Mysteries of Bilingualism

François Grosjean is Professor Emeritus at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He is the author or co-author of many books on bilingualism, including The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism (Wiley Blackwell, 2012; with Ping Li) and The Listening Bilingual: Speech Perception, Comprehension and Bilingualism (Wiley Blackwell, 2018; with Krista Byers-Heinlein). He is also the founder of the popular Psychology Today blog "Life as a Bilingual".

• Author Biography viiIntroduction 1Part I Bilingual Adults and Children 51 Who Is Bilingual? 7Definitions and Their Evolution 8Describing Bilinguals 112 How Many Bilinguals Are There? 18The Extent of Bilingualism 18On the Difficulties of Counting People Who Are Bilingual 20The Proportion of Bilinguals in a Number of Countries 23Estimating the Percentage of Bilinguals in the World 273 Bilingual Infants' Journey to Language Separation 30Perception Studies 31Taking Pragmatics into Account 38A Brief Account of Language Separation 40Part II Linguistics and Neurolinguistics 434 Having an Accent in One of Your Languages 45General Aspects 45The Phonetic Characteristics of Accents 46How Well Is Accented Speech Understood? 48Factors that Affect the Degree of a Foreign Accent 50Accent in a Third Language 555 Language Loss in Adults and Children 59Language Loss in Adults 59Language Loss in Young Children 636 Brain Injury and Bilingualism 72A Personal Testimony 73Language Impairment and Recovery in Bilingual Aphasia 74Factors that Account for Impairment and Recovery 78A Recent Meta-Analysis 81Language Mixing and Aphasia 82Part III Language Use and Language Processing 877 The Bilingual's Languages in Interaction 89Choosing the Language of the Interaction 89What Role for the Other Language? 92Experimental Work on Language Mixing 94The Language Mode Concept 978 What a Bilingual's Languages Are Used For 102What Past Research Has Revealed 103Recent Interest in Bilingual Language Use 104Measuring Bilingual Language Use 106Impact of Bilingual Language Use 1099 Is Language Processing in Bilinguals Selective or Non-selective? 117Language Perception and Comprehension 118Spoken Language Production 122Part IV Biculturalism and Personality 12910 Bilinguals Who Are also Bicultural 131Describing Biculturals 131Becoming Bicultural and the Evolution of Biculturalism over Time 134Acting Biculturally 137Bicultural Identity 14111 Change of Language, Change of Personality? 146Opinions and Beliefs 147Pioneering Research on the Question 147Feeling Different When Using Different Languages 150Is a Change of Personality Involved When Changing Languages? 152An Explanation 154Index 159

"The Mysteries of Bilingualism is an engaging and user-friendly discussion of some of the significant issues surrounding bilingualism that have pre-occupied researchers and perplexed laypersons for many years."—Fred Genesee (2022), Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development"In every respect, this book is a well-timed contribution to bilingualism. It highlights some pending questions about bilingualism, which shed light on future studies to explore the unsettled issues inthis domain."—Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching"The research problems surveyed in this book offer students of bilingualism and second language learning a guide for designing their own research program, one that keeps an eye on the pending questions. Practitioners will be well served by the review of recent work that updates ongoing projects from years past."—Issues in Applied Linguistics, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 22 - 29"... this book should prove valuable for both novice and experienced researchers who are interested in an overall view of bilingualism or in one of the eleven issues that comprise the book."—System, Volume 111, December 2022, 102947"François Grosjean's renowned expertise in the world of bilingualism is on display in this welcome addition to the field."—Linguist List, 34.518, 2023"All in all, this is a rare, comprehensive overview of research accomplished, with clear pointers to research required, attesting to its author's immense erudition and lucid intelligence. It will no doubt impel even experienced researchers to review their approaches and methods."—International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2023.2237638