Across-domain Investigations in Multilingualism

Multilingualism has been the norm in many parts of the world for years. Due to the globalized reality that we all live in, an increasing number of people find themselves in a situation where they acquire several languages across the lifespan. However, many issues related to the interaction of three (or more) languages in the same speaker are still poorly understood, therefore more in-depth research in this area is much needed.

Prof. Magdalena Wrembel, photo by Michał Łepecki The goal of the project is to investigate the complexity of third or additional language acquisition across different linguistic domains such as the sound system (phonology), grammar (syntax) and meaning (semantics). The project aims to explore the sources and directions of influence between language systems coexisting in multilingual speakers. The investigations compare learners acquiring their third/additional language in a naturalistic manner with those learning it formally in an instructed setting, taking into consideration varying levels of language proficiency (initial vs. advanced). Study participants include different groups of multilingual speakers who have Polish, English and Norwegian in their language repertoires and vary with respect to where and when they have learnt their non-native languages. A series of studies has been conducted in parallel in Poland and in Norway involving the participants’ all three languages. Experimental tasks include, among others, a range of production and perception tests, grammaticality judgment tests, sociophonetic interviews as well as online methods with the application of electroencephalography (EEG).

The results demonstrate to what extent the patterns of cross-linguistic influence in multilinguals occur holistically or are specific for a particular linguistic domain and how they are moderated by the investigated factors. We hope to gain a better understanding of multilingual processing through the application of a wide range of approaches and modern methods such as brain imaging (EEG). Ongoing empirical evidence will allow us to revise and reformulate selected theoretical models that have been recently proposed to explain the process of multilingual acquisition. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of multilingual speech, and its acquisition and processing in general. The speech patterns of Polish-Norwegian communities are documented in the collected multilingual speech corpus.

Prof. Magdalena Wrembel, photo by Michał Łepecki The project is innovative as it has an unprecedented broad scope, it is interdisciplinary and applies cutting-edge technologies alongside a range of more traditional research methods. It is based on a close international co-operation between active research groups from three renowned European universities (i.e., Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø and The Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim), with each partner institution specializing in one of the selected linguistic domains. The project provides comprehensive research on a complex topic that is currently very significant to the research community and to the general public. The project offers a research program and methodological design that may be further developed and extended by other researchers in the field. It broadens the current state of knowledge in this field which is relevant for policy-makers, educators, parents of multilingual children, and the society in general.