News
On this page you find a selection of items about our members, activities, bilingual development, and bilingualism.
The importance of language choice, input, and discourse strategies for Harmonious Bilingualism
The combined influence of parental language choice patterns, input characteristics, and discourse strategies used by parents can increase their children's chances of speaking two languages within the family and thus contribute to Harmonious Bilingualism. This talk by Annick De Houwer explains the research behind this finding.
Wilhelm von Humboldt Prize 2020
Awarded to Jürgen M. Meisel
The German Society for Linguistics has awarded HaBilNet Advisory Board Member Professor Jürgen M. Meisel the prestigious Wilhelm von Humboldt Prize 2020 for his lifetime achievement. The award ceremony took place on March 4, 2020, as part of the annual DGfS conference at the University of Hamburg. HaBilnet congratulates Dr. Meisel on this well deserved recognition.
Gerald M. Mara Faculty Mentoring Award
Awarded to Lourdes Ortega
HaBilNet Director Annick De Houwer gave this talk on Febr. 12, 2020 at the invitation of Dr. Lourdes Ortega at the Initiative for Multilingual Studies, Georgetown University, USA. Thanks to Rima Elabdali for the video recording.
Harmonious Bilingualism in Bilingual Families
A Talk in Two Parts
In this talk Dr. Annick De Houwer offers the framework of bilingual well-being and its associated Harmonious Bilingualism as a window into understanding the experiences of young families who find themselves in bilingual settings in today's diversified world.
In this first part she defines what she means by Harmonious Bilingualism and outlines its two main hallmarks.
In this second part she explains some of the possible ill effects that can occur when children do not speak the language their parents speak with them. She discusses what happens when young children's home languages are ignored at (pre)school and explains the importance of actively valuing all children's languages at (pre)school.
Intergenerational Language Transmission and Social Identity
Not only Love at First Sight but also Love at First Sounds
Why do some parents decide to speak their own language(s) to their children, and other parents don't? Find out about it in this recent blog by Dr. Ruth Kircher.
only online
Georgetown University Round Table colloquium
March 13-15, 2020
HaBilNet was proud to sponsor an invited colloquium at this year's Georgetown University Round Table (GURT), a prestigious linguistics conference. This year's GURT was co-hosted by the IMS and MultiLing.
HaBilNet director Annick De Houwer is a member of MultiLing's Scientific Advisory Board.
We are sad and disappointed, but thank the organizers for their tremendous work in preparing the conference.
Only virtual GURT this year
Read More
Unfortunately, the global COVID-19 crisis led to the "live" GURT 2020, scheduled for March 13-15, to be cancelled. Instead, the GURT 2020 organizers set up a closed FaceBook page, GURT 2020 Virtual, to allow registered participants to post their contributions. HaBilNet and the speakers who were invited for the HaBilNet FLP colloquium on Finding Universal Patterns in Family Language Policies and Their Effects on Children: Evidence from Different World Regions and Different Disciplines are grateful to the organizers for this enormous effort.
March 13, 2020
