Abstract

The book describes how a trilingual child in the Basque Country, where Spanish and Basque are the languages of the community, is able to successfully acquire English at home through interaction with her mother.  It focuses on her acquisition of the form and function of English questions.

‘Early trilingualism’ is a fascinating book which breaks new ground in the study of multilingualism. It is clearly organized, and presents an in-depth analysis of form and function in early questioning behaviour. It should be of great interest not only to researchers in language acquisition and multilingualism but also to all those interested in pragmatics, sociolinguistics and child development.

All those of us interested in multilingualism have had to wait a long time for a thorough account of trilingual language acquisition similar to those studies in child bilingualism that have become classics. Julia Barnes’ book fills this gap admirably. It is meticulously researched, abounds with primary data and offers many new insights. It will be warmly welcomed by those concerned with the natural acquisition and development of more than one language in both monolingual and multilingual contexts.

Julia Barnes’ book is a welcome addition to the very interesting series on second language acquisition edited by David Singleton. The book is well written, clearly organised and presents an in-depth analysis of very rich data gathered over almost two years.

Julia Barnes holds a B.A in Spanish and Linguistics and a P.G.C.E. in TESOL. After moving to Spain she worked for the British Council and the University of the Basque Country. Her principal area of interest is on childhood multilingualism along with intercultural communication and language teaching methodology. She currently lectures and trains teachers at the Faculty of Humanities and Education of the University of Mondragon.

This volume adds to the growing body of literature on trilingualism and will be of great interest to scholars in language acquisition.