The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism

John W. Schwieter, John W. Schwieter

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119387756
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The definitive guide to 21 st century investigations of multilingual neuroscience

The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism provides a comprehensive survey of neurocognitive investigations of multiple-language speakers. Prominent scholar John W. Schwieter offers a unique collection of works from globally recognized researchers in neuroscience, psycholinguistics, neurobiology, psychology, neuroimaging, and others, to provide a multidisciplinary overview of relevant topics. Authoritative coverage of state-of-the-art research provides readers with fundamental knowledge of significant theories and methods, language impairments and disorders, and neural representations, functions, and processes of the multilingual brain.

Focusing on up-to-date theoretical and experimental research, this timely handbook explores new directions of study and examines significant findings in the rapidly evolving field of multilingual neuroscience. Discussions on the bilingual advantage debate, recovery and rehabilitation patterns in multilingual aphasia, and the neurocognitive effects of multilingualism throughout the lifespan allow informed investigation of contemporary issues.

• Presents the first handbook-length examination of the neuroscience and neurolinguistics of multilingualism
• Demonstrates how neuroscience and multilingualism intersect several areas of research, such as neurobiology and experimental psychology
• Includes works from prominent international scholars and researchers to provide global perspective
• Reflects cutting-edge research and promising areas of future study in the dynamic field of multilingual neuroscience

The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism is an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in areas including multilingualism, psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, and cognitive science. This versatile work is also an indispensable addition to the classroom, providing advanced undergraduate and graduate students a thorough overview of the field.

Part I
Theories and Methods

1
Defining and Assessing Multilingualism

KEES DE BOT

1. Introduction

In the Western world, monolingualism used to be considered the rule and bilingualism the exception. This belief, which is also reflected in language policy and the treatment of minorities, is not based on the actual situation. There are 30 times more languages than countries, so although there may be a few countries that are monolingual, many are not. Monolingual countries certainly do not exist if we also take dialect differences into account. In addition, 70% of the world's population speak 12% of languages; there are thus only a few ‘big’ languages: Chinese, Spanish and English score high, but so too do Hindi and Panjabi/Urdu.

When looking at universal scale, there is every reason to assume that, numerically, multilingualism is the rule, and monolingualism is the exception. Nevertheless, for a large part of the Western population, there remains the perception that monolingualism is the ‘normal’ and desirable situation.

In this handbook, various forms of multilingualism are presented. This chapter focuses on how multilingualism should be defined and how it can be assessed. One of the main points will be that multilingualism should be viewed as a dynamic process rather than a state. Zhao and Li (2010) point to the impact of dynamic language competition as a major force in language development. They view transfer and interaction between languages as dynamic processes, not states. This is a clear break from traditional perspectives on interlanguage (see Bialystok and Sharwood Smith 1985, for a comparison of views).

2. Defining Multilingualism

A distinction should be made between multilingualism at the individual/psycholinguistic level and multilingualism at the group/sociolinguistic level.

Multilingual groups do not necessarily consist of multilingual individuals. A well‐known example is Belgium, officially multilingual (Dutch/French/German), yet most of its citizens are essentially monolingual with only a rudimentary level of proficiency in the other languages. Given the main theme of this volume, the sociolinguistic perspective is not discussed here any further.

There are many definitions of bi/multilingualism. A simple definition could be: ‘use of two or more languages by a language user’. Such a definition faces interpretative problems. An obvious one is: what is one language? Or: what is a language? Is it a set of rules and a list of words, or is it a code in which members of a particular social group communicate with each other, or more fundamentally a symbol of the group to which someone belongs? Actually, it's all of those things and a definition based on just one is insufficient. What exactly is one language? Is a speaker of a dialect who also uses the standard language according to that definition not bilingual? The same holds for different styles and registers in a language or dialect. One solution might be to ask the linguist to draw up a set of criteria that defines two language systems, so they can be named as different languages. Unfortunately, that is not a solution; there are no hard criteria for determining the difference between languages or between languages and dialects (Otheguy et al. 2015). The boundaries that register within a language, between different dialects of a language and even between languages are not clear. In addition, there is a problem with the amount of knowledge one should have of another language system to count as bilingual. One can count the number of strange words that someone knows or the number and difficulty of grammatical rules that one has learned, but that does not tell us very much about language usage and the language user's own estimation. A Dutchman who knows 300 English words and five constructions for simple sentences will probably find himself more bilingual and able to do much more with that knowledge than a Dutchman who knows 300 Moroccan‐Arabic words and five sentence constructions, mainly because he can borrow from his first language (L1) for English, but hardly for Arabic.

The solution to the problem should not be sought in formal criteria but in conventions. The Dutch language is not what is found in dictionaries or reference grammar, but what the speakers of that language system think is good. When speakers of a specific Dutch dialect consider themselves able to speak a dialect of Dutch, this is the case, even though the dialect researcher may show that the dialect has as many characteristics of German as Dutch. Here we will be following as a definition: multilingualism is the daily use of two or more languages. In the following sections, this will be elaborated by considering why people are of become multilingual, what the role of language contact is, and to what extent multilingualism is a system that can grow or decline depending on the type and amount of use.

3. Why Is Someone Multilingual?

Though this is not an issue that comes up frequently in neuropsychological research, a relevant question is ‘Why is someone bilingual/multilingual?’ The answer to this question, the reason for multilingualism, is actually quite simple: ‘Because one language is not enough’. Apart from some polyglots or other language lovers, people do not just add a new language to their repertoire. There is always a pragmatic reason, and almost always that motive will be socioeconomic in nature: one can improve oneself or one’s children in a socioeconomic sense. In some communities, multilingualism is the norm and children grow up with two or more languages, but even then, there is a motive: with only one language the child cannot participate in daily activities.

The reasons why people become multilingual are also relevant from a neurological perspective: the age at which they learn a new language, the amount of time they invest into learning it, the modality used, the degree to which they lose it (see Bahrick 1984), and the way it is acquired or learned. All these factors have been shown to have an impact on cognitive processing and in the structure of specific parts of the brain. The recent interest in the ‘bilingual advantage’ suggests that multilingualism has a moderating effect on age‐related cognitive decline and leads to a delay of onset of dementia by several years. This may have inspired people worrying about cognitive decline with age, to pick up learning a new language just for the benefits mentioned, but whether learning another language at a later age has the same effects as being bilingual or multilingual from birth, is still a matter of debate.

The need for skills in more than one language may also be temporary, e.g. related to a stay abroad or working conditions. On return, there is no need to use that language anymore, it will not be used at all, and will become lost to some degree. This happens with members of the Latter Day Saints congregation: as part of their education, young men and women are sent to foreign countries to proselytize.They are trained to a very high level of proficiency and sent to a country that may not be their own choice at all. They will live in that country for some time and continue their language learning. Once they come back, they will completely stop using the language they used abroad. Research by Lynne Hansen and her colleagues at University in Hawaii has shown that there is indeed substantial attrition...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Editor
• About the Contributors
• Special Foreword
• Overview of the Handbook
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: Theories and Methods
• Part II: Neural Representations
• Part III: Functions and Processes
• Part IV: Impairments and Disorders
• Part V: Cognitive and Neurocognitive Consequences
• Index
• End User License Agreement