language learning – Page 11 – Language on the Move

Language costs

USD 254,000: that is the cost of raising two children bilingually in English and German in Denver, Colorado. That’s a lot of money, and inspired me to do some number-crunching…

Ingrid PillerNovember 25, 2011

Multilingual families

Cost of monolingualism: $254,000

American society places little value on meaningful multilingualism for young people, or for adults for that matter. Nowhere is this lack of valuation more apparent than in the U.S. public…

Christof Demont-HeinrichNovember 23, 2011

Intercultural communication

مردها، زبان انگلیسی و رومانسِ بین المللی

Persian version of Lachlan Jackson's award-winning blog post about interlingual relationships. Translated by مطهره سامری (Motahare Sameri) "وقتی پای عشق به میان می آید ژاپنی ها محبوب ترین موجودات روی کره ی…

Vahid ParvareshNovember 15, 2011

Language and migration

Learn English, Make Friends!

How to make English-speaking friends is one of the perennial hot topics for new overseas students and new migrants. Advice on how to make “native” friends circulates like an underground…

Ingrid PillerNovember 4, 2011

Language learning

Reading ‘Culture Shock’ in Isfahan

In the past three decades attention has shifted from communicative competence to discourse as a frame for understanding the challenges faced by language learners. Yet, the question of how stereotyping…

Vahid ParvareshOctober 12, 2011

Language in education

Turkish alphabetisation for German integration

KOALA Buchstabenhaus (Adapted from: Urbanek, R. et al. (2006): Tinto grün. Arbeitsheft 1. Schreiben. Berlin: Cornelsen) Contemporary Germany is the 3rd largest immigrant-receiving country internationally. In 2008, 15.6mio inhabitants (19%…

Victoria BenzSeptember 13, 2011

Many tongues instead of one!

I was so grateful to read Ingrid Piller’s in-depth critical post on German language politics, where she offered a profound analysis of the assumptions underlying the campaign “Ich spreche Deutsch”.…

Bettina KleinerAugust 31, 2011

English as a global language

Free language choice?

Pretty much everyone I know wants to learn English or improve their English – with the exception of those who consider themselves native speakers, obviously. What is more, everyone I…

Ingrid PillerAugust 16, 2011

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

What is “Competent English”?

“PR” is probably one of the abbreviations I have heard most since coming to Australia. Despite the fact that PR – “permanent residence” for the non-initiated - is the much-coveted…

Grace Chu-Lin ChangAugust 5, 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

The cult of personal responsibility

Ads for a campaign to speak German are currently all over Germany. The campaign is called “Ich spreche Deutsch” (I speak German) and aims to convince migrant youths to learn…

Ingrid PillerJuly 20, 2011

English as a global language

Language consumption and mobility

In the past thirty years, Iran’s population has exploded from about 40 million to more than 72 million. Such rapid growth has resulted in the vast majority of the population…

Vahid ParvareshJuly 4, 2011

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

Language learning

Bilingual math

Over the past year or so I’ve started to make my daughter do daily arithmetic practice in German. My reason for doing so stems from my dissatisfaction with the ways…

Ingrid PillerMay 9, 2011