Although motivation is an extensively discussed topic, minor languages deserve more research attention. This qualitative multiple case study explores motivation to learn Czech as a second language in Beginners' Czech language courses for Erasmus students in the Czech Republic through the lens of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), searching…

While the relationship between language experience and foreign language aptitude (FLA) has been studied extensively, little is known about the underlying intermediate link between them. This study investigates whether multilingual learning experience is correlated with FLA and whether working memory (WM) mediates this relationship. A total of 93…

This paper reports on a study that investigates the impact of learning multiple foreign languages on learners' social emotional competence development as mediated by the number of foreign languages and the recency of the learning experience. A questionnaire survey that involved 465 Chinese learners of foreign languages was administered that…

This article addresses key issues related to diverse cases of migration to complex multilingual environments within Europe. Data came from three case studies carried out within the scope of the MIME project: (ex-)Yugoslavian refugees to South Tyrol (Italy); Portuguese work migrants to Andorra; and international managers in Vasa (Finland). Data…

This mixed methods study compares L2 learning motivation of Burundi simultaneous learners of French, English and Kiswahili, mainly focusing on L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS). A total of 348 junior high school students participated in a 60-item questionnaire survey, and 12 of those learners participated in a follow-up semi-structured…

This study continued a project aiming at empirically investigating the Plurilingual Creativity paradigm. It looked at the mediating role of tolerance and intolerance of ambiguity in the relation between plurilingualism/pluriculturalism and creativity. To test the research hypotheses, we recruited 261 participants using a simple random sampling…

If maximal exposure were the key to success in language learning, then adult learners at the university level would be doomed to fail. Not only are they presumably too old to learn additional languages effectively, but target language (TL) input appears to be insufficient, especially when other languages are allowed in class. Nevertheless,…

In language learner identity research, there is an underrepresentation of LOTE-as-L3 learners in instructed foreign language learning contexts. This study addresses this gap by exploring the multilingual identity profiles of Chinese high school LOTE-as-L3 learners in two school contexts and seeks to understand how the schools may influence…

Three experiments explored how retrieval practice and corrective feedback affect a third language (L3) vocabulary learning. In the first two experiments, Chinese-English bilinguals without prior French language experience studied English (Second Language, L2)--French (L3) word pairs in repeated studying or retrieval practice without (Experiment…

A substantial body of research has examined the role of English in South Africans' linguistic repertoires. Many of these studies have investigated whether a language shift towards English might be underway among first-language (L1) speakers of the indigenous languages. At the same time, the role of English in the repertoires of L1 English speakers…

Drawing on recent developments within sociolinguistics, the objective of the current article is to explore how six pre-service teachers (PSTs) discursively positioned themselves and 'the multilingual' across two narrating events focused on their lived experience of language. The narrating events were focus groups with other PSTs (N = 24) and the…

The 'multilingual turn' has opened up a variety of creative, participatory methods for researchers and educators to explore language learners' linguistic repertoires, language practices and resources, and linguistic experiences. In this article, we draw on data from the English as an additional language (EAL) secondary school classroom context…

In the online processing of long-distance wh-dependencies, native speakers have been found to make use of intermediate syntactic gaps, which has the effect of facilitating dependency resolution. This strategy has also been observed in second language (L2) speakers living in an L2 immersion context, but not in classroom L2 learners. This research…

This research, conducted at a major university in Tanzania, investigated the personal experiences of multilingual students vis-à-vis the government's language policy requiring Swahili as the language of instruction (LoI) at the primary level and English at the secondary level. The participants, who spoke 25 different languages as their L1, were…

Studies focused on motivation to learn languages other than English or more than 1 language simultaneously have been gaining attention in recent years. However, there are far fewer than those related to second language (L2) English learning. To fill this gap, this article explores the evolving motivation of 2 Japanese students who spent 1 academic…