Topic description and stories

Atypical welcome

Languages still a major barrier to global science, new research finds

29 Dec 2016

Over a third of new conservation science documents published annually are in non-English languages, despite assumption of English as scientific ‘...

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A British army sergeant visits a school in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Opinion: How the British military became a champion for language learning

06 Jun 2016

Wendy Ayres-Bennett (Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics) discusses the impact of the military's new language policy.

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Bilingual street name sign in Bangor, North Wales

Opinion: There are also drawbacks to being bilingual

26 Apr 2016

Tomas Folke (Department of Psychology) and Julia Ouzia (Anglia Ruskin University) discuss the cognitive disadvantages that may be associated with...

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Atypical welcome

Cambridge to explore benefits of multilingualism with new AHRC research project

22 Mar 2016

The University of Cambridge is to launch a major new research project to study the benefits of multilingualism to individuals and society, and...

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Page from Colloquia et dictionariolum octo linguarum (Amsterdam, 1631), a pocket-sized phrasebook containing material in eight languages.

Comm’portez vous? What phrase books tell us about our past encounters

06 Aug 2013

Will you be speaking Greek, Turkish or Spanish on holiday this summer – or will you rely on the locals having a workable grasp of English? In his...

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Functional neuroimaging of the human brain

The communicative brain

29 Nov 2011

What is it about the human brain that makes language possible? Two evolutionary systems working together, say neuroscientists Professor William...

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Word beads

How languages are built

08 Nov 2011

A team of Cambridge linguists has embarked on an ambitious project to identify how the languages of the world are built – from Inuit Yupik to sub-...

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Henriëtte Hendriks

Making sense of language: learning across the lifespan

02 Nov 2011

Henriëtte Hendriks, Head of Cambridge’s newly formed Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, explains why linguistics – the scientific...

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