Studies on multilingualism came to the forefront more than 10 years ago with the celebration of specialised conferences on third language acquisition and multilingualism and the publication of articles and books that went beyond bilingualism and second language acquisition. In 2003 this journal, the International Journal of Multilingualism was founded as a specialised interdisciplinary journal focusing on theoretical and empirical aspects of multilingualism. Scientific contributions on multilingualism have experienced a dramatic increase in recent years and our knowledge of many aspects of multilingualism is much better than a decade ago. Some examples of this development can be in some recent monographs (Aronin & Singleton, Citation2012; Edwards, Citation2012; Rindler-Schjerve & Vetter, Citation2012; Weber & Homer, Citation2012) and edited books (Cenoz & Gorter, Citation2015; Gabryś-Barker, Citation2012; Gorter, Zenotz, & Cenoz, Citation2014; Jessner & Kramsch, Citation2015; Martin-Jones, Blackledge, & Creese, Citation2012; Pawlak & Aronin, Citation2014; Singleton, Fishman, Aronin, & O’Laoire, Citation2013).
The interest in conducting research on multilingualism is closely related to different factors that characterise society in the twenty-first century. Globalisation has influenced the spread of English but at the same time the mobility of the population and the recognition of some minority languages have increased language diversity and this has implications for language teaching and multilingualism (Kramsch & Huffmaster, Citation2014). Aronin and Singleton (Citation2008) compared the features of historical and contemporary multilingualism and reported several distinctions that were summarised by Cenoz (Citation2013) as related to the globalisation at three levels. The first is geographical and has taken multilingualism from specific areas to different parts of the world, the second is social because it affects different social strata and the third is related to the medium because of multimodal and instantaneous communication on the internet.
Research on multilingualism tends to look at the specific characteristics of processing, acquiring and using third or additional languages by bringing together second language acquisition and bilingualism (Cenoz & Hoffmann, Citation2003). Research on multilingualism can be approached from disciplines such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics or education. These different perspectives are reflected in the use of different theoretical frameworks and research methodologies and this is necessary because there is a wide range of multilingual phenomena to be examined.
Nowadays, the study of multilingualism is well established but it is necessary to look at the future and this is in the hands of young researchers. Contributors to this Special Issue are young researchers who participated in the Donostia Young Researchers Symposium on Multilingualism (DISM 2016) that took place in Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain) on 3–4 March 2016. This was the first event organised by the International Association of Multilingualism specifically for young researchers. Over 50 young researchers from 13 different countries had the opportunity to share their work. The articles in this Special Issue are based on a selection of research studies on adult multilingualism that were presented at the symposium.
The study of adult multilingualism is shaped by previous language experience. Adult learners usually present a lot more diversity than children because they have gone through different situations of language learning and the languages in their repertoires have developed in different ways. In fact, multilingual competences are dynamic, particularly when several languages are involved. Some languages can be used in everyday communication but there may also be a process of attrition when languages are not used. As an example we can see the following comments taken from Radmira Popovic’s narrative about her own multilingualism:
As can be seen from this account, my English has definitely improved throughout my adult life, but the knowledge of other languages (Russian, French, Greek) has deteriorated, while German and Italian have shrivelled out of disuse. (Citation2009, p. 48)
Adult multilinguals often have diverse and rich language biographies and the previous experience with other languages necessarily has an effect when learning additional languages. This Special Issue looks at these experiences by focusing on the specific strategies multilinguals who acquire additional languages use, their anxiety when learning different languages in their repertoire, the crucial moments in their biographies that shape their multilingualism and learning outcomes. Furthermore, the effect of English Medium Instruction (EMI) when English is a third language in higher education and language practices in interaction are also addressed. The topics are diverse but the experiences when learning and using languages in the adult multilingual’s repertoire show the need to be aware of the (emergent) multilingual speaker’s whole linguistic repertoire when conducting research on multilingualism. Multilingual speakers themselves realise that the effect of their language experience when learning additional languages in adulthood as it can be seen in the following quote from a multilingual speaker’s narrative:
My background as a speaker of two first languages, the dialects Huihui and Yunnan, helped me develop an inventory of sounds and an almost innate awareness of different sentence structures, which I believe has facilitated my learning of English, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish as an adult. (Hu, Citation2009, p. 219)
The first article ‘Language learning strategies of multilingual adults in learning additional languages’ by Violetta Dmitrenko addresses the question of multilingual learners’ specific strategies in the acquisition of additional languages. This article, based on Dr Dmitrenko’s doctoral dissertation, reports two studies aiming at identifying strategy uses specific to multilinguals. A very important contribution of this article is the revision of Oxford’s (Citation1990) taxonomy which focuses on Second Language Acquisition by developing Multilingual SILL. This new questionnaire incorporates cognitive and metacognitive strategies that are not included in the original Strategy inventory for language learning developed by Oxford (Citation1990). Examples of these strategies are ‘searching for patterns in the new language’, ‘translating into any of one’s languages’ or ‘Control of negative transfer: being careful when transferring words and concepts from L1 into TL (target language)’. This new instrument was tested in a sample of 271 language learners and the results confirm that specific strategies associated with multilingual speakers and their repertoire should be included in further research that goes beyond the acquisition of 2 languages.
The second article in this Special Issue also looks at adult multilingualism in an educational context. ‘Multilingual speakers’ communicative anxiety in the second and third language’ by Alaitz Santos, Durk Gorter and Jasone Cenoz deals with communicative anxiety by examining the differences between second and third language anxiety in higher education in the Basque Country. The study takes place in an educational context where all participants have had instruction in Basque, Spanish and English but they have either Basque or Spanish as the L1. The L2 is Basque for Spanish L1 participants and Spanish for Basque L1 participants and the L3 is English for all of them. Santos, Gorter and Cenoz not only explore the differences in anxiety in the L2 as related to the majority and minority status of the languages but also the differences between L2 and L3 anxiety. The results indicate that anxiety is higher in the case of the L3 than the L2 and also that the level of anxiety is higher when the L2 is a minority language. These results can be explained as related to the opportunities to use the three languages in everyday interaction.
The next article in this Special Issue reports research carried out in higher education in the context of three languages. ‘Trilingual education in China: perspectives from a university programme for minority students’ by Jie Liu and Viv Edwards examines the critical incidents in the biographies of three multilinguals from a Yi–Chinese–English trilingual education programme. The context of this programme shares some characteristics with the Basque context because there is a minority language, a national language and English as a third language. The study looks at the identities of the three students, the life events that have attracted students to this trilingual programme and the implications of these situations as related to the learning outcomes of the students. The results highlight the importance of specific events in multilingual students’ biographies because they can contribute to the development of their identities and outcomes as learners.
Dr Karin van der Worp looks at the trilingual context of higher education in the Basque Country in her article ‘English Medium Instruction: a way towards linguistically better prepared professionals?’ by exploring the implications that EMI can have in students’ perceptions. Participants are business students who report on their competences and use of English as well as their expectations to use this language in their professions. The results of the study indicate that students who have EMI not only perceive their competences as higher than students who have not had EMI but also feel more comfortable about using English in the future profession. All students are aware of the need to speak English in their jobs but EMI students feel well prepared as compared to those students who have only studied English as a subject.
The final contribution in this Special Issue on adult multilingualism is ‘Multilingualism and psychotherapy: exploring multilingual clients’ experiences of language practices in psychotherapy’ by Louise Rolland, Jean-Marc Dewaele and Beverley Costa. This time we move from an educational context to an area that has received very little attention so far, the study of multilingualism in the one-to-one interaction between therapists and clients in psychotherapy sessions. The study looks at the languages used in therapy, the discussion of language profiles and code-switching as reported by the bilingual and multilingual clients. The results of the study indicate that bilingualism and multilingualism are often ignored in psychotherapy sessions and highlight the importance that language can have in situations in which the client can be under stress. The study also looks at code-switching for different functions in this setting.
To conclude, this Special Issue is a contribution towards the future of studies on multilingualism showing the work of young researchers. These research studies show that both theoretically and empirically studies on multilingualism go in the right direction reinforcing the achievements obtained so far and opening new lines of research.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the reviewers of all the articles in this special issue for their insightful comments on the manuscripts, which helped to improve their quality.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
References
- Aronin, L., & Singleton, D. (2008). Multilingualism as a new linguistic dispensation. International Journal of Multilingualism, 5, 1–16. doi: 10.2167/ijm072.0
- Aronin, L., & Singleton, D. (2012). Multilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Cenoz, J. (2013). Defining multilingualism. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 33, 3–18. doi: 10.1017/S026719051300007X
- Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (Eds.). (2015). Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Cenoz, J., & Hoffmann, C. (2003). Acquiring a third language: What role does bilingualism play? The International Journal of Bilingualism, 7, 1–5. doi: 10.1177/13670069030070010101
- Edwards, J. (2012). Multilingualism: Understanding linguistic diversity. London: Continuum.
- Gabryś-Barker, D. (Ed.). (2012). Cross-linguistic influences in multilingual language acquisition. Berlin: Springer.
- Gorter, D., Zenotz, V., & Cenoz, J. (Eds.). (2014). Minority languages and multilingual education. Berlin: Springer.
- Hu, H. (2009). A multilingual journey from East to West. In E. Todeva & J. Cenoz (Eds.), The multiple realities of multilingualism: Personal narratives and researchers’ perspectives (pp. 209–221). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Jessner, U., & Kramsch, C. (Eds.). (2015). The multilingual challenge: Cross disciplinary perspectives. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
- Kramsch, C., & Huffmaster, M. (2014). Multilingual practices for the monolingual classroom. In J. Cenoz & D. Gorter (Eds.), Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging (pp. 114–136). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Martin-Jones, M., Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (Eds.). (2012). The Routledge handbook of multilingualism. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
- Pawlak, M., & Aronin, L. (Eds.). (2014). Essential topics in applied linguistics and multilingualism. Berlin: Springer.
- Popovic, R. (2009). A long, adventurous road to (im)perfection. In E. Todeva & J. Cenoz (Eds.), The multiple realities of multilingualism: Personal narratives and researchers’ perspectives (pp. 33–49). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Rindler-Schjerve, R., & Vetter, E. (2012). European multilingualism. Current perspectives and challenges. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
- Singleton, D., Fishman, J., Aronin, L., & O’Laoire, M. (Eds.). (2013). Current multilingualism: A new linguistic dispensation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Weber, J. J., & Homer, K. (2012). Introducing multilingualism: A social approach. London: Routledge.