The burgeoning field of third language (L3) acquisition has increasingly focused on intermediate stages of language development, aiming to establish the groundwork for comprehensive models of L3 learning that encompass the entire developmental sequence. This article underscores the importance of a robust epistemological foundation, advocating for…

This paper traces recent theorisation stemming from the multilingual turn and brings this into dialogue with assemblage thinking, discussing the critical potential of bringing these perspectives together to explore what language is and how it is understood. The argument maps salient features of the multilingual turn which have extended the fields…

In today's globalised world, a single named language such as English, Norwegian or Spanish, no matter how 'big' it is, rarely satisfies all the needs of communication, cooperation, education or any other area of human life. Neither is the entire language repertoire plausible for everyday use, simply because it is impossible to use too many…

This article compares metalinguistic awareness among emerging bilingual and multilingual learners of English in Norwegian primary school. Participants were 120 students in grades 5-7 (aged 10-13) attending mainstream English classes in Norway and were divided into three groups based on a linguistic background questionnaire: an L1 Norwegian group,…

Multilingual identity is an area ripe for further exploration within the existing extensive body of identity research. In this paper we make a case for a conceptual framework that defines multilingual identity formation in terms of learners' active involvement, and proposes the classroom as the hitherto underused site for participative identity…

This article introduces this special issue by declaring that the studies contained here build on the idea that multilinguals, in the sense of learners or speakers that have more than two languages in their linguistic repertoire, are different from bilinguals and monolinguals in various ways. Several authors in the area of third language…

For years, bilingual programmes have allocated the languages of bilinguals to separate teachers, lessons, or even days or hours of the week to avoid damaging the 'purity' of languages, confusing language-minoritized students and hindering their achievement (Creese & Blackledge, 2011. Separate and flexible bilingualism in complementary schools:…

This paper seeks to expand the translingual tradition through a stronger focus on 'the political implications' -- a way to understand the ordinariness of everyday resistance. When people engage in linguistic resistance in everyday life, it might have mixed motivations; it might not be theoretically informed; it might draw from their cultures of…

This article focuses on the description of one of the main features of current multilingualism, complexity, through a selection of issues related to its role in L2 acquisition, as the proper notion of multilingualism, multilingualism as a social phenomenon and multilingualism as a multidimensional phenomenon. We also present several aspects of…

Multilingualism is a prevalent reality in today's world. From an individual level to a societal one, multilingualism incorporates many aspects that have been studied extensively by diverse social research disciplines. The present article will explore the potential directions which multilingualism research can take, concentrating mainly on the…

This article employs the term "communicative repertoire" in order to highlight that when one learns any new "language", one introduces new communicative resources into a unified communicative repertoire. As repertoires represent such singular "grammars" in individuals' minds, learned communicative resources can…

While the idea of plurilingual competence is widely established theoretically and promoted in European language policies, it is not implemented in educational practice, where separate plurilingualism is still dominant. The idea of languages as autonomous entities is e.g. reflected in the "Common European Framework of Reference for…

Many multilinguals in Europe habitually use the linguistic strategies often attributed to users of English as a lingua franca (ELF). ELF, in which native speaker norms are not invoked, may be the perfect arena for multilinguals to exploit what Vivian Cook calls "multicompetence", a dynamic multilingual system in which more than one…

Since "multicompetence" was proposed by Cook, there have been debates about the nature of distinction between monocompetence and multicompetence, the distinctiveness of languages in the mind and the homogeneity of language knowledge across speakers and contexts. The paper will address these issues from a linguistic perspective and make an attempt…

Arguments that have been advanced against multilingual education in Kenya and Africa in general are not new. Most post-colonial African governments have stuck to the pre-colonial education policies which have no relevance to the present day Africa and were, at best, guided by the interests of the colonial power. Unfortunately, most of the claims…