Multilingualism definition

Multilingualism means the use of three or more languages by an individual or a group of people.
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Multilingualism means the use of three or more languages by an individual or group of people;
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Multilingualism means the ability of a speaker to communicate efficiently in multiple languages. This means that grammatical gender forms in individual languages can affect the use of such forms in other languages, employed by multilingual speakers. For example, in Turkish, there are no gendered pronouns. The question O nerede ‘Where is she/he/them?’ can refer to a male, female or diverse person. In English, there is a gender-neutral pronoun, ‘they’, used to refer to a diverse person or a person whose gender is unknown. In Tai, there are formal and informal pronouns, employed in different – formal and informal – contexts. And in Mandarin, there is no difference in pronunciation of pronouns. For example, the Hanzi 他 for masculine and 她 for feminine are written differently, but they have the same pronunciation, and thus, in spoken language, the gender remains ambiguous.
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Examples of Multilingualism in a sentence

  • Multilingualism and language attitudes in Ghana: A preliminary survey.

  • The Multilingualism Lab, the organisations in the Frisian language alliance (Taalalliantie) and Lân fan taal with its legacy will be vital in this process, while the province will direct and encourage the process in its role as Taalskipper.

  • Multilingualism and Multiple Identities in the Iron Age and Roman Periods.

  • The Lektoraat Frysk en Meartaligens yn Underwiis en Opfieding (Lectureship in Frisian and Multilingualism in Education and Upbringing) at NHL Stenden helps consolidate Fryslân’s academic basis as a ‘Living Lab of Multilingualism’ and helps with the valorisation of research, education and innovation in the field of multilingualism.

  • Multilingualism across the World‌ Multilingualism currently stands as a substantial element in the educational sphere worldwide.

  • This BaMa course, “Minorities & Multilingualism: into the Frisian laboratory” will tie in with the Masters in multilingualism at the UCF.

  • In ▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and Kai Wo¨rner, ed- itors, Multilingual Corpora and Multilingual Cor- pus Analysis, Hamburg Studies in Multilingualism (HSM), pages 47–69.

  • Meertaligheid in multicultureel Europa: De status van immigrantentalen thuis en op school [Multilingualism in multicultural Europe: The status of immigrant languages at home and at school].

  • The following criteria shall be taken into account: ◊ Multilingualism ◊ Strong internationalisation ◊ Social engagement ◊ Inclusive excellence in education and research Each consortium member nominates a minimum of one representative to the ANIME Consortium, but can associate as many colleagues, both academic and non-academic, as they wish.

  • The event which took place on March 14, focused on “Diversity, Multilingualism, and Literacy: Embracing Students and Engaging Parents for Success,” in addition to the guest speakers, the forum also included work- shop sessions with Manhattanville faculty, CSI partners, and Rose Institute alumni.


More Definitions of Multilingualism

Multilingualism means ‘many languages’ and hence, obviously refers to more than one language. However, the question arises whether two languages can already be regarded as many or whether it is more appropriate to use the word ‘bilingualism’ for such instances. (CENOZ 2013b: 2) In language research, most scholars adhere to a numeric scale by differentiating between mono-, bi- and multilinguals but this is not a universal practice. Some researchers make a binary distinction between monolingual and multilingual speakers, where the latter also encompasses bilinguals. Likewise, other scholars use this binary distinction with the terms monolingualism and bilingualism; they then define bilingualism – despite being etymologically incorrect – as knowing two or more languages. In other words, their usage of the notion bilingualism also includes multilingualism. (KEMP 2009: 15) In this thesis, the phenomenon will be referred to as multilingualism since one part of the study investigates whether more than two languages occur in the classroom and so it is believed that the preferred term will avoid confusion. The question of nomenclature and other matters that will be discussed in the course of this section have complicated the characterisation of multilingualism since the beginning of research into this topic, which is the reason why there have been various attempts at defining the term.
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