Elective course - The psycholinguistics of bilingualism and multilingualism -sem.1

In this course, we'll explore the world of bilingual and multilingual speakers through two primary psycholinguistic lenses: language development and language processing and production. The classes will be divided into blocks, covering: language acquisition in bi-& multilingual children, cognitive control and bi-& multilingual language processing, issues in assessing language skills in bi-& multilinguals.

The topics for this course are grounded in psycholinguistic research on bilingual (and when available, multilingual) language acquisition and processing. There will be an obligatory reading for every class which will serve as a starting-point and a basis for the topic discussed in class. Each class, the students will also review one study that explored a particular issue and we are going to discuss its results. Some of the questions we are going to answer in this course include: "Do bilinguals and monolinguals reach early developmental milestones at the same time?" "Are the two (or more) languages represented in separate or in overlapping systems"? "Do interactions between languages facilitate or impede language production?" "Why is cognitive advantage in bi-& multilingual controversial"? "Why is it difficult to assess bi- & multilinguals language competences?"

Topics:

1. The definition and types of bilingual and multilingual speakers.

2. Hearing two or more languages in infancy.

3. Separate or overlapping systems in the mind?

4. The role of language input in bi- and multilingual language acquisition and use.

5. Monolingual vs. bilingual vs. multilingual language development

6. Issues in assessing language development in bilingual and multilingual children

7. Two or more languages in contact: Contact language phenomena

8. Cognitive effects of bilingualism: Co-activation of languages in the mind

9. Cognitive effects of bilingualism: Plasticity of the language system

10. Cognitive effects of bilingualism: Consequences for executive functioning

11. Criticism of bilingual “cognitive advantage”

12. Bilingualism and Thought

13. Not only two languages, but two modalities: bimodal bilingualism

14. Once a bilingual, always a bilingual? Language attrition

15. Students’ presentations of their own research proposals (one or two classes,

depending on the number of students enrolled)

Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. (2009). Bilingual Minds.

Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10(3), 89–129. http://doi.org/10.1177/1529100610387084.

De Houwer, A. (2009). Language learning in the first year at the intersection of interaction, socialization and maturation. In De Houwer, A. (Ed.) Bilingual First Language Acquisition, Multilingual Matters. (some chapters)

Grosjean, F. (2008) Studying bilinguals. Oxford University Press. Chapter 2. Grosjean, F. The Bilingual Advantage: Where Do We Go From Here? (n.d.).

Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201601/the-bilingual-advantage-where-do-we-go-here

Hoff, E. (2017). How bilingual development is the same as and different from monolingual development. OLBI Working Papers, 8. Retrieved from https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ojs/index.php/ILOB-OLBI/article/view/2114

Kroll, J. F., & De Groot, A. M. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford University Press. (some chapters)

Sharon Armon-Lotem. (2012). Introduction: Bilingual children with SLI – the nature of the problem. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, pp 14,

doi:10.1017/S1366728911000599

Presenting one research paper in class (20%)

Presenting own idea for a study with a chosen research question (20%)

Final term exam (60%)