Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Seminar für Englische Philologie), course: Bilingualism - Multilingualism, language: English, abstract: Brain diseases and disorders are fields of neurology that have still not been fully examined. Neurologists are constantly facing new mysteries concerning the processes that take place on in the brain. Especially the aspect of language offers a wide spectrum for research, from the medical point of view as well as from the linguistic one. As I will concentrate on the aspect of language, or more precisely the affection of the faculty of language, which means its production and comprehension, the affection aphasia offers a good example. Aphasia is a very complex problem, and it is still not totally examined by scientific researchers and brain specialists. The field of aphasia includes many different kinds of aphasia, different clinical pictures, symptoms, and recovery patterns. At any rate, the patients have difficulties in producing or understanding language, although to different degrees. Aphasia in bilingual and multilingual persons is a field of neurology that deserves further research. It offers new aspects to the research on brain activity, and it offers the opportunity of approaching the problem of aphasia in a new way. Nevertheless, there are different, one word even contradicting theories from specialists all over the world concerning the impact of aphasia on speakers of more than one language and the reasons for it, some of which will be presented in this research paper. As this research paper is written in order to take a closer look at the problems with language in aphasia, it is inevitable to present some medical facts and theories in order to explain the impact of aphasia on the production, understanding and recovery of language. I will start with an introduction to the physical structure of the brain, especially on the areas that are associated with language. Further on, a definition of aphasia, its causes, and a description of the different types of aphasia and their specific symptoms will be given. As the process of recovery is extremely interesting and the observation of it important because it allows us to draw conclusions on how the brain works, a section of the research paper will be devoted to this point. Moreover, the case studies of bilingual and multilingual aphasic patients offer interesting aspects for linguistic and medical research because of the possibility of understanding how language is stored in the brain, and whether different languages are stored in different parts of the brain, perhaps even in the other hemisphere.

This volume presents a broad overview of current research and thought on aphasia in individuals who speak more than one language. The range of topics covered, and their in-depth treatment, should be of interest to researchers, clinicians, and students.

The definitive guide to 21st century investigations of multilingual neuroscience The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism provides a comprehensive survey of neurocognitive investigations of multiple-language speakers. Prominent scholar John W. Schwieter offers a unique collection of works from globally recognized researchers in neuroscience, psycholinguistics, neurobiology, psychology, neuroimaging, and others, to provide a multidisciplinary overview of relevant topics. Authoritative coverage of state-of-the-art research provides readers with fundamental knowledge of significant theories and methods, language impairments and disorders, and neural representations, functions, and processes of the multilingual brain. Focusing on up-to-date theoretical and experimental research, this timely handbook explores new directions of study and examines significant findings in the rapidly evolving field of multilingual neuroscience. Discussions on the bilingual advantage debate, recovery and rehabilitation patterns in multilingual aphasia, and the neurocognitive effects of multilingualism throughout the lifespan allow informed investigation of contemporary issues. Presents the first handbook-length examination of the neuroscience and neurolinguistics of multilingualism Demonstrates how neuroscience and multilingualism intersect several areas of research, such as neurobiology and experimental psychology Includes works from prominent international scholars and researchers to provide global perspective Reflects cutting-edge research and promising areas of future study in the dynamic field of multilingual neuroscience The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism is an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in areas including multilingualism, psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, and cognitive science. This versatile work is also an indispensable addition to the classroom, providing advanced undergraduate and graduate students a thorough overview of the field.

The Bilingual Aphasia Test is a comprehensive language test designed to assess the differential loss or sparing of various language functions in previously bilingual individuals. The individual is tested, separately, in each language he or she previously used, and then in the two languages simultaneously. The testing is multimodal -- sampling hearing, speaking, reading, and writing; and multidimensional -- testing various linguistic levels (phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, and semantic), tasks (comprehension, repetition, judgment, lexical access and propositionizing), and units (words, sentences, and paragraphs). The BAT is structured as follows: * To test a bilingual aphasic, you will need the following testing elements: the stimulus books for each of the languages in which the individual was formerly fluent, the single-language tests for each of these languages, as well as the bilingual test that links them. For example, if you are testing an English-French bilingual aphasic, you will need an English stimulus book, a French stimulus book, an English single-language test, a French single-language test, and an English-French bilingual test. * The BAT can also be used to test monolingual aphasics. To test for monolingual aphasia, you will need the stimulus book and the single-language test in the language in which the individual was formerly fluent. * Professor Paradis' book, The Assessment of Bilingual Aphasia, provides the background material and serves as the manual for the test. The BAT is available in dozens of languages and language pairs. There are now 106 bilingual pairs available. Additional single-language and bilingual tests are being prepared continuously. If the language (or language pair) you need is not listed, please call LEA to find out if and when it will be available. Single-language materials are now available in: Amharic Arabic (Jordanian) Arabic (Maghrebian) Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Azari Basque Berber Bulgarian Catalán Chinese (Cantonese) Chinese (Mandarin) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Farsi Finnish French Friulian Galician German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Inuktitut Italian Japanese Kannada Korean Kurdish Latvian Lithuanian Luganda Malagasy Norwegian Oryia Polish Portuguese (Brazilian) Portuguese (European) Rumanian Russian Somali Spanish (American) Spanish (European) Swahili Swedish Tagalog Tamil Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Yiddish Bilingual pairs are now available in: Amharic/English Amharic/French Arabic/Armenian Arabic/English Arabic/French Arabic/Somali Arabic/Swahili Armenian/English Armenian/Farsi Armenian/French Armenian/Russian Basque/English Basque/French Basque/Spanish Berber/English Berber/French Bulgarian/English Bulgarian/French Bulgarian/German Bulgarian/Russian Catalán/Spanish Chinese (Cantonese)/English Chinese (Mandarin)/English Chinese/French Croatian/English Croatian/French Croatian/Italian Czech/English Czech/German Czech/Russian Czech/Swedish Danish/English Danish/German Dutch/English Dutch/French Dutch/German Dutch/Hebrew English/Farsi English/Finnish English/French English/Friulian English/German English/Greek English/Hebrew English/Hindi English/Hungarian English/Icelandic English/Italian English/Japanese English/Korean English/Latvian English/Lithuanian English/Luganda English/Norwegian English/Polish English/Portuguese English/Rumanian English/Russian English/Serbian English/Somali English/Spanish English/Swahili English/Swedish English/Tagalog English/Turkish English/Urdu English/Vietnamese Farsi/French Farsi/Hebrew Finnish/French Finnish/Swedish French/Friulian French/German French/Greek French/Hebrew French/Hungarian French/Italian French/Japanese French/Malagasy French/Polish French/Rumanian French/Russian French/Serbian French/Somali French/Spanish French/Swahili French/Urdu French/Vietnamese Friulian/German Friulian/Italian Galician/Spanish German/Greek German/Hebrew German/Hungarian German/Italian German/Polish German/Russian German/Spanish German/Swedish Greek/Spanish Greek/Turkish Italian/Rumanian Italian/Spanish Portuguese/Spanish Russian/Swedish Somali/Swahili

During the last years a significant number of papers, books, and monographs devoted to speech and language impairments in bilingual children have been published. Different aspects and questions have been approached and today we have a relatively good understanding of the specific characteristics of the speech and language difficulties potentially observed in bilingual and multilingual children. This interest has been significantly resulted from the potential developmental and educational consequences of bilingualism. Our understanding of the communication disorders in adult populations is notoriously more limited, even though over 50% of the adult population can speak at least another language in addition to his/her native language. That simply means that over 50% of the communication disorders observed in adults are bilingual speech and language disorders: bilingual aphasias, bilingual dementias, bilingual stuttering, etc. This book was written with the specific purpose of filling this gap. The major purpose of this book has been to integrate the state of the art on the different aspects of the communication disorders observed in adult bilinguals. The book is organised in such a way that an integrated perspective of bilingualism is presented: from the normal conditions to the pathology; from the clinical descriptions to the rehabilitation issues; from the biological factors to the cultural variables.

“Non-fluent Aphasia in a Multilingual World” is an up-to-date introduction to the language of patients with non-fluent aphasia. Recent research in languages other than English has challenged our old descriptions of aphasia syndromes: while their patterns can be recognized across languages, the structure of each language has a profound effect on the symptoms of aphasic speech. However, the basic linguistic concepts needed to understand these effects in languages other than English have rarely been part of the training of the clinician. “Non-fluent Aphasia in a Multilingual World” introduces these concepts plainly and concretely, in the context of dozens of examples from the narratives and conversations of patients speaking most of the major languages of Europe, North America and Asia. Linguistic and clinical terms are carefully defined and kept as theory neutral as possible. “Non-Fluent Aphasia in a Multilingual World” is especially useful for speech-language pathologists whose patients are immigrants and guestworkers, and for the clinician who must deal creatively with the challenges of providing aphasia diagnosis and therapy in a multicultural, multidialectical setting.

Communication disorders are a problem for people around the world. However, language disorders are rarely studied within the context of bilingualism. This is despite the fact that the majority of individuals who are affected by acquired language disorders are multilingual. Studies of bilingual aphasic speakers reveal important insights about the cognitive and neurological factors involved in multilingualism and have an impact on the assessment and the rehabilitation of aphasic speakers. The aim of this Special Issue is to present papers by leading researchers in the field of aphasia and to examine the patterns of speech and language disorders among speakers who have varying proficiency in their native and non-native languages.