230121 Investigating Multilingualism (S) (WiSe 2019/2020)

Today, most societies in the world are multilingual. In this course, we will be looking at aspects multilingualism at the individual level, e.g. the acquisition of two or more languages from birth or in adulthood, as well as at societal multilingualism and effects on society and language policy. This may include issues of language change, language typology, language processing as well as language mixing but also the acceptance and promotion of different cultures at the communal and political level.
We will be looking at selected studies investigating various aspects of multilingualism. We will also discuss the advantages and limitations of different methods of data collection and analysis, but you will also spend a significant amount of time in the field. You will design and conduct your own small-scale research project on a multilingual issue and present the results of your investigation at the end of the semester.