This book begins with a detailed introduction of two core concepts: communicative repertoire and metacommentary. Communicative repertoire is a notion developed from John Gumperz's ’linguistic repertoire’ to describe the communicative resources people deploy in daily interactions. Specifically, it refers to ‘the collection of ways individuals use language and other means of communication (gesture, dress, posture, accessories) to function effectively in the multiple communities in which they participate’ (p. 9). According to the author, a person's communicative repertoire is not fixed; rather, it shifts and expands over time. This understanding of repertoire as dynamic underpins the tone of the book, which seeks to explore how an individual's repertoire elements change over the course of a lifetime. Another critical concept is metacommentary, defined as ‘what a sign means by pointing to that sign's situated communicative value’ (p. 11). In this way, the relative efficacy of any interactional move can be measured. In the book, metacommentary serves as a method to analyze repertoire.

Chapters 2–5 describe elements of communicative repertoires in terms of the method and theory outlined in chapter 1. Drawing on examples from language classes of immigrants, chapter 2, ‘Multilingualisms’, illustrates how multilingualism emerges out of real communicative needs brought on by mobility and new media, and how the term language in the traditional sense breaks down when we look more closely at instances of multilingual talk. Chapters 3 through 5 on sounds, mass media and popular culture, and storytelling reveal how other means of communication—the variety of sounds, mass-mediated semiotic forms such as YouTube videos, and storylines and story elements—enter our repertoires and take on communicative value in multiple communities. Ample evidences from advertising, journalism, and ordinary interactions in classrooms in chapter 6, ‘Youth repertoires and adult repertoires’, demonstrate vividly how repertoire elements associated with youth and hipness are not straightforwardly linked to demographic features like ‘age’, or even roles like ‘teacher’ or ‘student’. Starting with a brief overview of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Erving Goffman's conceptualization of ‘encounters’, chapter 7, ‘Everyday encounters with diversity’, illustrates how repertoire elements such as multiple languages, stress, intonation, mass iconography, and so on, are seen as interwoven in daily encounters, as individuals discover points of commonality, misunderstanding, or the artful deployment of one's repertoires when communicating with diverse others. Chapter 8, ‘Communicating beyond language: Repertoire and metacommentary’, summarizes the implications of a repertoire perspective, and proposes a new framework for multicultural research and engagement.

The book is of particular value to students and scholars in sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, applied linguistics, and education.