Research participants wanted: Dutch-English bilingual families living in Edinburgh

April 29, 2016 by

Researchers studying child language development in Edinburgh are looking for families raising their children in Dutch and English to participate in their new study.

Study background

We are a group of researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Radboud University in the Netherlands. We are conducting a joint research project on bilingual children growing up with English and Dutch. This project aims to understand how patterns of exposure influence language development in children with two languages in their environment.

Children growing up with two languages are usually stronger in one language than the other. This is called language dominance. This is perfectly normal and often a consequence of the circumstances under which the child has contact with the languages in question.

In this project, we’re interested in finding out how to measure language dominance, to what extent patterns of language dominance are indeed related to the circumstances under which children acquire their two languages, and, more generally, how much contact a child needs with two languages in order to learn them both successfully.

Participant requirements

We are looking for children who are aged between 2 years and 4 years 11 months old, hear Dutch from one or both parents/caregivers, and have normal hearing and no known language impairment.

What’s involved?

  • Two sessions at home or at the University of Edinburgh Developmental lab (7 George Square). One session will take place in English with an English-speaking researcher and one session will take place in Dutch with a Dutch-speaking researcher.
  • Children will participate in a number of language ‘games’ with a research assistant (approximately 30 mins).
  • We will also video-record a 30-minute interaction between the child and parent playing together.
  • The Dutch-speaking parent will have a brief chat with the research assistant about the child’s language background, exposure and use (between 20 and 30 minutes; this could be arranged on a separate occasion, if preferred).
  • All results will be kept anonymous and treated confidentially. Video recordings will only be accessible to project members.
  • The study has received ethical approval from the University of Edinburgh ethics committee.

How to participate?

For further information or to sign up, please email Dr Barbora Skarabela or call the researchers on 0131 6504020.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Filed Under: News and events, Research participation Tagged With: , ,

Short-term language learning aids mental agility

April 28, 2016 by

Mental agility can be boosted by even a short period of learning a language, suggests a new study by Bilingualism Matters researchers.

Students aged 18 – 78 were tested on their attention levels before and after a one-week intensive Gaelic course on the Isle of Skye. Researchers compared these results with those of people who completed a one week course that did not involve learning a new language, and with a group who did not complete any course.

At the end of the week, participants on the language course performed significantly better than those who did not take any course. This improvement was found for learners of all ages, from 18 to 78 years. There was no difference between those who took a non-language course and those who took no course.

Researchers also found that these benefits could be maintained with regular practice. Nine months after the initial course, all those who had practised five hours or more per week improved from their baseline performance. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Bilingualism research, News and events Tagged With: , , ,

Who wants to be a multilingual? Bilingualism Matters at the Science Festival

March 31, 2016 by

Antonella Sorace and Thomas Bak prepare for their event at the Edinburgh International Science FestivalBilingualism matters researchers Dr Thomas Bak and Professor Antonella Sorace were joined by stand up comic Susan Morrison to present a sell-out show at this year’s Edinburgh International Science Festival.

The audience gathered in the Summerhall anatomy theatre to dissect their language general knowledge – from 6 month babies to the onset of dementia, via Eurovision and Esperanto. As well as a fiendishly difficult quiz, the evening including research summaries from Dr Bak and Professor Sorace, and wide-ranging audience Q & A (including computer languages, the Scottish education system, children who code switch or mix languages in a sentence, and film subtitles).

Read more about why Dr Bak thinks this type of public engagement event is so important: Science festival interview with Thomas Bak

Filed Under: News and events Tagged With: ,

New funded project on multilingualism

March 22, 2016 by

We are delighted to announce that Bilingualism Matters deputy director Dr Thomas Bak is Co-Investigator on a major new project on multilingualism.

The four year project, “Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies (MEITS)”, will seek to understand multilingualism through a range of interdisciplinary research themes – from literature, film and culture, to diversity and social cohesion. Dr Thomas Bak will lead a strand on cognition, health and well-being. The researchers will cover languages taught as part of a modern languages curriculum in the UK (e.g. French, German, Mandarin, Spanish), European minority languages (e.g. Catalan, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Ukrainian), and community languages (e.g. Cantonese, Polish, Punjabi).

The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of their Open World Research Initiative which aims to raise the profile and visibility of Modern Languages and the crucial role they play in society.

More information:
Find out more about the AHRC-funded Open World Research Initiative, including other funded projects: Open World Research Initiative

Filed Under: Bilingualism research, News and events Tagged With: , ,

Prof. Antonella Sorace discusses Sardinian language and education

March 8, 2016 by

Professor Antonella Sorace was recently interviewed by Italian newspaper L’Unione Sarda on the topic of Sardinian, a minority regional language spoken on the island of Sardinia. She explores the misconception that learning Sardinian will be detrimental to children’s education (where Italian is the dominant language).

Read a copy of the article (Italian language):Il bilinguismo? Fa bene al cervello

Filed Under: Media, News and events

STV news discuss language learning and dementia

March 2, 2016 by

Scots living with dementia are being taught Spanish to help keep their minds active. The Lingo Flamingo project is based on research by the University of Edinburgh which shows learning a foreign language, even later in life, can help improve brain function.

Filed Under: Media, News and events

Bilingualism: what about dialects?

March 1, 2016 by

Commonly, when thinking about bilingualism our first thought goes to people who grew up in a family speaking more than one standard language… But how about the case of people who use both a standard language, such as English or Italian, as well as a local dialect? This is a very common situation in many countries around the world.

From the linguistic point of view, regional dialects are just as rich and complex as standard languages, even if, in many cases, they have similar vocabularies, grammars, and sounds. But from a historical and administrative point of view, standard languages and dialects have very different statuses, and this is often reflected in the different contexts in which each is used. For example, the standard language may be encouraged at school while the local variant may be used in the home. This difference in statuses, together with the linguistic similarities, means that many people may overlook the bilingual experience of those who also speak a dialect. In other words, they are not considered bilingual at all. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Bilingualism research, News and events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Sceptics and believers – or, how to find a path through confounding variables in bilingualism research

February 26, 2016 by

Dr Thomas Bak Thomas H Bak is a reader in Human Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh. In addition to his work with Bilingualism Matters, he is a member of the Centre for Cognitive Ageing & Cognitive Epidemiology (CCACE) and the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS).

Parents often tend to be impressed by their children and I am certainly no exception. Today at the breakfast table my wife asked my 3-year old daughter what is in the spotty bag she was holding in her hands. My daughter’s answer was: “I am not entirely sure”. This made me speechless: not only because of the rather fancy word “entirely”, but also because suddenly I realised that this short sentence expresses something that I have been missing a lot in the recent “bilingualism debate”. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Bilingualism Matters Blog, News and events Tagged With:

Bilingualism Matters at the American Association for the Advancement of Science

February 16, 2016 by

On 13 February, Bilingualism Matters Director Prof. Antonella Sorace delivered a seminar to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) – the world’s largest general scientific society. The seminar was titled “Bilingualism Matters” in recognition of the successful engagement programme that Prof. Sorace has helped to develop through the Edinburgh Centre and network of international Bilingualism Matters branches.

During the seminar, Prof. Sorace discussed ongoing research being carried out by experts at the University of Edinburgh’s Psychology and Linguistics departments. The research, focusing on the cognitive benefits of bilingualism, including in older learners – has been widely reported in the UK and international media.

screencapture-www-scotsman-com-news-education-minority-languages-like-gaelic-good-for-the-brain-1-4030379-1455618386396

screencapture-www-telegraph-co-uk-news-science-science-news-12156709-Students-should-learn-second-language-to-prevent-dementia-in-later-life-html-1455618

screencapture-europe-newsweek-com-do-second-languages-carry-benefits-426422-1455618017613

screencapture-www-theguardian-com-science-2016-feb-15-preserving-rare-languages-multilingualism-benefits-1455538368528

Filed Under: Media, News and events

Research participants wanted: Italian-English bilinguals

January 26, 2016 by

Scientists working on the EU funded AThEME project are looking to recruit Italian-English bilingual adults for their research into how people process multiple languages.

Participant requirements

  • native speakers of Italian (i.e., since you were born)
  • have lived in Scotland or other English speaking country for at least the past three years
  • aged between 18 – 40 inclusive
  • have no history of hearing or language impairment
  • do not wear contact lenses. If you wear glasses, please specify what type of lenses you use in your contact e-mail.

Take part in the study

In this experiment, participants will take part an eye-tracking experiment at the computer (a small camera will measure your eye movements as you look at the screen), together with a test and a questionnaire.

Testing takes approximately 1 hour 30 minutes and takes place at the University of Edinburgh’s Psychology Building (7 George Square, central campus).

Participants will be paid £12 (cash payment) in return for contributing to this research.

Testing will take place throughout February. For further information or to register your interest in taking part, please contact lead researcher Michela Bonfieni

Filed Under: News and events, Research participation Tagged With: , ,