language education – Page 4 – Language on the Move

English as a global language

Is English improving lives in a remote Indonesian village?

The house of the English high school teacher in the village in Sulawesi where Pasassung conducted his fieldwork In a recent post, I reviewed language policy research that shows how…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 1, 2013

English as a global language

English for everyone is unfair

Promoting English language learning: billboard for private early English instruction in Wuhan Knowledge of English has come to be seen as the key talent of the 21st century, a way…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 11, 2013

News

Ingrid Piller in conversation with Susie Elelman on 2GB

Click the 'play' button to listen to Ingrid Piller in conversation with Susie Elelman as they discuss bilingualism and languages education in Australia. The conversation was originally broadcast on 2GB's Saturday night…

Language on the MoveOctober 18, 2012

Language in education

Language test masquerading as literacy and numeracy test

Gunbalanya School in West Arnhem Land (Source: abc.net.au) Last week, the results of the 2012 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) were published. As has been the case…

Ingrid PillerSeptember 25, 2012

Language learning

Multilingual Europe

Percentage of Europeans who speak three or more languages (2012 Eurobarometer 'Europeans and their Languages', p. 14) The 2012 Eurobarometer Report “Europeans and their languages” was published last month and…

Ingrid PillerJuly 18, 2012

Language learning

Schools transforming multilinguals into illiterates?

Mehrsprachige Buecher - multilingual books - ketabhaye chand zabane The release of the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 Census of Population data is an invitation to reflect on the composition…

Susana EisenchlasJuly 13, 2012

Language and tourism

English for travel

Ad for ‘English for travel’ classes ( www.gaba.co.jp/ad) A few weeks ago, my family and I went to Jim Thompson’s special sales at BITEC in Bang Na, a short train…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江July 2, 2012

Multilingual families

The high price of multilingualism

The high price of multilingualism When society doesn’t value something you, as an individual, do, you, the individual, end up paying for society’s lack of valuation. That’s the case with…

Christof Demont-HeinrichJune 18, 2012

Language learning

Bilingualism: Bane or Boon?

Hungarians in RomaniaUp until a few decades ago, the academic consensus – along with public opinion – was that bilingualism is detrimental to the individual and society. Nowadays, that has…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 20, 2012

Language learning Multilingual families

Linguistic extremism

I know some people think what I am doing with my daughters – speaking German to them one-hundred percent of the time even though German is a second language for…

Christof Demont-HeinrichJanuary 30, 2012

Language learning

Tyranny of Poverty

Pakistan Swat Valley 2009 Ingrid briefly mentioned Zubeida Mustafa’s new book Tyranny of Language in Education: The Problem and its solution recently. Since then, we’ve had numerous enquiries about the…

Muhammad Ali KhanJuly 1, 2011

Language in education

Learning to be marginal

Much of my research over the past decade has involved talking to migrants to Australia and overseas students about their experiences of language learning and settlement. In these conversations, I…

Ingrid PillerMay 24, 2011

English as a global language

Glocalization à la Suisse

When I lived in Basel, a city in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, I often found myself performing an involuntary field experiment in language attitudes. As likely to speak English…

Ingrid PillerMay 20, 2011

Language learning

National Languages Curriculum

My daughter attends a public elementary school in NSW where the children are taught French for one hour each week. In 2009, she was away from her school for one…

Ingrid PillerMarch 4, 2011