The ESRC, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government have together announced £5 million funding for a new research centre to study bilingualism.
Based at the University of Wales, Bangor, the new research centre aims to create greater understanding of bilingualism across the world.
Research will focus on the nature of the relationship between the two languages of individual bilingual speakers as well as amongst the wider community.
Director for the new centre will be Professor Margaret Deuchar, of the School of Linguistics and English Language at Bangor, with colleagues Professor Colin Baker of the School of Education and Professor Virginia Gathercole of the School of Psychology as co-Directors.
Professor Deuchar commented: "Recent years have seen an explosion of research in this area, as a result of which our understanding of the nature of the individual bilingual mind, language use and development and of the bilingual community is on the verge of a significant leap forward.
"Examples of the areas that will be studied include language-pair comparisons, such as Spanish-Welsh that will provide a contrast to the better known English-Spanish and English-Welsh pairs."
Influencing public understanding of the nature of bilingualism and its social and psychological effects both in the UK and abroad will also be central to the research. Additionally, by examining language use in the classroom, the research will also be of interest to school language teachers and other language professionals who will be able to draw on the findings to complement their teaching and enhance their understanding of bilingualism.
One appealing aspect of the new centre is that, alongside methods traditionally used in linguistics, psychology and education, it features a neuroscientific angle. The neuroscience group headed by Dr Guillaume Thierry will investigate the mechanisms by which one brain can handle two different languages.
Located in the well established bilingual community in the Welsh-English speaking area of North Wales, the new research centre will have an advantage in providing easy access to bilingual people and will allow an unprecedented concentration of effort on Welsh-English bilinguals as well as offering a springboard into other bilingual communities.
The Centre will also contribute to building research capacity in the area of bilingualism by training postgraduate students and by offering a variety of other opportunities such as postdoctoral and international research Fellowships.
Jane Davidson, the Welsh Assembly Government's Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills said: "I welcome this development, which builds on research excellence at the University of Wales, Bangor in this interesting academic area of study. It will greatly increase our understanding of bilingualism. It has direct relevance to Wales as a bilingual country."
For more information visit the bilingualism centre page on ESRC Society Today.