Barbara Hofer, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

The series Trends in Applied Linguistics meets the challenges of the rapidly growing field of applied linguistics. In a very broad sense, applied linguistics is understood by focusing on the application of theoretical linguistics to current problems arising in different contexts of human society. Given the interdisciplinary character of applied linguistics, the series includes cognitive, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and educational perspectives.

The following topics are included in the series:

• Second language acquisition and the acquisition of additional languages
• Bilingual and multilingual education
• Language planning and language policy
• Literacy skills
• Second/foreign language pedagogy
• Translation and interpretation
• Language for specific purposes
• Discourse analysis
• Language testing and assessment
• Child language
• Language and gender
• Pragmatics and rhetorics
• Corpus analysis
• Critical pedagogies
• Research methodology in applied linguistics
• Language and technology
  

This book contributes to current issues in TLA and multilingualism research. It discusses multilingual learning and development from a Dynamic Systems Theory perspective. The author argues that trilingual education does not harm or confuse young learners but that the teaching of three languages from an early age carries positive implications for children's linguistic, metalinguistic, and crosslinguistic awareness.