‘What Does It Mean To Be Bilingual? Myth and Science’

‘What Does It Mean To Be Bilingual? Myth and Science’ – talk delivered by Raquel Fernández Fuertes from the Universidad of Valladolid

The research team UVALAL conducts research on (English/Spanish) bilingual acquisition. They make use of linguistic theory as well as spontaneous and experimental data in order to account for different linguistic phenomena that are related to language contact situations (e.g., language separation and language mixing, crosslinguistic influence).  

The team is being hosted by Gibraltar Cultural Services and the University of Gibraltar. 

Their study is concerned with the contact between English and Spanish and, more specifically, with the phenomenon referred to as code-switching, a very common practice in Gibraltar. UVALAL believe this bilingual behaviour is not arbitrary but is governed by rather specific linguistic principles and it is well-proven that a dense code-switcher is an extremely proficient speaker in both languages. UVA’s study involves the use of research techniques which are presently used in experimental psychology, linguistics, and psycholinguistics.