Monolingualism is curable (Nelde 1997). Based on this shared conviction, the contributors in Section 29 at the Romance Studies Conference, which took place from September 22 to 27, 2007, in Vienna, focused on multilingualism as a key competence: theory and practice in teaching and learning contexts. In addition to the thematic orientation, it was a particular concern of the section to bring together representatives from different fields to initiate a fruitful discourse on the current state of the topic and its perspectives. Thus, among the contributors are linguists, educators from higher education, and practitioners. The discussions include, among other things, recent language policy developments within Europe from the perspective of multilingualism and multilingualism in schools, spanning from history through the present to the future.