Dear Reader,
We hope you’ll enjoy reading this Winter/Spring 2019 issue of our Bilingualism Matters newsletter. For this issue, we’ve selected the theme “Bilingualism in the US: Language and Beyond”. We drew our inspiration from a special contribution by bilingualism expert Dr. Giuli Dussias, titled “On the myths surrounding bilingualism” (pgs. 2-3). This piece is chock-full of research and information to directly address common misconceptions about the impact of bilingualism on individuals and in society.
To complement Giuli’s keynote piece, we provide a research summary on the question of whether children are confused by hearing different languages (p. 4) (spoiler alert: they’re not!). We also include a series of fun facts about dual-language education models, both in the US and beyond (p. 6). Our featured partner this issue is Dr. Rena Torres Cacoullous (p. 5), whose work with bilingual communities in New Mexico has transformed our understanding of how bilinguals switch back and forth between their two languages.
We think there is something in here for everyone, and we hope you’ll enjoy this latest installment. We encourage you to write to us with your thoughts, questions, and requests for information. The more we hear from you, the better we are at translating research findings to support our multilingual communities, so please do not hesitate to get in touch!
Sincerely,
Frances Blanchette (fkb1@psu.edu), Lindsey Chandler, Amanda Eads, Amy Lebkuecher, Lindsey Ma, and Katy VanAmburg