Multilingualism is broadly understood as the knowledge and use of two or more languages by individuals in their everyday lives, both private and professional. It is increasingly acknowledged as an important issue of the contemporary world and the interest in the matter of multilingualism is growing rapidly in many areas, such as research, politics, or education. The authors of this book combine some of the questions in a truly interdisciplinary perspective in order to provide an insight into the variety and diversity of research problems of multilingualism. This collection is divided into ten chapters considering the selected matters from different points of view, gathering together empirical research from various fields.

The concept of bilingualism has been analyzed for a very long time. Its definitions range from native-like competence in two languages to a minimal proficiency in a second language. Hence one might question why no consensus has been reached in this matter. The authors of this volume imply that there exists a number of theoretical and methodological difficulties raised by older definitions. The notion of bilingualism has to be investigated from different perspectives reflected by the dimensions each individual intends to diagnose. The aim of the book is to review critically the state of the art in the field of bilingualism. The volume reveals the details of empirical studies conducted by scholars from Europe, America and Australia. It depicts a truly interesting spectrum of research topics starting with the educational aspects of bilingualism, such as: bilingual acquisition, bilingual parenting methods and bilingual kindergartens, to reveal various issues of sociolinguistics and even bilingual literature.