Abstract

Countries in Africa, America, Asia and Europe provide the sociolinguistic contexts described in this volume. They involve settings where three or more languages are spoken and where speakers are trilingual. With the focus on family, school and the wider community, the book illustrates personal, social, cultural and political factors contributing to the acquisition and maintenance of trilingualism and highlights a rich pattern of trilingual language use.

Charlotte Hoffmann grew up in a bilingual family in Germany and raised her children to become trilingual. She is Reader in Sociolinguistics at the University of Salford, UK, where she is also Associate Director of the European Studies Research Institute. Her publications cover child trilingualism, trilingual competence and societal multilingualism. Jehannes Ytsma is senior researcher at the Fryske Akademy (The Netherlands). His publications are in the fields of bi- and trilingualism in school and society. He is currently conducting a research project on trilingual primary education in Friesland.