The internet has had a massive impact on language, with ‘tweet’ and ‘blog’ just two of countless new words added to our lexicon this century.
The Language of the Move website focuses on how language intersects with consumerism, family life, globalisation, tourism, identity, migration and social justice.
It is therefore fitting that two Macquarie academics are using the net to create a collaborative environment for sociolinguistics researchers from Macquarie and around the world.
Founded by Professor Ingrid Piller and Kamie Takahashi, Language on the Move is a website devoted to multilingualism, language learning and intercultural communication in a transnational world.
The two researchers met in 2000, when they got into a spirited discussion about whether bilingual children were more intelligent than monolingual kids. (For the record, Kimie thought they were and Ingrid thought they weren’t.)
Language on the Move co-founders Kamie Takahashi (left) and Ingrid Piller (fourth from left), with fellow researchers and contributors. (Source: Language on the Move)
Language on the Move currently hosts over 200 research entries, with some available in up to seven languages.
The site allows students to blog about their work and engage in discussions with a global network of contributors and translators.
Contributor Yang Hongyan 杨红艳 recently received the Faculty of Human Science’s 2011 Higher Degree Research Excellence Award for her work on the language policies, ideologies and practices of the Naxi ethnic minority in the Yunnan Province of Southwest China.
“It’s a very precious experience to be a student of Ingrid Piller and Lynda Yates,” says Hongyan.
Hongyan is the third member of the Language on the Move team to win this prestigious award, with fellow Macquarie researchers Vera W. Tetteh and Jenny Zhang winning in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Read more about research in the Department of Linguistics.
