Multilingual children in underprivileged contexts: literacy, numeracy and cognition in primary school children in India

Kaynote talk by Prof. Ianthi Tsimpli, University of Cambridge

Multilingualism can be an advantage for both language and cognition. Research on bilingual children in Europe an the US reveals cognitive advantages but also contradictory findings on the development of literacy (e.g. reading comprehension) skills in the majority language. In several countries of the Global South, multilingualism is the norm. The language(s) of education in countries like India, for example, may not be the first or home language of the school-going child. In this talk, Prof. Ianthi Tsimpli will report on some preliminary findings from a large-scale project in primary school children in India focusing on numeracy, mathematical reasoning and cognitive tasks with the purpose of understanding the role of language of education in contexts of severe socioeconomic deprivation.

This keynote talk is part of a day long event - to find out more, visit

https://childbilingualismresearch.com/

The event is funded by the Trinity Long Room Hub, EUROSLA and the Teaching Council

For more information, contact Dr Francesca La Morgia - flamorgi@tcd.ie