Multilingualism Across The Lifespan

AY2016/2017 Semester 1

The course will focus on critical topics that affect multilingual individuals in multilingual communities across the lifespan. The approach is interdisciplinary as the readings will be drawn from psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and education. The students will read advanced theoretical discussion of multilingualism as a phenomenon and reflect on why the current research scope needs to be extended to include multilinguals and not just bilinguals. The primary focus of the course is on evaluating how multilingualism alters our perception of the world from a cognitive perspective. However, the importance of social contexts and its modulating impact on cognition will be a central theme in this course. The readings will also be geared towards an in depth understanding of the methodological concerns in the field.. At the end of the course, students will be more able to ask incisive questions relevant to the field and develop a topic for research. Upon completion of this course, the students will be able to pursue their own data collection for their own independent research in a multilingual context.