The course is designed to introduce students to
various issues of bilingualism with a cross-disciplinary perspective. The
course aims to cover a wide range of topics at the individual and at the
societal level: the linguistic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of
bilingualism. The course starts with how bilingualism is defined and measured,
the development of bilingualism, linguistic behaviors of bilinguals,
psycholinguistic and cognitive bases of bilingualism which are essential to
understand bilinguals. The second part of the course will draw attention to
societal bilingualism and its effects discussing the topics such as language
contact, language maintenance, biculturalism, and the relationship between
bilingualism and identity development.