Language and Aging in Multilingual Contexts

Language and Aging in Multilingual Contexts
Author: Kees De Bot
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781853598401

In this book different aspects of language and aging are discussed. While language spoken by and language spoken with elderly people have been treated as different areas of research, it is argued here that from a dynamical system perspective the two are closely interrelated. In addition to overviews of research on language and aging, a number of projects on this topic in multilingual settings are presented.

Multilingualism and Ageing

Multilingualism and Ageing
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004445803

Multilingualism and Ageing provides an overview of research on a large range of topics relating to language processing and language use from a life-span perspective. It is unique in covering and combining psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches, discussing questions such as: Is it beneficial to speak more than one language when growing old? How are languages processed in multilingual persons, and how does this change over time? What happens to language and communication in multilingual aphasia or dementia? How is multilingual ageing portrayed in the media? Multilingualism and Ageing is a joint, cross-disciplinary venture of researchers from the Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan at The University of Oslo and the editors of this publication.

Third language acquisition

Third language acquisition
Author: Camilla Bardel
Publisher: Language Science Press
Total Pages: 276
Release:
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3961102805

This book deals with the phenomenon of third language (L3) acquisition. As a research field, L3 acquisition is established as a branch of multilingualism that is concerned with how multilinguals learn additional languages and the role that their multilingual background plays in the process of language learning. The volume points out some current directions in this particular research area with a number of studies that reveal the complexity of multilingual language learning and its typical variation and dynamics. The eight studies gathered in the book represent a wide range of theoretical positions and offer empirical evidence from learners belonging to different age groups, and with varying levels of proficiency in the target language, as well as in other non-native languages belonging to the learner’s repertoire. Diverse linguistic phenomena and language combinations are viewed from a perspective where all previously acquired languages have a potential role to play in the process of learning a new language. In the six empirical studies, contexts of language learning in school or at university level constitute the main outlet for data collection. These studies involve several language backgrounds and language combinations and focus on various linguistic features. The specific target languages in the empirical studies are English, French and Italian. The volume also includes two theoretical chapters. The first one conceptualizes and describes the different types of multilingual language learning investigated in the volume: i) third or additional language learning by learners who are bilinguals from an early age, and ii) third or additional language learning by people who have previous experience of one or more non-native languages learned after the critical period. In particular, issues related to the roles played by age and proficiency in multilingual acquisition are discussed. The other theoretical chapter conceptualizes the grammatical category of aspect, reviewing previous studies on second and third language acquisition of aspect. Different models for L3 learning and their relevance and implications for representations of aspect and for potential differences in the processing of second and third language acquisition are also examined in this chapter. As a whole, the book presents current research into third or additional language learning by young learners or adults, considering some of the most important factors for the complex process of multilingual language learning: the age of onset of the additional language and that of previously acquired languages, social and affective factors, instruction, language proficiency and literacy, the typology of the background languages and the role they play in shaping syntax, lexicon, and other components of a L3. The idea for this book emanates from the symposium Multilingualism, language proficiency and age, organized by Camilla Bardel and Laura Sánchez at Stockholm University, Department of Language Education, in December 2016.

The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition

The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition
Author: David Michael Singleton
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781853593017

This book takes a hard look at some of the assumptions that are customarily made concerning the role of age in second language acquisition. The evidence and arguments the contributors present run counter to the notion that an early start in second language learning is of itself either absolutely sufficient or necessary for the attainment of native-like mastery of a second language. Another theme of the book is a doubt that there is a particular stage of maturity beyond which language learning is no longer fully possible. In short, the book presents a challenge to those who take it as given that second language learning is inevitably different in its essential nature from language acquisition in the childhood years and that second language knowledge acquired beyond the critical period is in all circumstances and in all respects doomed to fossilize at a non-native-like level.

Multilingualism and Creativity

Multilingualism and Creativity
Author: Anatoliy V. Kharkhurin
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2012-09-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1847697968

In this monograph, Anatoliy V. Kharkhurin presents the results of his empirical investigation into the impact of multilingual practice on an individual's creative potential. Until now, the relationship between these two activities has received little attention in the academic community. The book makes an attempt to resuscitate this theme and provides a solid theoretical framework supported by contemporary empirical research conducted in a variety of geographic, linguistic, and sociocultural locations. This study demonstrates that several factors - such as the multilinguals' age of language acquisition, proficiency in these languages and experience with cultural settings in which these languages were acquired - have a positive impact on selective attention and language mediated concept activation mechanisms. Together, these facilitate generative and innovative capacities of creative thinking. This book will be of great interest not only to scholars in the fields of multilingualism and creativity, but also to educators and all those interested in enhancing foreign language learning and fostering creativity.

Growing Old with Two Languages

Growing Old with Two Languages
Author: Ellen Bialystok
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2017-08-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027265399

This collection brings together two areas of research that are currently receiving great attention in both scientific and public spheres: cognitive aging and bilingualism. With ongoing media focus on the aging population and the need for activities to forestall cognitive decline, experiences that appear effective in maintaining functioning are of great interest. One such experience is lifelong bilingualism. Moreover, research into the cognitive effects of bilingualism has increased dramatically in the past decade, making it an exciting area of study. This volume combines these issues and presents the most recent research and thinking into the effects of bilingualism on cognitive decline in aging. The contributors are all leading scholars in their field. The result is a state-of-the art collection on the effect of bilingualism on cognition in older populations for both healthy aging and aging with dementia. The papers will be of interest to researchers, students, and health professionals.

Multilingualism in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Multilingualism in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age
Author: Albrecht Classen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2016-09-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110471442

Bi- and multilingualism are of great interest for contemporary linguists since this phenomenon deeply reflects on language acquisition, language use, and sociolinguistic conditions in many different circumstances all over the world. Multilingualism was, however, certainly rather common already, if not especially, in the premodern world. For some time now, research has started to explore this issue through a number of specialized studies. The present volume continues with the investigation of multilingualism through a collection of case studies focusing on important examples in medieval and early modern societies, that is, in linguistic and cultural contact zones, such as England, Spain, the Holy Land, but also the New World. As all contributors confirm, the numerous cases of multilingualism discussed here indicate strongly that the premodern period knew considerably less barriers between people of different social classes, cultural background, and religious orientation. But we also have to acknowledge that already then human communication could fail because of linguistic hurdles which prevented mutual understanding in religious and cultural terms.

Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language

Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language
Author: María del Pilar García Mayo
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2003-05-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1788920384

This book provides an overview of current research on the age factor in foreign language learning, addressing issues, which are critical for language planning. It presents new research on foreign language learning within bilingual communities in formal instruction settings focussing on syntax, phonology, writing, oral skills and learning strategies.

Drama of Multilingualism

Drama of Multilingualism
Author: Gabrijela Aleksić
Publisher: Advances in Cultural Psychology: Constructing Human Development
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021
Genre: Language and culture
ISBN: 9781648026218

"This book is a literature review of important topics in studying multilingualism: dynamic multilingualism, translanguaging, language policy, bilingual education, and bilingualism and cognition. Being an immigrant herself, the author integrated her personal (dramatic) experience around most of the topics to show how they influence the lives of immigrants around the globe"--

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Author: David Michael Singleton
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781853597572

The authors examine the evidence relative to the idea that there is an age factor in first & second language acquisition & goes on to explore the various explanations that have been advanced to account for such evidence. Finally, it looks at educational ramifications of the age question.