The aim of this dissertation is to examine language attitudes in Finland and Wales in the context of bilingualism and multilingualism in those countries. This examination indudes a consideration of key concepts in language attitude, bilingualism and multilingualism. The research considers attitudes to Welsh and English in Wales, to Finnish, Swedish and English in Finland, as well as attitudes to bilingualism and trilingualism in those countries. The research seeks to analyse the extent to which age, gender, grade at school, area of residence, place of birth and identity of respondents influence such language attitudes. Chapter One considers definitions and distinctions relevant to bilingualism and multilingualism. It examines the terminology used to discuss individual bilingualism and societal bilingualism, and special attention is paid to language attitudes. Chapters Two and Three provide the contextualization for the research by a literature review. This covers the geographical, historical and economic background, the languages spoken in Finland, and the Finnish educational system. Similarly, the historical, demographically and educational background of the linguistic situation in Wales is discussed. In Chapter Four the potential benefits of being able to communicate in more than one language are examined. This chapter also portrays different forms of multilingualism in four areas: Scandinavia, Spain, India and Africa. The methodology and results of three research investigations are presented in Chapters Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine. The first piece of research was conducted on secondary school students in Finland, the second with university students in Wales, and the third research used sixth form students from around Wales. The general attitude to individual languages, the learning of languages and to groups of speakers was positive in all three investigations. However, some negative components were found in attitudes towards Swedish in Finland and English in Wales. The statistical analyses of student background factors indicate that gender and identity had most impact on language attitudes. Minor effects were also found with age, area of residence, place of birth and language skills. Chapter Ten presents an integration and overview of the dissertation. It reviews the aims, integrates the literature review with the research, presents major findings and common threads in the research. Furthermore, it discusses the limitations of the research with suggestions for future research in this area. Finally, it analyses the implications of the study for Finland and Wales.