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Glossary of Multilingual Terms
Affect – Someone or something who impresses your mind or moves your feelings.
Amygdala – Part or the limbic system next to the temporal lobe in the brain involved with emotions.
Angular gyrus – The part of the brain which associates the visual form of a word with its corresponding sound.
Aphasia – The loss of a previously held ability to speak or understand spoken or written language, due to disease or injury of the brain.
Arcuate fasciculus – A bundle of fibers in the brain connecting Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area (two areas involved with speech).
Auditory cortex – The part of the brain which receives the spoken word.
Bilingual – Involving or using two languages.
Broca’s area – The speech area of the brain which "tells" the mouth how a word should be pronounced.
Cerebral dominance – Which hemisphere (right or left) of the brain is "stronger"; most people are left-hemisphere dominant for languages, for example.
Cognitive/Cognition – Having to do with thought or thinking. The act or process of knowing; perception.
Effect – A result or consequence.
ESL – English as a Second Language.
ESL track – The school program catering to non-native English-language speakers. The people in this group are sometimes referred to as "language minority learners".
Frontal lobes – The part of the brain related to logical thinking, located just behind the forehead.
Glottal stop – A consonant sound which forms in the glottis (in the throat), as in the Scottish pronunciation of the t-sound of little or bottle.
Left-hemisphere – The left half of the brain.
Linguistics – The science and study of language.
Linguistic relationship between languages – The historical connection between different languages identifying their similarities and differences.
Monolingual – One language.
Motor cortex – The part of the brain (related to speech) which drives the muscles of the lips, the tongue, the larynx, etc., and the hand (related to writing).
Multilingual – Involving or using many languages.
Multiliteracy Skills – The ability to read and write in more than one language.
Multiliterate – The ability to read and/or write in several languages.
Myelin insulation in the brain – The connections between synapses in the brain which speed up impulses and make information easier to retrieve.
Neocortex – The newest part of the brain in evolution which is related to higher level thinking processes, such as language and reasoning.
Neuron – A specialized, impulse-connecting cell that is the functional unit of the nervous system; a cell in the brain.
Neurobiology – The science studying the connection between biology and the physiology of the nervous system (including the brain).
Neurolinguistics ם The study of the neurological processes underlying the development and use of language.
Neurology – The science of the nerves and nervous system, including those found in the brain.
Neuropsychology – The branch of medicine related to the physical foundations of mental functions and problems.
Orthography – Writing. The art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage and correct spelling.
Right-hemisphere – The right side of the brain.
Polyglot – Someone who speaks and/or writes two or more languages. Multilingual.
Semilingual – A person who has partial or incomplete working knowledge of a language or languages. Someone without reflective meta-language skills in any language.
Synapse – The electrical connection between neurons in the brain.
Synesthesia – A sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
Syntax – The grammatical rules of a language.
Visual cortex – The area of the brain concerned with stimuli that is seen.
Wernicke’s area – The area of the brain concerned with speech and where the auditory pattern of words is deciphered.
Window of Opportunity – The special times when certain skills or intelligences can be learned in a human’s lifetime.
