Conceptual Dynamics in Multilingual Competence

Abstract

Mulitlingualism represents the capacity of linguistic communities and individuals to regularly use more than one language on a daily basis (Franceschini, 2011). Recently, mounting theoretical and empirical studies on multilingualism have emerged within the field of applied linguistics. Among such analyses, there has been much attention on the notion of multicompetence, which places a psycholinguistic/cognitive lens upon the study of multilingual minds (e.g., Bassetti & Cook, 2011; Brown & Gullberg, 2012). This piece will briefly explore multicompetence with regards to the influence of language(s) on the conceptual structures of multilingual speakers. In relation to this, a brief discussion on the dynamic nature of multilingual competence from the conceptual lens will also be provided.

Keywords

• Applied linguistics
• Language and languages
• Ability testing
• Multilingualism
• English language
• Foreign speakers
• Study of language
• Teaching language
• Education