Studies in Bilingualism

Catalog description

This class involves a survey of classical and contemporary psycholinguistic literature as it pertains to bilingual speakers (both children and adults). The ways in which languages can be acquired and be represented will be reviewed in preparation for understanding how language and communication disorders might manifest in bilingual speakers. Several critical articles on the study of bilingualism will be discussed, under the following headings: (1) psycholinguistics from a cross language perspective, (2) early bilingual development (3) the bilingual brain (4) learning to reading in more than one script and (5) the cognitive impact of bilingualism. In addition, students will be engaged in discussions regarding the nature of bilingual language skills, the role of language in second language learning and how these factors impact assessment and treatment of language and communication disorders.