literacy – Page 7 – Language on the Move

Language in education

Dodgy data and language misdiagnosis

2014 NAPLAN Year 3 Numeracy test results by language status In Australia the results of last year’s round of student and school performance on national standardized testing have just been…

Ingrid PillerMarch 11, 2015

Language in education

Plurilingual pre-service teachers

Linguistic diversity is valued in this school (Photo Courtesy of Angela Turzynski-Azimi) ‘What’s your nash, miss?’ Plurilingual pre-service teachers preparing to teach in Sydney schools What is it like to…

Robyn Moloney and Andrew GilesFebruary 25, 2015

Intercultural communication

The long conversation: Australia and China

Australia-China Youth Dialogue 2014 I recently returned from the Australia China Youth Dialogue in Beijing, my head buzzing with new ideas. The Dialogue promotes “more sophisticated cross-cultural understanding among Australian…

Alexandra GreyFebruary 18, 2015

Language in Australia

Linguistic diversity and social inclusion in Australia

2012 workshop on 'Linguistic Diversity and Social Inclusion in Australia' at Macquarie University How does language intersect with social inclusion in contemporary Australia? Do social inclusion policies address linguistic diversity?…

Lg_on_the_moveNovember 25, 2014

Language learning

Gaining a Green Thumb for Grassroots Language Activism

The researcher wearing a Zhuang employee's work uniform at the Black Clothes Zhuang House in the Ethnic Minorities Village, Nanning, China, 2014 I was surprised, frankly, during my recent fieldwork…

Alexandra GreyOctober 10, 2014

Language deficit in super-diversity

Linguistic diversity in Sydney (Source: Sydney Morning Herald) The media in Anglophone countries regularly engage in a bit of a bragfest about the linguistic diversity of their cities. In Sydney,…

Ingrid PillerAugust 20, 2014

Language in education

Sink-or-swim for international students

For international students, it's sink or swim (Image source: luvimages.com) It is one of the basic findings of decades of research in bilingual education that language submersion is not a…

Ingrid PillerAugust 6, 2014

Language learning

Bilingualism delays onset of dementia

Multilingual Hyderabad (Source: Wikimedia) It is by now widely known that bilingualism delays the onset of dementia. What is less widely known is the fact that this knowledge is almost…

Ingrid PillerNovember 11, 2013

Research reflections

Saussure, the procrastinator

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) Procrastination is a fact of academic life, particularly during the PhD period, as every academic supervisor knows. However, judging from ever-increasing institutional efforts to control procrastination…

Ingrid PillerOctober 30, 2013

Linguistic landscapes

Linguistic theory in Dubai

Is this Arabic or English? Or is that asking the wrong question? (Transliteration: sbaisi tinisi tshikn and shrmb*) I’ve often wondered what linguistic theory would look like if its foundations…

Ingrid PillerApril 17, 2013

Multilingual families

Early study abroad students in young adulthood

Jogiyuhak (early study abroad) is very popular in South Korea (Source: chosun.com) Readers of Language on the Move will be familiar with South Korea’s English fever, the sweeping zeal for…

Bong Jeong LeeJanuary 8, 2013

Language learning

Character challenge

So much hot air: the character for "meeting" consists of the one for "cloud" under a roof Before my recent visit to Wuhan and Hong Kong I was planning to…

Ingrid PillerDecember 12, 2012

Next Gen Literacies

Losing voice in academic writing

Losing your voice or learning academic writing? (Source: business2community.com) “A latent function of the educational system is to instil linguistic insecurity, to discriminate linguistically, to channel children in ways that…

Grace Chu-Lin ChangNovember 13, 2012

Language in Australia

Australia’s Asia Literacy Debate

Australia in Asia (Source: unitingworld.org.au) Since starting a PhD in February in a different field to my previous work, I’ve been running a weekly alert with the words “language” and…

Hanna TorshOctober 2, 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

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