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ABOUT THE CONFERENCE The conference examined the impact of a multilingual environment on children’s linguistic development. Research on children’s language acquisition normally assumes that the environment offers only one linguistic choice and that children’s early experiences will proceed in a predictable manner as language is incrementally built up and cognition is increasingly boosted. In some countries, such as Canada , the existence of two official languages means that the linguistic context for language acquisition is more complex. The purpose of the conference was to explore how the factors that are part of the landscape of multilingual societies affect the way in which children learn language and establish the linguistic and cognitive concepts associated with successful participation in society.The conference included presentations in 4 areas:
The audience consisted of researchers, educators, and practitioners who work with bilingual and multilingual children. The presentations described current research by leading scholars, representing a wide range of countries. |
