Mysteries of Bilingualism - Unresolved Issues

Eleven critical issues in the study of bilingualism: Insightful analyses by renowned expert François Grosjean
 
The majority of people living around the world today are able to speak more than one language, yet many aspects of the nature and experience of bilingualism raise unresolved questions for researchers. Who exactly is bilingual? What is the extent of bilingualism? How do infant bilinguals who acquire two languages at the same time manage to separate them? Does language processing work differently when bilinguals are interacting with monolinguals and with bilinguals? When a speaker changes their language, do they also change aspects of their personality?
 
In The Mysteries of Bilingualism, eminent scholar François Grosjean provides a comprehensive examination of individual bilingualism that delves into unanswered questions and challenges many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding bilingualism. Through insightful analyses of eleven key questions, this book offers a unique combination of personal reflection, literature review, personal testimony, and case studies to explore these mysteries. Altogether, this text offers:
* Comprehensive explorations of the linguistic aspects of bilingualism, including who is bilingual, describing bilinguals, accented speech, and language loss
* Practical discussions of speech and language processing, including language choice and mixed speech perception and production
* In-depth examinations of personality and culture in relation to bilingualism and biculturalism
 
Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students of bilingualism, multilingualism, second language acquisition, and applied linguistics, The Mysteries of Bilingualism offers an up-to-date view of the leading research questions in the study of bilingualism today.

Sommario

Author Biography vii
 
Introduction 1
 
Part I Bilingual Adults and Children 5
 
1 Who Is Bilingual? 7
 
Definitions and Their Evolution 8
 
Describing Bilinguals 11
 
2 How Many Bilinguals Are There? 18
 
The Extent of Bilingualism 18
 
On the Difficulties of Counting People Who Are Bilingual 20
 
The Proportion of Bilinguals in a Number of Countries 23
 
Estimating the Percentage of Bilinguals in the World 27
 
3 Bilingual Infants' Journey to Language Separation 30
 
Perception Studies 31
 
Taking Pragmatics into Account 38
 
A Brief Account of Language Separation 40
 
Part II Linguistics and Neurolinguistics 43
 
4 Having an Accent in One of Your Languages 45
 
General Aspects 45
 
The Phonetic Characteristics of Accents 46
 
How Well Is Accented Speech Understood? 48
 
Factors that Affect the Degree of a Foreign Accent 50
 
Accent in a Third Language 55
 
5 Language Loss in Adults and Children 59
 
Language Loss in Adults 59
 
Language Loss in Young Children 63
 
6 Brain Injury and Bilingualism 72
 
A Personal Testimony 73
 
Language Impairment and Recovery in Bilingual Aphasia 74
 
Factors that Account for Impairment and Recovery 78
 
A Recent Meta-Analysis 81
 
Language Mixing and Aphasia 82
 
Part III Language Use and Language Processing 87
 
7 The Bilingual's Languages in Interaction 89
 
Choosing the Language of the Interaction 89
 
What Role for the Other Language? 92
 
Experimental Work on Language Mixing 94
 
The Language Mode Concept 97
 
8 What a Bilingual's Languages Are Used For 102
 
What Past Research Has Revealed 103
 
Recent Interest in Bilingual Language Use 104
 
Measuring Bilingual Language Use 106
 
Impact of Bilingual Language Use 109
 
9 Is Language Processing in Bilinguals Selective or Non-selective? 117
 
Language Perception and Comprehension 118
 
Spoken Language Production 122
 
Part IV Biculturalism and Personality 129
 
10 Bilinguals Who Are also Bicultural 131
 
Describing Biculturals 131
 
Becoming Bicultural and the Evolution of Biculturalism over Time 134
 
Acting Biculturally 137
 
Bicultural Identity 141
 
11 Change of Language, Change of Personality? 146
 
Opinions and Beliefs 147
 
Pioneering Research on the Question 147
 
Feeling Different When Using Different Languages 150
 
Is a Change of Personality Involved When Changing Languages? 152
 
An Explanation 154
 
Index 159

Info autore

François Grosjean is Professor Emeritus at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He is the author or co-author of many books on bilingualism, including The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism (Wiley Blackwell, 2012; with Ping Li) and The Listening Bilingual: Speech Perception, Comprehension and Bilingualism (Wiley Blackwell, 2018; with Krista Byers-Heinlein). He is also the founder of the popular Psychology Today blog "Life as a Bilingual".

Relazione

"The Mysteries of Bilingualism is an engaging and user-friendly discussion of some of the significant issues surrounding bilingualism that have pre-occupied researchers and perplexed laypersons for many years."
--Fred Genesee (2022), Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
 
"In every respect, this book is a well-timed contribution to bilingualism. It highlights some pending questions about bilingualism, which shed light on future studies to explore the unsettled issues inthis domain."
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--Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching
 
"The research problems surveyed in this book offer students of bilingualism and second language learning a guide for designing their own research program, one that keeps an eye on the pending questions. Practitioners will be well served by the review of recent work that updates ongoing projects from years past."
--Issues in Applied Linguistics, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 22 - 29
 
"... this book should prove valuable for both novice and experienced researchers who are interested in an overall view of bilingualism or in one of the eleven issues that comprise the book."
--System, Volume 111, December 2022, 102947
 
"François Grosjean's renowned expertise in the world of bilingualism is on display in this welcome addition to the field."
--Linguist List, 34.518, 2023

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: François Grosjean, Francois (University of Neuchatel Grosjean
• Editore: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 17.03.2022
• EAN: 9781119602378
• ISBN: 978-1-119-60237-8
• Pagine: 176
• Categorie: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Scienze linguistiche e letterarie > Linguistica generale e comparata; Zweisprachigkeit, Psycholinguistik, Angewandte Linguistik, Linguistics, Sprachwissenschaften, Applied Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Bilingualism