“The founder of Bilingualism Matters and professor of developmental linguistics talks about the common misconceptions around language learning and why children should be taught another language as early as possible Interview by Julia Belgutay” © TESconnect 24 May 2013
Click here for the entire interview.
“Scots are among the worst in Europe when it comes to learning foreign languages. The Scottish Government wants all pupils to be taught not one, but two new languages before they reach secondary school, and the issue will be discussed tomorrow at Holyrood …” © Scotland Tonight, STV News, 10 May 2013
To watch the full news item, click here.
Click here to read the full article in Ignites Europe (© Financial Times Ltd, 19 March 2013).
Note that signing up to a (free 2-week trial) subscription is needed to view the article.
This week in the Financial Times, Andrew Hill talks to Professor Antonella Sorace about the importance of languages in business.
Bilingualism Matters recently partnered the Financial Times in setting up a roundtable discussion on this topic. Many companies value the practical language skills of multilingual employees – need someone to respond to a customer complaint in German? Check! Need to show round a group of visiting delegates from China? Check! What many business leaders are less aware of, however, is the cognitive benefits of speaking more than one language.
For example, research by Professor Sorace, amongst others, suggests that people who can communicate in more than one language are better at paying attention to a particular task, are more adaptable and better able to take on board the perspectives of other people.
The key here is that bilingualism is about communication, rather than perfect fluency. You don’t have to have spoken a language from birth in order for it to be a valuable business asset. Simply the fact that you are able to use a second language, no matter when you learnt it, will bring you huge advantages in the business world.
You can read the full article on the Financial times website Financial Times: The Multilingual Dividend
Watch a TV clip about the launch of the Sardinian branch of Bilingualism Matters on the Sardinian TV channel Videolina, 27 November 2012.
By CHRIS MARSHALL
Published in The Scotsman on Wednesday 14 November 2012 11:52
“SCOTS have fared worst in a Europe-wide initiative designed to foster bilingualism.
The study, which was led by the University of Edinburgh and backed by the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), recruited 25 monolingual families from five European countries. […]” Read the entire article here.
A study by the University of Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences has shown that Scots have fared worst in a Europe-wide initiative to develop bilingualism. BBC Radio Scotland has been speaking to lead researcher Professor Antonella Sorace.
“Professor Antonella Sorace talks about her life long research into the importance of bilingualism to the brain. Her talk, 2 languages in 1 brain illustrates some of the messages she is trying to get out and breaks down some of the myths she wants to discourage. It really is good for you, learn some new language today.” © Ragged University, 12 June 2012.
Listen to Prof Sorace’s presentation at the Edinburgh Short Film Festival here.
“FIUME – Questa settimana la nota linguista italiana Antonella Sorace, professoressa di Developmental linguistics all’Università di Edimburgo, terrà tre conferenze incentrate sul bilinguismo nell’età infantile, nell’ambito della collaborazione tra l’Ateneo scozzese e quello fiumano. Le conferenze sono state annunciate dal preside della facoltà di Filosofia, Predrag Suštar, dal vicerettore dell’Università di Fiume, Damir Zec, da Maja Brala-Vukanović, responsabile del dipartimento di Anglistica della suddetta facoltà, nonché dalla sua collega Tihana Kraš, coordinatrice del contratto Erasmus tra le due Università. […]”
© La Voce del Popolo, 16 April 2012
Read the entire article in Italian here.
Bilingualism Matters was on the Greek news when we launched our branch in Thessaloniki in January 2012. Click on the image below to watch the news clip (in Greek & English).
