24 & 25 March 2025
PROGRAMME NOW AVAILABLE (SEE BELOW)
The Bilingualism Matters Symposium (BMS) is an interdisciplinary conference organised by Bilingualism Matters. It is open to researchers as well as practitioners, irrespective of their affiliation with Bilingualism Matters. The BMS aims to stimulate a productive dialogue between researchers in different academic disciplines and practitioners in different sectors of society. BMS will take place in Edinburgh from March 24-25, 2025.
BMS25 is a hybrid conference. The main focus will be on in-person presentations but online participation and discussion will be possible.
In the last two decades the contribution of neuroscience to bilingualism, in terms of discovering the neural architecture, has been enormous. Up-to-date we know how bi- and multilinguals store their languages, how and where they are represented in the human brain and how bilinguals control their languages in order to avoid unwanted language interferences during speech. Old myths that distinct languages are differently stored in the brain have been completed confuted. Neuroscientific studies have also highlighted neural differences between bilinguals and monolinguals for several cognitive functions, even for those circumstances where no behavioral differences did exist. Neuroimaging studies have further shown different neural aging trajectories for bilinguals when compared to monolinguals underlining that the bilingual brain may be better protected against aging effects and cognitive decline.
During my presentation I will provide of brief overview of the state of art and then illustrate and discuss new research lines such as studying the foreign language effect, the effects of sleep and bilingualism on general cognition, the bilingual connectome, and lastly how to focus on individual differences in bilingualism research and heritage language speakers.
Programmes of multilingual education in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) are promising because they can contribute to the development of children’s language and literacy skills and their multilingual identities. Nevertheless, literacy experiences in ECEC tend to be short and seldom include children’s home languages although it is well-known that they are the foundation on which to develop additional languages. In Luxembourg, where the data for this presentation come from, a multilingual programme has been implemented in ECEC that requires educators to familiarize children with Luxembourgish and French and value their home languages, for instance through shared reading. At home, two-thirds of the young children speak more than two languages, of which only one may correspond to the official languages Luxembourgish, German and French. One wonders in what ways these emergent multilinguals experience shared reading in their ECEC setting and at homes.
In this paper, I present some quantitative findings relating to shared reading before zooming in on literacy practices in two ECEC centres and two homes. Data stem from educator and parent surveys, videos recorded by parents, interviews with parents and educators as well as observations in two day care centres with children aged two to four over one academic year. The quantitative data indicate that about 60% of the educators and 40% of the parents engaged children daily in reading and that many read in more than one language. Parents mostly read in their home language(s). Dialogic reading was rare in ECEC and depended mainly on children’s reading behaviour, the educator’s work experience and the belief that reading in the institutional language influences the development of the home and institutional languages. The analysis of the video-recorded practices in the day care centres and the homes indicates that the reading practices in the centres differed in the frequency, quantity and quality of talk, with the educators in one centre being more responsive to children’s needs. Educators in both centres translanguaged when they found this necessary. This was not the case in the two families where one mother strictly separated languages whereas the other used languages more dynamically. As a result, children experienced language use differently at home and in the centre. Furthermore, the comparison between the centre-based and home-based reading practices reveals that the interaction patterns between adults and children differed. In only one setting were children asked higher-level questions. I argue that it is important that professionals and parents are aware of the role of language(s) during dialogic reading and engage children in deeper conversations about the text.
Bilingualism and multilingualism have profound consequences for individuals and societies. Learning multiple languages changes not only how we use language, but also how we perceive the world, what we remember, how we learn, our creativity, decision making, and identity. I will present eye-tracking, mouse-tracking, and neuroimaging evidence showing that multiple languages continuously interact in the mind. I will conclude with a call for placing the study of language-mind interaction and bi/multilingualism among the core areas of scientific investigation if we are to gain an accurate understanding of humanity’s potential.
Please register HERE
The Bilingualism Matters Symposium (BMS) intends to bring scholars and practitioners together around the theme of heritage and minority languages. Presentations and talks will be centred around the following topics:
The affiliated programme of events includes a language-focused mini tour of Scotland; a conference dinner, a Bilingualism Matters training and networking event with Prof Antonella Sorace and a master class with study visits on “Heritage language policy and practice in Scotland” with Prof Rob Dunbar.
Group discounts are available for online participation only. Lecturers are encouraged to enquire about group participation in the conference for their students or courses.
Subject to the availability, conference organisers will make the utmost effort to provide relevant sign language interpretation. Please contact bms@bilingualism-matters.org to discuss your requirements.
The conference will take place in Edinburgh (John McIntyre Conference Centre, University of Edinburgh), while virtual attendance will be available via ZOOM. The training event will take place across different locations in Edinburgh.
BMS25 will feature regular talks in parallel thematic sessions. You will have 25 minutes to present and take questions (we suggest you plan your presentation to last approx. 15 min. and allow 10 min for Q&A).
Your presentations will be live-streamed and recorded.
You will not be able to connect your computer to the projector. We strongly encourage you to send us your presentation before the conference to avoid technical issues and smooth the transition between presentations on the day. Please send your presentation to bms@bilingualism-matters.org by Friday, 21st of March, 2025.
As a backup, please bring your presentation on a memory stick as well, including all embedded audio-visual resources.
BMS25 will feature two in-person poster sessions. Poster presentations will take place on Monday, 24th March and Tuesday, 25th March, 2025 at the conference venue. The posters will be displayed throughout the conference day.
Please check which day you are assigned to. Please remember to attach your poster to the posterboard on the morning of the conference day and remove it at the end of the day.
Format: Poster presentations should be prepared on one slide, using A0 size (DIN A0 (841 x 1189 mm / 33.1 x 46.8 inches)) and can be either vertical or horizontal orientation. Pins/adhesive tape will be provided.
BMS25 will feature online presentations on 25th March 2025, between 15:30 and 16:15 GMT in three parallel sessions. Each session will feature three recorded 10-minute presentations and will be followed by a live Q&A.
Oral presenters are expected to join the session and contribute to the live Q&A.
Format: Presentations should last a maximum of 10 minutes. You can use any video-recording tool, such as the function in PowerPoint or Zoom to record your presentation.
The recordings will be made available to all participants before and throughout the conference and displayed during designated sessions online
Authors of online oral presentations are requested to record and send their pre-recorded presentations to bms@bilingualism-matters.org by 14th March, 2025.
BMS25 will hold online poster sessions on 24th and 25th March, 2025, between 13:10 and 14:40 GMT (parallel to the in-person lunch & poster session).
Poster presenters should prepare 10-minute presentations with a maximum of 10 PowerPoint slides. Online poster presentations will be grouped into thematic clusters and followed by an online Q&A session, predominantly attended by the online audience. In-person participants will be offered the opportunity to join the online poster sessions displayed in conference rooms.
Format: You can use any video-recording tool, such as the function in PowerPoint or Zoom to record your presentation.
The recordings will be made available to all participants before and throughout the conference and displayed during designated sessions online
Authors of online poster presentations are requested to record and send their pre-recorded presentations to bms@bilingualism-matters.org by 14th March, 2025.
Anna Balas
Frances Blanchette
Francesca Foppolo
Georgia Fotiadou
Beatrice Giustolisi
Tihana Kras
Katarzyna Przybycien
Tanja Rinker
Antonella Sorace
Zvjezdana Vrzic
