Abstract:

Until recently, consciously attained proficiency in multiple languages was perceived as a rare art. However, by now, a certain amount of data has been accumulated that makes it possible to look at this phenomenon from a research perspective. This paper reviews the main sources of such information.

The first group of existing sources on polyglottery can be called “polyglot memoirs”, in which polyglots describe their experience and offer advice to language learners. These include books by Kato Lomb (1970), Erik Gunnemark (1977), Dmitry Spivak (1989), Barry Farber (1991), Steve Kaufmann (2003), Michael Janich (2004), Timur Baitukalov (2008), Alex Rawlings (2017) and others, as well as online publications of modern polyglots on their personal or specialized websites.

The second group of materials is research literature where polyglots are regarded as object of scientific study. This category is comprised of books by Michael Erard (2012) and Dina Nikulicheva (2009 & 2013); proceedings of the New York 2013 International Conference on Multilingual Proficiency: Language, Polyglossia and Polyglottery (2016) and of the International Symposium on Language Education, Polyglottery and Geolinguistics held in Moscow in 2018 (forthcoming); a series of papers by Dina Nikulicheva and Grigory Kazakov in the Journal of Psycholinguistics (since 2013); and separate articles by such authors as Erik Gunnemark, Stephen Krashen, Timothy Keeley, Martin Bragalone and Alexander Arguelles.

The third (quite extensive and still poorly described) group of sources is the materials produced by the modern polyglot movement, namely videos of the talks given at the annual Polyglot Conferences since 2013 and Polyglot Gatherings since 2014 (available on Youtube).

On the basis of this data, one can observe that polyglottery has become a valid field of research connected with psycholinguistics that can offer valuable insights into language education and other socially significant issues. This paper summarizes the particular results achieved by polyglottery in recent years and indicates the questions that remain open for further research.

Keywords:

Polyglot, polyglottery, language learning, psycholinguistics.