Over the past two decades considerable attention has been devoted to topics related to multilingualism, language learning and language teaching, resulting in the appearance of a large number of publications on this topic within a relatively short time. This intense research activity has helped raise a general awareness among teachers and scholars about the distinctiveness of multilinguals’ language learning processes and how these may differ from those of monolingual learners of a second language.

Nowadays a large proportion of language learners have some knowledge of other languages beyond the native one. In fact, whether by education, immigration or living environment, in many parts of the world the typical learner is no longer a learner of a second language but rather a learner of a third or additional language, for instance an L4 or an L5. The growing number of multilinguals is a reality which more and more language teachers and researchers are dealing with in their daily work.

Until recently, locating research or useful practical advice about multilingualism and language learning was a very time-consuming endeavor. Most studies involving multilinguals were scattered in journals or edited volumes on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Bilingualism rather than in specialized publications on multilingualism. This situation has gradually changed, as evidenced by the number of volumes dedicated to multilingualism appearing on the market every year. The aim of this review is to compare four recent additions to the field of multilingualism. I will first provide a brief overview of each book and then consider what these books tell us about integrating current research findings into the classroom.

The books under review here were chosen for two main reasons. First, all have excellent scientific merit and are therefore first-rate resources for teachers and researchers. They provide thorough reviews of the literature and sound theoretical discussions of multilingualism and language learning. Second, these books deal with a wide range of topics, from crosslinguistic influence and education to language awareness, language use and language attitudes. The conclusions about language teaching presented thus come from broadly-based research, giving readers a thorough overview of the advances made within a few decades and of the scope and interest of the field. Two of the books are single-authored and two are collections of articles.

Ulrike Jessner's Linguistic awareness in multilinguals is a truly tremendous publication. The book is challenging, thought-provoking and thorough, and anybody interested in linguistic awareness and multilingualism should consider reading it. The book is written for an audience of researchers and graduate students, but it is also relevant for language teachers as it includes extensive discussion on the use and usefulness of linguistic awareness in language teaching. Jessner adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining research on linguistic and metalinguistic awareness with research on psycholinguistics and education. She clearly aims at offering a comprehensive overview of research along with critical and meticulous discussion of issues of fundamental relevance to the discipline. Among them are issues relating to how the multilingual user is defined in empirical research and how research on multilingualism was, and sometimes still is, treated in the literature as ‘a byproduct of research on second language learning and acquisition’ (Jessner 2006: 13). The book is based on a dynamic systems approach, as defined in Herdina & Jessner (Reference Herdina and Jessner2002). From this holistic perspective, the multilingual system is viewed as a highly dynamic and variable system which develops in a non-linear fashion and changes over time.

The book, which is organized in five chapters, focuses on linguistic awareness, with special reference to the teaching and learning of English as a third language.

Jessner begins by discussing the spread of English world-wide and the changing status of English within Europe. A distinction is made between English learned as an L1, English learned as an L2 in the former British colonies, and English learned as a foreign language. She also covers issues related to the spread of English as a lingua franca and examines how this is threatening the notion of ownership of English for native speakers. In the second chapter, Jessner provides a thorough discussion of psycholinguistic research on language acquisition and an overview of key research areas in third language acquisition, including bilingualism and third language learning, crosslinguistic influence, and early trilingualism. She closely examines the complexity of third language acquisition, touching upon issues related to the routes of learning and the individual factors involved in the learning process. She ends the chapter presenting the most influential models of multilingual production available in the literature (Green Reference Green1986; De Bot Reference De Bot1992; Grosjean Reference Grosjean1998; Herdina & Jessner Reference Herdina and Jessner2002; Clyne Reference Clyne2003). In the third chapter, Jessner surveys research on metalinguistic awareness and provides an in-depth discussion of some terminological issues in the field, in particular, what we mean by metalinguistic awareness, metalinguistic skills, metalinguistic abilities and metalinguistic task. She also critically examines research within three core areas of inquiry: linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics and educational psycholinguistics. The fourth chapter explores linguistic awareness in third language use. The author first reviews some key studies on the multilingual lexicon and then presents the results of an empirical study carried out at Innsbruck University, Austria, with German/Italian bilingual students from South Tyrol. The study was designed to understand the connection between crosslinguistic interaction and linguistic awareness in relation to the use of compensatory strategies. The author asks whether multilinguals resort to other languages as part of their problem-solving behaviour and provides some very strong evidence that they do, highlighting the important role of linguistic awareness in the learning process. The fifth and final chapter examines how what we know about linguistic awareness today can be integrated into multilingual education. For language teachers this is perhaps the most interesting chapter of all as a link between research and practice is clearly made.

The second monograph is Hakan Ringbom's Cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning. The author is one of the leading scholars in the field of crosslinguistic influence and a pioneer in the study of non-native influence. His writings have always been remarkable contributions to the field (see Ringbom Reference Ringbom1987, 1992, 2001, 2006), and this book is no exception. Written for an audience of researchers and graduate students, the book will easily appeal to language teachers also. The author is highly effective in discussing the pedagogical application of research on crosslinguistic influence, and provides remarks and suggestions that can be very valuable to those interested in experimenting with crosslinguistic similarities in the classroom.

In twelve chapters Ringbom covers much ground, providing one of the most comprehensive accounts of the role of crosslinguistic similarity in language learning available in the literature to date. He provides an overview of the different types of crosslinguistic similarities between languages before engaging in a detailed discussion on the role of similarity in comprehension. He refers in particular to the ease of comprehensibility between Swedes, Norwegian and Danes, who can speak their native languages yet understand each other without apparent difficulty. Half-way through the book we find a comprehensive account of research on Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking learners of English. This account covers primary schools, comprehensive schools, commercial colleges, Matriculation Examinations, university entrance examinations, university students and international evaluations. In chapter 7, Ringbom introduces the theoretical distinction between item transfer and system learning. Item transfer refers to the initial one-to-one mapping that learners establish in the early stages of acquisition; system learning refers to the gradual revision of the original one-to-one mapping during the course of learning. This is a fundamental distinction for Ringbom, which is in fact taken up again in the last part of the book, where he examines more closely item learning and system learning for both comprehension and production. All considered, even though the book primarily draws on research on Swedish, Finnish and English, and is mostly theoretical, the principles outlined and the depth of analysis offered make it one of the most interesting publications on crosslinguistic influence available on the market today.

The next two books are collections of articles on multilingualism and language learning. The articles in the volume edited by David Lasagabaster & Ángel Huguet, Multilingualism in European bilingual contexts: Language use and attitudes, were written with an audience of researchers and graduate students in mind. The book can be of interest to language teachers and to those who have a specific interest in language attitudes and language policies. The articles report the results of a joint transnational study carried out in different European bilingual environments – Basque, Catalonia, Galicia and Valencia within the Spanish territory, and Belgium, Friesland, Ireland, Malta and Wales within the rest of Europe. The study focused on language use and attitudes towards minority, majority and foreign languages. One of the core ideas behind the project was that because teachers have the power to influence future generations, it was worth examining their language use and attitudes towards languages in case they were to influence young generations’ linguistic behaviour. All contributors used the same questionnaire and collected comparable data, totalling more than 1800 subjects in the final pool, which makes this project on language use and attitudes one of the most comprehensive ever carried out.

Finally, Introductory readings in L3, edited by Britta Hufeisen & Robert Fouser, is a collection of ten articles on topics that are mostly unrelated to one another, as the title suggests. The strength of the volume lies precisely in the variety of topics that it offers. The volume presents four articles on crosslinguistic influence, three on pedagogy and education, one on metalinguistic awareness, one on interlanguage analysis, and one on theoretical models of multilingualism. As I mentioned in the introduction, finding information on multilingualism and language learning was, until recently, not always an easy task. Hufeisen & Fouser's collection addresses this problem by offering a volume which includes some of the classic articles in the field as well as new studies, published for the first time in this volume. The combination of topics makes this book the most appropriate as an introduction to the discipline, and the easiest to use in graduate or undergraduate level courses. I will return to comment on the content of the volume in various sections below as many of the contributions offer useful insights into language teaching in multilingual environments.

Towards a multilingual education

Among the reasons for the growth of interest in multilingualism and multilingual education are the understanding of the importance of language learning for business and communication, and the awareness of the value of minority languages for a healthy and balanced society. Government and educational institutions are in general becoming more supportive of multilingualism, and the knowledge of foreign languages is increasingly being recognized as an asset for individuals. As Lasagabaster & Huguet say (234), language learning in a multicultural society can be very useful to promote tolerance, help people join in public life and mitigate racism and xenophobia.

The four books included in this review contribute to current debates on multilingualism in various ways. In the following sections, I will attempt an assessment of what they tell us about some key areas of research within the field, namely crosslinguistic influence, language teachers’ beliefs and attitudes, and the multilingual classroom.

Prior language knowledge and prior learning experience

A statement from Ringbom (2007) captures what many researchers within multilingualism are currently advocating: prior language knowledge and prior learning experience are essential to language learning and should be used less timidly by language teachers in the classroom. The statement reads: ‘[L]earning, including language learning, is based on prior knowledge. When you learn something new, such as a foreign language, you try to connect the new elements to whatever linguistic and other knowledge you may have.’ (Ringbom 2007: 1)

Ringom is undoubtedly the most thorough in analysing crosslinguistic influence from every possible angle; his entire book is devoted to crosslinguistic influence phenomena with respect to languages that are close to and distant from the target language. He notes that prior knowledge is certainly useful when learning a new language. However, whenever the target language is distant from the learners’ other languages, prior knowledge does not seem to be equally relevant because ‘what matters to the language learner is language proximity, i.e. similarities, not its negative counterpart, language distance, i.e. differences’ (1). Jessner also discusses crosslinguistic influence phenomena in her book and correctly notes that the facilitative effect of one's native language is now widely acknowledged and accepted within the academic community. This, I may add, makes the practice of relying on prior knowledge in language teaching more acceptable to most teachers. While until not long ago the use of students’ native language was mostly regarded as inappropriate in the classroom, this is gradually changing due to evidence that learners’ prior language knowledge is in fact helpful in the learning process.

Prior non-native language knowledge and prior language learning experience also help us establish a useful distinction between second and third or additional language learning. This aspect of language learning is prominent in Hufeisen's Factor Model presented in her chapter ‘Multilingualism: Linguistic models and related issues’ of the Hufeisen & Fouser volume. Hufeisen introduces ‘individual foreign language learning experiences and strategies and previous languages’ (38) as key elements of her model, stressing that these elements are simply not available to L2 learners, who have never experienced learning a foreign language. The proposal finds clear empirical confirmation in Jessner's study of bilingual Italian/German learners of English from South Tyrol. She provides ample and unambiguous evidence of crosslexical consultation in the completion of production tasks, showing that learners rely on native as well as non-native languages in production and that this is done on the basis of relevance of information. In other words, learners establish links and connections that are relevant to the task, drawing on all the languages they are familiar with whenever any relevance is found. This is clearly not limited to the L1.

The importance of crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic similarities in discussions of multilingualism and language learning is further emphasized by the fact that the Hufeisen & Fouser's collection contains a total of four articles on crosslinguistic influence. They focus on issues of typology and language distance in lexis, phonetics and phonology.

Thus, crosslinguistic influence is a prominent topic in all three of the books. The importance given to this topic by researchers may explain why pedagogical debates focus on how crosslinguistic similarities can be exploited in third or additional language learning.

Later in this review I will examine how the books propose to use prior language knowledge and prior learning experience in the language classroom. First, however, I examine what the books tell us about the role of teachers in the classroom.

Teachers and the language classroom

Teachers have their own ideas and beliefs about language learning and the status of languages in their teaching environment. The question is how these personal views affect and shape their daily teaching.

Jessner offers insightful remarks about teachers’ beliefs. She notes (122) that today's teachers are often influenced by advice that belongs to the past rather than the present. In fact, in the early part of the twentieth century, teaching was mostly informed by contrastive analysis, which viewed the influence of one's native language as something negative, to be avoided at all costs. According to this view, languages in the curriculum had to be kept separately from one another in order to avoid creating confusion in the learners’ minds.

Even though these early views are mostly considered outdated and ineffective today, teachers are still influenced by them in some respects. As Jessner explains (123),

In other words multilinguals activate and use their languages in the learning process regardless of what their teachers do in the classroom to prevent this from happening.

Lasagabaster & Huguet's edited book is the most thorough in examining teachers’ attidutes towards minority, majority and foreign languages. In their concluding remarks, they point out that teachers’ attitudes can influence students’ achievement. They refer (238) to what is known as the Pygmalion Effect (Dooley Reference Dooley2005), which

Lasagabaster & Huguet note that sometimes teachers are not fully aware of their own attitudes. Thus, while investigating teachers’ linguistic attitudes provides useful information to researchers, it can also make teachers think about their own attitudes reflectively. These attitudes are nonetheless mostly positive. In fact, the studies reported in Lasagabaster & Huguet indicate that teachers have widespread positive attitudes towards minority languages which ‘seem to confirm the positive effect of the linguistic policies undertaken in order to protect them and boost their use’ (248).

Ringbom's and Hufeisen & Fouser's books are less direct in tackling teachers’ attitudes and their effect in the classroom. Even so, they include some detailed discussions of teaching projects that bring multilingualism directly into the classroom.

On using a multilingual approach in language teaching

All the books under review share the view that prior language knowledge in the language classroom is important: students must be allowed to use their language background in the learning process, and teachers should encourage learners by teaching comparative strategies and using materials specially designed for multilingual speakers. These are excellent recommendations, but their application in the classroom remains somewhat of a challenge in most contexts.

Three of the books discuss two major teaching projects in some detail: the EuroCom project (Jessner and Ringbom) and the Scandinavian–Dutch Language Comprehension Project (Hufeisen & Fouser).

Jessner explains (132) that the EuroCom (European Comprehension) project (www.euro-com-frankfurt.de) aims to provide European citizens with knowledge that can help them develop sufficient comprehension in languages that belong to the same language family. The idea is that one can easily learn to understand a language close to his or her own. As crosslinguistic similarity is the key to achieving this objective, the EuroCom project is divided into EuroComRom for Romance languages, EuroCom Slav for Slavic languages, and EuroComGerm for Germanic languages. Ringbom notes that among the project's aims is also to produce books and teaching materials that ‘make use of the facilitative potential for reading comprehension inherent in speakers of languages that are related, but are not so close as to be mutually comprehensibile’ (103). It will be recalled that both Jessner and Ringbom examined crosslinguistic similarities in their work in some detail and so the project must be close to their research interests.

Hufeisen & Fouser's volume also includes discussion of the use of crosslinguistic similarities in language teaching. In particular, it includes a report written by Rolf Hedquist, entitled ‘Mutual Scandinavian–Dutch language comprehension studies of a method for rapid comprehension’, on a very interesting experiment of rapid teaching. The project, known as the Scandinavian–Dutch Language Comprehension Project, aimed to determine whether Dutch is sufficiently close to Scandinavian languages to become comprehensible to speakers of Swedish within ten hours. The teaching experiment was based on the teaching of Dutch words which showed systematic similarity in the two languages and also on the regular correspondences between items, the so-called ‘rules of correspondence’. The teaching included simple phonetic and grammar rules as well as training the students in identifying similarities and correspondences in the two languages. Specially designed materials were used in the experiment. The author claims that teaching was very successful, and that ‘the three people who did not start out from their mother toungue show, by their relative failure, that we use reconstruction strategies when we seek to understand a closely related language; something we set out to prove with the project on Scandinavian–Dutch language comprehension’ (29).

Concluding remarks

As is apparent from this review, the four books examined here cover different but complementary aspects of multilingualism and language learning. In my view, each of the texts has noticeable strengths and understandable weaknesses, the latter mostly due to the impossibility for a single book to cover too many topics with the same kind of attention as one would wish. Taken together, these books provide an excellent starting point for teachers and researchers who are new to the field of multilingualism. Taken individually, they may appeal to a specialized audience of researchers and graduate students. When reading books about multilingualism and language learning it is important to remember that the field is still relatively young. Books in young fields of inquiry tend to provide discussions broad enough for audiences of varied interests as well as accounts that are informative, thorough and critical for the most demanding of audiences. This is not an easy balance to achieve and in my opinion these four books have achieved the objective remarkably well.