Living with More than One Language | Fairbrother Lecture 2021

Language is frequently in the headlines, from worries about people speaking too many languages or too few, to questions of whether bilingualism protects against cognitive decline in later life. Bilingualism has featured prominently in language debates, with stories often over-simplifying a more complex picture. Join former Reading doctoral researcher Toms Voits on a journey through the uniqueness and complexity of the human brain's capacity for language. This public lecture will introduce the ways in which two or more languages co-habit within a single mind, how processing allows languages to compete and co-operate, and the much-debated effects of bilingualism on mind and brain. With a focus on research on bilingualism in older adults, the lecture will examine some of the complexities that need to be unpicked in order to understand relationships between ageing, cognitive health and language.
The Fairbrother Lecture is a University public lecture named after Jack Fairbrother who in 1929 became the first student to be awarded a PhD from the University. For more information see: www.reading.ac.uk/fairbrother-lecture
See previous Fairbrother Lecture: • Women's Voices: From s...