Multilingualism news, research and analysis - the conversation

April 29, 2025 Fortunate Mafeta Phaka, _North-West University_ Scientists added descriptive terms to the existing general Indigenous frog and reptile names to make them specific. March 6,

2025 Sabine Little, _University of Sheffield_ Ask children about what they read that isn’t in books - magazines, recipes, messages from friends. March 2, 2025 Daniel J. Olson, _Purdue

University_ Trump’s campaign produced campaign materials in Spanish to reach more voters. Now that he’s president, his White House is going English-only. February 24, 2025 Valeria Maria

Rigobon, _Australian Catholic University_ and Rauno Parrila, _Australian Catholic University_ It is common for parents to worry about raising a child to be multilingual. They may wonder, am

I harming my child’s English if I speak another language at home? February 13, 2025 Una Cunningham, _Stockholm University_ You can learn a lot of useful language along with your baby.

December 17, 2024 Monika Schmid, _University of York_ Previous research has shown that people tend to approach hypothetical problems in a more rational and less intuitive fashion when these

are presented in a language that is not their native one. October 22, 2024 Elba Ramirez, _Auckland University of Technology_ AI-powered technology means it has never been easier to translate

between two languages. But that doesn’t mean we should give up on learning another tongue. The benefits still outweigh the effort. August 21, 2024 Geoffrey Miller, _University of Otago_ and

Miriam Neigert, _University of New England_ In theory, appealing to voters in their own languages makes good political sense. So why don’t more candidates do it on the campaign trail? March

27, 2024 Cameron Morin, _ENS de Lyon_ If you’re lucky enough to be able to teach your child several languages, don’t hesitate! March 27, 2024 Elea Giménez Toledo, _Centro de Ciencias

Humanas y Sociales (CCHS - CSIC)_ Around 98% of all research is published in English, posing a serious problem for the global scientific community. February 22, 2024 Kaja Jasinska,

_University of Toronto_ and Mary-Claire Ball, _University of Toronto_ Bilingual education can improve learning outcomes but it’s important to consider local context. July 5, 2023 Robyn

Berghoff, _Stellenbosch University_ and Emanuel Bylund, _Stellenbosch University_ Studies of African multilingual contexts are almost non-existent in high-impact scientific journals. January

8, 2023 Veaceslav Balan, _L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa_ and Frederick John Packer, _L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa_ Canada’s population is more diverse than ever,

with many different languages represented. Government policy must reflect that diversity and offer meaningful support to minority languages. December 22, 2022 Monika Schmid, _University of

York_; Beverley Costa, _Birkbeck, University of London_, and Claudia Cojocaru, _University of York_ Children may struggle to recall basic words in their first language within a couple of

months of stopping using it. December 5, 2022 Ellen Bishop, _University of Leicester_ The way questions on language were posed call the results into question. November 30, 2022 Grégory

Miras, _Université de Lorraine_ and Audrey Rousse-Malpat, _University of Groningen_ Language-learning research in the Netherlands has determined that using a foreign language rather than

just memorizing its grammar can transform how students progress. November 22, 2022 Peredur Webb-Davies, _Bangor University_ Speakers of minority languages (like Welsh) often insert words

from a majority language (like English) while speaking. August 29, 2022 Marc Pomerleau, _Université TÉLUQ _ and Esmaeil Kalantari, _Université TÉLUQ _ Signs in languages other than French

could be seen as an outstretched hand in yet another episode of linguistic tensions, but also as an indicator that French is indeed losing ground. August 29, 2022 Sisanda Nkoala, _Cape

Peninsula University of Technology_ Multilingual teaching was a challenge under emergency remote learning conditions: computer systems weren’t adapted to indigenous languages. July 26, 2024

Zakeera Docrat, _University of the Western Cape_ and Russell H. Kaschula, _University of the Western Cape_ It is important to embrace all the nation’s languages in a multilingual and

multicultural society. This will ensure they are used, developed and mainstreamed.