Abstract

This volume provides a broad overview of current work in aphasia in individuals who speak more than one language. With contributions from many of the leading researchers in the field, the material included, both experimental work and theoretical overviews, should prove useful to both researchers and clinicians. The book should also appeal to a broader audience, including all who have an interest in the study of language disorders in an increasingly multicultural/multilingual world (e.g. students of speech-language pathology and linguistics). The areas of multilingual aphasia addressed in this collection include assessment and treatment, language phenomena (e.g. code-switching), particular language pairs (including a bidialectal study), and the role of cultural context.

Martin R. Gitterman, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at Lehman College and The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. He has published in the areas of neurolinguistics, aphasia, second language acquisition, bilingualism, and applied linguistics. http://www.lehman.edu//academics/arts-humanities/speech-language-hearing-sciences/gitterman-faculty-page.php

Mira Goral, Ph.D. CCC-SLP is a Professor of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at Lehman College and The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. She also holds an appointment at the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center of the Boston University School of Medicine. She has published in the areas of multilingualism, aphasia, language attrition, and language and cognition in aging. Http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/speech-language-hearing-sciences/mira.php

Loraine K. Obler, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, with appointments in both Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences and Linguistics, as well as at the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center of the Boston University School of Medicine. She has co-authored articles and books on her areas of interest: neurolinguistics, bilingualism and the brain, cross-language study of aphasia, and language in aging. http://web.gc.cuny.edu/speechandhearing/faculty/lobler.asp

This book is an impressive and essential guide to the bewildering and urgent clinical and theoretical problems posed by bilingual/multilingual aphasia. It presents puzzling and challenging case studies, discussion of resources for testing and therapy, useful small-group studies and insightful overviews, with psycholinguistically and therapeutically sophisticated attention paid to cognitive, social and linguistic factors.

In the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase of research on the science of bilingualism, recognizing that in much of the world, bilingualism is a common rather than exceptional circumstance. The present volume provides an exciting synthesis of the latest findings on bilingual aphasia, drawing implications for clinical assessment and treatment, and also for theoretical claims about language, the mind, and the brain.