public education – Language on the Move

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Language in education

Supporting multilingual families to engage with schools

How can school communications become more accessible to multilingual families? In this episode of the Language on the Move podcast, I speak to Professor Margaret Kettle about the Multilingual Glossary…

Agnes BodisNovember 20, 2024

Covid-19

Teaching remotely during COVID-19 in a disadvantaged and multilingual school

We prepared and distributed numerous learning packs Editor’s note: The language challenges of the COVID-19 crisis have held much of our attention this year. Here on Language on the Move, we…

Nusrat ParveenDecember 7, 2020

Covid-19

Does every Australian have an equal chance to know about Covid-19 restrictions?

Readability scores of the two selected public service information texts by the NSW Government This morning I googled “nsw corona/covid restrictions”. The top hits all refer to NSW Government websites,…

Ingrid PillerSeptember 1, 2020

Language at work

Empowerment of Chinese Muslim women through Arabic?

Muslim women praying in a Minquan mosque While everyone knows that China is now the second largest economy in the world, few people realize that there are still over five…

Yuanmeng MaMay 28, 2020

Covid-19

Language lessons of COVID-19 and linguistic disaster preparedness

Li Yuming Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources and Research Center for Standardized Use of Chinese Language, Beijing Language and Culture University *** Editor’s note: This is a translated…

Language on the MoveMarch 27, 2020

Next Gen Literacies

Lessons learnt from schoolbooks

My Grade 2 Reader and my primary Song book When I was a child, I eagerly anticipated the start of each new school year. The first week or two were…

Ingrid PillerJuly 28, 2019

Language in education

How to solve Australia’s language learning crisis

Demand action from our politicians to make a LOTE compulsory! The state of language learning in Australian schools is dire. This weekend the Sydney Morning Herald carried an article entitled “Why students are…

Ingrid PillerJune 15, 2016

Multilingual families

Children as language brokers

Nizaqete Bislimi (Source: DuMont Verlag / Franz Brück) Some of the most striking images from the refugees who have been trekking across Europe are of families and children. Beyond the…

Ingrid PillerOctober 7, 2015

Language in education

Educational success through bilingual education

Children in a bilingual program in Hamburg (Source: AlsterKind) It is a key finding of contemporary educational research that the children of migrants experience educational disadvantage vis-à-vis their native-born peers.…

Ingrid PillerJune 17, 2015

Language learning

The language cringe of the native speaker

"How bad is your cultural cringe?" (Source: Jenna Guillaume, BuzzFeed) Keith: I’m still really shit at pronouncing Lisa’s surname. With the umlaut o. Hanna: What is Lisa’s surname? (laughter) Keith:…

Hanna TorshJune 10, 2015

Language in education

“Naughty boys” trying to learn

"Naughty boys" in the media: image from the Channel 4 gangs and drugs drama "Top Boy" Teacher expectations can constitute a self-fulfilling prophecy: teachers behave differently towards children depending on…

Ingrid PillerMay 13, 2015

Language and migration

Bilingualism is good for you! … if you are a girl …

Bilingualism has a gender A while ago, I reported on the findings of a US study that demonstrated that children of immigrants who achieve high-level bilingual proficiency in both English…

Ingrid PillerMay 6, 2015

Language in education

‘Investing in language:’ Why do we think about language education the way we do?

'Soaking up English like a sponge:' The researcher's young son engrossed in a Thesaurus If someone cannot now learn their native language, adding a couple of foerign (sic) dead languages…

Agnes BodisApril 15, 2015

Language in education

Children of the harvest: schooling, class and race

Children of migrant cotton field workers from Oklahoma (Source: Library of Congress) I’ve just come across a fascinating article about the schooling of migrant children during the Great Depression era…

Ingrid PillerApril 8, 2015

Language in education

Access denied

Nanai/Hezhe children (Source: Wikipedia) We have often examined here on Language on the Move how ‘English for all’ educational policies entrench inequality rather than alleviate disadvantage (e.g., here or here).…

Ingrid PillerMarch 25, 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…