Grant: CIHR Café Scientifique Program

Learning and maintaining languages other than English in Western Canada can be difficult, and we are often given conflicting messages about the value of knowing other languages, whether that means sharing our native (heritage) languages with our children, teaching additional languages in our schools or learning to speak languages as adults. Researchers from the CIHR, the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Language Research Centre have been studying the effects of learning languages across the lifespan and in a variety of populations--from normally developing infants to adults with Alzheimer's disease. They look forward to discussing the results and practical implications of their work.