Wales: New Centre for Bilingualism announced

[Harold F. Schiffman]

ESRC: New centre for bilingualism announced

Friday, 02 Feb 2007 09:20

Today the Economic and Social Research Council, Higher Education Funding
Council for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government have together
announced 5million funding for a new research centre to study
bilingualism. Based at the University of Wales, Bangor, the new research
centre aims to create greater understanding of bilingualism across the
world. Research will focus on the nature of the relationship between the
two languages of individual bilingual speakers as well as amongst the
wider community.

Director for the new centre will be Professor Margaret Deuchar, of the
School of Linguistics and English Language at Bangor University, with
colleagues Professor Colin Baker of the School of Education and Professor
Virginia Gathercole of the School of Psychology as Co-Directors. Professor
Deuchar commented: Recent years have seen an explosion of research in this
area, as a result of which our understanding of the nature of the
individual bilingual mind, language use and development and of the
bilingual community is on the verge of a significant leap forward.
Examples of the areas that will be studied include language-pair
comparisons, such as Spanish-Welsh that will provide a contrast to the
better known English-Spanish and English-Welsh pairs.

Influencing public understanding of the nature of bilingualism and its
social and psychological effects both in the UK and abroad will also be
central to the research. Additionally, by examining language use in the
classroom, the research will also be of interest to school language
teachers and other language professionals who will be able to draw on the
findings to complement their teaching and enhance their understanding of
bilingualism. One appealing aspect of the new centre is that, alongside
methods traditionally used in linguistics, psychology and education, it
features a neuroscientific angle. The neuroscience group headed by Dr
Guillaume Thierry will investigate the mechanisms by which one brain can
handle two different languages.

Located in the well established bilingual community in the Welsh-English
speaking area of North Wales, the new research centre will have an
advantage in providing easy access to bilingual people and will allow an
unprecedented concentration of effort on Welsh-English bilinguals as well
as offering a springboard into other bilingual communities.. The centre
will also contribute to building research capacity in the area of
bilingualism by training postgraduate students and by offering a variety
of other opportunities such as postdoctoral and international research
fellowships. Jane Davidson, the Welsh Assembly Government's Minister for
Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills said: "I welcome this development,
which builds on research excellence at the University of Wales, Bangor in
this interesting academic area of study. It will greatly increase our
understanding of bilingualism. It has direct relevance to Wales as a
bilingual country."

Professor Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research
Council, commented: I am delighted that by working together with the other
funders we have been able to establish this significant new research
centre. This is an important opportunity to develop our understanding of
bilingualism, potentially with far reaching implications for bilingual
language policy, planning and implementation.

http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/domestic-policy/wales/wales/esrc-new-centre-bilingualism-announced-$464910.htm

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