"Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers."
The study of how humans acquire and use two or more languages.
Definition of Bilingualism: Understanding what bilingualism means and how it differs from other related terms like multilingualism, language acquisition, and language learning.
Types of Bilingualism: Understanding the different types of bilingualism such as simultaneous, sequential, and elective bilingualism.
Cognitive Advantages of Bilingualism: Knowing the cognitive advantages associated with bilingualism, including enhanced cognitive control, executive functioning, and metalinguistic awareness.
Language Domains of Bilingualism: Understanding the ways in which bilingualism can affect the different language domains, including phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics.
Sociocultural Aspects of Bilingualism: Understanding the sociocultural aspects of bilingualism, such as language attitudes, language choice, language policy, language planning, and language identity.
Codeswitching: Understanding the phenomenon of codeswitching, how it occurs, and its role in bilingual communication.
Bilingual Language Development: Understanding the factors that influence bilingual language development, including age of onset, language exposure, language proficiency, language aptitude, and language use.
Bilingual Education: Understanding the goals, models, methods, and challenges of bilingual education, including immersion, additive, subtractive, and transitional bilingual education.
Language Processing in Bilinguals: Understanding how bilinguals process and use language, including lexical access, word recognition, sentence parsing, discourse comprehension, and language production.
Bilingualism and the Brain: Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying bilingualism, including the cognitive neuroscience of language, brain plasticity, and cognitive reserve.
Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: Understanding how bilingualism affects language use, language proficiency, and language maintenance across the lifespan.
Bilingualism and Language Disorders: Understanding the impact of bilingualism on language disorders, including language impairment, language delay, and language loss.
Bilingualism in Sociolinguistics: Understanding the role of bilingualism in sociolinguistics, including language contact, language variation, and language change.
Bilingualism and Globalization: Understanding the impact of bilingualism on globalization, language diversity, and cultural identity.
Bilingualism and Education Policy: Understanding the importance of bilingualism in education policy, including issues related to language rights, language access, and language equity.
Simultaneous Bilingualism: Refers to the state where a child learns two languages at the same time, from birth, and in the same environment. Both languages develop equally and fluently.
Sequential Bilingualism: Also called successive bilingualism. It refers to the process where a child learns a language after acquiring the first language. This can happen through immigration or adoption.
Coordinate Bilingualism: This refers to when an individual learns two languages separately but equally. There is no mixing of the languages.
Compound Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who learns two languages in one environment but mixes the languages.
Subordinate Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who learns one language first, and then learns the second language in a subservient role.
Receptive Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who is only fluent in one language but has a passive understanding of another language.
Productive Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who can use two languages fluently and has an active mastery of both languages.
Additive Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who learns a second language without any negative impact on their first language.
Subtractive Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who speaks one language (usually a minority language) at home but is forced to learn a second language (usually a majority language) in school or society. This can result in the loss of the first language.
Heritage Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who has learned a language from their cultural background.
Balanced Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who uses both languages equally in any given context.
Asymmetrical Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who is more proficient in one language than the other.
Passive Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who only understands a second language but does not speak it.
Dominant Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who is more fluent in one language than the other and tends to use the dominant language more frequently.
Neutral Bilingualism: This refers to an individual who is fluent in two languages and uses either language depending on the situation.
"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)."
"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."
"Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible."
"Multilingualism is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness."
"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."
"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."