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About Us
It is essential for us to establish strong links and work in partnership with Mainstream/International/Complementary Schools, educators, the healthcare sector, non-profit organisations, community groups and other key agencies interested in bilingualism/multilingualism in London. Recent research has shown that bilinguals’ experience of dealing with two languages can have cognitive advantages in specific domains and that literacy skills and strategies learned in one language transfer to the other.
One of our key objectives is to bridge the gap between researchers and the wider London community by disseminating recent research findings, which highlight the cognitive, educational, and social advantages associated with the experience of acquiring two or more languages in childhood, including the importance of maintaining the child’s home language(s).
Meet Our Team
Founding Members
Froso Argyri |
Froso Argyri's (UCL Institute of Education, Centre for Applied Linguistics & Psychology and Language Sciences) research focuses on the language development of children who are exposed to more than one language from birth or later on. She is investigating the role of various factors in bilingual/second language acquisition in children, e.g., How does age of first exposure to one or more languages affect language development? What is the role of the amount and quality of input bilingual/multilingual children receive in different contexts? She is also interested in the cognitive effects of bilingualism, the acquisition of literacy skills in two languages (biliteracy), the language development of bilingual children with developmental disorders, as well as in heritage/home language development and maintenance. Froso is a mother of two trilingual children acquiring Greek, Icelandic and English. |
Merle Mahon |
Dr Merle Mahon (UCL Psychology and Language Sciences) has expertise in the bilingual language development of children who have special educational needs (in particular, children who have hearing impairment). She has based much of her work in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Camden and Islington. |
Li Wei |
Li Wei holds a Chair in Applied Linguistics at the UCL Institute of Education. His research interests are in language development of bilingual and multilingual children, family language policy, and creativity and criticality of bilingual and multilingual language users. |
Kea Young
| Kea Young is an Executive Officer in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences. She is the Web Editior and Finance Administrator for UCL BiLingo. Kea is the mother of two children acquiring English and Japanese. |
Collaborators
Roberto Fillipi | Roberto Fillipi is the Director of the Multilanguage & Cognition Lab, part of the Centre for Language, Literacy and Numeracy: Research and Practice at UCL. His main research interest is on multiple language acquisition and cognitive development. Roberto's current research projects investigate the effects of multi-language acquisition on executive function, memory and metacognitive processing across the life span, using a convergence of methodologies, including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). |
Dina Mehmedbegovic | Dina Mehmedbegovic currently works as a lecturer on a range of PGCE, MA and doctoral programmes at UCL Institute of Education, London. Her research focuses on attitudes to bilingualism/multilingualism, minority languages and positioning of languages in relation to dominance, political power and language disappearance. Her previous roles include: deputy director of the London Education Research Unit (2009 -11) and editor of the IOE publication the London Digest, with the brief of generating and sharing knowledge on key educational issues in London and global cities generally. She has also worked as a consultant for City of Westminster Local Authority and a teacher in inner London schools. |
Ana Pellicer-Sanchez | Ana Pellicer-Sanchez is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and the UCL Institute of Education. Her research focuses on second language acquisition, with particular interest in the development of vocabulary in a first and second language. Her current research examines the process of reading in a second language and its relation to vocabulary knowledge. |
Andrea Revesz | Andrea Revesz is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the UCL Institute of Education. Her research interests lie in the areas of second language acquisition and second language instruction. In particular, she does research on the roles of pedagogic tasks, input and interaction, and individual differences in instructed second language development. She is also interested in the cognitive processes underlying second language writing, speaking and listening performance. Andrea is a mother of two bilingual children acquiring English and Hungarian. |