Thinking and Speaking in Two Languages

Edited by Dr. Aneta Pavlenko

Publication date:

19 January 2011

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781847693372

Until recently, the history of debates about language and thought has been a history of thinking of language in the singular. The purpose of this volume is to reverse this trend and to begin unlocking the mysteries surrounding thinking and speaking in bi- and multilingual speakers. If languages influence the way we think, what happens to those who speak more than one language? And if they do not, how can we explain the difficulties second language learners experience in mapping new words and structures onto real-world referents? The contributors to this volume put forth a novel approach to second language learning, presenting it as a process that involves conceptual development and restructuring, and not simply the mapping of new forms onto pre-existing meanings.

1. Introduction: Bilingualism and Thought in the 20th Century - Aneta Pavlenko

2. Cognitive Restructuring in Bilingualism - Panos Athanasopoulos

3. Language-specific patterns in event construal of advanced L2 speakers - Barbara Schmiedtová, Christiane von Stutterheim, Mary Carroll

4. Language-specific patterns in event conceptualization: Insights from bilingualism - Emanuel Bylund

5. Thinking, speaking, and gesturing about motion in more than one language - Marianne Gullberg

6. The art and science of bilingual object naming - Barbara C. Malt and Eef Ameel

7. (Re-)naming the world: Word-to-referent mapping in second language speakers- Aneta Pavlenko

8. Thinking and speaking in two languages: Overview of the field - Aneta Pavlenko

Whenever I lecture about 'thinking for speaking' someone in the audience will ask about language and thought in the bilingual mind. Aneta Pavlenko’s masterful volume provides the fullest set of answers I know of to that important question. The expert chapters provide a voyage of discovery through bilingual minds as encountered in lab experiments and personal experience - in words and gestures and eye movements and memories. The authors skillfully summarize their own research and theorizing, returning to common themes. The editor beautifully presents those themes in opening and closing chapters. The answer to the bilingual question is not simple, and it is still a work in progress. L1 linguistic conceptualizations can be detected in early L2. As learning goes on, L1 and L2 conceptualizations can coexist in one mind, thought not quite matching two independent monolingual systems. And eventually L2 construals can even reshape L1. Anyone who has pondered the big questions of language and cognition cannot help but be fascinated by this ongoing voyage of discovery.