Xiao-lei Wang is Professor and Acting Dean of the School of Education at Pace University, USA. She is the author of Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven (Multilingual Matters, 2008) and Learning to Read and Write in the Multilingual Family (Multilingual Matters, 2011). She is a regular speaker on child development and parenting at local, national and international parents' associations and academic conferences.

Prologue

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Complexity of Trilingualism

Chapter 2 In the Beginning

Chapter 3 The Home Years (Birth to Ages Three and Four)

Chapter 4 Transition from Home to Preschool and Kindergarten

Chapter 5 The Elementary School Years

Chapter 6 Identity and Personality Development: Children's Voices

Chapter 7 Concluding Remarks Summary

Notes and References

Epilogue

Appendix: Useful Websites for Parents

This book is based on an eleven-year observation of two children who were simultaneously exposed to three languages from birth. It tells the story of two parents from different cultural, linguistic, and ethnic-racial backgrounds who joined to raise their two children with their heritage languages outside their native countries. It also tells the children's story and the way they negotiated three cultures and languages and developed a trilingual identity. It sheds light on how parental support contributed to the children's simultaneous acquisition of three languages in an environment where the main input of the two heritage languages came respectively from the father and from the mother. It addresses the challenges and the unique language developmental characteristics of the two children during their trilingual acquisition process.