When I first joined an English bridging program as a teacher in Australia, I quickly learnt the unwritten rule: real learning happens in English. Even a stray browser tab showing Chinese text could raise eyebrows. I knew this because a coordinator reminded me that Chinese text should not appear in a classroom computer's browser history. I am Chinese-born and raised, and I felt like an imposter, as if my Chinese-ness was a liability that needed to be carefully managed.

This episode of Leveraging Languages for Learning brings educators and researchers into conversation about how language, learning, and social change intersect. In this Podcast, four contributors — Anne Keary (Monash University), Ben Rampton (King’s College London), Jessie Sambell (Blackburn English Language School), and Dermot Bryers (English for Action, UK) — discuss their professional journeys and the value of collaboration between researchers and on-the-ground teachers.

La Alabarda (the halberd symbol of Trieste, Italy) has featured as a sticker on every car I have owned. I expect the symbol, a white lance on a striking red background, would be unfamiliar to most motorists who view it on my back windshield.

As an English language learner, migrant, and long-time TESOL practitioner, I have often found myself navigating the space between what is pedagogically sound and what is socially expected in English language classrooms—particularly in the Chinese context.

Prof. Angel M. Y. Lin, Chair Professor of Language, Literacy, and Social Semiotics in Education, The Education University of Hong Kong Prof. Angel Angel M. Y. Lin is a a leading scholar in the fields of English language education and critical literacies. In this interview, she shares her insight with Mobina Sahraee Juybari on the evolution of her research journey, the urgent challenges and opportunities in the field of language and literacy education, and the need for human

Dr. Sue Ollerhead, Macquarie University Dr. Sue Ollerhead works with translanguaging as a researcher and teacher educator in Sydney. In this interview, she shares her insights with Marianne Turner on the feasibility and impact of translanguaging for students of different ages in Australian classrooms.      Marianne:  Sue, thank you for talking to me today, First, can I ask a general question about the way you work with the idea of translanguaging? What drew you to this idea o

The bua-lit language and literacy collective was established in 2018 to share knowledge and resources about multilingual language and literacy education in South Africa. The collective consists of language and literacy researchers, activists, educators and teacher educators.

The power of multilingualism in education is undeniable. However, while many schools celebrate the rich linguistic diversity that students bring, the reality is that embracing home languages in the classroom is still a challenge.

Dr Nashid Nigar & Prof Alex Kostogriz, Monash University Reimagining EAL/D Education: From Standard Norms to Sensory Pedagogies As shown...

A/Prof Julie Choi has just written a book called ‘Kimchi is for Everyone’, an exploration of personal identity and continuous growth. Dr Mobina Sahraee Juybari talked to Julie about the experiences that informed the book.

Today I was looking at a list of oxymorons. It was a playful list that had been made for English language learning purposes.

As a teacher of Italian and a teacher educator, I have the privilege to work with students from many different cultural and linguistic

Dr. Fatemeh Khonamri University of Mazandaran I used to believe that the best way to teach a reading course in an Iranian context was to...

Differentiation is key to meeting teaching and learning objectives at school. Some students need extra help to reach required achievement standards, others are exceeding expectations and need to be extended, and still others need a different way of thinking about achievement standards altogether. English-as-an–additional-language (EAL) students in Australia are generally labelled as EAL because they are considered to need some kind of additional language support. It can be di

Born and raised in Vietnam, I learned and later taught English as a foreign language. My monolingual background significantly shaped my perspective, and I was particularly influenced by two key experiences during my learning and teaching journey. The first pivotal experience was being selected to attend a provincial high school where students were trained to become leaders in the province. At the welcoming ceremony, the head teacher, a renowned Russian language instructor, ad

Indonesia has more than 700 languages, with Bahasa Indonesia (or simply Bahasa) being the official one. From the westernmost Sabang in...

Bilingualism is difficult to define. We often go with a feeling more than anything. That person is bilingual. I’d like to be bilingual,...

Have you ever secretly thought that people invent a term so it sounds like something new and exciting, but it’s actually no different to an existing term? Terminological confusion happens a lot when ideas become popular and people embrace them in different ways.  But I’d like to argue for a term that has been accused of this: translanguaging . The term that already exists? Code-switching .   We have had the idea of code-switching - switching between ‘codes’ or languages - for

This website is one output of a joint project between Queensland University of Technology and The Queensland Department of Education. The project was funded through the Department of Education Horizon Scheme and has come to be known as the Home Languages in Schools project.

Navigating language use in the classroom can be challenging.