The Multilingual Mind: Issues Discussed by, for, and about People Living with Many Languages

by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa

Overview

The bulk of the world's population is multilingual, and one in seven Americans speak a language other than English at home. Multilinguals crave answers to question both basic and profound, questions relating to linguistic identity, schools, multiliteracy, how languages are actually learned, and why there are so many variations on individual success. Tokuhama-Espinosa combines solid research, humor, and real-life examples into 21 informative and entertaining essays about people who experience the world with multiple languages.

This book tackles common misconceptions about polyglots (too many languages can cause brain overload, some languages are easier to learn than others, an adult cannot learn a foreign language as fast as a child, etc.)

Other topics include:
• Curriculum choice
• Teaching languages using the multiple intelligences
• How different education systems can influence multilingual skills
• Language's relationship to mental tasks such as music and math
• Languages from the womb and bilingualism from birth
• The growth of the trilingual family
• The societal situation of third culture kids (those growing outside of their parents' native country)
• A special case for foreign language development
• The emerging cross-area study of multilingualism and cosmopolitanism
• Questions of linguistic identity
• Challenges to normal foreign language learning, such as dyslexia, Downs Syndrome, and deafness

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897899185
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2003
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

TRACEY TOKUHAMA-ESPINOSA is a native of California who received her Master's of Education at Harvard University and has taught in international schools in Japan, Ecuador, France, and Ecuador. She is currently Professor of Education, Psychology, and Cognitive Sciences at the University of San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. Tracey has given numerous workshops on raising multilingual children to schools and families in Australia, Norway, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Ecuador, and England. She speaks and writes in English and Spanish fluently, knows conversational French, some Japanese, and is studying basic German. She and her husband are raising their three children in four languages.

Table of Contents

Tables and Charts
Contributing Authors
Preface
Introduction by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Myths About Multilingualism
Myths About Multilingualism by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Schooling and Foreign Languages
Teaching Languages Using the Multiple Intelligences and Senses by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
The Role of the Sense of Smell in Language Learning by Sara Ackerman Aoyama
Mulitliteracy Skills by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Two-Way Immersion Programs in the United States by Jennifer Frengel
The Relationship Between Musical Ability and Foreign Languages by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Language, Math, and Thought: Vygotsky's Concept of Inner Speech by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Primary Multilingual Mathematics by Marie Petraitis
Degrees of Multilingualism
Languages in the Womb by Andrea Bader-Rusch
First Choice Option: From Birth by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Bilingualism from Birth by Manuela Gonzalez-Bueno
Trilingualism: A Study of Children Growing Up With Three Languages by Suzanne Hauwaert-Barron
What, You Only Speak One Language!? A Trilingual Family's Story by Nicola Kupelikilinc
Society and Languages
Third Culture Kids: A Special Case for Foreign Language Learning by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
The Yellow Streetcar: Thoughts and Stories About a Polyphonic Identity by Christina Allemann-Ghionda
Linguistic Hegemony: Is There a Superior Language by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Foreign Adoption and Bilingual Children in Scarce Language Environments: Let the Internet Help! by Maria Johnson
Multilingualism and Cosmopolitanism by Konrad Gunesch
Individual Differences
A Voice Within a Voice: Federman Translating/Translating Federman, A Question of Linguistic Identity by Raymond Federman
Challenges to Normal Foreign Language Learning: Dyslexia, Downs Syndrome, Deafness by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Conclusion by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
Bibliography
Index