Language in a Multicultural World

1 Course Unit

Which is more common around the world, monolingualism, bilingualism or multilingualism? Do children who learn two languages from birth turn out to be developmentally and linguistically disadvantaged or the reverse? What kind of new languages emerge when languages and cultures come into contact? Would establishing English as the social language of the United States help to preserve English? Why do the most pessimistic estimates predict the death of 90% of the world's 6,000 languages by the end of this century? This course addresses questions about multilingualism, as they relate to language ideologies, policies, and cultural identity on the one hand and language contact on the other. 1 Course Unit