers here, sometimes they’d think I’m talking rude. My colleagues said that on a few occasions, and I started thinking, what was rude in that? … So I adapted it over a period of about nine years. Now I know what to speak and what not to speak. [Nitin, interview 1/2, 2020]

Therefore, while it is clear that students may come to internalize linguistic ideologies that frame their language practices and repertoires as inferior or in need of ongoing improvement, there is still space to reclaim and challenge these ideologies. However, even while doing so, they must still navigate the very real and enduring practical effects such ideologies have within their social and professional contexts.

Note

*Participant names are pseudonyms.

References

Mertz, E. (2007). The language of law school: Learning to “think like a lawyer”. Oxford University Press.

Piller, I. & Bodis, A. (2024). Marking and unmarking the (non)native speaker through English language proficiency requirements for university admission. Language in Society, 53(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404522000689

Piller, I. & Gerber, L. (2021). Family language policy between the bilingual advantage and the monolingual mindset, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, (24)5, 622-635. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1503227

Piller, I. et al. (2024). Life in a New Language. Oxford University Press.

Smith-Khan, L. (2025, AOP). Language, culture and professional communication in migration law education, Language, Culture and Curriculum, https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2025.2481051

Smith-Khan, L. (2021). ‘Common language’ and proficiency tests: a critical examination of registration requirements for Australian registered migration agents. Griffith Law Review, 30(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2021.1900031

Smith-Khan, L. (2021b). Deficiencies and loopholes: Clashing discourses, problems and solutions in Australian migration advice regulation. Discourse & Society, 32(5), 598-621. https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265211013113

Smith-Khan, L., & Giles, C. (2025, AOP). Improving client communication skills in migration law and practice education. Alternative Law Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/1037969X251314205

Imagine stepping into a classroom where students expect you to embody English in its “native” form, fluency, and culture. For many non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in Australia, this expectation is a daily challenge. Yet, these teachers refuse to let such pressures define them. Instead, they embrace a “hybrid professional becoming”—an ongoing process of identity formation—seeing themselves, in many ways, as “cyborgs” in the classroom.

Inspired by Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, NNESTs use the cyborg metaphor to navigate and redefine their professional lives. They mix their multilingual and multicultural lived experiences with digital tools and fluid teaching methods, transcending rigid binaries of “native” versus “non-native” speakers. In this role, they create richer, more inclusive learning environments that challenge hegemonies.

Breaking Down the Native-Speaker “Myth”

Australian classrooms are highly diverse, yet the teaching workforce remains predominantly English monolingual and native-speaking. Many students here learn English as an additional language, making teachers’ lived experiences crucial for bridging linguistic and cultural gaps. However, native-speakerism—an age-old ideology favouring native English speakers—still shapes perceptions. NNESTs are often viewed through a deficit lens, yet they challenge this by showing that effective English teaching goes beyond birthplace or accent.

Phở bò (Image credit: Vinnie Cartabiano, Wikipedia)

Consider Natalie, a teacher from Bangladesh. Despite her experience, she often felt misjudged: “I didn’t just sense that students valued native English-speaking teachers more—I was even asked to be replaced by native speakers before I had a chance to start speaking”. Though these intersectional judgments were hard to ignore, Natalie turned them into a source of multiplicity. “It made me work harder to show that my teaching had depth and cultural awareness,” she explains.

To engage her students, Natalie wove stories, humour, and cultural anecdotes into her lessons, using language-bridging strategies to foster inclusivity. For her Vietnamese students, she joked about the pronunciation differences between “phở” (a noodle soup) and the English word “fur”, drawing laughter as they discussed similar linguistic misunderstandings. For her Lebanese students, she shared stories about common culinary traditions, sparking discussions about cultural similarities and differences. By weaving in phrases like “cảm ơn” (thank you) with her Vietnamese students and “Malual noor” (family is wealth) with her Sudanese students, she created a space where language and cultural understanding flourished, bridging worlds in a shared learning journey.

Embracing the Cyborg Identity in Teaching

Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto frames the cyborg identity as one of assembling diverse parts into a constantly evolving whole. For NNESTs, this hybrid identity defies narrow definitions of an English teacher. Their methods connect students with English while honouring their own cultural heritage, engaging students in ways that promote inclusivity.

Mahati, an Australian qualified teacher from India, exemplifies this hybridity. Though passionate about teaching, adjusting to Australian classrooms wasn’t easy. After working various odd jobs, she found her place in adult migrant education. “Teaching for me is not just a job—it’s my second home” (मेरे लिए पढ़ाना सिर्फ एक नौकरी नहीं है—यह मेरा दूसरा घर है।), she shares. Entwining her cultural heritage in literature and music with modern teaching tools, Mahati creates meaningful connections with her students. “We end sessions with fun songs from Sing with Me Book 1, and I incorporate technology to keep students engaged”, she explains. This approach enriches her classroom with a dynamic, inclusive atmosphere.

Reflective Practice: A Tool for Hybrid Becoming

Reflection is essential to this cyborg-like emergence. For NNESTs, critical reflection goes beyond simple self-assessment; it’s a transformative process to reshape and redefine their roles, tailoring their approaches to the diverse needs of multilingual classrooms and imagining themselves as cosmopolitan teachers of English.

Natalie’s experience with reflective practice exemplifies this plasticity. Despite her extensive teaching background, she continually revisits her lessons to meet her students’ evolving needs. “One of my students once laughed at me for mispronouncing a Vietnamese dish,” she recalls with a smile. “It was a learning moment for both of us—I embraced it and encouraged my students to teach me more about their culture”. Through such exchanges, Natalie moves beyond rigid teaching roles, fostering an environment of mutual learning and responsiveness.

Janaki’s story further illustrates this process. Initially, she felt out of place teaching refugees and migrants in the AMEP (Adult Migrant English Program), many of whom had experienced significant hardship. “It’s been humbling—I had to understand their backgrounds and be patient”, she shares. Reflecting on her experiences, Janaki adapted her methods, drawing on colleagues’ advice and exploring new strategies to better serve her students.

Technology: Expanding the Cyborg Identity

Technology plays a crucial role in helping these teachers develop their cyborg identities. Digital tools enable them to adapt and extend their teaching practices, creating a more inclusive classroom environment.

Namani, a young teacher who initially felt intimidated by her non-native status, illustrates this shift. She struggled with technology, worried about being seen as less competent. “I was so concerned if something went wrong with a digital tool”, she recalls. But instead of avoiding it, she mastered tools like MS Teams and Zoom, transforming her classroom. “Once I felt confident, I realized technology was actually empowering me to be a better teacher”, she reflects.

Frida took this approach even further during the pandemic, recording demo classes to improve timing and engagement. Her experience with technology underscores the cyborg concept, intermingling cultural knowledge with technical proficiency to support students. Using online platforms, she stayed connected despite the distance, teaching her students not just English but also essential digital literacy skills.

Moving from Marginalization to Empowerment

The cyborg identity empowers NNESTs to transcend limitations imposed by native-speakerism. By embracing hybridity, they resist marginalization and actively redefine their roles, affirming their experiences as cosmopolitan educators of English. The cyborg metaphor captures a journey from marginalization to empowerment, where NNESTs reclaim the narrative and leverage their unique identities as strengths.

Laura’s journey illustrates this shift. Coming from a small town in the Philippines, she initially faced students who doubted her due to her accent. “I noticed some of my students were unsure of me, maybe because of my accent”, she recalls. Though it initially unsettled her, Laura decided to use it as a teaching tool. “I always wanted to be a teacher—even as a kid, I’d teach my dolls and pretend to mark papers”, she says with a smile. By sharing her story, Laura highlighted the richness of multilingualism, encouraging students to explore their identities and celebrating diversity in her classroom.

One of Jasha’s most powerful stories involves a Lebanese student whose linguistic journey reflected the beauty of multilingualism. “She spoke French and Arabic at home, then moved to Israel, where her three boys started school”, Jasha recalls. By the time they relocated to Australia, the boys had developed a unique assemblage, mixing French, Arabic, Hebrew, and English in daily conversations. “Listening to them was an absolute joy—I’d try to catch familiar English words,” she shares. This experience reinforced Jasha’s philosophy: learning English best occurs immersively, by discussing texts without a dictionary and encouraging students to “think” in English through activities like jumbled sentences and interactive games. Her approach to grammar focuses on context rather than correctness. “Grammar is just a means to an end”, she says, embedding it within the meaning her students wish to convey.

Toward a New Paradigm in English Language Teaching

The lived experiences of these NNESTs underscore the need for a shift in English language teaching paradigms. Embracing cyborg identities, these teachers demonstrate that an educator’s value lies not in their accent or birthplace but in their hybridity, engagement, and inspiration. Recognizing NNESTs’ hybrid professionalism can help educational institutions move beyond outdated binaries and create spaces where diverse voices are celebrated.

Through their stories, NNESTs like Natalie, Mahati, Janaki, Namani, Laura, and Jasha embody Haraway’s cyborg vision: educators who transcend boundaries, integrate facets of their identities, and reshape the future of education. By embracing cyborg identities, they enrich the classroom and create a new model for English teaching in today’s interconnected world. In their journey from marginalization to empowerment, these teachers remind us that education is a space for hybridity, inclusivity and horizons of possibility—qualities that benefit students, educators, and society alike.

Reference

The blog is based on:
Nigar, N., Kostogriz, A., & Hossain, I. (2024, aop). Hybrid professional identities: Exploring non-native English-speaking teachers’ lived experiences through the Cyborg Manifesto. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1–23.

Author Bios

Dr Nashid Nigar teaches at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, and has diverse experience in English language and literacy teaching, academic writing, and teacher education. Her recently completed PhD thesis, focusing on language teacher professional identity at Monash University, was graded as Exceptional—Of the highest merit, placing within the top 0.1% to fewer than 5% of international doctorates. Her ongoing research interests include language teacher professional identity and language/literacy learning and teaching.

Alex Kostogriz is a Professor in Languages and TESOL Education at the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Alex’s current research projects focus on the professional practice and ethics of language teachers, teacher education and experiences of beginning teachers.

Image Credit: Dreamtime Creative by Jordan Lovegrove, Ngarrindjeri; from 2023 Annual Closing the Gap Report and 2024 Implementation Plan (p. 10) © Commonwealth of Australia, Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan 2024

Editor’s Note: The Australian Commonwealth’s Closing the Gap 2024 Annual Report and 2025 Implementation Plan was released earlier this week. In this post, Kristen Martin reflects on progress towards one specific ‘Closing the Gap’ target, namely Target 16, which aims to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

***

It has been four years since the Australian Government included Target 16 – to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages – in the ‘Closing the Gap’ targets. What has been happening since Target 16 was announced? The status of Target 16 is officially ‘unknown’ (as of July 2023),  and the fourth National Indigenous Language Survey will not be published until 2026 but what has progress looked like so far? There is already some exciting, new work happening, as this blog will outline.

Voices of Country

A collaboration between the Australian Government, First Languages Australia and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages Directions Group, the Voices of Country Action plan is described as “framed through five inter-connected themes:

1. Stop the Loss
2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities are Centre
3. Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer
4. Caring for Country, and
5. Truth-telling and Celebration.”

The purpose of the initiative is to pilot actions towards language strength based on community decisions, outlining various ways governments can approach the Closing the Gap targets. In a report released about the 10-year action plan, it outlines:

“Consistent with the Global Action Plan, the Australian Government will undertake and report on practical commitments that deliver progress against the framework set out in Voices of Country. The Australian Government will report against these commitments on an annual basis”

However, the Voices of Country Action plan is only one of many plans that the Australian government has invested in!

Language Policy Partnership

Alongside the Voice to Country Action plan, a key milestone in the progression of Target 16 is the establishment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Policy Partnership, established December 2022 and known as the LPP. The LLP seeks to “establish a true partnership approach with truth-telling, equal representation and shared decision-making fundamental to the National Agreement for Closing the Gap”.

Image credit: The Wattle Tree graphic design agency by Gilimbaa with cultural elements created by David Williams (Wakka Wakka), acknowledging also the Traditional Custodians: © First Languages Australia and Commonwealth of Australia 2023, Voices of Country – Australia’s Action Plan for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032, p.9

The program is a collaboration between the Coalition of Peaks, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language experts, and various government members. Through the LPP and discussions with various communities, seven priorities have been outlined to make progress on Target 16 and strengthen Indigenous languages. The priorities are as follows:

1. Speaking and using languages
2. Supporting the people, groups and organisations who work in languages
3. Languages legislation
4. Access to Country
5. More funding that goes where communities need it
6. Bringing language home to the people and communities
7. Help people understand the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages

From this commitment, the LPP has also said

“The LPP is working to develop a national and coordinated approach to achieving Target 16. This includes working in partnership, centring the community-controlled sector, changing how governments work, and sharing the right data and information to make important decisions. The LPP will also work according to annual work plans and a three-year strategic plan.”

Since its establishment, the organisation has met seven times with published documents reflecting their discussions available.

The Australian Government has invested $9.7 million into the LPP and states the program will undertake evaluation after three years (in 2026).

A lookback on previous Target 16 process

As Alexandra Grey has noted back in 2021, funding  for the Indigenous Languages and Arts (ILA) program had been planned for the progression of Target 16. The ILA, in collaboration with First Languages Australia saw 25 language centres open throughout the country and teach the various languages in their surrounding areas. Following this, the ILA has also said it will invest over $37 million in 2024-2025 to “support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to express, conserve and sustain their cultures through languages and arts activities throughout Australia.”. What this funding will go to in 2025, we will have to wait and see.

International Decade of Indigenous Languages

Australia is not the only country to care about the status of Indigenous languages, as we are currently in the middle of the United Nations’ International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022 – 2032). Following the UN’s International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019, the UN has established this decade to focus on the “preservation, revitalization and promotion” of Indigenous languages. Australia is one of many countries to be a part of this celebration, developing the ‘Voices of Country’ Action Plan as “a call to action for all stakeholders”.

Impact of these actions

Of the many partnerships in place, it appears the Australian government has taken a community-based approach for this goal, consulting with community members and First Nations representatives for official and efficient actions. With all the great initiatives underway, it is easy to assume that progression with Target 16 is happening. However, we will not be able to truly know the effects of these initiatives until 2026 as we wait on the fourth National Indigenous Language Survey and the LPP program evaluation.

Mia Wallace (Image credit: Wikipedia)

In Quentin Tarantino’s blockbuster Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) asks Vincent Vega (John Travolta) whether he hates uncomfortable silences.  Mia ponders ‘Why is it necessary to yak about bullshit to feel comfortable?’

Regarded as ‘one of the great arts of conversation’, silence is key to how we communicate. Linguist Deborah Tannen explains that silence is ambiguous. It may arise from what is assumed to be evidenced (and thus too obvious to even mention), or that which is supposed to be omitted.

Either way, humans are highly skilled at using silence in conversation through a process of socialisation refined as we move from the cradle to the grave.

When humans interact with generative Artificial Intelligence (generative AI) they tend to assume they are interacting with a fellow human, and they may even assume that these conversations are based on cooperation but they are missing a key piece of the interactional puzzle: the intentional use of silence.

To generate answers to our prompts, generative AI relies on mathematical probabilities. Large language models provide a plausible continuation of a likely next word based on vast amounts of data. Once the most probable next word is identified, the system moves on. Language models are a form of text processing. With silence, though, the text that should be processed is absent.

https://skepticalscience.com/graphics/SprialOfSilence-EN.jpg

When prompted to expand on how it approaches silence, ChatGPT-4 explains that minimal responses may be provided when a given input could lead to contentious or escalating conversations as a strategy to avoid conflict. That is, ChatGPT may sometimes provide a minimal response to ensure safety.

However, silence is not just a strategy to avoid conflict, it plays a key role in human interaction because what is left unsaid has meaning.

When silence points to great danger

In parts of Spain an algorithm called VioGén is used to determine whether a victim of domestic violence is in danger of being attacked again. The algorithm may get it wrong because victims may be embarrassed and not provide a response to direct questions such as ‘Has the aggressor demonstrated substance abuse?’ In such cases, the algorithm interprets the silence as the absence of a ‘yes’ response. In the absence of qualified humans to contextualise silent answers to the algorithm’s questions, the platform tends to miscalculate risk. This has led to multiple victim deaths which might have been avoided with appropriate human intervention.

Why does silence matter?

The expectation that human answers to direct queries will necessarily be lexicalised (manifested as words) does not align with how humans communicate. In conversation, silence is used strategically to express feelings or ideas which are best left unsaid.

One of the main reasons for the use of silence rests on what linguists call ‘face’ and ‘facework’ – ritual elements related to the fragility of our social interactions. When we speak, we spend a lot of our time saving our own and others’ ‘face’. In expressing a challenging opinion to a superior at work, for example, we may use the epistemic phrase ‘I think’ to preface our views to avoid threatening the other person’s right to a positive view of themselves.

Silence sits at the core of social relations across cultures. Each society tolerates a different length of silence in conversation. Mia Wallace’s complaint is her venting against mainstream American culture which tends to favour verbosity over silence. However, not all people in America embrace verbosity. For example, Scollon and colleagues argue that in Alaskan Athabaskan culture, the best interactions between two or more people involve long periods of silence.

Westerners’ need to fill air space with talk also aligns with a preference for direct questions to obtain information. Direct questioning, however, tends to be disfavoured by First Nations people in Australia. In the courtroom, yes/no questions are asked. Small differences in answer timing are sometimes magnified and misinterpreted as hostility by a system biased to stereotype minoritised populations, which may result in longer sentences for the accused.

Different orientations to silence also exist in the classroom, where Japanese students of English tend to miss out on opportunities to hold the floor because of their longer use of silence. Once the conversational floor is taken away, Japanese students find it hard to regain it. It’s not that Japanese students lack in fluency, it is just that expectations regarding the use of silence differ from those of mainstream Australia.

As society continues to embrace automation, algorithms, and AI, it is important to remain aware that not all people on earth behave like the mainstream English speakers who tend to design the technology. It’s also important to embrace language for what it is: a complex communicative system which includes way more than what may be expressed through words. When it comes to language, there is certainly more than meets the eye/ear/hand.

Book reading is an important part of individual and social wellbeing (Image copyright: Sadami Konchi)

Each year, I survey my Literacies students about their reading and writing activities. Over the years, the time these young people spend on literacy activities has been increasing steadily. In 2024, they spent an average of 8 hours per day reading. At the same time, the number of books they read has been going down. Despite spending close to 3,000 hours per year reading, the number of books they had read for pleasure in the past 12 months averaged a paltry 2.9.

Our reading time is eaten up by social media and other digital shortforms while our book reading is suffering.

This is troubling because the infinite scroll is a drain on our ability to focus. Conversely, the deep reading that comes with the long form is beneficial for our ability to concentrate, to engage critically, and to develop empathy.

As the culture of book reading and its benefits fades before our eyes, encouraging book reading is more important than ever before. And that’s where the annual Language on the Move Reading Challenge comes in. The annual Language on the Move Reading Challenge is designed to encourage broad reading at the intersection of linguistic diversity and social life.

The 2025 Language on the Move Reading Challenge is our eighth challenge in a row:

• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2024
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2023
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2022
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2021
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2020
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2019
• Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2018

Join us and challenge yourself – and your students, colleagues, and friends – to read one recommended book each month throughout the year!

For more reading suggestions, make sure to also follow the Language on the Move Podcast on your preferred podcast platform. In partnership with the New Books Network, we have brought you regular conversations about linguistic diversity and social participation for one year now, and we already have exciting new chats lined up for the New Year.

Happy Reading!

January: The Politics of Academic Reading

The crisis of book reading is connected to the textocalypse – textual overproduction that humans no longer have the time to read. In 2024, the editors of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language produced a special issue devoted to “The Politics of Academic Reading.” It is fitting that the 2025 Language on the Move Reading Challenge should start with this fantastic collection.

For full disclosure, I am one of the contributors, and Language on the Move readers might be particularly interested in this piece about our platform:

Piller, I. (2024). Can we escape the textocalypse? Academic publishing as community building [Language on the Move]. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 289-290, 123-127. https://doi.org/doi:10.1515/ijsl-2024-0132

Abstract: Rapid developments in digital technologies have fundamentally changed writing practices leading to an explosion in the number of textual products. The result is a “textocalypse” – a deep crisis in knowledge production and dissemination. Instead of pushing back, academics fuel these degenerations because their careers have become subject to the capitalist imperative to produce and consume – measured in the form of research outputs and citation metrics. Against this background, this commentary argues for a reframing of academic publishing as community building and introduces Language on the Move, an alternative sociolinguistics portal that is both a publication platform and a research community. Motivated by a feminist ethics of care, we decenter the textual product and recenter the lived experience of researchers, particularly those writing from the margins.

February: Global Communication Platform WhatsApp

Ana Sofia Bruzon recommends:
Johns, A., Matamoros-Fernández, A., & Baulch, E. (2024). WhatsApp: From a one-to-one messaging app to a global communication platform. Polity Press.

“WhatsApp provides a detailed account of WhatsApp’s growth and widespread uptake worldwide, revealing a new era in Meta’s industrial development. The authors trace WhatsApp from its inception as a chatting app to its metamorphosis into a global communication platform on which a substantial part of the Global South depends for everyday living. The volume maps the platform’s history to offer a nuanced account of its current economic (as a multi-sided market), technical (through platformization and social media features) and social dimensions (with its everyday uses and its role in public communications). Importantly, from an applied sociolinguistics perspective, the book argues that WhatsApp facilitates new types of digital literacies as it has become entrenched in the digital cultures of the world while also shedding light on the platform’s significance in civic participation and democracy. The authors brilliantly show how WhatsApp has accrued significant ‘political, economic, and cultural power’ (p. 12).”

March: How to Free a Jinn

Laura Smith-Khan recommends:
Shah Idil, Raidah. (2024). How to Free a Jinn. Allen & Unwin

“How to Free a Jinn is supernatural fantasy fiction with some refreshing twists: it follows 12-year-old Insyirah’s return to Malaysia from Australia, navigating turbulent family relationships, school and life in a new country that is supposed to feel like home. Not only that, but Insyirah soon discovers she can see and communicate with jinns, usually invisible spirits. This book offers readers a new voice and perspective, seamlessly integrating Islamic spiritual tradition and Malay and Arabic language in ways that don’t feel overexplained. As one reviewer says, this is the ‘kind of book I wish I had growing up.’”

Cover art by Sadami Konchi

Bonus info: Raidah Shah Idil is a sister of Aisyah Shah Idil, whose work has also featured on Language on the Move.

April: Life in a New Language

“A highly readable and rich account of migrant stories” (Catherine Travis)

If you have not yet done so, you must read Life in a New Language in 2025. The book, which has been co-authored by six of our team members, examines the language learning and settlement trajectories of 130 migrants to Australia from 34 different countries.

Piller, I., Butorac, D., Farrell, E., Lising, L., Motaghi-Tabari, S., & Williams Tetteh, V. (2024). Life in a New Language. Oxford University Press.

You can also find a companion podcast series – with one episode with each author – on the Language on the Move podcast.

1. Episode 1: Life in a New Language, Pt 1 – Identities: Brynn Quick in conversation with Donna Butorac
2. Episode 2: Life in a New Language, Pt 2 –Work: Brynn Quick in conversation with Ingrid Piller
3. Episode 3: Life in a New Language, Pt 3 – African migrants: Brynn Quick in conversation with Vera Williams Tetteh
4. Episode 4: Life in a New Language, Pt 4 – Parenting: Brynn Quick in conversation with Shiva Motaghi-Tabari
5. Episode 5: Life in a New Language, Pt 5 – Monolingual Mindset: Brynn Quick in conversation with Loy Lising
6. Episode 6: Life in a New Language, Pt 6 – Citizenship: Brynn Quick in conversation with Emily Farrell

May: Judging Refugees

Laura Smith-Khan recommends:
Vogl, Anthea. (2024). Judging Refugees: Narrative and Oral Testimony in Refugee Status Determination. Cambridge University Press.

“Judging Refugees examines the role of narrative performance in the procedures for assessing asylum claims in Canada and Australia. Drawing on a close and interdisciplinary analysis of hearings and decisions from the two countries, it offers extensive and compelling evidence of the impossible demands placed on people seeking asylum. The book is featured in a recent Language on the Move podcast episode.”

June: Wordslut

Brynn Quick recommends:
Montell, Amanda. (2019). Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language. Harper.

“In this romp of a read, Montell guides the reader through the linguistic history of English pejoratives used to describe women. The central thesis is that, in English, contemporary negative terms for women often began neutrally – ‘hussy’ was just a term for ‘housewife’, ‘slut’ came from a term meaning ‘untidy’, and ‘madam’ was simply a term of address (not the grande dame of a brothel). But through hundreds of years’ worth of semantic change through pejoration and amelioration (new terms that I learned in reading this book!), words have been used to lift the social status of men and denigrate that of women under Western systems of patriarchy. But it’s not all bad news! Montell also discusses the concept of gender according to both language (e.g. masculine and feminine adjectives in Italic languages) and culture (e.g. Buginese people of Indonesia recognise 5 genders, the Native American Zuni tribe recognises 3, etc.), and she reflects on a hope for more equal linguistic and cultural treatment of all genders.”

July: Inspector Singh

If you need vacation reading for the Northern summer, check out Detective Singh of the Singapore Police. The author, Shahimi Flint, has created an unusual detective character – an elderly overweight Singaporean Sikh – who will take you to crime scenes in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UK. Each episode combines a thrilling murder investigation with a deep dive into local culture, language, and social issues.

A lawyer herself, Flint brings a keen social awareness to her novels, and I learned more about the Khmer Rouge trials from A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree than from any other source.

1. Flint, S. (2009). Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder. Hachette.
2. Flint, S. (2009). Inspector Singh Investigates: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul. Hachette.
3. Flint, S. (2010). Inspector Singh Investigates: The Singapore School of Villainy. Hachette.
4. Flint, S. (2011). Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree. Hachette.
5. Flint, S. (2012). Inspector Singh Investigates: A Curious Indian Cadaver. Hachette.
6. Flint, S. (2013). Inspector Singh Investigates: A Calamitous Chinese Killing. Hachette.
7. Flint, S. (2016). Inspector Singh Investigates: A Frightfully English Execution. Hachette.

August: Speech and the City

Matras, Y. (2024). Speech and the City: Multilingualism, Decoloniality and the Civic University. Cambridge University Press.

Speech and the City tells the story of ‘Multilingual Manchester’ and how an academic project succeeded in shifting the monolingual habitus. The book also offers an intriguing glimpse into the author’s distinguished career as a linguist, scholar, and activist.

Abstract: The Brexit debate has been accompanied by a rise in hostile attitudes to multilingualism. However, cities can provide an important counter-weight to political polarisation by forging civic identities that embrace diversity. In this timely book, Yaron Matras describes the emergence of a city language narrative that embraces and celebrates multilingualism and helps forge a civic identity. He critiques linguaphobic discourses at a national level that regard multilingualism as deficient citizenship. Drawing on his research in Manchester, he examines the ‘multilingual utopia’, looking at multilingual spaces across sectors in the city that support access, heritage, skills and celebration. The book explores the tensions between decolonial approaches that inspire activism for social justice and equality, and the neoliberal enterprise that appropriates diversity for reputational and profitability purposes, prompting critical reflection on calls for civic university engagement. It is essential reading for anyone concerned about ways to protect cultural pluralism in our society.

September: Multilingual Crisis Communication

Li, J., & Zhang, J. (Eds.). (2024). Multilingual crisis communication: Insights from China. Taylor & Francis.

This book is the latest outcome of out team’s focus on the communication challenges raised by the Covid-19 pandemic. Li Jia and Jenny Zhang have edited a diverse collection featuring the research of emerging researchers from China.

Abstract: Multilingual Crisis Communication is the first book to explore the lived experiences of linguistic minorities in crisis-affected settings in the Global South, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. China has been selected as a case of inquiry for multilingual crisis communication because of its high level of linguistic diversity. Taking up critical sociopolitical approaches, this book conceptualizes multilingual crisis communication from three dimensions: identifying communication barriers, engaging communication repertoires, and empowering communication justice.
Comprising eight main chapters, along with an introduction and an epilogue, this edited book is divided into three parts in terms of the demographic and social conditions of linguistic minorities, as indigenous, migrant, and those with communicative disabilities. This book brings together a range of critical perspectives of sociolinguistic scholars, language teachers, and public health workers. Each team of authors includes at least one member of the research community with many years of field work experience, and some of them belong to ethnic minorities. These studies can generate new insights for enhancing the accessibility and effectiveness of multilingual crisis communication.
This book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students in the fields of multilingualism, intercultural communication, translation and interpreting studies, and public health policy.

October: Critical Sociolinguistics

Del Percio, A., & Flubacher, M.-C. (Eds.). (2024). Critical sociolinguistics: dialogues, dissonance, developments. Bloomsbury.

The editors of this alternative festschrift dedicated to Monica Heller have assembled a team of 60 contributors to create an intriguing kaleidoscope of experiments in academic writing and knowledge creation.

Abstract: Providing a series of crucial debates on language, power, difference and social inequality, this volume traces developments and dissonances in critical sociolinguistics. Eminent and emerging academic figures from around the world collaboratively engage with the work of Monica Heller, offering insights into the politics and power formations that surround knowledge of language and society.
Challenging disciplinary power dynamics in critical sociolinguistics, this book is an experiment testing new ways of producing knowledge on language and society. Critically discussing central sociolinguistic concepts from critique to political economy, labor to media, education to capitalism, each chapter features a number of scholars offering their distinct social and political perspectives on the place played by language in the social fabric. Through its theoretical, epistemological, and methodological breadth, the volume foregrounds political alliances in how language is known and explored by scholars writing from specific geopolitical spaces that come with diverse political struggles and dynamics of power. Allowing for a diversity of genres, debates, controversies, fragments and programmatic manifestos, the volume prefigures a new mode of knowledge production that multiplies perspectives and starts practicing the more inclusive, just and equal worlds that critical sociolinguists envision.

November: Conversational storytelling in Spanish-English bilingual couples

Pahom, O. (2024). Conversational storytelling in Spanish-English bilingual couples: gender roles and language choices. Bloomsbury.

This meticulous study of Spanish-English bilingual couples’ conversational storytelling shows how the middle ground in intercultural communication is found when people talk and listen to each other in everyday interactions.

Abstract: For more than three decades, the percentage of people who married someone of a different race, ethnicity, culture, or linguistic background has been on the rise in the United States, but the communication practices of such couples have remained understudied. Combining bilingualism, gender studies, and conversation analysis, this book explores and describes the storytelling practices and language choices of several married heterosexual Spanish-English bilingual couples, all residing in Texas but each from different geographic and cultural backgrounds.
Based on more than 900 minutes of conversations and interviews, the book offers a data-driven analysis of the ways in which language choices and gender performance shape the stories, conversations, and identities of bilingual couples, which in turn shape the social order of bilingual communities. Using a combination of methodologies to investigate how couples launch, tell, and respond to each other’s stories, the book identifies seven main factors that the couples see as primary determinants of their choice of English and Spanish during couple communication. The use of conversation analysis highlights the couples’ own practices and perceptions of their language choices, demonstrating how the private language decisions of bilingual couples enable them to negotiate a place in the larger culture, shape the future of bilingualism, and establish a couple identity through shared linguistic and cultural habits.

December: Language Discordant Social Work

Buzungu, H. F. (2023). Language Discordant Social Work in a Multilingual World: The Space Between. Routledge.

This fascinating ethnography explores how social workers in Norway communicate with clients who speak little or no Norwegian. It is part of a growing number of studies of street-level bureaucrats in linguistically diverse societies – for another example, listen to our podcast interview with Clara Holzinger about Austrian employment officers.

Abstract: Based on ethnographic observations of encounters between social workers and people with whom they do not have a shared language, this book analyzes the impact of language discordance on the quality of professional service provision.
Exploring how street-level bureaucrats navigate the landscape of these discretionary assessments of language discordance, language proficiency, and the need for interpreting, the book focuses on four main themes:

• the complexity of social work talk
• the issue of participation in language discordant meetings
• communicative interaction
• the issue of how clarification is requested when needed, and whether professionals and service users are able to reach clarity when something is unclear

Based on the findings presented on these different aspects of language discordant talk, the consequences of language discordance for social work are presented and discussed, focusing primarily on issues at the intersection of language, communication, power, dominance and subordination, representation, linguicism, and ultimately, human rights and human dignity.
It will be of interest to all social work students, academics and professionals as well as those working in public services and allied health more broadly.

A lack of legal literacy can affect migrants – and indeed anyone – across all aspects of social life. This can include everything from signing a contract with an electricity provider, through earning a living, to having a safe and dignified marriage.

Legal professionals suggest that recent migrants may be special targets of a range of scams and exploitation because they are more likely to lack legal literacy, may lack information about available assistance, or may not be capable of accessing those services even when they do know about them.

However, this is not due simply to a lack of inclination to learn about the law. Rather, the development of legal literacy is dependent on the accessibility of information and education. For those with limited or no English, this naturally requires the provision of resources in other languages and accessible formats, in locations where their target audiences can find them.

While the various government and non-government bodies tasked with providing information about the law have already taken a range of measures to make their resources more accessible to non-English speakers and readers, barriers persist. These barriers can even influence the form of exploitation people face. For example, a lawyer I interviewed in my most recent project shared the story of a man who had migrated to Australia in the late 1990s and became trapped in a highly exploitative work arrangement:

you see the signs from the very beginning. Like, he didn’t have an accountant, he’ll use [his employer’s] accountant. And that accountant played around with his papers. They put him in a house on top of the shop. They denied him English lessons. So, till this day, I speak to him in Arabic, even though my Arabic’s not perfect.

In this scenario, it was only when the man’s workplace injuries became so severe that he insisted on seeing a doctor that he was eventually able to learn about his rights and access legal assistance. Among other measures, his exploiters intentionally limited his English language acquisition opportunities as a form of abusive control, to prevent him learning of his rights and seeking help.

This only reinforces the importance of providing resources in a range of languages, and clearly demonstrates the inappropriateness of claims that individual migrants are responsible for learning English as a prerequisite to accessing full inclusion in society and protection of the law.

Unfortunately, his case is far from being an exception. News reports uncover myriad examples, from international students underpaid with justifications that their limited English meant they weren’t good enough for minimum wage, to asylum seekers threatened with deportation if they didn’t comply with forced labour arrangements.

The complex and interconnected barriers recent migrants, especially those with temporary visas, often face means holistic responses are needed for them to access their rights. However ultimately, seeking justice still hinges on them first having knowledge about what those rights are and the processes and resources available to have them enforced. This is not possible unless relevant information is available in a language and format accessible to them.

The landing page

While service providers and regulatory bodies appear aware of this issue and have taken steps to address it, less is known about how accessible the resources and mechanisms are in practice (Victoria Law Foundation 2016). Further, beyond these formal offerings, less still is known about how migrants with limited English actually learn about Australian law and how it applies in their lives.

The Legal Aid bodies in each Australian state are tasked with providing a range of legal services. This includes providing free legal assistance and advice to some individuals, based on need. However another of their statutory functions is what is commonly called Community Legal Education and Information (CLEI) (e.g. Legal Aid Commission Act 1979 (NSW), section 10(2)(j),(k),(m)). This means that they are required to develop and disseminate informational resources and training to help increase the community’s legal literacy.

This is considered a crucial component to ensuring the whole community, and particularly recent migrants and those with limited or no English, can access justice, but we do not yet have a comprehensive picture of what is currently on offer, nor how well it works for these particular groups. Therefore, the peak body of the Australian legal profession has called for research to address the gaps in evidence to ensure migrants’ linguistic and other forms of diversity are understood and incorporated into efforts to improve community legal literacy (Law Council of Australia 2018).

The internet is a popular starting point for individuals looking for all types of information and existing studies on multilingual communications on the websites for government schools and multiple government service providers suggest that much work remains done to ensure that multilingual government communications are both complete and accessible for their target audiences. Therefore, in May, to start exploring the legal literacy resources available for non-English speakers, I undertook a pilot audit of Legal Aid NSW’s website.

The website

Information about Apprehended Violence Orders in Spanish

Legal Aid NSW offers a range of CLEI, with varying accessibility for non-English speakers and readers. As someone with English literacy, the landing page immediately presents me with a promising ‘My problem is about’ section. This part of the website helpfully guides readers step-by-step, in accessible plain language and appealing format, across a wide range of legal issues, e.g. ‘My job’, ‘Disasters’, ‘My rights as’ and ‘Visas and immigration’. Another section provides lay definitions of legal terms. These reflect an evident broader commitment to enhancing the accessibility of the site as a whole. However, these two sections are only available in English. Similarly, face-to-face and online legal education courses are advertised, but all current offerings appear to be in English only.

Another section provides a large collection of resources, like posters and pamphlets, organized across various topics, providing information about legal issues and available services. Some are provided in languages other than English (LOTEs). However, again, non-English speakers have significantly less access. Of the total 233 resources identified, only 40 are available in more than one language. Even then, most only include a few common LOTEs, e.g. Arabic (37), Chinese (36), Vietnamese (29), Dari/Farsi (16). Further, LOTEs are included inconsistently, e.g. Women’s Domestic Violence Court Advocacy information is offered in 13 languages, including several not used in any other resource. In contrast, all resources in the Disasters, Covid-19, Prisoners, and Young People topics are in English only. All resources are written texts (some with images), meaning only those with literacy can access them, a barrier for some refugees, for example, even in their first language (see e.g. Ba Akhlagh & Mehana 2024). Finally, when LOTE versions exist, it appears they cannot be located without English language literacy: the search function seems to operate only with English key words, and the resources are sorted and labelled in English.

One section of the website is more broadly navigable in many LOTEs. The ‘Ways to get help’ section provides information on how to access legal assistance and is available in 31 languages.  However again, there are inconsistencies between languages, e.g. the Spanish version largely replicates the original, with a full overview and four subsections covering contacts, legal advice, help at court, and applying for legal aid. In contrast, others, like Italian and Pashto, have no overview and only two subsections. Others have only an overview and no subsections. Some links lead readers back to English-only content, and website navigation menus remain in English even when on LOTE pages.

Where to from here?

Existing reviews and scholarship emphasise intersectional considerations when examining and addressing barriers to justice. For example, providing multilingual resources in written form only will not reach people who lack literacy or have low or no vision. Telephone information services and audio resources may be inaccessible for migrants who are deaf or hard of hearing (Smith-Khan 2022). Living in a regional area decreases access to language supports more readily available in urban centres, increasing the importance of LOTE resources. Similarly, not all LOTES are equal: speakers of ‘emerging’ community languages (e.g. recently arrived refugee communities) often have less language support, and issues with correctly identifying and categorising minority dialects and languages can lead to unsuitable translation and interpreting (Victorian Law Foundation 2016, pp 8-9; Tillman 2023).

Spanish word search

These considerations must inform the design and prioritization of resources in particular languages. For instance, while it seems logical to offer resources in commonly spoken LOTEs, speakers of these languages often have a higher level of English proficiency than speakers of emerging languages, who may often also face additional vulnerabilities (Grey & Severin 2021, 2022).

This brief pilot has obviously only uncovered what is publicly available via a website: qualitative research is needed to understand how service providers like Legal Aid NSW develop their resources and how legal, policy, and practical considerations influence their choices. At the same time, research could also provide insight into migrants’ decision-making. By better understanding how recent arrivals and people with limited English find out about the law, research could provide valuable evidence to policymakers and service providers to continue to make community legal literacy efforts more universally accessible.

References

Ba Akhlagh, S & Mehana, M. ‘Challenges and opportunities in designing culturally appropriate resources to support refugee families’ (2024) 8(1) Linking Research to the Practice of Education 2.
Grey, A & Severin A, ‘An audit of NSW legislation and policy on the government’s public communications in languages other than English’ (2021) 30(1) Griffith Law Review 122.
——— ‘Building towards best practice for governments’ public communication in LOTEs’ (2022)31(1) Griffith Law Review 25
Smith-Khan, L. ‘Inclusive processes for refugees with disabilities’ in Rioux et al(eds), Handbook of Disability (Springer Nature, 2022)
Tillman, M ‘Ezidi refugees in Armidale say gap in language […]service impacts health care (2023) ABC https://tinyurl.com/2vz3x8s9
Victoria Law Foundation, Legal information in languages other than English (2016) https://tinyurl.com/3nr5vndb