Expert Research

Find out what experts in the field of linguistics and multilingualism have to say.

Bilingual Children

Ten Key Factors Influencing Successful Multilingualism (pdf)
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa helps families raising multilingual children understand which factors they have an influence over and which factors are in nature's hands.

Bilingualism and Cognitive Development (pdf)
These studies by Ellen Bialystok examine the effect of bilingualism on cognitive development for children between the ages of four and eight years old. The research has shown that bilingual children have more advanced problem-solving ability than comparable monolingual children at the same developmental stage.

Acquisition of Literacy Skills (pdf)
These studies by Ellen Bialystok explore the conditions under which children learn to read, the cognitive and linguistic skills that are prerequisite for literacy, and the different factors that are involved in learning to read in different languages, especially when the languages use different writing systems.

Bilingualism

An Interview of François Grosjean on Bilingualism (pdf)
François Grosjean answers questions about his own life with two languages, his research, and his publications.

Individual Bilingualism (pdf)
François Grosjean writes about adult bilinguals and their language knowledge, communication, attitudes, behaviors, and personality.

Bilingualism and Cognitive Aging (pdf)
These studies by Ellen Bialystok and others have shown that the bilingual advantage found in adulthood increases in magnitude with age as bilinguals maintain higher levels of cognitive control beyond 60 years old.

Alicia Pousada's Publications
Alicia Pousada writes about bilingualism and language planning.

Linguistic Diversity in School

Linguistic Diversity in Classrooms
Elizabeth Coelho outlines the benefits of incorporating students' languages into the school environment and offers practical suggestions for making linguistic diversity an asset in school. Includes webcasts and print materials.

About the Experts

Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa studied her Master's of Education in International Development at Harvard University and since 1997 has facilitated workshops for families, companies and professional educators on themes of language development, brain-based learning, learning styles, critical thinking and teaching methods and strategies. Tracey speaks and writes in English and Spanish fluently, knows conversational French, some Japanese, and basic German. She and her Ecuadorian husband are raising three multilingual children in English, Spanish, German and French. She is the author of Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children (2000) and The Multilingual Mind: Questions by, for and about people living with many languages (2003).

Ellen Bialystok is Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada and Associate Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute of the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. Much of her research has focused on the effect of bilingualism on children's language and cognitive development, showing accelerated mastery of specific cognitive processes for bilingual children. This research has recently been extended to investigations of adult processing and found that lifelong bilingualism protects older adults from cognitive decline with aging. She is the author of over 100 scientific papers and six books, including Bilingualism in Development, Language, Literacy, and Cognition (2001) which examines the language and cognitive development of bilingual children focusing primarily on the preschool years.

François Grosjean is Professor of Psycholinguistics and Director of the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory at Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland. He is the author of Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism.

Alicia Pousada is Professor of Linguistics in the English Department of the College of Humanities of the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. Her primary research and teaching interests are language policy and planning, bilingualism, language awareness, language acquisition, language and gender, and teaching English as a Second Language.

Elizabeth Coelho is an expert in second language learning and teaching in multilingual and multicultural classrooms. Her latest book is Adding English: A Guide to Teaching in Multilingual Classrooms. She is currently Student Achievement Officer with the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat of the Ontario Ministry of Education in Toronto, Canada.

The content above is presented with permission of the experts cited.