Multilingualism and Language Learning Lab (@UMass)

Our mission

Research has shown the many social, personal, and cognitive benefits of bilingualism. We are a group of researchers and language learners who believe that everybody deserves the opportunity to speak more than one language. The Polyglot Lab's mission is to promote language learning and multilingualism by:

• Studying how people of all ages acquire additional languages.

• Researching strategies, tools, and pedagogical approaches that can facilitate language learning.

• Hosting discussion groups, academic events, and educational opportunities to promote multilingualism.

• Organizing venues for speakers of minoritized languages to discuss and exchange ideas about language preservation and revitalization.  

The world is polyglot!  

Most people around the world live in multilingual environments. Some countries like Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, and Paraguay are officially multilingual. Other countries like China, Mexico, Ghana, India, and Iran have an incredible number of languages spoken in their territories. Even in the US, where English is the socially dominant language, more than 300 languages are spoken. The majority of people around the world either need to speak more than one language in their daily lives or have learned another language for social, professional, personal, or educational reasons. Let's face it: The World is Polyglot!