LIGN177-Multilingualism
Tu & Thu, 9:30-10:50 a.m. WLH2204
Instructor: Sharon Rose
Office hours: Wed. 9:30-11:00am, AP&M4157
TA: Leslie Lee
Office hours: Thurs. 2:30-4pm AP&M 3302E
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About the course
Multilingualism can be studied from a number of angles: language
acquisition, sentence processing, speech perception, neurolinguistics and
sociolinguistics. This course examines multilingualism from a sociolinguistic
angle. We will focus on language choice, both in the individual and in society.
Language choice can affect the acquisition path – whether an individual
becomes and remains bilingual or multilingual is impacted
by external socio-cultural pressure. Code-switching,
or using one or more languages simultaneously, can be one by-product of
multilingualism, but so can language attrition, or eroded competence in one or
more languages. Language contact is a fact of multilingual society, and various
outcomes are possible: stable bilingualism, the development of pidgins, creoles
or mixed languages, or language death. Societies make official decisions about
language use, known as language planning
or language policy Some
languages are promoted as official languages, while minority languages may or
may not be supported, and in some cases are oppressed. Language planning impacts education and literacy in fundamental ways; societal
attitudes towards multilingualism help foster or hinder bilingual education.