What are the benefits and challenges of speaking more than one language?

They tie us to where we were born, to our families, local communities and our cultures.

We know there are many social and economic benefits to learning languages and research shows that bilingualism may also have health benefits, but we know less about how learning new languages influences the way we use our home languages.

Researchers from our Department of Language and Linguistics, Birkbeck, University of London, Mothertongue, and Bilingualism Matters present insights on language attrition, language maintenance, heritage languages, bilingualism and integration.

Topics we address

• Multilingual children and language brokering
• Multilingual children in foster care
• Language, emotion and therapy
• Citizenship, language and identity
• Language attrition and problems of intergenerational transmission of the minority language

These topics will be the focus of a series of open workshops, during which you'll have the chance to engage with experts and ask any questions you have.

Book your place

Entry is free but you’ll need to book your place.