Colonialism – Language on the Move

Language and law

What’s new in “Language and Criminal Justice” research?

NSW Police (Image credit: Edwina Pickles, SMH) Editor's note: The Language on the Move team closely collaborates with the Law and Linguistics Interdisciplinary Researchers’ Network (LLIRN). To raise awareness of…

Language on the MoveJuly 1, 2024

Language in Australia Next Gen Literacies

(dis)possession and (un)belonging

The logo on the side of the bus shelter Latin at the bus stop Recently, I was out for a walk when it started to rain. Seeking shelter in…

Ingrid PillerMarch 15, 2022

Covid-19 Next Gen Literacies

Language and communication in crisis

Malinche mediating between the Spanish and the Americans (Source: Lienzo de Tlaxcala, mid 16th c) We live in an age of crisis, as humanity confronts an ever-escalating climate and environmental…

Ingrid PillerOctober 30, 2021

Language and globalization

Thinking language with chocolate

Easter chocolates in the supermarket (Image credit: Wikimedia) I’ve been thinking a lot about chocolate lately. Maybe because it is Easter and supermarkets in my part of the world…

Ingrid PillerApril 5, 2021

Language in Australia

Decolonising sociolinguistic research

Celeste Rodriguez Louro and Glenys Collard, University of Western Australia *** The histories and everyday experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia are etched in the landscape,…

Language on the MoveSeptember 14, 2020

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Next Gen Literacies

What can Australian Message Sticks teach us about literacy?

Few people have ever heard about a fascinating form of visual communication used by Indigenous Australians: message sticks. When I teach about the invention of writing, I usually mention them…

Ingrid PillerAugust 18, 2020

Next Gen Literacies

Who invented writing?

The Phoenician abjad - the ancestor of almost all scripts in use today (Image credit: Wikipedia) Today, literacy has become near universal with the global literacy rate around 85 percent.…

Ingrid PillerAugust 4, 2020

Multilingual histories

Reading and mind control

As a child, the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) loved stories and he loved reading. Like many children, he was particularly fascinated with tales of adventure, exploration, and discovery. In…

Ingrid PillerAugust 18, 2019

Multilingual histories

How to end native speaker privilege

Native and non-native teachers at Lord Harris' School, Royapett, Madras, 1865 (Source: British Library) For some time now, a debate has been raging in TESOL about the relative merits of…

Ingrid PillerMay 31, 2018

Intercultural communication

One Orientalism or many Orientalisms?

Students at the German-Chinese College, ca. 1910 (Source: German Federal Archives) The dichotomy of East and West is a recent phenomenon and associated with European industrialization. Yet, it is difficult…

Gegentuul BaioudMay 10, 2018

Next Gen Literacies

Why are you not citing any African female expert?

Sociolinguistics needs to center Africa Minority language maintenance and revitalization is a sub-discipline of sociolinguistics that I mostly stay away from. My discomfort with most of the research in that…

Ingrid PillerMay 3, 2018

Multilingual histories

The devil’s handwriting

How is your Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge coming along? Another month has passed and you should have ticked off the second book from our list. I read George Steinmetz’ The Devil’s…

Ingrid PillerApril 5, 2018

Language and globalization

Globalization between crime and piety

How is your Language-on-the-Move Reading Challenge coming along? One month has gone by and you should have ticked off at least one book from our list. I started with an…

Ingrid PillerMarch 1, 2018

Intercultural communication

Literacy and the differential value of knowledge

In today’s world, “literacy” is strongly associated with competence: the ability to read and write is the pre-condition for the acquisition of all kinds of knowledge and skills. The basic…

Ingrid PillerAugust 15, 2017

Language and migration

Getting past the ‘indigenous’ vs. ‘immigrant’ language debate

"The English" migrated to their "ancestral homeland" in the first few centuries of the Common Era (Source: Wikipedia) “Indigenous languages” and “immigrant languages” are much discussed in language policy research,…

Dave SayersAugust 12, 2015

Promoting the University of Bolton's Ras Al-Khaimah branch campus on the streets of Ajman

English as a global language

Banal nationalism and the internationalization of higher education

Promoting the University of Bolton's Ras Al-Khaimah branch campus on the streets of Ajman The other day I was stuck in traffic in Ajman, one of the smaller of the…

Ingrid PillerMay 22, 2013