Bilingualism in Action: Theory and Practice

Description

Bilingual language behaviour is driven by numerous factors that are usually studied in isolation, even though individual factors never operate alone. Bringing together key insights from psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, Luna Filipovic presents a new model of bilingual language processing that captures bilingualism within and across minds. The model enables readers to explain traditional puzzles in the field, and accounts for some apparently contradictory reports in different studies. It shows how theory can be applied in practice and how practice feeds back into theory, with mutual benefits. Bilinguals are studied in action, when they interact with other bilinguals or monolinguals, when they recall witnessed events in real life and in the lab and when they translate and interpret for the benefit of monolinguals. This interdisciplinary take on bilingualism in action will lead to new research on bilingualism itself, and to applications in forensic linguistics and translation studies.

Luna Filipovic is Professor of Language and Cognition at the University of East Anglia. Her research focusses on connections and relationships between different approaches to studying language. She has authored or edited six books in the area of language and cognition in bilingualism, including Talking about Motion: A Crosslinguistic Investigation of Lexicalization Patterns (2007).

'In conclusion, Bilingualism in Action convincingly argues for the need for more granular, fine-tuned research that ties together sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic variables so as to understand the 'why' behind individual differences of bilingual processing and production outcomes. Indeed, this book made me ruminate on my own bilingual experience, my current usage tendencies, and the ways in which I convey typological differences when teaching my second language to Anglophone students. This text would greatly benefit scholars who wish to subvert their field's empirical norms and embrace the interdisciplinary nature of such a unified approach. Finally, this book would be an excellent addition to any graduate syllabus on bilingualism and would serve any graduate student seeking direction on her next research topic.' Rachel B. Poulin, The LINGUIST List