Service launch: UCL BiLingo: A Bi/Multilingualism Information and Education Service for London

Linguistics and Language and Cognition researchers at UCL have created an information and education service for childhood bi/multilingualism and learning English as an additional language (EAL).

The London-specific service, based at UCL, will provide person-based outreach and a website with resources to be developed in collaboration with parents, teachers, therapists, non-profit organisations and other interested community groups. The website will include a forum for questions, discussions and dissemination of research findings and up-to-date research-based advice.

The team, made up of Dr Froso Argyri (Linguistics); Dr Merle Mahon (Language and Cognition); Prof Li Wei (Centre for Applied Linguistics UCL Institute of Education) and Dr Alex Perovic (Linguistics), will also explore ways to strengthen research activity in bi/multilingualism and EAL at UCL by developing partnerships with UK higher education institutes and other organisations.

The UCL BiLingo team said: "Having had the generous cooperation of so many Londoners in our bilingualism and English as an additional language research over the years, we are hopeful that the UCL BiLingo project will be a way of giving back to the community. There is no current setup like ours in the Capital, and through UCL BiLingo we want to reach out and to build on London's rich linguistic and cultural diversity".

The service is funded by UCL’s Grand Challenges, a cross-disciplinary research initiative that brings together expertise from across the university, in collaboration with external partners, to address some of the most pressing problems facing our world today.

The team are also inviting UCL staff to get involved and take part in a unique survey, that aims to map out the rich diversity of languages spoken by all staff in UCL, and has been endorsed by the Provost. The results of the survey will be reported on BiLingo’s website.

• BiLingo website
• UCL Grand Challenges
• Dr Froso Argyri Iris Profile
• Dr Merle Mahon Iris Profile
• Prof Wei Li Iris Profile
• Dr Alexandra Perovic Iris Profile