The overall aim of this article is to argue that the functioning of every language system is based on a potential multilingual competence. The empirical basis for this is now broad enough to gain a comprehensive view on the overall competence of a multilingual individual. Moreover, increasing theoretical reflection has conferred an increasingly…

Describes a two-course, team-taught series originally designed to introduce students to the nature of language and other symbolic systems. The course is a building block for language, literature, and other multidisciplinary programs. It also provides a coherent framework for the updated study of foreign languages. (SL)