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Welcome to a Multilingual World

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Multilingualism

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Abstract

This chapter introduces readers to the diversity of languages worldwide. It provides readers with an introduction to general issues relating to the phenomenon of multilingualism and relates them to linguistic diversity and language contact. After outlining the structure and topics of the book, we introduce key terms in existing classifications of bilingual, trilingual, multilingual, and polyglot speakers.

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Key Readings

  • De Houwer, A. (1995). Bilingual language acquisition. In P. Fletcher & B. MacWhinney (Eds.), The handbook of child language (pp. 219–250). Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (3rd ed.). Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and reality. Harvard University Press.

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Further Readings

  • Aronin, L., & Singleton, D. (2019). Introduction. In D. Singleton & L. Aronin (Eds.), Twelve lectures on multilingualism. Multilingual Matters.

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  • Aronin, L., & Singleton, D. (2012). Introduction. In L. Aronin & D. Singleton (Eds.), Multilingualism (pp. 1–9) John Benjamins.

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  • Horner, K., & Weber, J.-J. (2018). Introduction. In K. Horner & J.-J. Weber (Eds.), Introducing multilingualism. A social approach (2nd ed., pp. 3–13). Routledge.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Cultural Studies, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany

    Sarah Buschfeld, Patricia Ronan & Manuela Vida-Mannl

Authors
  1. Sarah Buschfeld
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  2. Patricia Ronan
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  3. Manuela Vida-Mannl
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Correspondence to Sarah Buschfeld .

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Buschfeld, S., Ronan, P., Vida-Mannl, M. (2023). Welcome to a Multilingual World. In: Multilingualism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28405-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28405-2_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-28404-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-28405-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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