Why Multilingualism Matters to Us, and How We Came to Write This Book

We met at the so-called ‘trilingualism’ conferences, where we sat at a terrace overlooking a beautiful church in Bolzano. Enjoying a refreshing Aperol Spritz, we exchanged our views on the studies we had presented, we moved on to our multilingual family lives, and shared anecdotes about our kids’ linguistic acrobatics. Coffee breaks, pre-dinner drinks and conference dinners are good places to develop plans for research collaborations, but they are also good places to talk about things that matter in life. It is not always about language, however we tend to come back to it. What struck us was the fact that no books existed, at the time, on trilingual families. Colin Baker’s book on bilingual families is excellent, but trilingual families are different. Because we had published on this topic, the three of us came to play the role of informal advisers to readers who were about to become multilingual parents, or who had reached that stage, and wondered what kind of linguistic policy to follow to maintain or develop their child or children’s multilingualism. Wouldn’t it be a good idea, we wondered aloud, to share our knowledge on the topic and offer the good advice we dispensed, so we could refer (future) parents to the URL of the book? We would encourage (future) parents to think about the impending language situation (at home) of an unborn child, and inform them about the most relevant issues. We also would give advice when problems occur, and show ways for families to enjoy multilingualism at home.

We would like to stress the importance of this issue to caretakers in kindergarten, teachers, pediatricians and policymakers.

Most books on this topic are focused on the typical issues in the US, and limited to bilingualism. Parents all over the world want to know more about the experiences of families where THREE or more languages are used, hence the need to focus on multilingualism. By doing so, the book would be relevant to parents from all over the world, (e.g. French mother with Japanese husband living in Japan, with English as their parental language of communication).