Language on the Move 2025

Unbelievably, another year has passed and it’s time to write another annual report.

2025 has been incredibly busy for us. Apart from everything we do in the real world, we’ve published 64 blog posts in 2025 – that’s more than one post per week. Twenty-four of these were podcast episodes – that’s one podcast episode per fortnight.

A lot of hard work goes into running Language on the Move at this level, and I am so grateful to the team who keep this indie publication project going: the contributors, the readers, the behind-the-scenes support from our webmaster, and the financial and administrative support from the Humboldt Foundation, the University of Hamburg, and Macquarie University.

At a time when the wider world seems to get darker and darker, having so much to be thankful for is an amazing gift; and the best way to express gratitude is to pay it forward, as I reflected in May when I accepted an Alexander-von-Humboldt Professorship Award:

Language on the Move 2025 in numbers

As every year, we share a list of all our Language on the Move publications below. We start with the highlights followed by the full list.

Top 10 most read blog posts

1. Alexander-von-Humboldt-Professorship Awards 2025
2. New Year’s Visit
3. Hiring a dream team in linguistic diversity and social participation
4. Alexandra Grey, Making linguistic diversity visible in Parliament
5. Gerald Roche, Language access rights are vital
6. Laura Smith-Khan, What’s new in Language and Law in Education and Training
7. Allegra Holmes à Court, How judges think about language
8. Rosemary Salomone, English in the crossfire of US immigration
9. Nashid Nigar and Alex Kostogriz, Immigrant Teachers are reshaping English education
10. Laura Smith-Khan, Learning to speak like a lawyer

Top 10 most downloaded podcast episodes

1. Podcast Episode 42: Politics of language oppression in Tibet: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Gerald Roche (14/01/2025)
2. Podcast Episode 57: The Social Impact of Automating Translation: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Ester Monzó-Nebot (03/08/2025)
3. Podcast Episode 58: Erased voices and unspoken heritage: Alexandra Grey in conversation with Zozan Balci (20/08/2025)
4. Podcast Episode 61: Cold Rush: Ingrid Piller in conversation with Sari Pietikainen (09/09/2025)
5. Podcast Episode 63: Australia’s National Indigenous Languages Survey: Alexandra Grey in conversation with Zoe Avery (28/10/2025)
6. Podcast Episode 53: Accents, complex identities, and politics: Brynn Quick in conversation with Nicole Holliday (12/06/2025)
7. Podcast Episode 41: Why teachers turn to AI: Brynn Quick in conversation with Sue Ollerhead (09/01/2025)
8. Podcast Episode 56: Multilingual practices and monolingual mindsets: Brynn Quick in conversation with Jinhyun Cho (18/07/2025)
9. Podcast Episode 54: Chinese in Qatar: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Sara Hillman (19/06/2025)
10. Podcast Episode 59: Intercultural Communication – Now in the 3^rd edition: Loy Lising in conversation with Ingrid Piller (26/08/2025)

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December

1. Language on the Move Podcast wins Talkley Award 2025 [added on Dec 30, 2025]
2. Jemima Rillera Kempster, Centering people in technology-mediated communication – a report about a fantastic symposium dedicated to new technologies in intercultural communication, which we hosted at Macquarie University on December 8.
3. Language on the Move Reading Challenge 2026 – now in its ninth year! Make sure to join us in this reading challenge!
4. Sophie Munte, ALAA 2025 at Charles Darwin University

Highlight
Brynn Quick had her first academic article published. This is part of Brynn’s PhD research, which investigates how medical receptionists deal with patients who have little or no English. This first publication is a policy analysis but the findings from the ethnographic study are bound to be even more exciting – watch this space!
First publication is always so sweet. Congratulations, Brynn!
Quick, B., Piller, I., & Lising, L. (2025). The (un)imagined work of determining patients’ English language proficiency. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2594462

November

4. Sara Hillman, Aishwaryaa Kannan, and Tim Tizon, From “Howdy” to “Hayakom”: A shifting university linguascape
5. Larissa Cosyns, Shared Reading Day 2025
6. Podcast Episode 64: Your Languages are your superpower! Agnes Bodis in conversation with Cindy Valdez (17/11/2025)
7. A major task of 2025 was to assemble the Humboldt Professorship team of three doctoral and three postdoctoral researchers: meet them here.
8. Andrea Pešková, Native listening and learning new sounds

October

9. Podcast Episode 63: Australia’s National Indigenous Languages Survey: Alexandra Grey in conversation with Zoe Avery (28/10/2025)
10. In this post, we introduced the newly established World Education Research Association (WERA) International Research Network (IRN) “Literacy in Multilingual Contexts” – please consider joining if you are conducting research in this area.
11. We are still looking for Sydney-based teachers to participate in a research survey about “Language brokering in schools.”
12. Event: New technologies in Intercultural Communication – pre-event program and abstract; the post-event report is here.

Highlight
Ana Sofia Bruzon finished her PhD this year. Graduation will be in April next year when you will hear more about her work on “Technology and Transnational Bilingual Parenting: A Double-Edged Sword.” For now, congratulations, Dr Bruzon!

September

13. Ana Sofia Bruzon, Why “critical” use of AI in education might mean refusal
14. Podcast Episode 62: Migration is about every human challenge you can have: Brynn Quick in conversation with Shaun Tan (17/09/2025)
15. Podcast Episode 61: Cold Rush: Ingrid Piller in conversation with Sari Pietikainen (09/09/2025)
16. Podcast Episode 60: Sexual predation and English language teaching: Hanna Torsh in conversation with Vaughan Rapatahana (02/09/2025)

August

17. Podcast Episode 59: Intercultural Communication – Now in the 3^rd edition: Loy Lising in conversation with Ingrid Piller (26/08/2025)
18. Podcast Episode 58: Erased voices and unspoken heritage: Alexandra Grey in conversation with Zozan Balci (20/08/2025)
19. Brynn Quick, How to manage your supervisor
20. Podcast Episode 57: The Social Impact of Automating Translation: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Ester Monzó-Nebot (03/08/2025)

Highlight
Our team is making a growing contribution to multilingual healthcare, including these two new publications:
Marinaro, N. (2025). Operationalising linguistic unease for the evaluation of language policies in healthcare. Revista de Llengua i Dret(84), 73-93. https://doi.org/10.58992/rld.i84.2025.4492
Li, J., Luo, M., Cho, J., & Zhang, J. (2025). The double-edged sword of language: empowerment and precarity for interpreters in a Chinese border hospital. Multilingua. https://doi.org/doi:10.1515/multi-2025-0168

July

21. Alexandra Grey, Who’s new in Law and Language?
22. Kristen Martin, LLIRN 6th Anniversary Workshop – our partner, the “Law and Linguistics Interdisciplinary Research Network” turned 6 this year. We celebrate with them the power of networking!
23. Podcast Episode 56: Multilingual practices and monolingual mindsets: Brynn Quick in conversation with Jinhyun Cho (18/07/2025)
24. Larissa Cosyns, Dr Loy Lising spreads a multilingual mindset
25. Humanities’ cuts pose existential threat to Australia’s capabilities
26. 

    Nicole Marinaro sharing news of her latest publication (Image credit: Language on the Move)

    Shanghai Magnolia Pujiang Talent Program Success

27. Alexandra Grey, Making linguistic diversity visible in Parliament

Highlight
The recruitment process for the fellows on the Humboldt Professorship team “Linguistic Diversity and Social Participation Across the Lifespan” took up much of 2025.
The interviews with 20 shortlisted candidates were one of the highlights of the year. We wish we could have hired all these talented young researchers. It was such a privilege to get to know them and we wish to acknowledge them, too, and wish them well!

June

28. Podcast Episode 55: Improving quality of care for patients with limited English: Brynn Quick in conversation with Leah Karliner (26/06/2025)
29. Podcast Episode 54: Chinese in Qatar: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Sara Hillman (19/06/2025)
30. Emily Pacheco, Children of Migrant Deaf Adults
31. Podcast Episode 53: Accents, complex identities, and politics: Brynn Quick in conversation with Nicole Holliday (12/06/2025)
32. Podcast Episode 52: Is beach safety signage fit for purpose? Agnes Bodis in conversation with Masaki Shibata (05/06/2025)

May

33. Alexandra Grey, Legal Corpus Linguistics
34. Tazin Abdullah, Research participants needed to evaluate online multilingual communications
35. Allegra Holmes à Court, How judges think about language
36. Hiring a dream team in linguistic diversity and social participation
37. Alexander-von-Humboldt-Professorship Awards 2025
38. 

    Ana was awarded her doctorate this year and is now Dr Bruzon. An occasion to celebrate with her supervision team (Image credit: Language on the Move)

    Laura Smith-Khan, What’s new in Language and Law in Education and Training

Highlight
In May we had much to celebrate: The Humboldt-Professorship Award Ceremony in Berlin was complemented with an inspiring “Welcome Symposium” hosted the Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS) Research Center.

April

39. Podcast Episode 51: The case for ASL instruction for hearing heritage signers: Emily Pacheco in conversation with Su Kyong Isakson (28/04/2025)
40. Podcast Episode 50: Researching language and digital communication: Brynn Quick in conversation with Christian Ilbury (22/04/2025)
41. Podcast Episode 49: Gestures and emblems: Brynn Quick in conversation with Lauren Gawne (14/04/2025)
42. Podcast Episode 48: Lingua Napoletana and language oppression: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Massimiliano Canzanella (07/04/2025)
43. 

    The bulletin board of the Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS) Research Center was filled with announcements for guest lectures throughout the year (Image credit: Language on the Move)

    Laura Smith-Khan, Learning to speak like a lawyer

Highlight
Throughout the year, we welcomed an amazing group of visitors to the University of Hamburg, as part of two lecture series: the Lunch Lectures of the Literacy in Diversity Settings (LiDS) Research Center and as part of the public lecture series “Everyday Multilingualism.”

March

44. Podcast Episode 47: Teaching international students: Brynn Quick in conversation with Agnes Bodis and Jing Fan (31/03/2025)
45. Gerald Roche, Language access rights are vital
46. Rosemary Salomone, English in the crossfire of US immigration
47. Nashid Nigar and Alex Kostogriz, Immigrant Teachers are reshaping English education
48. Podcast Episode 46: Intercultural competence in the digital age: Brynn Quick in conversation with Amy McHugh (12/03/2025)
49. Podcast Episode 45: How does multilingual law-making work: Alexandra Grey in conversation with Karen McAuliffe (05/03/2025)

February

50. Alexandra Grey, Making Zhuang language visible
51. Podcast Episode 44: Educational inequality in Fijian higher education: Hanna Torsh in conversation with Prashneel Goundar (25/02/2025)
52. Tazin Abdullah, Lifelong learning from academic mentorship
53. Brynn Quick and Tazin Abdullah, Seven reasons why we love hosting podcasts
54. Kristen Martin: Closing the Gap Languages Target: An update
55. Emma Genovese, Language and inclusion in law
56. Sunjoo Kim, More than meets the eye
57. Celeste Rodriguez Louro, Automating silence?

Highlight
The 3rd edition of Ingrid Piller’s textbook Intercultural Communication (Edinburgh University Press, 1st ed. 2011) was published this year. The 3rd edition includes a new chapter in intercultural crisis communication based on our team’s research on multilingual communications during the Covid-19 pandemic.

January

58. 

    “Intercultural Communication” is now out in the 3rd edition – with a new chapter on crisis communication in a linguistically and culturally diverse world

    Ingrid Piller, New Year’s Visit

59. Rami Luisto, Local culture mirrored in dog signs
60. Podcast Episode 43: Multilingual crisis communication: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Li Jia (22/01/2025)
61. Anna Dillon and Sarah Hopkyns, Visit to Abrahamic Family House
62. Podcast Episode 42: Politics of language oppression in Tibet: Tazin Abdullah in conversation with Gerald Roche (14/01/2025)
63. Podcast Episode 41: Why teachers turn to AI: Brynn Quick in conversation with Sue Ollerhead (09/01/2025)
64. Podcast Episode 40: Language Rights in a Changing China: Brynn Quick in conversation with Alexandra Grey (01/01/2025)

Language-on-the-Move Podcast episodes 1-39

A full list of pre-2025 Language-on-the-Move podcast episodes is available here.

Previous annual reports

1. Language on the Move 2024
2. Language on the Move 2023
3. Language on the Move 2022
4. Language on the Move 2021
5. Language on the Move 2020
6. Language on the Move 2019
7. Language on the Move 2018
8. Language on the Move 2017
9. Language on the Move 2016
10. Language on the Move 2015
11. Language on the Move 2014
12. Language on the Move 2013
13. Language on the Move 2012
14. Language on the Move 2011
15. Language on the Move 2010
16. Language on the Move 2009