Ingrid Piller speaks with Jasna Novak Milić, the director of the Croatian Studies Center at Macquarie University.The Croatian Studies Center at Macquarie University hosts one of a very small number of Croatian Studies programs at university level outside Croatia. We talk about Croatian Studies in the diaspora, small languages in higher education, and why the availability of languages programs in higher education is critical for heritage language maintenance.For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erin Mulpur discusses reducing barriers to language assistance in hospitals, focusing on Houston Methodist Hospital's use of language assistance technologies during Covid-19. Topics include challenges faced by linguistic minority patients, innovative communication solutions, navigating cultural biases, and strategies for providing language assistance in healthcare.

Ingrid Piller speaks with Jim Hlavac about interpreting to bridge language barriers.About 5% of the Australian population do not speak English or do not speak it well. In this conversation, Dr Jim Hlavac, an experienced interpreter and interpreting trainer, explains how professional interpreters, language mediators, and language brokers help to support fair and equitable access to healthcare and other forms of social participation.We explore how interpreting works in practice in a hospital setting: who gets to interpret? How is the need for an interpreter identified? Who pays? What is the role of policy vis-à-vis bottom-up practice? Is the process the same for all languages?The conversation closes with the million-dollar question: will AI take interpreters’ jobs?For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hanna Torsh and Alexandra Grey discuss good governance in linguistically diverse cities, emphasizing the importance of recognizing linguistic diversity positively. They address questions on the significance of governance in multilingual urban environments, investigate effective governance, and criticize public health communication during the Covid-19 pandemic for failing linguistic communities.

Ingrid Piller speaks with Piers Kelly about a fascinating form of visual communication, Australian message sticks.What does a message stick look like? What is its purpose, and how has the use of message sticks changed over time from the precolonial period via the late 19th/early 20th century and into the present? Why do we know so little about message sticks, and how has colonialism shaped our knowledge about message sticks? How did message sticks fit into the multilingual communication ecology of precolonial Australia? And, of course, the million-dollar question: are message sticks a form of writing?First published on August 18, 2020.“Chats in Linguistic Diversity” is a podcast about linguistic diversity in social life brought to you by the Language on the Move team. We explore multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ingrid Piller talks about teaching English ethically in a diverse world. Topics include migrant parents fostering biliteracy, language challenges during Covid-19, English-centric blind spots in research, and the connection between World Englishes and multilingualism.

Ingrid Piller speaks with Aneta Pavlenko about multilingualism through the ages.We start from the question whether the world today is more multilingual than it was ever before. Spoiler alert: we quickly conclude that no, it is not.One of the reasons why the world may seem more multilingual today than in the past lies in the European nationalist project, which culminated in the “population exchanges” of the 20th century – the great “unmixing of peoples”, as Lord Curzon called it.As a result, languages became associated with nations and this linguistic nationalism continues to guide views of language today. Can linguistic nationalism ever be unthought?Maybe because languages are now so deeply intertwined with nationalist projects, we have become much more emotional about language and languages than people may have been in the past. This is true even of academic research, where there can be significant pressure to bring our emotions into our research, too.How to deal with such pressures is another thread that runs through our conversation. We reflect on our own academic careers and what lessons they may or may not hold for early career researchers today.First published on October 04, 2021.“Chats in Linguistic Diversity” is a podcast about linguistic diversity in social life brought to you by the Language on the Move team. We explore multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ingrid Piller speaks with Adam Jaworski about his research in language and mobility.Adam is best known for his work on “linguascaping” – how languages, or bits of languages, are used to stylize a place. A welcome sign may index a tourist destination, artistic arrangements of word blocks like “love”, “peace”, or “joy” may index consumption and leisure spaces, multilingual signage may index a cosmopolitan space, and the absence of language may suggest the quiet luxury of the super-rich.As these examples suggest, Adam’s focus, often in collaboration with his colleague Crispin Thurlow, has been on privileged mobilities: European tourists in West Africa, business class travelers, and those frequenting the consumption temples of our time, upmarket shopping malls.Such research is vital to understanding the intersection between language and inequality, as Adam explains in our interview. Privilege is the other side of the inequality coin, and a side that sociolinguists have often neglected.First published on January 17, 2022. “Chats in Linguistic Diversity” is a podcast about linguistic diversity in social life brought to you by the Language on the Move team. We explore multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hanna Torsh speaks with Ingrid Gogolin about linguistic diversity in education.Why is linguistic diversity important in creating educational equity? How is the migrant experience different across different nations? How does the perception of national identity impact on migrant inclusion? How can research help us better understand and promote educational equity?First published on July 21, 2023.“Chats in Linguistic Diversity” is a podcast about linguistic diversity in social life brought to you by the Language on the Move team. We explore multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Loy Lising speaks with Ofelia García about translanguaging.The conversation addresses 3 big questions: What is translanguaging? How is translanguaging different from codeswitching? What are the pedagogical implications of translanguaging? How can we engage those who are uncomfortable with translanguaging because to them it distracts from the objective of ensuring that language learners learn languages as proficiently as they can, for full social and economic participation in society?First published on July 28, 2023.“Chats in Linguistic Diversity” is a podcast about linguistic diversity in social life brought to you by the Language on the Move team. We explore multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices