The Research Theme Language Contact aims to investigate contact phenomena on both an individual and a societal level. On an individual level, we plan to examine how language systems interact within a bilingual speaker, which factors influence the language (dis)balance at the levels of the lexicon, grammar and discourse. One focus will be on language mixing. At the societal level, language attitudes and awareness of language contact will be determined. A long-term goal is to improve attitudes towards multilingualism in society by providing scientifically robust evidence.

The research theme is supported by the following projects:

1. the subproject Dynamics of Verbal Aspect and (Pro)Nominal Reference in Language Contact (RUEG P10) of the DFG funded research group Emerging Grammars in Language Contact Situations: A Comparative Approach (FOR 2537)
2. the Marie Sklodowska-Curie project Multilingual acquisition and language preservation in Germany: the case of Upper and Lower Sorbian (MAG)
3. the DFG project Speaker's choices in creole contexts: Bislama and Morisien (CRC 1412-Register A02)
4. the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN)
5. the Berlin Interdisciplinary Network for Multilingualism (BIVEM), which was funded by the Berlin Senate until 2016 and is an integral part of ZAS since then.

Completed projects that had contributed to the research theme: 

1. the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung funded project Narrative abilities in ‘left-behind’ ethnic minority children in China: Evidence from Kam-Mandarin bilingual children (NALEC)
2. the Interdisciplinary Research Alliance (IFV): Language Development of Elementary School Children with Migrant Backgrounds , which was funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Research
3. The subproject Nominal Morphosyntax and Word Position in Heritage-Russian in the Context of Different Majority Languages (RUEG P3) of the research group Emerging Grammars in Language Contact Situations: A Comparative Approach (FOR 2537)
4. the DFG project Bilingual children in transition from kindergarten to primary school: development of their literacy skills (DRUSLI 2)