Why Bilingualism is So Natural | Julio Villa-García | TEDxUniversityofManchester

How many people around the world can speak more than one language? Could it be that we are all bilingual? Is bilingualism natural? This talk discusses a number of arguments pointing to the natural status of this phenomenon, including figures, manifestations, children's language acquisition, and the brain.

Video credits: 2Beards Film and Video Production. Julio Villa-García (Avilés, Spain) is a professional linguist working in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester. Julio was trained as a language teacher and as a linguist. He holds degrees in English language, Spanish linguistics and theoretical linguistics from the University of Oviedo, the University of Kent, the University of Essex and the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on the internal structure of sentences syntax and its acquisition in monolingual and bilingual contexts. He has lectured and worked as an English-Spanish translator in the USA and the UK. He is fascinated by the similarities displayed by the world’s languages and is devoted to unearthing the intricate mechanisms underlying language. He is also deeply committed to the promotion and preservation of linguistic diversity, a goal to which his TEDx talk on why bilingualism is such a natural phenomenon aims to contribute. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx