Volume 2005, Issue 171

The aim of this paper is to discuss different aspects of trilingualism and multilingualism as related to sociolinguistics. The paper highlights the importance of multilingualism in modern society and the interdisciplinarity of its study as related to sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and psycholinguistics. The paper, which adopts a sociolinguistic perspective, goes on to distinguish different chronological stages in the study of language use and behavior and their relationship with different social conditions. It identifies three stages, multilingualism being the most recent stage. The paper also discusses the distinctive features of tri-multilingualism as different from bilingualism and summarizes some recent explanatory models of multilingualism: the language switches model , the factor model and the dynamic model of multilingualism . The last section discusses the multilingualism as related to identity and education and highlights the role of trilingual education in modern society.

This paper discusses trilingual education in Swedish, Finnish, and English in the bilingual city of Vaasa/Vasa in Finland. The introduction provides background information about the sociolinguistic situation and the role of languages in education in Finland. Then the paper focuses on Vaasa/Vasa where a Swedish immersion program for Finnish-speaking monolingual children started in 1987. Gradually, the teaching of foreign languages (mainly English and German) has introduced a more content-based approach and the positive impact of this methodological approach has been related to the success of immersion programs. The paper goes on to report the results of some research studies comparing oral and written production in English by immersion and non-immersion students. In these small-scale studies it has been found that immersion students are more advanced users of English. In the last section of the paper some data about the positive attitudes of students toward learning English are discussed.

This paper focuses on bilingual and trilingual education in the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, where Basque and Spanish are official languages. The use of Basque as the language of instruction is widespread and there is a trend to introduce English as a third language from a very early age. The paper also discusses the use of English as an additional language of instruction within the bilingual system and the teaching conditions. It also summarizes the results of research on multilingual schooling in the Basque Country, which has focused on different areas such as the development of proficiency in Basque and Spanish, the effect of bilingualism on third-language acquisition, the effect of early instruction on the development of proficiency in English or other languages and on the cognitive development. Finally, some of the challenges that the Basque educational multilingual system will have to face in the course of the next years are considered.

Three languages play an important role in the province of Fryslân: Frisian as the minority language spoken by a majority of the population, Dutch as the dominant language in society, and English as an increasingly important additional language. The position of Frisian as a language for teaching is marginal at all levels of education. Although it is an obligatory language for all primary schools, there is only a small percentage of schools that use Frisian as a medium of instruction. Even when attitudes toward Frisian seem positive, English and in particular Dutch are perceived as more important languages to learn. A promising experiment with trilingual education has shown the possibilities for using three languages as languages of instruction. Multilingualism in the curriculum is an important challenge for education in Fryslân.

This paper focuses on the use of Catalan, Spanish, and English in Catalonia, Spain, where Catalan and Spanish are official languages. The school curriculum includes at least three languages (Catalan, Spanish, and English) and Catalan has become the main language of instruction. The paper summarizes the use of the three languages in the curriculum and the teaching conditions and describes in more detail the teaching of English as an additional language within the bilingual educational system. It also reports the results of two studies on language achievement in the three languages and attitudes toward English. The paper also identifies the strong and weak points of the present linguistic situation in Catalonia as related to attitudes toward trilingualism and proficiency in Catalan, Spanish, and English. According to the research results one of the main challenges in the near future is to improve the level of proficiency in English.

Ireland has a long tradition of bilingual education. The introduction of a third language at primary level is more recent. Research found that students who study Irish as a second language do not perceive such study as learning a new language in the same or similar way as they perceive the learning of a third language. There has been a compartmentalization between English, Irish, and other languages. Recent studies of L3 learning in Ireland have focused on metalinguistic awareness. Findings corroborate the assumption that the positive effects of metalinguistic awareness are increased if linkages are forged between learners' existing language-learning experiences and the experience of learning the third language. The study of Irish as a second language had no recognizable influence on the foreign language since Irish was not perceived as a potential aid to foreign-language learning. A more dynamic view of multilingualism becomes more common in the classrooms.

The multilingual education in the Ladin area, Italy, presents an interesting case of multilingualism. Almost all inhabitants are at least trilingual speakers. The more prestigious languages are Italian and German, which are the main school languages in a balanced bilingual model. Ladin as the minority language is the mother tongue of most pupils, but after preschool Ladin is taught only as a subject for a limited number of hours. In teaching religion, all three languages are used. Later on, English is also taught as an additional language. The results for German and Italian competence of the schoolchildren are comparable to other areas in Italy and the results for Ladin are also very positive. The strong influence of Italian and German on the proficiency in Ladin and the increased use and perceived importance of English in this tourist area are challenges for the future teaching of four languages in the Ladin schools.

The Swiss Confederation is known for its historical multilingualism. The four national languages are, however, unequally distributed among its inhabitants. Individual foreign-language competence, including English, also varies strongly. The educational system reflects cantonal differences. The article distinguishes between strong, intermediate, and weak forms of trilingual education. The strong form can be found at university level, the intermediate form includes all bilingual models with a course in one additional language, and the weak form is found frequently, in particular, in secondary education. A new model of multilingualism emerges with two national languages, plus English. Research has thus far dealt mainly with the outcomes of bilingual education, but in the near future will focus more on the differences between second- and third-language learning and the outcomes of trilingual education.

This paper describes the influence of neoliberal ideologies and practices of governance on minority-language planning in Scotland. It focuses on the development practices of Gaelic-language planning through the example of a particular language development program called the “Gaelic in the Community Scheme.” The Scheme was funded with a combination of European Union Structural Funds and Scottish public economic development grants, and its purpose was to disburse grants to voluntary community groups in order to help create infrastructure for “Gaelic activities.” Based on field research conducted in 1999–2000, I describe three aspects of the Scheme that demonstrate how neoliberal economic development practices can negatively impact Gaelic-language planning, even as they seem to facilitate the creation of language-planning programs. The first aspect is the use of both English and Gaelic registers of “development discourse,” which reinforces Gaelic-English diglossia in Gaelic-speaking areas. The second is the problem of unexamined conceptions of “community,” which can reduce the number of opportunities for Gaelic-English bilinguals to speak Gaelic. The third aspect is the quantifiable and economistic nature of the criteria used to assess the success or failure of the Scheme, which do not take into account the actual linguistic behavior of participants. These aspects of the Scheme illustrate how language planning based on sociolinguistic principles has been marginalized from neoliberally influenced Gaelic-language planning.