Towards a description of trilingual competence

Abstract

AcknowledgementsMy thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. I also thank Dr Rosa Manchón of the University of Murcia who undertook a critical revision of a previous draft. AbstractMost studies involving trilingualism have been carried out within the theoretical framework of bilingualism research. No attempt has been made to delimit trilingualism as a concept in its own right, and often it has been assumed to be an extension of bilingualism. In young children, trilingual language acquisition largely follows the path of bilingual acquisition. With regard to language behaviour there are again similarities, but certain differences can be observed. As an overview of studies of individual trilingualism, the present article aims to provide a framework for the discussion. Models of bilingual language competence serve as a starting point to an investigation of possible defining features of trilingual competence. Of particular interest are the pragmatic component of language competence; the trilingual's ability to make appropriate linguistic choices in monolingual/bilingual/trilingual communication modes; and observed code-switching. The question of how and when a trilingual's languages become activated or deactivated leads to a consideration of language processing and metalinguistic awareness. In the absence of research involving trilinguals, bilingual models are examined with a view to pointing out possible similarities and differences. It is suggested that these are both of a quantitative and qualitative kind, and therefore trilingual competence is distinct from bilingual competence.

The Primacy of Bilinguals and Trilinguals College Students’ Views on Reading and Language Learning

“…It is vital to meditate and negotiate their metalinguistic stances which could open some venues for us to reach a transcendental understanding of the languages they learned and the different realities they establish (Hadi-Tabassum, 2006). Some researchers indicated that research in trilingualism is carried out in the theoretical vein of bilingualism and there are no real efforts to delimit trilingualism in its own right (Aronin, & Hufeisen, 2009;Hoffmann, 2001;Njurai, 2016). Although certain salient similar features could be noticed in both bilinguals and trilinguals (Aronin & Hufeisen, 2009) there are some distinct features that could be observed in trilingualism as it was evident in this study.…”

“…Some researchers indicated that research in trilingualism is carried out in the theoretical vein of bilingualism and there are no real efforts to delimit trilingualism in its own right (Aronin, & Hufeisen, 2009;Hoffmann, 2001;Njurai, 2016). Although certain salient similar features could be noticed in both bilinguals and trilinguals, there are some distinct features that could be observed in trilingualism.…”

Productive Trilingualism in Infancy: What Makes it Possible?

“…It is not ruled out that even more benefits are experienced by trilinguals. As put by Hoffman (2001):…”

“…Studies on Trilingual First Language Acquisition (TFLA), that is, on the development of three languages from birth, are either very little systematic in how they report input characteristics, data collection, analyses, etc. (see Quay, 2001, and Hoffman, 2001, for a review); they often amount to a few case studies that explore specific themes such as cross-linguistic influence (Kazzazi, 2011), code-switching after age three (Edwards & Dewaele, 2007;Hoffmann & Stavans, 2007;Stavans & Muchnik, 2008;Stavans & Swisher, 2006), or the relationship between input and development in one language (Barnes, 2006;; or they are anecdotal reports of individual cases of trilingual acquisition at times addressed to the general public (Maneva, 2004;Wang, 2008). In sum, systematic, longitudinal analyses of early trilingualism are scarce.…”

The effect of out-of-school media contact on language attitudes in multilingual adolescents: a complex psychosociolinguistic system

“…Consequently, some researchers have even questioned the very existence of an 'end state' (Dewaele & Pavlenko, 2003;Larsen-Freeman, 2005;Cameron & Larsen-Freeman, 2007;de Bot & Larsen-Freeman, 2011). Furthermore, Hoffmann (2000Hoffmann ( , 2001 examined trilingual competence and concluded that while acquisition, language use, and communicative competence may be roughly the same as in bilinguals, there was evidence of a qualitatively distinct pragmatic competence in terms of linguistic selection, mixing, switching, and borrowing. So far so good, but problems with multi-competence remain: it does not account for acquisition in a socially embedded way, it assumes that speaker and contextual knowledge is homogenous (Franceschini, 2011), and finally, it still subsumes multilingualism into the field of SLA.…”