Different Dimensions of Bilingualism
Different Dimensions of Bilingualism@UTokyo
For two consecutive academic years, 2023 and 2024, Dr. Lidiya SHAMOVA imparted a self-designed interdisciplinary course, Different Dimensions of Bilingualism, at The University of Tokyo. As part of this course, the project Linguomusicology: The Music of Words was discussed with the students who collaborated on the research. Dr. Shamova would like to express her deepest gratitude to all students who took part and actively participated in this class.
After the course ended, thanks to the excellent team at Tokyo College and with the special support of the Project Researchers Flavia Baldari, Shannon Welsh and Kaori Mita, some of the students' bilingual texts were published in its blog.
This course aims to present bilingualism from different points of view, focusing on the idea of interdisciplinarity between linguistics and other sciences. It discusses the world's transition from assimilation to multiculturalism and reveals the main definitions of bilingualism, diglossia, and multilingualism. Cases from Japan and Europe illustrate the differences between three different bilingual-bicultural societies. One of the lectures focuses on the changes in the bilingual human brain. A separate class with an experimental part explains the connections between bilingualism and communication through music as a base for innovative research. The participants have the opportunity to listen to guest lectures regarding the importance of bilingualism in the field of business communication and to participate in a workshop on the methods used to teach the Japanese language in a multilingual environment. At the end of the course, a workshop is held on conducting a multilingual anonymous survey and writing a scientific text.
The Tokyo College blog publications of those texts can be found on the following links:
Published on 04/06/2024
Different Dimensions of Bilingualism Part 1
Different Dimensions of Bilingualism Part 2
Published on 02/09/2024
UTokyo Class on Bilingualism Part 1
UTokyo Class on Bilingualism Part 2