proficiency, the frequency of current use or the individual’s preference that
should be the criterion? As Suzanne Flynn remarks, the study of trilinguals
allows us to study phenomena that we cannot study in bilinguals. María del
Pilar García Mayo says:“I think L3 research will probably emerge as a very
important trend in the years to come.”
The L3 community has grown considerably in the last decade with its own
journal (International Journal of Multilingualism), and books and conferences
dedicated to this theme. Whether or not trilingualism is fundamentally dif-
ferent from bilingualism in terms of psycholinguistic processes is a matter of
debate.
Several informants (Suresh Canagarajah, Sinfree Makoni, Alastair Pennycook)
have proposed radically different perspectives on language and languages in a
multilingual world. In their view, our conception of language needs to be
reconceptualized. Suresh Canagarajah points to the effect of massive migra-
tion and mobility:“Language is a mobile resource that tended to be linked
to territories, but need no longer be.”For Elizabeth Lanza:
the influence of approaches that bring in globalization and mobility and
problematize various views of language have abounded, cf. translanguaging,
the unboundedness of language. Notions of thefluidity of language and the
deconstruction of language as a systemflourish in current sociolinguistic
thinking.7.2.2 Language shift
Language shift typically takes place in migration settings. Due to the inter-
action with the dominant language, the original mother tongue is used less
and is structurally influenced by that language. Patterns of use often change
with the second generation migrants shifting to the dominant language out-
side the home. Education also plays a role since the original mother tongue
is seldom taught or even allowed in educational settings. In the United
States, many heritage language users who have been brought up partially in
the other language are trying to maintain that language, and language main-
tenance and revival, are becoming core issues in language policy, as Terrence
Wiley mentions. Still, Rosamond Mitchell sees a“weak response to language
loss/language death around the world”. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas strongly
agrees.
7.2.3 Language and identity
The growing interest in identity as a factor is one of the main trends in AL,
but not everybody is particularly pleased with that development. Merrill
Swain complains:“Now everything is about identity.”Talking about the
booming interest in identity, Terrence Wiley jokingly suggested that we need
aJournal of Narcissism. He recalls one study submitted to a journal on the
78 Trends II