In an increasingly interconnected world, multilingualism is becoming ever more common. Whether acquired in early childhood or later, additional languages (L2, L3, etc.) present both opportunities (cognitive, social, economic) and challenges. One of the main challenges in second/foreign language acquisition is negative language transfer, where properties of a learner’s known language(s) interfere with accurate learning or use of another language. To understand how to minimize such interference, we need to examine both the brain mechanisms involved in multilingualism and what empirical research tells us about when and how negative transfer occurs.  

Multilingualism, Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Bilingualism

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