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24 - Multilingualism and Language Impairment

from Part V - L3/Ln and Cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Mira Goral  and
Talita Fortunato-Tavares
Edited by
Jennifer Cabrelli ,
Adel Chaouch-Orozco ,
Jorge González Alonso ,
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares ,
Eloi Puig-Mayenco  and
Jason Rothman
Jennifer Cabrelli
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Adel Chaouch-Orozco
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jorge González Alonso
Affiliation:
Universidad Nebrija, Spain and UiT, Arctic University of Norway
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Eloi Puig-Mayenco
Affiliation:
King's College London
Jason Rothman
Affiliation:
UiT, Arctic University of Norway and Universidad Nebrija, Spain
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Summary

In this chapter, we review studies of multilingual people with language impairments, specifically autism, dyslexia, and developmental language disorder in children, and aphasia and traumatic brain injury in adults. We address three topics that have emerged: disadvantages and advantages of being multilingual, the manifestation of impairments across different languages, and cross-language effects following intervention. Whereas the field of language impairment and bilingualism has seen a growth in the number of publications, only a few studies have focused specifically on multilingual people, and even fewer have compared multilingual to bilingual individuals. Methodological differences among the studies and the limited amount of data for each communication disorder impede our ability to draw consistent conclusions. Despite these limitations, we discuss common themes and point to future directions. Furthermore, we propose that the study of more than two languages can add to our understanding of key aspects of language impairment, representation, and processing.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Third Language Acquisition , pp. 633 - 658
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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