Trilingual families in mainly monolingual societies: working towards a typology

Trilingualism has often been studied within the framework established for bilingualism. Although there is overlap, the dynamics around trilingualism pose greater variations than is the case with bilingualism. The aim of this study is to analyse the language practices of different groups of trilingual families. Particular attention is paid to the influence of various sociocultural and linguistic factors on whether or not parents used their native languages (NL) with their children. In semi-structured interviews parents in 35 trilingual families in England and 35 in Germany described their language practices with their children. It was found that parental language choices were significantly influenced by their linguistic background. Parents who spoke one NL other than the community language were highly motivated in both countries to pass on their NLs and cultural values to their children. This was mainly related to the effectiveness of the One Person One Language strategy and support from grandparents. In contrast, bilingual/trilingual parents tended to use only one NL with their children, partly because the One Parent One Language was impractical or the beginning of school made it harder to use additional languages. The implications of these findings for typologies of trilingual families are examined in this article.