Language on the Move 2024

“This year was average; worse than the year before but better than next year.” I am reminded of this saying each year when I collate the annual Language on the Move Report.

In 2024, two highlights stand out: the publication of Life in a New Language and the establishment o of the Language on the Move Podcast in collaboration with the New Books Network.

Below you’ll find a month-by-month list of our podcast episodes and blog posts, so that you can re-read your favorites or discover new ones.

As always, I want to express my deepest gratitude to all team members, contributors, readers, students, and fans. You make Language on the Move worthwhile – as a research publication and an exercise in community building.

In the hope that 2025 will be better than we dare to anticipate!

Keep in touch!

Make sure to keep in touch by signing up to our updates in the ‘Newsletter subscription’ box in the footer below, by following us on BlueSky, and by subscribing to the Language on the Move Podcast in the podcast app of your choice.

December

1. Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge 2025: Check out our monthly recommendations and join us for a year of long reads in linguistic diversity and social life!
2. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 39: Whiteness, Accents, and Children’s Media: Brynn Quick in conversation with Laura Smith-Khan
3. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 38: Creaky Voice in Australian English: Brynn Quick in conversation with Hannah White
4. Laura Smith-Khan, Trust and suspicion at the airport
   This blogpost features our latest article in the Border Security series: Smith-Khan, L., Piller, I., & Torsh, H. (2024). Trust at the border: identifying risk and assessing credibility on reality television. Journal of Law and Society, 51(4), 513-538.
   Abstract: Every day, officers working at international airports investigate potential risks to state safety and security. But how do they decide who they can trust, and also ensure that the broader public trusts themto conduct this work? This article explores these questions through an examination of the reality television show Border Security: Australia’s Front Line. Through critical discourse analysis of a collection of 108 televised airport encounters, we explore the aspects of communication, behaviour, and identity made salient in officers’ evaluations of passengers’ credibility and critically examine the assumptions underlying them. Further, we consider how power and role divisions are implicated in the construction of passenger and officer credibility, both within border encounters and in discourses about Our analysis makes a novel contribution to the literature on credibility assessments in intercultural communication, demonstrating how an institutional and social ‘culture of disbelief’ is constructed vis-à-vis certain groups through seemingly banal border work.
5. Loy Lising, Life in a New Language at ALS2024
   This blogpost reports on the annual conference of the Australian Linguistic Society and the launch of Life in a New Language

November

6. 

   The 2024 cohort of “Literacies” students in Macquarie University’s Master of Applied Linguistics and TESOL

   Pia Tenedero, Mindful about multilingualism
   This blogpost reports on events related to Buwan ng Wikaor (National) Language Month in the Philippines.

7. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 37: Supporting multilingual families to engage with schools: Agi Bodis in conversation with Margaret Kettle
8. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 36: Linguistic diversity as a bureaucratic challenge: Ingrid Piller in conversation with Clara Holzinger
9. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 35: Judging refugees: Laura Smith-Khan in conversation with Anthea Vogl

October

10. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 34: How did Arabic get on that sign? Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Rizwan Ahmad
11. Giulia Cabras, Tibetan in China’s Rapid Urbanization
12. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 33: Migration, constraints and suffering: Ingrid Piller in conversation with Marco Santello
13. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 32: Living together across borders: Hanna Torsh in conversation with Lynnette Arnold
14. Regulating Muslims: Tazin Abdullah wins 3MT competition
15. Event: How is credibility communicated in intercultural contexts?

September

16. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 31: Police first responders interacting with domestic violence victims: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Kate Steel
17. Laura Smith-Khan, Legal literacy in a linguistically diverse society
18. Laura Smith-Khan and Alex Grey, What’s new in research on multilingualism in court?
19. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 30: Remembering Barbara Horvath: Livia Gerber in conversation with Barbara Horvath
20. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 29: English Language Ideologies in Korea: Brynn Quick in conversation with Jinhyun Cho

August

21. 

    Key members of the 2024 Language-on-the-Move team at Macquarie University

    Ingrid Piller, Are language technologies counterproductive to learning?

22. Loy Lising, AILA2024 in Kuala Lumpur: Day 5 Highlights
23. Yifang Sun and Ziyang Hu, AILA2024 in Kuala Lumpur: Day 4 Highlights
24. Ingrid Piller, AILA2024 in Kuala Lumpur: Day 3 Highlights
25. Ana Sofia Bruzon, AILA2024 in Kuala Lumpur: Day 2 Highlights
26. Yixi (Isabella) Qiu, AILA2024 in Kuala Lumpur: Day 1 Highlights

July

27. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 28: Sign Language Brokering: Emily Pacheco in conversation with Jemina Napier
28. Christine Munn, Risk Communication in the Media
29. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 27: Muslim Literacies in China: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Ibrar Bhatt
30. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 26: Life in a New Language, Pt 6 – Citizenship: Brynn Quick in conversation with Emily Farrell
    Includes a report on our book launch and a picture of our fancy cake 🤩
31. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 25: Life in a New Language, Pt 5 – Monolingual Mindset: Brynn Quick in conversation with Loy Lising
32. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 24: Language policy at an abortion clinic: Brynn Quick in conversation with Ella van Hest
33. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 23: Life in a New Language, Pt 4 – Parenting: Brynn Quick in conversation with Shiva Motaghi-Tabari
34. Alex Grey and Laura Smith-Khan, What’s new in “Language and Criminal Justice” research?
35. Life in a New Language: how migrants face the challenge, The Lighthouse
36. Being treated as a migrant in Australia, Australian Academy of the Humanities Five Minutes Friday Read
37. Ethnographic data sharing as community building, OUPBlog: Oxford University Press’s Academic Insights for the Thinking World

June

38. 

    Cutting the Life-in-New-Language cake

    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 22: Life in a New Language, Pt 3 – African migrants: Brynn Quick in conversation with Vera Williams Tetteh

39. Brynn Quick, Systematic Literature Review: Easy Guide
40. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 21: Life in a New Language, Pt 2 –Work: Brynn Quick in conversation with Ingrid Piller
41. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 20: Life in a New Language, Pt 1 – Identities: Brynn Quick in conversation with Donna Butorac
42. Irene Gotera, No justice without language rights
43. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 19: Because Internet: Brynn Quick in conversation with Gretchen McCulloch
44. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 18: Between Deaf and hearing cultures: Emily Pacheco in conversation with Jessica Kirkness

May

45. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 17: The Rise of English: Ingrid Piller in conversation with Rosemary Salomone
46. Dave Sayers, Is it okay for linguists to hate new words?
47. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 16: Community Languages Schools Transforming Education: Hanna Torsh in conversation with Joe Lo Bianco
48. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 15: Shanghai Multilingualism Alliance: Yixi (Isabella) Qui in conversation with Yongyan Zheng
49. Owen Minns, Why is it so hard for English teachers to learn Japanese?

April

50. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 14: Multilingual Commanding Urgency from Garbage to COVID-19: Brynn Quick in conversation with Michael Chestnut
51. Yasser S. Khan and Rizwan Ahmad, Sacred Font, Profane Purpose
52. Gerald Roche, I’m Dying to Speak to You
53. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 13: Making sense of “Bad English:” Brynn Quick in conversation with Elizabeth Peterson
54. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 12: History of Modern Linguistics: Ingrid Piller in conversation with James McElvenny
55. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 11: 40 Years of Croatian Studies at Macquarie University: Ingrid Piller in conversation with Jasna Novak Milić
56. Alia Amir, Finding Pakistan in Global Britain

March

57. 

    Annual highlight: graduation

    Gerald Roche, Language Rights Defenders Award

58. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 10: Reducing Barriers to Language Assistance in Hospital: Brynn Quick in conversation with Erin Mulpur, Houston Methodist Hospital
59. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 9: Interpreting service provision is good value for money. Ingrid Piller in conversation with Jim Hlavac
60. Shiva Motaghi Tabari, Nowruz: Celebration of Heritage and Unity
61. Alia Amir, Happy Ramadan from London

February

62. Donna Butorac, How language and race mediate migrant inclusion
63. Language on the Move – the podcast
    We launched our podcast in February, with 6 episodes published in previous years:
    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 7: What can Australian Message Sticks teach us about literacy? Ingrid Piller in conversation with Piers Kelly (originally published 2020)
    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 6: How to teach TESOL ethically in an English-dominant world. Carla Chamberlin and Mak Khan in conversation with Ingrid Piller (originally published 2020)
    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 5: Can we ever unthink linguistic nationalism? Ingrid Piller in conversation with Aneta Pavlenko (originally published 2021)
    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 4: Language makes the place. Ingrid Piller in conversation with Adam Jaworski (originally published 2022)
    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 3: Linguistic diversity in education: Hanna Torsh in conversation with Ingrid Gogolin (originally published 2023)
    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 2: Translanguaging: Loy Lising in conversation with Ofelia García (originally published 2023)
64. Ana Sofia Bruzon, Becoming a world-ready researcher at Macquarie University
65. Agnes Bodis, International students’ English language proficiency in the spotlight again

January

66. 

    Cover art by Sadami Konchi

    Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 8: What does it mean to govern a multilingual society well? Hanna Torsh in conversation with Alexandra Grey

67. Alia Amir, What if I lose my language? What if I have lost my language?
68. Pia Tenedero, A water perspective on language research
69. Mehrinigor Akhmedova and Rizwan Ahmad, Why Are Uzbek Youth Learning Arabic?
70. Ingrid Piller, Legacies of the Next Generation Literacies Network
71. Language-on-the-Move Podcast Episode 1: Lies we tell ourselves about multilingualism. Ingrid Piller in conversation with Aneta Pavlenko

Previous annual reports

For an even deeper trip down memory lane, here is the list of our full archives:

1. Language on the Move 2023
2. Language on the Move 2022
3. Language on the Move 2021
4. Language on the Move 2020
5. Language on the Move 2019
6. Language on the Move 2018
7. Language on the Move 2017
8. Language on the Move 2016
9. Language on the Move 2015
10. Language on the Move 2014
11. Language on the Move 2013
12. Language on the Move 2012
13. Language on the Move 2011
14. Language on the Move 2010
15. Language on the Move 2009