Second Strings and Linguistic Connections: Bilingual and Bilinguistic Explorations. An Introduction.

Abstract

The conference from which these papers arise was held at Birkbeck, University of London, on 5/6 November 2008 in honour of Michel Blanc’s election to a Fellowship at Birkbeck. As is appropriate for a set of papers dedicated to the author of Bilinguality and Bilingualism (1989), the contributions to this issue cover a wide range from bilinguality (issues affecting the individual) to bilingualism (issues affecting groups and societies). The authors have all been associated with the Department of Applied Linguistics (now called ‘Applied Linguistics and Communication’) at some point in its history, some having been colleagues or students of Michel’s and others having worked there after his retirement.