Life in a New Language

Ingrid Piller is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, and founding editor of Language on the Move.Donna Butorac is a Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator of Anthropology and Sociology at Curtin University, Perth.Emily Farrell is the Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis.Loy Lising is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney.Shiva Motaghi-Tabari is an Honorary Research Fellow in Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney.Vera Williams Tetteh is an Honorary Research Fellow in Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney.

• Acknowledgments. Or: The story of this bookNote on pseudonyms, transcription, and translationList of participantsList of abbreviationsChapter 1: "Swimming poor in a raging river." Doing things with words in a new languageChapter 2: "English opens all the doors in the world." Arriving in a new languageChapter 3: "In my world, no one's got a job with an Australian company." Looking for work in a new languageChapter 4: "Our life is becoming colorful again." Finding a voice in a new languageChapter 5: "This is all for our children, for their future." Doing family in a new languageChapter 6: "Sometimes the White people get angry." Facing discrimination in a new languageChapter 7: "I have many faces." Self-making in a new languageChapter 8: Rethinking language and migrationHow to use this book in teachingReferences

Without any exaggeration this is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I am blown away by not only the variety of stories, but also how they are analyzed with keen insight and clear links to policy/planning, all without ever getting bogged down in academia-ese. I was even able to see myself in many of the stories, despite that I obviously came to Australia with both English background proficiency and the "non-immigrant" image you discuss in the text. Noting how others dealt with their experiences was eye-opening, and made me appreciate even further the hard work that goes in to joining a new community who speak a different language than you, or even a different English than the one you expect.