Introduction

There are many ways to approach multilingualism. Most of the perspectives on multilingualism found in the scientifi c literature are rooted in linguistics and its various subfi elds, particularly sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, or fall under the generic heading of ‘applied linguistics’, a label contested by some, but which has nevertheless gained currency among scholars who wished to demarcate themselves from the line of investigation developed, for example, in Chomskyan linguistics.