In bilingual education, students are taught in two languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The time spent in each language depends on the model. For example, some models focus on providing education in both languages throughout a student's entire education while others gradually transition to education in only one language. The ultimate goal of bilingual education is fluency and literacy in both languages through a variety of strategies such as translanguaging and recasting.
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: communicative competencies, proficiencies, cross-cultural experiences, and multiple literacies.
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one's ethnic group rather than the individual's actual first language. Generally, to state a language as a mother tongue, one must have full native fluency in that language.
Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti was an Italian cardinal known for being a hyperpolyglot.
Kató Lomb was a Hungarian interpreter, translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world. Originally educated in physics and chemistry, her interest soon led her to languages. Native in Hungarian, she could interpret fluently in nine or ten languages, translated technical literature, and read belles-lettres in six languages. She was able to understand journalism in a further 11 languages. She stated that she worked professionally with 16 languages, which she learned mostly by self-study due to her interest in them.
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue; but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness. Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called polyglots.
The STELLA project was originally supported and co-funded by the European Commission. The aim was to develop a new language learning methodology for online language learning suitable for European learners. The project's aim was also to deliver online language learning courses for less widely taught and used languages (LWTULs) within the European Union in order to meet the European Union's aim to "safeguard the linguistic diversity in Europe". The methodology was subsequently used in courses which further delivered languages considered to be of strategic importance to the EU and member states.
Fluency refers to continuity, smoothness, rate, and effort in speech production. It is also used to characterize language production, language ability or language proficiency.
Johan Vandewalle is a Belgian linguist. He teaches at Ghent University and specializes in Turkic languages.
Timothy "Tim" Doner is an American hyperpolyglot, former social media personality and a foreign policy analyst at the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies, specializing in the Middle East and Central Asia. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, he rose to prominence at the age of 17 when he released a YouTube video in 2013 in which he spoke 20 different languages. He is a native of Manhattan, New York City and resident of the East Village.
Alexander Sabino Argüelles is an American linguist notable for his work on the Korean language. An avid language learner, he was profiled in Michael Erard's Babel No More. He is one of the polyglots listed in Kenneth Hyltenstam's Advanced Proficiency and Exceptional Ability in Second Languages, and has been described by The New Yorker as "a legendary figure in the [polyglot] community".
Brendan Richard Lewis is an Irish author and blogger who defines himself as a "technomad language hacker". He is best known for his website Fluent in 3 Months, on which he documents personal attempts to learn languages within short time periods, typically three months.
Powell Alexander Janulus is a Canadian polyglot who lives in White Rock, British Columbia, and entered the Guinness World Records in 1985 for fluency in 42 languages. To qualify, he had to pass a two-hour conversational fluency test with a native speaker of each of the 42 languages he spoke at that time.
Ioannis Ikonomou is a Greek translator who has been working for the European Commission in Brussels since 2002. Considered a notable contemporary example of a polyglot, he knows 32 living languages including Greek, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Finnish, Danish, Russian, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin and Bengali, and reportedly as many as 47 languages including dead languages like Old Church Slavonic. He speaks 21 out of 24 official EU languages. He considers the Mandarin language as the most complicated language to learn. Chinese is also his favorite language. He is the only in-house translator of the European Commission who is trusted to translate classified Chinese documents.
50Languages, formerly Book2, is a set of webpages, downloadable audio files, mobile apps and books for learning any of 56 languages. Explanations are also available in the same 56 languages. It is free except for the optional books, and is cited in research on online language learning.
Cornelis Kees de Bot is a Dutch linguist. He is currently the chair of applied linguistics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and at the University of Pannonia. He is known for his work on second language development and the use of dynamical systems theory to study second language development.
Steve Kaufmann is a Canadian polyglot and internet personality known for his language-learning content on YouTube, and the LingQ online language-learning platform which he co-founded.
Philip Crowther is a British–German–Luxembourgish journalist, notable for being a polyglot. He has publicly spoken in fluent French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, and Luxembourgish. He is the White House correspondent for France 24, international affiliate correspondent for the Associated Press, and is a member of the White House Correspondents' Association.
Arieh Smith, better known as Xiaomanyc or simply Xiaoma, is an American YouTuber and polyglot, best known for his videos where he speaks various languages with people from different cultures. The New York Times credited his channel as one of the most popular polyglot YouTube channels. He has been profiled in news publications such as The Independent, The Indian Express, and The Daily Dot.
