Abstract
Research on "language biographies", as collected by means of narrative interviews, has shown the usefulness of a discursive, qualitative approach when studying bi- and multilingualism, providing insights on how individual speakers experience languages and language learning, and discursively construct their identity. Taking such body of research as a departure point, the paper explores the language biographies of eight speakers living in South Tyrol, investigating the ways speakers represent their own linguistic repertoire (in particular, their L1s and L2s), and bilingualism - its definition, as well as values, advantages and disadvantages that are attributed to it. Particular attention is thereby devoted to similiarities and differencies in the discursive work accomplished by (self-defined) "bilingual" and "non-bilingual" speakers and to the ways in which these may be related to the larger social context of South Tyrolean society.