Current issues in bilingualism: cognitive and socio-linguistic perspectives

摘要

Interest in bilingualism and multilingualism has grown tremendously in the past 20 years. Realizing the theoretical as well as practical significance of delving into bilingualism or multilingualism, Leikin, Schwartz and Tobin present a volume containing a number of experimental studies focusing on major aspects in this field. Addressing the distinctive language fabric of Israel, which represents one of the multifaceted cases of multilingual and multicultural society, the variety of studies in this volume could be generalized to other countries and societies. Israeli society includes various communities who speak multiple languages. Although Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages of Israel, English is the lingua franca, the ticket to academic life. In the 1980s, waves of immigrants came from Russia and Ethiopia, contributing immensely to the complicated fabric of Israeli linguistic diversity. The studies in this book identify grammatical functions apparent among bilingual speakers, as well as connections between the language spoken at home and students' academic performance. In addition, some studies focus on the psychological aspects of acquiring a second language.