Parents listening to a talk at St David's Primary School, Edinburgh
Who are we?
We are a group of researchers at the University of Edinburgh who work on language development and bilingualism in children and adults.
What can we do?
We want to bridge the gap between researchers and the community (bilingual families, educators, and policy makers) in order to enable more and more children to benefit from bilingualism.
What service do we provide?
Do you have a bilingual household and do you want to raise your child bilingual but you are not sure how to do this? Do you worry about how bilingualism might affect your child’s school achievement? Do you want to know more about how the mind of a bilingual child works?
If you need information or advice on these or other issues, you can either consult the resources on this website or you can email us on info@bilingualism-matters.org.uk. Note that we can advise only on typical bilingual language development: we are not qualified to deal with medical or psychological conditions of any kind. If you are concerned about your child’s physical and mental well-being, please consult appropriate experts.
Talks for Parents, Teachers and Educators
We are happy to come to schools, nurseries and other venues to give accessible and informative talks about bilingualism.
Information Sessions
We offer information sessions and consultancies to international organisations and we are also ready to engage with policy makers in an advisory role and contribute to reports and consultations concerned with the promotion of bilingualism and multilingualism in the Scottish society.
What are the long-term aims of our service?
Our primary aim is to disseminate accurate information about bilingualism among bilingual families and educators.
In the longer term, we would like to:
- Raise awareness among bilingual families, educators and policy makers of the facts and advantages of bilingualism.
- Contribute to the establishment of communication channels and resources for the encouragement of bilingualism in Scotland.
- Contribute to shaping public language strategies in Scotland to include specific policies for promoting bilingualism from early childhood.
- Identify knowledge gaps where dissemination of research on bilingualism is especially needed.
Bilingualism Matters in the Press and on the Web
- An article in the TESS (12th March 2010)
- Forskning.no: A Norwegian blog (15th December 2009)
- Interview at Radio 3 Scienza (20 August 2009)
- Sardegna Ventirighe "Sos vantàgios de su bilinguismu pro su cherveddu de su pitzinnu." March 2009
- Corriere della Sera "Funziona meglio il cervello poliglotta" (3rd May 2009)
- A piece in the RSA Newsletter
- L'Unione Sarda (29th November 2008)
- University of Edinburgh website
- An article in the TES
- Short pieces in the Metro and The Sun
- An article in The Scotsman
- An article in Deadline
- An article in The Herald, republished on Scottish Cilt's website , originally published 30th January 2009
- An article in Children in Scotland magazine. This article was originally published in January 2009, (p.14-15). For further information, and to subscribe to this title, please visit http://www.childreninscotland.org.uk.
- A short article in TES connect
- The RSA Scotland kindly supported our launch.
- An article about our launch in the Herald.
- From the University of Edinburgh's eBulletin.
- From The Journal (Edinburgh based student newspaper)
- From the University of Edinburgh's news releases
- The University of Edinburgh's Knowledge Transfer Newsletter
- On the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Web page (University of Edinburgh)
- A previous article from BBC online
