language ideologies – Page 7 – Language on the Move

Language learning

iBoyfriend

Having lived and taught English in Japan for more than fifteen years, until last night I’d thought I’d seen it all. That was until I stumbled across the もし彼氏が外国人だったら英会話 (What…

Lachlan JacksonAugust 11, 2011

Language learning

The magic of English

I recently returned to China from graduate study in Australia and soon reestablished my old habit of reading the newspaper over breakfast. One Sunday morning, this color flier was enclosed…

Zhang Jie 张洁July 22, 2011

Tyranny of Language

Our contributor in Karachi, Md. Ali Khan, has alerted me to what seems to be a fascinating book: The Tyranny of Language in Education by Zubeida Mustafa published by Ushba…

Ingrid PillerJune 20, 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

Intercultural communication

تمسخر لهجه ها

Amoo ('Uncle') Poorang Persian version of my recent post about "Ridiculing accents" Translated by Behnam Keimasi (بهنام کیماسی) آیا مایه گذاشتن از اقلیت‌های زبانی برای سرگرم کردن کودکان کار درستی…

Manouchehr KouhestaniApril 25, 2011

Ridiculing accents

Amoo ('Uncle') Poorang Is it ok to entertain children at the expense of linguistic minorities? That was the question I asked myself a couple of months ago when I was…

Manouchehr KouhestaniMarch 28, 2011

Language and tourism

Do you speak Swiss?

A most amazing book has just landed on my desk: Do you speak Swiss, edited by Walter Haas, is the final report on a Swiss National Research Project devoted to…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 14, 2011

Next Gen Literacies

When illiteracy is a privilege

Thai alphabet Learning Thai has its many challenges but one of the great joys for me has been encountering the Thai script. At the start I felt like a five-year-old-child,…

Sheila PhamFebruary 11, 2011

Intercultural communication

Divine linguistic diversity I’ve spent the past two days convening the first-ever Language-on-the-Move workshop at the University of Tehran. The idea was to explore language contact and multilingualism in the…

Ingrid PillerDecember 23, 2010

Language learning

German is so funny. Not.

Earlier this term I intercepted a note my 7-year-old had written to her teacher: “Ger Ger Ger; Don’t be so rude.” She was objecting to a reading comprehension exercise about…

Ingrid PillerNovember 6, 2010

Multilingual histories

Providing bilingual education since 1689

Commemorative stamp, German Federal Post, 1989: 300 years French School Berlin I’ve been teaching about bilingualism for more than a decade and when I speak about bilingual education and dual-immersion…

Ingrid PillerOctober 26, 2010

Intercultural communication

Insult and injury in Ueno Park

Lotus Pond (part of Shinobazu Pond) in Ueno Park “There are so many stupid Japanese women around, huh? Many Westerners are coming to our country and the stupid women love…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江October 11, 2010

Language learning

The dark side of TESOL

The latest issue of Cross-Cultural Studies (published by the Center for Cross Cultural Studies, Kyung Hee University, Korea) includes an article about the dark side of TESOL authored by Ingrid Piller,…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江September 13, 2010

English as a global language

Barbarous multilingual devil worshippers

I’ve just run a search for the terms “multilingual” and “multilingualism” in the National Library of Australia’s archive of Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803-1954. In the process, I have learnt that…

Ingrid PillerAugust 16, 2010

Language learning

The monolingual myth

The monolingual myth This critique has been an important one but it runs into a problem when we consider the idea of monolingualism itself. At the same time that this…