To date, most classroom-based research into the learning of a third language (L3) in the US has examined patterns of acquisition among various groups of bilinguals. Situated mainly within the context of "Portuguese for Spanish Speakers" (PSS), studies typically group learners based on the sequence / age of onset of their main background…

This study describes the literacies practices of three bi/multilingual fifth-grade students attending a French-language school in an urban community in Canada during a digital-physical Maker activity that included three phases: Plan Making, Instrument Making and Multimodal Making. Framed by theories of new literacies and embodied/sensory…

While translanguaging has been well researched in bilingual settings with older pupils and has been found to contribute to cognitive and personal development, there is little research on translanguaging of young multilinguals. In trilingual Luxembourg, at school, children learn Luxembourgish aged 4, German aged 6 and French aged 7, with the…

While all mathematics is mediated by language, the role of language is especially complex in bi- and multilingual mathematics classrooms, and more so in bilingual education programs in which the explicit goals of both language and mathematics learning intersect. We explore bilingual French immersion students' linguistic and mathematical…

This article seeks to develop the research agenda of multilingualism and multicompetence by bringing together three research fields and their related methodologies: bilingualism, third language acquisition and language learner strategies. After a brief introduction to each area, it describes a study to explore whether bilingual adolescent students…

This comparative inquiry examines the multi-/bilingual nature and cultural diversity of two distinctly different linguistic and ethnic communities in Montreal--English speakers and Chinese speakers--with a focus on the multi/bilingual and multi/biliterate development of children from these two communities who attend French-language schools, by…

Determining the cross-cultural equivalence of multilingual tests is a challenge that is more complex than simple horizontal equating of test forms. This study examines the functioning of a trilingual test of preschool readiness to determine the equivalence. Different forms of the test have previously been examined using classical statistical…

This article discusses the two main types of trilingualism, individual trilingualism and societal trilingualism, or multilingualism. Research directions in third language learning are also noted. (CLK)

This collection of papers examines, from an international perspective, opportunities and challenges of societal bilingualism in the new millennium. The 18 papers include the following: "Introduction: Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism" (Li Wei, Jean-Marc Dewaele, and Alex Housen); "'Holy Languages' in the Context of…

This study examines how a French- and Spanish-speaking child acquired English as a third language. It describes the linguistic experience of the 10-year old boy whose French and Spanish home, school, and playmate environments were changed to English school and playmate environments with French being maintained exclusively at home with the child's…