Multilingualism in Minority Groups

Abstract

Multilingualism, defined as the ability of speaking two or more languages, is a phenomenon gaining importance each passing day. Accordingly, there is a growing interest in how multilingual individuals make use of their linguistic repertoires in the language learning process. This chapter aims to explore the crosslinguistic interaction of multilingual English language learners living in Mardin in their writing tasks and thinking processes. The results yielded that bi/multilingual individuals actively use their previously learned languages flexibly. There was also evidence translanguaging across all languages with the dominance role of Turkish. The findings propose that proficiency of learners in their L1 and L2 should not be underestimated in evaluating proficiency in L3 as multilingual individuals use different resources of different languages all together for effective communication, and there are no ‘boundaries' across their languages as proposed by Canagarajah.