Multilingual society

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What do you see in the photo?
Which country is it? What tells you that?
Why one word is written in different languages?

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Multilingual society

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Discuss in pairs
What is multilingualism?
What are the levels of multilingualism?
What are the types of individual multilingualism?
What are the features of multilingualism?
Is multilingualism required in today's world?

5.

Is this person multilingual?
• I’m a native speaker of Portuguese, learned French as a 2-yearold, so it’s almost a second mother tongue.
• Later learned English and Spanish in school, although my
English is better than my Spanish.
• Now I am learning Swedish, I’m making a lot of progress in it,
which makes me very excited. Next I am going to learn Italian,
since I already now three Romance languages and it is going to
be very easy. :)

6.

YES!!

7.

What is multilingual?
A multilingual person is someone who can communicate in more than
one language, either actively (by speaking, writing, or signing) or
passively (by listening, reading, or perceiving).
Multilingualism is the ability of an individual speaker or a community of
speakers to communicate effectively in three or more languages.
Contrast with monolingualism, the ability to use only one language.

8.

What is multilingual?
• A person who can speak multiple languages is known as a polyglot or
a multilingual.
• The original language a person grows up speaking is known as their
first language or mother tongue. Someone who is raised speaking two
first languages or mother tongues is called a simultaneous bilingual. If
they learn a second language later, they are called a sequential
bilingual.

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Is the majority of the world multilingual?
Yes!
Monolinguals are in the minority worldwide,
at less than 40% by most estimates.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTILINGUALISM
• People that use different languages influence in the abilities of knowledge language
• When you learn a language this will help you knowing some other, and vice versa how
languages that have been learned early in life affect the acquisition and use of languages
learned later, and vice versa
• Be consistently better able to deal with distractions, which may help offset age-related
declines in mental dexterity;
• Better understand and appreciate people of other countries, thereby lessening racism,
xenophobia, and intolerance, as the learning of a new language usually brings with it a
revelation of a new culture
• Multilingual can expand their personal horizons and—being simultaneously insiders and
outsiders—see their own culture from a new perspective not available to monoglots(a
person who speaks only one language), enabling the comparison, contrast, and
understanding of cultural concepts
• To say nothing of the social and employment advantages of being bilingual – offering the
student the ability to communicate with people s/he would otherwise not have the
chance to interact with, and increasing job opportunities in many careers.

14.

Hello Google
• Which countries have the most different languages spoken
(natively?) by their populations?
• Which countries have the highest number of bilingual+
speakers (at what level— fluent)?
• Which countries have the highest percentage of bilingual+
speakers?
• Which countries have the speakers who are the most
multilingual (the most languages) on average?

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What are the benefits of multilingualism?
Case
The other day I was sitting on a bench in front of my son’s school,
waiting to pick him up. It was a nice sunny day and all the other moms
are relaxing nearby.
My business partner—best friend calls, asking me to explain
something to one of our employees who only speaks Spanish. I speak
some Spanish, so I switch to it and explain to the employee whatever
had to be explained.
I'm not sure what those moms felt seeing this Asian lady suddenly
switch to Spanish. But I'm pretty sure they freaked out a little bit inside
after I had to call back my friend and switched to Russian.

20.

What are the problems of being multilingual?
I've heard a wonderful story that relates to this question. A child
was brought up in a family of diplomats who were always abroad.
He learned his native language and spoke it in the home, but
also learned to speak the language that was used in the country
where they lived. When the family returned to their country of
origin, the child was astonished to hear the language of the home
spoken in the street by strangers! He thought that every family
had their own private language spoken only at home.

21.

Gallery walk
Advantages - Walk around the room and read
only about the advantages of multilingualism.
Take notes!
Disadvantages - Walk around the room and read
only about the disadvantages of multilingualism.
Take notes!

22.

PROs and CONs – group work
Pro
Con

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Watch the video and take notes

25.

Home assignment