01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Who this book is for
For students of applied linguistics who want to connect multilingual experience with models of learning and language use. Berthele treats multilingualism as multidimensional and changing rather than a binary property that people either possess or lack. This makes the book useful for examining both instruction and wider language policy without reducing speakers to idealised monolingual standards.
Prerequisites
Introductory linguistics or language education is recommended. Review language variation and basic research interpretation. Knowledge of several languages is useful for reflection, but it is not a prerequisite for evaluating the examples and arguments.
What it covers
The book discusses repertoires, cross-linguistic influence, transfer and convergence from cognitive and sociolinguistic perspectives. Contexts include instructed and uninstructed learning, minority languages, sign-language repertoires and foreign-language education. Different learner profiles and skill levels illuminate how needs and opportunities shape development. Competing theoretical views are compared with evidence rather than presented as interchangeable names for the same phenomenon.
How to use it
Describe one multilingual repertoire across settings, skills and purposes instead of assigning a single proficiency label. Choose an example of cross-language influence and identify alternative explanations, including the language task and its social context. Compare two models’ predictions and ask which evidence could distinguish them. Translate one research claim into a proposed teaching or policy decision, stating the assumptions needed for that step. Then consider a learner or community for whom the proposed decision would have different consequences, and revise the recommendation accordingly.
Edition and sources
The complete Language Science Press textbook was published in August 2026 under CC BY 4.0, with the listed ISBN identifying the PDF rather than the softcover. The work brings several research traditions together; individual findings should retain their population, task and language setting. Its account supports critical decisions about teaching and policy rather than a promise of one universally fastest route to multilingual competence. Official complete reading route.
