Reviews of Cruz-Ferreira, M. (2010). Multilinguals are ...? London/Colombo: Battlebridge
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Endorsement – Professor Jeff MacSwan
A Cuban in London
Download the book – full text (5.7 MB)
Download the book – preview
Endorsement – Professor David Crystal
Author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.
This is a breath of fresh air in a field which desperately needs ventilation. It blows away the myths and fantasies about multilingualism, and puts in their place a perspective of sound common sense, grounded in the daily experience of living a life in which several languages form a natural part. For anyone who has ever been uncertain about multilingualism, worried about it, or misrepresented it, this lively and accessible overview is the perfect reality check.
Endorsement – Professor Jeff MacSwan
Applied Linguistics, Arizona State University.
Madalena Cruz-Ferreira has crafted a down-to-earth, fun, accessible, and highly informed treatise on multilingualism. The book addresses a wide range of misconceptions about multilingualism in a humorous and entertaining way, and should be required reading for teachers, professionals, and the rest of us who work closely with groups and individuals who use multiple languages!
A Cuban in London
Excerpt: “Madalena's book provided answers to many of the questions I had asked myself many times [...] it doesn't matter whether you’re monolingual or multilingual, go and buy this book. In addition, all profits from the sale of the book go to Yuti (meaning ‘unity’), a trilingual children’s magazine in Sinhala, Tamil and English. This publication is distributed, free of charge, to Sri Lankan children, ages eight to fourteen, three times a year.”
Read the full review here.
Stacy J. Feldstein – TESL-EJ (The Electronic Journal for English as a Second/Foreign Language)
Excerpt: “Educators, linguists, parents and anyone interested in language acquisition will benefit from the common-sense tenets of multilingualism presented in this entertaining and insightful work.”
Excerpt: “In Multilinguals are …?, Cruz-Ferreira
adeptly makes the point that multilinguals should not be categorized
as good or bad, fashionable or unfashionable, or intelligent or
mentally deficient, simply by virtue of the languages they use to
communicate. The author also dismisses the notion of a multilingual
as a novelty or fad, pointing to the fact that multilingualism has
been firmly entrenched in many parts of the world for a very long
time. With these things in mind, she maintains, common
misconceptions of multilinguals should be supplanted by a deeper
understanding, which permits these individuals to be recognized,
quite simply, as fellow human beings. Multilinguals draw upon more
than one language to understand and be understood because their lives
have led them down that particular path.”
Read the full review here.
Volfango Rizzi – TES (The Times Educational Supplement)
Excerpt: “A highly recommended book for anyone who may have some interest in understanding more on multilingualism, and monolingualism too.”
Philip Ball – ELT Journal
Excerpt: “Madalena Cruz-Ferreira has written an entertaining and insightful book on this very theme. The title Multilinguals are …? neatly encapsulates her chief conceit, in which the narrative weight of the book inclines more towards the human aspect of the phenomenon and less to the concept of multilingualism itself.”
Read the full review here.
Cassie D. Leymarie – International
Multilingual Research Journal
Excerpt: “Multilinguals are ...? deconstructs
the paradoxical discourse surrounding multilingualism in a blunt and
tongue-in-cheek fashion. [Cruz-Ferreira] provides a thoughtfully
scrutinous, yet widely accessible, conversation achieving the
intended goal of providing clarity about the nature of being
multilingual. [...] To me, this book offered a quick and refreshing
way to remember that our field is dealing with people, not just
languages in isolation.”
Read the full review here.
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Book’s table of contents
Multilinguals are ...?
- It’s a multilingual world, but multilinguals are the odd ones out
- Multilinguals must have balanced languages, but one of them must be dominant
- Multilinguals must develop one main language, but that won’t let them develop other languages
- Multilinguals have no mother tongue, because they are not native speakers of any language
- Multilinguals can learn new languages easily, but only in childhood
- Multilingual competence means erasing signs of multilingualism from the speech of multilinguals
- Multilinguals don’t have many languages, they have many half-languages
- Becoming multilingual is both a drain and a strain on your brain
- Growing up multilingual is no problem, provided you seek clinical assistance
- In order to raise multilingual children, you must speak to them in only one language
- Multilingualism should be encouraged, but only in languages that matter
- Multilinguals are multilinguals because they are gifted for languages
- Multilingualism is a boon, but also a bane, or vice versa
What are we talking about, really??
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