"Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers."
Explains what multilingualism is and the different forms of multilingualism.
Definition and Scope of Multilingualism: Understanding the basic concept and extent of multilingualism, how it varies across cultures, and why it is important to study it.
Historical and Sociolinguistic Perspectives: Examining the historical and sociolinguistic aspects of multilingualism, understanding how it emerged over time in different countries and cultures, and analyzing the social, political, and cultural factors that shape its use today.
Types of Multilingualism: Identifying different types of multilingualism, such as individual, societal, and institutional multilingualism, understanding their various characteristics, and how they can potentially be used.
Language Contact and Borrowing: Understanding the concept of language contact and borrowing, examining how it affects the development of multilingualism, and exploring the sociolinguistic benefits and drawbacks of language borrowing.
Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Identifying the differences and similarities between bilingualism and multilingualism, understanding their relationships, and analyzing their potential impact on individuals and societies.
Language Acquisition and Learning: Understanding how multilingualism affects language acquisition, identifying different language learning strategies, and exploring the factors that shape language learning.
Language Policy and Planning: Examining language policy and planning, analyzing different approaches and models of language policy, and understanding how language planning affects multilingualism.
Language Rights and Social Justice: Exploring issues of language rights and social justice, understanding the potential impact of language policies on marginalized groups, and analyzing the role of language in promoting social equality.
Multilingual Education: Understanding the concept of multilingual education, identifying different types of educational models, and exploring the benefits and challenges of multilingual education.
Technology and Multilingualism: Examining the role of technology in facilitating multilingualism, understanding how technology can promote or hinder language use, and exploring new trends and tools related to multilingualism.
Sociolinguistic Definition: This definition focuses on the social contexts and relationships that influence language use and proficiency among individuals and communities. It emphasizes the role of culture, identity, power, and resources in shaping multilingualism.
Psycholinguistic Definition: This definition examines the cognitive and neural processes involved in multilingual acquisition, processing, and use. It investigates the effects of age, context, language transfer, and language aptitude on multilingualism.
Educational Definition: This definition concerns with the roles and goals of education in promoting multilingualism as a means of enhancing linguistic, cultural, and social diversity, as well as building global competence and citizenship.
Economic Definition: This definition focuses on the economic benefits and costs of multilingualism in terms of labor market outcomes, business competitiveness, innovation, and trade.
Political Definition: This definition relates to the policies and practices of governments and international organizations in recognizing, protecting, and promoting multilingualism as a human right, cultural asset, and means of democratic participation, social inclusion, and peacebuilding.
Linguistic Definition: This definition deals with the nature, structure, and functions of multilingualism as a linguistic phenomenon that involves the use of two or more languages by individuals and groups in various contexts and domains, including bilingualism, code-switching, multilingual literacy, and language contact.
Historical Definition: This definition focuses on the evolution and dynamics of multilingualism over time and space, including its origins, spread, decline, maintenance, and revival in different societies and cultures, as well as its intersection with colonialism, globalization, migration, and multi-ethnicity.
Pedagogical Definition: This definition refers to the methods, approaches, and techniques used in multilingual education, such as immersion, bilingual education, content and language integrated learning, and heritage language maintenance and development.
Ideological Definition: This definition explores the beliefs, attitudes, and values associated with multilingualism, such as linguistic nationalism, linguistic relativism, linguistic hegemony, and linguistic diversity.
Anthropological Definition: This definition studies multilingualism as a cultural practice that reflects and shapes social structures, beliefs, values, and identities of diverse communities, as well as their relationships with their environment, history, and other cultures.
"It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population."
"More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue."
"But many read and write in one language."
"Multilingualism is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness."
"Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible."
"People who speak several languages are also called polyglots."
"Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1)."
"The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired without formal education, by mechanisms about which scholars disagree."
"Children acquiring two languages natively from these early years are called simultaneous bilinguals."
"It is common for young simultaneous bilinguals to be more proficient in one language than the other."
"People who speak more than one language have been reported to be better at language learning when compared to monolinguals."
"Multilingualism in computing can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization."
"Due to the status of English in computing, software development nearly always uses it."
"Some commercial software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the English original."