LINGUIST List 21.2618 Wed Jun 16 2010 Review: Lang. Acquisition; Ling. Theories: Aronin and Hufeisen (2009) Editor for this issue: Joseph Salmons <jsalmonslinguistlist.org> This LINGUIST List issue is a review of a book published by one of our supporting publishers, commissioned by our book review editorial staff. We welcome discussion of this book review on the list, and particularly invite the author(s) or editor(s) of this book to join in. If you are interested in reviewing a book for LINGUIST, look for the most recent posting with the subject "Reviews: AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW", and follow the instructions at the top of the message. You can also contact the book review staff directly. Directory         1.    Ron Peek, The Exploration of Multilingualism Message 1: The Exploration of Multilingualism Date: 16-Jun-2010 From: Ron Peek <ronpeeknlyahoo.com> Subject: The Exploration of Multilingualism E-mail this message to a friend Discuss this message Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/20/20-3956.html EDITORS: Aronin, Larissa; Hufeisen, Britta TITLE: The Exploration of Multilingualism SUBTITLE: Development of research on L3, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition SERIES TITLE: AILA Applied Linguistics Series 6 PUBLISHER: John Benjamins YEAR: 2009 Ron Peek, Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London SUMMARY The Exploration of Multilingualism aims to provide an 'ontogenetic perspective on research in L3, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition', as well as a 'conceptually updated picture of multilingualism studies and third/multiple language acquisition', and is intended for 'lecturers, students, educators, researchers, and social workers operating in multilingual contexts' (back cover). The book contains nine chapters, all by experienced researchers and experts within the field, with extensive references at the end of each chapter. Apart from the introduction, all chapters are preceded by a short abstract and keywords. There are few notes and a name and subject index can be found at the back of the book. In Chapter 1, 'Introduction: On the genesis and development of L3 research, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition', the editors begin by noting the increased interest in and awareness of multilingualism in recent times, which has resulted in several key publications on multilingualism and third language acquisition (TLA), such as the Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication (Auer & Li Wei 2007). In Aronin and Hufeisen's view, 'multilingualism subsumes bilingualism', involving 'the use and acquisition of two and more languages' (p. 1). However, they are quick to note that for some researchers 'tri- and multilingualism is more than L2 plus yet another language' (p. 2) and that bilinguals differ in certain aspects from multilinguals. Hence the use of 'L3' to mark this distinction, which according to the website of the International Association of Multilingualism 'stands as a symbol for research on three or more languages, and for research on multilingualism and multilingual language acquisition and learning'. The chapter then sketches how early researchers such as Vildomec (1963) identified multilingualism as a separate field of enquiry, the subsequent investigation by researchers into trilingual acquisition by their own children, and a consolidation period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where multilingualism and L3 research began to emerge and separate itself from second language acquisition (SLA) and bilingualism research, including the biannual international L3 conferences from 1999 onwards, founding of the International Association of Multilingualism in 2003, and launch of the International Journal of Multilingualism in 2004. The editors identify the main contemporary research strands: sociolinguistics (societal and individual multilingualism); psycholinguistics; neurolinguistics; pragmalinguistics; applied linguistics; and education. A brief summary of future challenges faced by multilingualism researchers follows, namely '... how to deal adequately with the number of variables, the complexity of sciences and the relevance for life in education, morals, religion, politics, interpersonal relations, globalisation, and business.' (p. 4) The chapter ends with an outline of the remaining chapters. Chapter 2, 'Defining multilingualism' by Charlotte Kemp, deals with the important conceptual issue of defining 'multilingual' and 'multilingualism', and how to distinguish these from related terms such as 'bilingualism'. She identifies two sets of reasons that may explain the divergence in definitions of multilingualism. The first set is related to participants, i.e. the 'complex situation with regard to the nature of their use of various languages' (p. 12). The second concerns researchers, i.e. their 'differing backgrounds, ideologies and purposes' (p. 12), which can lead to the use of different methodologies. Kemp then discusses how researchers have used 'monolingual', 'bilingual', 'multilingual' to date, and touches on other related terms such as 'unilingual', 'bilinguality', 'diglossia', 'polyglot' and 'plurilingual', with a particular emphasis on their context of use, as exemplified in psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic or educational studies. The discussion brings out two main areas of difference amongst researchers: 1) the number of languages in relation to 'bilingual' and 'multilingual', and 2) whether the terms are used to refer to the language use of particular individuals and communities within societies, or just societal use. The author addresses two important questions that impact upon operational definitions of 'multilingual' and 'multilingualism', namely 'What is a language?' and 'How may languages be counted?' (p. 16). In reply to the first question, she cites the Ethnologue and points out that researchers in practice tend to address 'What is a language?' by taking into account their own and participants' perceived language boundaries in social and/or cultural usage. The second question on counting or measuring languages is also problematic and six related issues are discussed: required proficiency level; required functional capability level; the criterion of 'mutual intelligibility'; cultural and political criteria; other affective criteria; and literacy. The chapter finishes with the suggestion that although a definite answer is unlikely, multilingualism researchers should provide an explicit, detailed definition of multilingualism in their studies, thereby allowing others '... to understand the principles behind the study, and how each study relates to the existing literature.' (p. 24) Chapter 3, 'The genesis and development of research in multilingualism: Perspectives for future research' by Rita Franceschini, contains three sections. The first section examines the recent social and scientific interest in multilingualism and the emergence of a broad multilingual perspective within language studies and social discourse, mainly due to an 'increased sensitivity towards socio-cultural diversity' and 'the great variety of (socio-)linguistically-based issues and problems at the societal level which have arisen from increased migratory movements' (p. 29). Nowadays multilingual abilities are generally seen in a more a positive light within linguistics, as well as society at large. This is evidenced in current European educational language policies and national language teaching curricula, even if the potential of functional, practical communicative multilingual abilities of individuals is not always fully capitalised on in some officially 'multilingual' countries. The second section presents a dynamic, multi-level and culturally-founded definition of multilingualism as: '... the capacity of societies, institutions, groups and individuals to engage on a regular basis in space and time with more than one language in everyday life.' It 'is a product of the fundamental human ability to communicate in a number of languages' and '... designates a phenomenon embedded in the cultural habits of a specific group, which are characterised by significant inter- and intra-cultural sensitivity' (pp. 33-35). Before ending this section, Franceschini, like other authors in this volume, argues for more clarity on how bilingualism differs from multilingualism. The third section outlines numerous interesting topics for future research, grouped under six thematic headings: the history of active multilingualism and multilingual grammars; language borders, minorities and new opportunities for peripheries (such as the internet); the statistical basis and legal status of multilingualism; multilingualism in institutions; multilingualism in discourse; and multilingualism in the individual. Franceschini concludes that even if defining multilingualism and related concepts may remain an issue, it is paramount to combine systematic theoretical and methodological reflection with solid empirical groundwork, particularly in view of applying research findings in educational, family, community, society and industry settings. Chapter 4, 'The development of psycholinguistic research on crosslinguistic influence' by Gessica De Angelis and Jean-Marc Dewaele, focuses on three areas: key topics covered from the 1950s to date; the introduction of new frameworks in crosslinguistic influence (CLI) research; and the instrumental and catalysing role of the L3 network in this context from the 1990s onwards. The chapter is organised according to developments in the field in the 1950s and 60s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, and those from 2000 onwards. Early developments in the 1950s and 1960s are Weinreich's (1953) coordinate, compound and subordinate distinction, the systematic discussion of non-native language transfer in Vildomec's (1963) study of multilingualism, and Peal and Lambert (1962) showing the positive rather than assumed detrimental affects of bilingualism. The 1970s include descriptive language transfer studies on the unique nature of non-native languages, and the introduction of several key notions, such as 'interlanguage' (Selinker 1972), overt and covert transfer (Schachter 1974), and perceived language distance or 'psychotypology' (Kellerman 1977), as well as more cognitive studies, such as Albert and Obler (1978) on language recovery in bi- and multilingual aphasiacs. The 1980s saw an increasing emphasis on cognitive and psycholinguistic processes, with frequency of use as a key factor in CLI research. Significant topics at this time include: the role of language distance in non-native language transfer; the role of metalinguistic awareness and prior knowledge in implicit/explicit learning; and the development of human speech production models. In the 1990s, language distance remained an important topic and much research focused on explaining CLI findings in terms of speech production models, leading to significant modifications of the latter. Other key developments are the notion of 'language modes' (Grosjean 1997) and a shift from language transfer in second languages to that in third or additional languages, underlining the need for less traditional, more multilingual frameworks. Finally, the first L3 conference in Innsbruck in 1999 brought many researchers together and an international network of scholars with similar research interests was established. In the new millennium this network was formalised into the International Association of Multilingualism in 2003, which became an official Research Network of AILA in 2006. Chapter 5, 'The role of prior knowledge in L3 learning and use: Further evidence of psychotypological dimensions' by Muiris Ó Laoire and David Singleton, contains two studies investigating the role of perceived similarity between languages in L3 acquisition within an Irish secondary school setting. After an overview of bilingualism and third language education in Ireland and a discussion of the psychotypology factor and L2 factor in crosslinguistic research, the authors outline the aims and hypothesis of the two studies, prior to more detailed discussion. The first, two-part study (Study A) examines crosslinguistic influence at the lexical level among French L3 secondary school students with English L1 and Irish L2 (part 1: original study), as well as balanced bilinguals in English and Irish (part 2: replication study to neutralise the L1 factor). Here the authors hypothesise that '... given the greater lexical proximity (and perceived proximity) between English and French as opposed to that between Irish and French, cross-lexical influence from English would far outstrip any such influence from Irish.' (p. 82) Findings from both parts of the study confirm the hypothesis, showing a major English lexical influence regardless of its L1 or L2 status, as well as the virtual absence of any Irish lexical influence. The second study (Study B) examines crosslinguistic influence at the morphosyntactic level, with a specific focus on word order in non-finite purpose clauses and morphological inflection in noun phrases following prepositions, in two groups of English L1 and longstanding Irish L2 speakers who are learning German L3 at secondary school. Since German and Irish are similar with regard to these two morphosyntatic features, a knowledge of Irish could facilitate German L3 production here and potentially be leveraged by German L3 learners. The hypothesis is that '... there would be more evidence of Irish-based transfer in this case than in Study A.' (p. 82) The results show some evidence of Irish L2 crosslinguistic influence in students' German L3 word order production, but awareness thereof appears to be minimal when looking at their introspective comments. No facilitative effect was found for morphological inflection, due to students' overall low specific task performance. This leads the authors to the preliminary conclusion that students' successful German L3 word order production draws considerably from similar structures in Irish, even if they are unaware of such similarity. For additional support, they cite various studies indicating the huge difficulties English-speaking learners of German without Irish have with word order in subordinate clauses. Chapter 6, 'Methods of research in multilingual studies: Reaching a comprehensive perspective' by Larissa Aronin and Britta Hufeisen is primarily a methodological and theoretical chapter, introducing new and more recent terminology. After reviewing traditional research methods, the editors examine methodological developments in relation to contemporary multilingualism research. They identify and define three 'inherent emergent qualities' of contemporary multilingualism, namely complexity, liminality and suffusiveness, and how these 'properties' reveal themselves in various concrete developments in 'the current global linguistic dispensation' (p. 105). They relate three properties to recent research methods in multiple language learning and use. For example, awareness of complexity has resulted in several new approaches and models within multilingualism studies attempting to do justice to this aspect, such as emergentism and Herdina and Jessner's Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (2002). The liminality of contemporary multilingualism research, i.e. the idea that previously unnoticed language-related process and phenomena are now becoming more apparent due to current sociolinguistic conditions (p. 105), can be witnessed in the renewed interest in identity in both recent qualitative and quantitative multilingual studies. Finally, there is the suffusiveness of contemporary multilingualism, i.e. the idea that 'it permeates the world in terms of the existence of multilingual populations, geographical areas, business and other activity domains where multilingual practices prevail' (p. 105) In the authors' view, this suffusiveness, combined with complexity and liminality, has led to an expansion and deepening of methodology in multilingual studies, encompassing the following: metaphorical thinking; conceptualisation and re-conceptualisation (e.g. developing a thesaurus of multilingualism; philosophical conceptualisation; model development specific to multilingualism; mental constructs); as well as crossdisciplinary research and appropriation of methods from other disciplines. They conclude that such expansion is both a necessary and welcome development, allowing for a more comprehensive perspective. Chapter 7, 'The study of multilingualism in educational contexts' by Jasone Cenoz and Ulrike Jessner, presents 'an overview of international research on multilingual education, in contrast to bilingual education' (p. 122). The authors point out that multilingual education is more complex and poses additional challenges, such as which and how many languages to teach as a separate school subject and/or use as the medium of instruction (e.g. standard, minority, heritage, community languages), and from which age onwards. Depending on the above factors, a distinction can be made between bilingual education and SLA, as well as between trilingual and TLA. Which languages are used in education often depends on a language's social prestige, such as English as a lingua franca, which in turn may influence the choice of learning it as an additional language, and demonstrates the significance of language attitudes in this context. The authors review some of the literature concerning differences in linguistic and cognitive effects in multilingual learning and second and/or language bilingual acquisition, including different types of simultaneous and consecutive acquisition; (re)activation of prior languages; crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic interaction; and the role of language learning experience, metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness in language learning strategy development. This is followed by a more in-depth examination of the role of the age factor in TLA in school contexts, i.e. the ideal onset age, with specific reference to an extensive study of the introduction of English as a third language in the Basque (pre-)primary educational system. The chapter concludes with a plea for a multilingual approach to multilingual education, which pays attention to the age factor, the use of different instruction languages, the year of introduction of different languages, and how to develop, assess and test multilingual proficiency and multicompetence. Chapter 8, 'Multilingual resources: Associations, journals, book series, bibliographies and conference lists' by Peter Ecke, provides a very detailed and useful resource guide for multilingualism researchers, particularly so in combination with the numerous references contained elsewhere in the book. In the final chapter, 'Crossing the second threshold', the editors review the crucial steps in multilingualism research, summarise the findings of the volume and provide a short future research outlook. EVALUATION First of all, the book is well organised. The clear layout, together with the abstracts and few notes, make it easy to browse and to locate specific items of interest quickly. The publication also shows how L3 and multilingualism research has become a discipline in its own right, related to but also different from bilingualism and SLA research, dealing with its own range of complexity, as well as terminological and other methodological issues. Many of the authors underline the importance of a productive research network, now formalised in the International Association of Multilingualism, with its own biannual conferences and other dissemination formats. Most of the chapters are overviews, except Chapters 5 and 8. These two contain empirical studies, more of which can be found in Gibson et al. (2008). In chapter 5, Ó Laoire and Singleton refer to some of the literature demonstrating the difficulties that English-speaking German L3 learners (without Irish) encounter with word order in German subordinate clauses, in support of their finding of the facilitating role of Irish in German L3 word order production. Perhaps a similar, but larger follow-up study, including a control group without Irish, could be conducted to obtain further empirical data. This would provide additional insight into the effects of implicit and explicit prior knowledge in L3 acquisition, identified as a key research topic by De Angelis and Dewaele in their chapter. Methodological issues are discussed informatively in Chapters 3 and 6, underlining the need for a comprehensive perspective. Such a perspective should balance empirical evidence with novel theoretical frameworks and methods, including the appropriate use and/or adaption of established methods within applied linguistics (see Li Wei & Moyer, 2008), to enable complementarity and triangulation. Against the background of how other authors define multilingualism, I particularly enjoyed Chapter 2, where Kemp highlights the main issues involved in defining 'multilingual' and 'multilingualism' and the importance of clearly defining key research terms. This brought to mind Hammarberg's (2009: 4-7) different but related discussion of how to define 'L1', 'L2' and 'L3'. To conclude, The Exploration of Multilingualism shows the challenges and diversity of multilingual research, addresses important methodological issues, and discusses significant past and recent developments. It also suggests and identifies new and exciting avenues for further investigation, as well as providing a useful list of resources, including extensive bibliographical references. As a whole, the book is an excellent starting point for those wanting a quick overview of L3 and multilingualism research, whose key message could be summarised as follows: multilingualism studies are here to stay. REFERENCES Albert, M.L. & Obler, L.K. 1978. The Bilingual Brain: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism. New York NY: Academic Press. Auer, P. & Li Wei (eds.) 2007. Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Gibson, M., Hufeisen, B. & Personne, C. (eds.) 2008. Selected Papers from the Fribourg Conference on Multilingualism and Multiple Language Acquisition. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengern. Grosjean, F. 1997. Processing mixed languages: Issues, findings and models. In: Tutorials in Bilingualism. Psycholinguistic Perspectives. A.M.B de Groot & J. Kroll (eds.), 225-254. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hammarberg, B. (ed.) 2009. Processes in Third Language Acquisition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Herdina, F. & Jessner, U. 2002. A Dynamic Model of Multilingualism. Perspectives of Change in Psycholinguistics. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Kellerman, E. 1977. Towards a characterization of the strategy of transfer in second language learning. Interlanguage Studies Bulletin 2: 58-145. Li Wei & Moyer, M.G. 2008. The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Peal, E. & Lambert, W.E. 1962. The relation of bilingualism to intelligence. Psychological Monographs 76(27): 1-23. Schachter, J. 1974. An error in error analysis. Language Learning 24(2): 205-214. Selinker, L. 1972. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics 10(3): 209-231. Vildomec, V. 1963. Multilingualism. Leyden: A.W. Sythoff. Weinreich, U. 1953. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Motion. L3 website: http://www.daf.tu-darmstadt.de/l3/association_1/index.de.jsp, accessed online 11-03-2010. ABOUT THE REVIEWER Ron Peek is a PhD candidate in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London. His main research interests are in the field of L3 and multilingualism, with a particular focus on polyglots and the role of language learning strategies and beliefs in multilingual acquisition (www.ronpeek.blogspot.com). 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