The present volume 9(1) offers a wide variety of interesting topics well-grounded in theoretical considerations and literature overviews, but importantly, also reporting on empirical projects carried out by researchers, some of whom are well-known scholars, others aspiring young academics. The articles selected offer a balanced range of teachers’ and learners’ perspectives on various aspects of the process of language teaching and learning, in a variety of contexts, with the clearly visible motif of the recent COVID-19 pandemic as an important factor which has shaped both teachers’ and learners’ experience and attitudes.

The purpose of the Preface to this new issue of Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition is twofold. Firstly, it offers a short introduction for new readers to familiarize them with the origins of the journal (a permanent element of the Preface). Secondly, the text provides a fairly detailed comment on the contents of the present issue.

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The present volume 8/2 offers a wide variety of interesting topics well-grounded in theoretical considerations and literature overviews, but importantly, also reporting on empirical projects carried out by researchers, some of them well-known scholars, others young aspiring academics. The articles selected also offer a variety of contexts in which the studies were conducted, ranging from that of our local Polish research to Iranian university studies, which are quite well-represented here. The opening text by Liliana Piasecka, entitled “When “grass was greener”: Longplay Album Covers and Learning English. A Retrospection,” at first sight looks like a sentimental journey into the world of music (which it is in part). The author’s aim is to demonstrate the power of experiential learning which combines elements of material culture that are meaningful to a learner and thus, that motivate him or her to learn a FL. The account is based on the author’s own reflections on her learning experiences and the impact of longplay album (LP) covers of the 1960s on her learning success. The text also offers  some practical ideas for a FL classroom.

more in the Preface

The topics of the present volume extend between focus on selected language skills influenced by a range of psycholinguistic variables, learning environments and instruction types, issues related to teacher wellbeing, and textbook analysis. The opening text “Language Teacher Wellbeing in the Workplace: Balancing Needs” by Sonja Babic, Sarah Mercer, Astrid Mairitsch, Johanna Gruber, and Kirsten Hempkin is the only one in the volume concentrating on teachers. Since it has been proven that teachers’ wellbeing correlates positively with the quality of teaching and overall learners’ success, the authors decided to investigate the factors which contribute to the construct. The study is especially valuable for its diversified and multinational perspective and inclusion of not only psychological and individual variables, but also influences of wider educational and sociological environments. The second paper, by Xavier Martin-Rubió and Irati Diert-Boté titled “Catalan Law and Business Students in Italy:  The Impact of a Stay Abroad on Fluency and Accuracy,” shifts the perspective towards the learners. The author applies a qualitative perspective and investigates the factors responsible for diverse values of fluency and accuracy measures among three subjects participating in the study, in an attempt to provide some useful tips for both teachers and learners on how to make the most of an organized mobility abroad.

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue of Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition completes the seventh year of publishing of this journal. The topics range from those discussing individual learner differences from a variety of perspectives and settings to the development of language skills and different  forms of instruction, presenting some innovative ideas in face-to-face and online mode of teaching a foreign language. The opening text “Using Character Strengths to Address English Writing Anxiety: A Mixed-Methods Study” by Tammy Gregersen, Peter D. MacIntyre, and Rachel Buck is quite an innovative way of looking at foreign language instruction, which employs elements of positive psychology in the language classroom to create a context of well-being for the learners. The authors not only introduce some of the seminal ideas taken from positive psychology, but most of all, they demonstrate in a practical way how the main assumptions of positive psychology can be applied in a classroom. The case study presented focuses on one of the pillars of positive psychology - character strengths - and through pedagogical intervention points out benefits of the intervention implemented for the learner. The topic of positive reinforcement is a widely-discussed issue not only in psychological research, but also in the context of educational theory and practice in the classroom. The next article is an example of how such positive reinforcement - praise - is being investigated by means of a pedagogical experiment. Adrian Leis, in his text entitled “Praise in the EFL Classroom: A Growth Mindset Perspective,”  demonstrates the role of giving  positive feedback in the form of praising and how it affects those who do not receive such feedback. The results of this interesting and well-designed experiment leads the author to highlight practical implications and offer advice on how to give feedback effectively.

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue consists of texts which do not share any clear-cut common denominator – they represent various themes and different points on the scale between the theoretical and the applied, although the first two are much broader in the scope of systemic solutions which they propose than the remaining four. The first paper, by Maria Villalobos-Buehner, titled “A Habermasian Approach to the Examination of Language Teachers’ Cognitive Interests,” reports on a very interesting qualitative study of nine pre-service teachers of ESL, focusing on their beliefs and interests related to language teaching and learning. The following paper, contributed by Hanna Komorowska, takes a much broader and systemic perspective, as suggested by its title “The Role of Attention in Teacher Education: A Factor in the Quality of European Schooling.” The author reflects upon plausible reasons for the observable lack of correspondence between the level of effort invested by leading international institutions in the improvement of educational systems and the results visible in their reports. The paper by Çağrı Tuğrul Mart entitled “Integrating Form and Content within Classroom Discussion of Literature” narrows down the focus to the long-standing dispute between the supporters of form-focused instruction and the devotees of content-based teaching, while Meihua Liu looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the two options mentioned in the title “Foci and Effects of Peer and Machine Feedback on Chinese University EFL Learners’ Revisions of English Argumentative Essays.”

Electronic media of communication are the focal point of the next paper, submitted by Daria Pańka, Polish-English Code-Switching in the Language of Polish Facebook Users, and the final research paper in the present issue, Jordanian University Students’ Awareness of the Different Phonetic Alternates of the English Plural Morpheme, authored by Hana Asaad Daana and Qadri Farid Tayeh, demonstrates the positive impact of exposure to English for the students’ L2 competence and performance, during their study period at the Princess Alia University College at Al-Balqa Applied University in Amman.

The present issue continues the tradition of presenting two reviews of very recent book publications in SLA. The first one, Teacher Wellbeing (2020), authored by two very well-known experts on applications of positive psychology in language teaching and learning, Sarah Mercer and Tammy Gregersen, is reviewed by Danuta Gabryś-Barker. The second volume, reviewed by Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, takes the reader on a reflexive trip through the territory of motivation in language learning. The publication in question is Contemporary Language Motivation Theory. 60 Years since Gardner and Lambert (1959), an anthology edited by Ali H. Al-Hoorie and Peter MacIntyre (2020).

Read more in the Preface

The present issue consists of texts which are miscellaneous in their focus, however, the opening article continues the theme of the previous one, codeswitching and translanguaging. Sarah Cox—in her text “Can an Ecological, Multilingual Approach Help Us to Better Support Reunited Refugee Families in Scotland with Language Learning?”—focuses on the language learning experiences of refugee families in Glasgow reunited through the British Red Cross and investigates in her pilot study the relationship between academic literature, policy and the practice of language learning—drawing on the translanguaging theories of Garcia and Kleifgen (2010) and Norton (2013). The author comments on an ecological multilingual approach implemented in refugee classrooms to demonstrate empowerment, identity, and the need for recognition of their linguistic repertories. Also, the second article in the volume by Teresa Maria Włosowicz entitled “The Influence of Living and Working Abroad on the Identities of Researchers and Native Speaker Teachers” draws readers’ attention to issues of identity as functioning in foreign context, but this time the subjects are academics and native speaker teachers. Using extensive sources (among others Block, 2009; Hall, 2012; Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004; Dewaele &Preface 7 Li, 2012), the author defines and describes the construct of identity, and identity in abroad contexts. Włosowicz intended to demonstrate that an openminded hybrid identity mentioned in other studies of such subjects would be also present in her project participants. However, this is not entirely the case, as what is observed in the present study is that the native language and the family are more dominant aspects of the subjects’ identity than the foreign context in which they live, but at the same time not denying its positive value for their personal enrichment. In the next text by Meihua Liu entitled “A Study of Chinese University English Majors’ L2 Motivational Self,” the author looks at one of the most important affective dimensions of SL/FL learning that is motivation and presents an interesting empirical study investigating Chinese English majors’ L2 motivational self. The study follows the L2 Motivational Self System as presented by Dörnyei (2005, 2009). The positive results of the study demonstrate not only Chinese students’ high motivation to learn English but also their positive attitudes towards learning it, which leads the author to offer some pedagogical implications for the EFL classroom and a proposal for new avenues of research.

(read more in Preface)

The present issue has a clearly visible leading theme, extending over the first four contributions, which revolves around the strategic and combined use of all learners’ linguistic resources in various communicative situations, more or less directly associated with their language learning/acquisition process. The additive approach, highlighting a united perspective of all language systems functioning as one communicative resource, is often discussed under the heading of translanguaging, while the alternative approach, focusing on switching between available separate systems, driven by local and goal-oriented needs, is traditionally subsumed under the label of code-switching, although as we will see in the papers comprising the bulk of the present issue, the distinction is not always so clear. The first paper, entitled “Chinese Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Translanguaging and Its Uses in Portuguese Foreign Language Classrooms,” presents the results of a very interesting study among native Chinese Teachers of Portuguese as a foreign language, working at Chinese universities, on the potential benefits of using students’ L1 in the classroom. The author, Jorge Pinto, confirms the observations of other researchers that, contrary to the recommendations of the administrators, translanguaging practices involving the use of students’ L1, especially in the initial stages of acquisition, are conducive to more effective learning. The second contribution, by Dominika Dzik, titled “Variations in Child-Child and Child-Adult Interactions – A Study of Communication Strategies in L3 Spanish,” extends the perspective to three languages, because the communication strategies reported in the study offer evidence for intriguing strategic exploitation of all language resources which the learners have at their disposal. Interesting findings demonstrate preferences for resorting to learners’ L1 (Polish) or L2 (English) repertoire as correlated with the age and native language of the conversational partner. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), although on principle giving preference to the L2, and sometimes insisting on its exclusive use, can nevertheless accommodate code-switching practices, as demonstrated by Katarzyna Papaja and Marzena Wysocka-Narewska in their study “Investigating Code-switching in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Classroom.” The study is predominantly diagnostic in nature, aimed at finding the situations where code-switching takes place, as well as the most important reasons for that phenomenon. The authors additionally attempt to assess which instances of code-switching could have facilitating, and which have detrimental effect on learners’ progress. Spanish as L3 returns as the major focus of the paper by Teresa Maria Włosowicz “Translanguaging as the Mobilisation of Linguistic Resources by Learners of Spanish as a Third or Additional Language.” In the article the multilingual perspective of the present volume reaches its peak, as the strategic use of at least five different languages is demonstrated here. A number of intriguing contrasts between students of English Philology and students of Romance Philology are demonstrated and discussed, pertaining to the activation of learners’ linguistic resources in situations where their command of Spanish proves insufficient. The fifth contribution in the present issue, by Katarzyna Rokoszewska, titled “Intra-individual Variability in the Emergence of Lexical Complexity in Speaking English at Secondary School––A Case Study of a Good, Average, and Poor Language Learner,” shifts the perspective to a very detailed and focused investigation of individual learners. Somewhat to her surprise, the author finds out that all the learners mentioned in the title exhibited a similar level of lexical complexity, which she attempts to account for within the Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, a novel approach to the role of variability, highlighting the dynamic and non-linear nature of language development. The final research paper in the present issue, “Metaphors We Academicize the World With? – Metaphor(icity) Perceived in the Context of Academia (A Case Study of English Philologists-to-be),” by Adam Palka, investigates a peculiar, but prospectively a very influential (in the context of professional L2 use) environment, of Polish students of English, in the context of their developing command of selected aspects of academic discourse. The author focuses on the learners’ awareness of metaphorical encoding of reality, especially in the context of their everyday functioning in the academic environment.

As in a number of previous ones, the present issue also concludes with three book reviews. The first one, by Marek Derenowski, presents a commentary on the monograph by Sarah Mercer and Marion Williams, entitled Multiple Perspectives on the Self in the SLA (2014), which brings together the theories formulated within many disciplines, focusing on the construct of the Self, and explicates their significance for the present-day understanding of the processes involved in SLA. In reviewer’s opinion, it is both comprehensive enough to appeal to a very diverse audience, and at the same time sufficiently comprehensible to serve the needs of not only advanced researchers, but also of young apprentices in the academic trade. The second publication, Małgorzata Bielicka’s Efektywność nauczania języka niemieckiego na poziomie przedszkolnym i wczesnoszkolnym w dwujęzycznych placówkach edukacyjnych w Polsce [The Effectiveness of Teaching German at the Pre-school and Early School Levels in Bilingual Educational Institutions in Poland] (2017), is reviewed on by Zofia Chłopek. The reviewer acknowledges the value of the empirical study presented in the book, stressing the fact that there are not many such accounts of bilingual programmes in Poland with L2 other than English. One of the most valuable assets of the volume is also its development of a new rating scale of learners’ grammatical competence, which promises a potential of methodological application in other studies to come. Although the reviewer notices certain drawbacks, pertaining predominantly to the content of the theoretical part, she nevertheless considers Bielicka’s monograph a valuable contribution to our knowledge about teaching foreign languages to young learners. Finally, the third review, by Jolanta Latkowska, comments on Vaclav Brezina's monograph Statistics in Corpus Linguistics: A Practical Guide (2018), representing a modern approach to introducing linguistics into arcana os statistical analysis. Since the publication offers the readers access to a number of very useful online calculators as well as a package of extra materials available from the publisher's website, it clearly makes a significant step beyond the traditionally understood idea of a practically-oriented resource book. It is highly recommended by the reviewer to all applied linguist requiring solid quantitative bases for their research.

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue focuses both on general themes of SLA research, but also has a strong accent on development of different language skills in context by a bilingual/multilingual  language learner/user. It opens with a text by the well-known multilinguality researcher, Gessica De Angelis entitled “The Bilingual Advantage and the Language Background Bias,” in which the claim is made about the advantages that bilingualism has in various spheres of life, including healthcare and education but which also points to possible disadvantages of being bilingual. The author carefully examines evidence that comes from advanced research that demonstrates both advantages for cognitive development of a bilingual as well as its drawbacks. De Angelis points to certain discrepancies in the research evidence analysed, ascribing it to the language bias of the studies analysed.  She also suggests a way forward in researching bilingual/multilingual advantage and its understanding. The following text by David Singleton entitled “Bi-/multilingual Communication, Identity and the Posited Intermingling of Language Systems in the Mind” questions the way researchers talk about “the languages in the mind” and the conceptual dimensions of language. The author claims that knowledge of languages in the mind “is in fact in all its aspects highly differentiated” and to this end, he provides evidence from a variety of research areas such as language loss/ recovery, bilingual/multilingual development and communication and importantly, the affective dimension of language differentiation. The following texts in the present issue take an interest in individual language skills development in EFL learners. Anna Kiszczak and Halina Chodkiewicz in their text “Text-based Student Questioning in EFL Settings: Long-term Strategy Implementation in Reciprocal Reading Tasks and its Perception” focus on the importance of strategy training in the development of reading skills in a foreign language. The text reports on a classroom-based study the aim of which was to demonstrate whether a one-term training session on reciprocal reading would improve quality in the use of student-generated questions at different periods of time, that is, during and after the sessions. The results of the study and their discussion offer some insights as to the development of reading skills in a foreign language class, which are considered an essential aspect in FL learning achievement. The next text, “Influence of Background Knowledge and Language Proficiency on Comprehension of Domain-specific Texts by University Students” by Justyna Kendik-Gut continues the theme of reading comprehension skills and not only the role in this process of  language proficiency but also that of background knowledge. The results of a quantitative study analysed statistically (test scores) confirmed the initial hypothesis that background knowledge and the language proficiency have a strong influence on reading comprehension of domain-specific texts. The author also presents some implications deriving from the study results and their discussion for EFL classrooms. The next text by Agnieszka Ślęzak-Świat entitled “Complementarity of Reading from Paper and Screen in the Development of Critical Thinking Skills for 21st century literacy,” though also focusing on reading skills, takes a different angle on the topic.  The author observes changing reading habits due to the development of modern technology and to this end, she discusses reading preferences of 21st-century readers, whose practices embrace both reading digital texts online and traditional printed ones. The author comments on how the reading mode contributes (or otherwise) to the development of critical thinking, perceived as “understanding complex ideas, evaluating evidence, weighing alternative perspectives and constructing justifiable arguments.” In the text to follow, María Begoña Ruiz Cordero’s “Assessing English Writing Skills of Students from Bilingual and Non-Bilingual Schools in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. A Comparative Study” takes up the theme of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in relation to the development of writing skills in a foreign language. The aim of the study carried out by the Author was to compare the levels of writing in English achieved by learners in CLIL and non-CLIL programmes at different schools across various geographical regions.

The present issue finishes with two book reviews. The first one reviewed by Danuta Gabryś-Barker presents a commentary on the monograph by Wojciech Malec entitled Developing Web-based Language Tests (2018), which is a comprehensive literature overview of language testing-related issues with a strong focus on using modern technology in the process of language assessment. Apart from its in-depth theoretical part, it presents in details an on-line programme conceived by the author which can be of great help to all FL teachers in designing, analysing and finally assessing their test results. The second review by Grażyna Kiliańska-Przybyło looks at the second edition of a book by Lia Litosseliti (2018) Research Methods in Linguistics, whose focus lies in research methodology. It provides the readers with an overview of both quantitative and qualitative research methods employed in empirical studies in linguistics. The author advocates the use of a mixed method approach, which is necessary in the multidisciplinarity of modern research in linguistics.

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue opens with a study of the affective aspect of figurative language in the context of learning German by native speaker of Slovene. The paper by Teodor Petrič attempts to offer a descriptive and analytic framework for capturing the psycholinguistic (especially affective) dimensions of a large set of German idioms, as perceived by Slovene learners of German, and also to relate the research results to such earlier elaborations as Citron et al. (2015). The author hopes that the results will contribute to the development of our knowledge of the role of affect in a foreign/second language setting.

Humor undoubtedly possesses a high positive affective potential, which constitutes a thematic link to the second paper published in the present issue, the study by Krystyna Warchał titled “Humour in Professional Academic Writing.” The author explores the issue of apparent inherent incompatibility between humorous elements and the arguably mandatory solemnity of academic publications. She points to a number of reader-engaging strategies quite often used by authors of academic papers, which may potentially enhance the author-reader rapport and thus facilitate scholarly communication. The paper makes also an important educational contribution, in formulating a number of valuable recommendations for the ESL/EFL context, highlighting the human face of academic writing to the students of the subject.

The article “Poetry in Teaching Grammar to the Advanced Users of Polish as a FL” by Marzena S. Wysocka continues the theme of reconciling some apparently mutually exclusive factors in FLL, juxtaposing the alleged system-breaking nature of poetic language with the apparent rigidity of grammatical instruction. The subjects were learners of Polish as a foreign language at the School of Polish Language and Culture at the University of Silesia in Katowice, who responded very positively to the introduction of poetry as a kind of “grammar refresher,” creating opportunities for polishing up grammatical correctness and expanding their linguistic repertoire.

One of the very visible facts of contemporary European university education is the high volume of international student exchange, especially within the Erasmus+ framework. No wonder that it inspires research interests of representatives of many disciplines. The potential L2 linguistic gain resulting from a study placement abroad is put to test in a small-scale investigation, reported in a paper by Katarzyna Ożańska-Ponikwia, Angélica Carlet, and Maria Pujol Valls. The authors came to the conclusion that although Erasmus+ mobility is a very powerful factor contributing positively to the development of L2 speaking skill and grammar proficiency, it is definitely not the guarantee of success, as many other factors, such as language engagement, overall satisfaction from the Erasmus+ experience, as well as the amount and quality of language input outside the classroom influenced in an important way the ultimate potential gain.

The paper “Foreign Language Students’ Perceptions of their Identity” by Liliana Piasecka explores the dynamic character of foreign language learning process in the context of an alternative L2 language identity construction, experienced by students of English as a foreign language. The author highlights the positive aspects of this process, enumerating such beneficial effects as increased appreciation of English as a tool of cross-cultural communication, leading to the development of more open-minded attitude and tolerance. The new language identity obtained thanks to the development of English is described as prestige-building, self-confidence raising and mind-broadening factor.

The last research paper of the issue returns to the learning environment of the third-age language students, which has already been explored in a number of papers published in previous volumes. The study by Łukasz Matusz and Anna M. Rakowska focuses on the learning difficulties faced by senior participants of third-age university language courses organized by academic institutions in Silesia. Their past experience and awareness of own limitations guarantee reliable and valuable source of information for course developers aimed at this particular language group.

The issue concludes with two book reviews. One of them is the review of the monograph by Hadrian Lankiewicz, Teacher Language Awareness: A Collaborative Inquiry Based on Languaging (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, 2015), a volume worth of interest especially for FL teacher trainers in various educational centers concerned with the professional development of teachers at different levels: both at pre-service and at the in-service stage (reviewed by Danuta Gabryś-Barker), and a slightly earlier publication by Danuta Wiśniewska, Action Research in EFL Pedagogy: Theory and Analysis of Practice (Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2013), a work highly recommended not only for EFL teacher trainees and their instructors, but also for all teachers of English for whom constant reflection and self-development constitute indispensable ingredients of their professional career (reviewed by Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel).

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue continues the topic from the previous one, which is that of language learning environment, broadly interpreted.  It opens with an article by Sarah Mercer, Tammy Gregersen, Peter MacIntyre and Kyle Talbot entitled “Positive Language Education: Combining Positive Education and Language Education”, which is written from a positive psychology perspective as applied to education and discusses the notion of  Positive Language Education (PLE). Here, the authors promote the idea that 21st century education should not only focus on developing linguistic skills but also those which are more fundamental to our lives, that is, the skills of well-being, a major area in positive psychology. The model presented integrates the aims and development of linguistic and non-linguistic skills in the educational context as “the foundation for effective learning and a good life more generally.” The article makes a considerable contribution to fast-growing research on positive psychology in SLA. The article is theoretical, but it makes a very strong claim for an empirically-based model of language education in different educational contexts. The following article by Katarzyna Budzińska “Positive Institutions: a Case Study” elaborates on a positive educational example in a  practical way by presenting a profile of a language school which can be viewed as an enabling institution ( a concept proposed by positive psychology). It follows the lines of Mercer et al.’s thinking on PLE presented in the earlier text. The author rightly emphasizes that out of the three major areas of interest in positive psychology studies: positive emotions, positive character traits and positive/enabling institutions, it is the final one that has attracted the least attention so far. Thus, in her article, the main focus is on the analysis of a representative language school as the best example of its kind. As the author puts it, it is an institution “enabling success and promoting positive language learning environments or student well-being”. In the next text, “The classroom learning environment and its influence on selected aspects of foreign language attainment. Insights from students”, Anna Michońska-Stadnik takes a different perspective on a foreign language learning context by focusing on students’ perceptions of their environment. Expressing the belief that a modern language classroom has a facilitative role in developing autonomy, learner self-regulation and cooperation-enhanced motivation, the author discusses their views on the influences of some aspects of the classroom environment on their language learning process (“motivation, ability to self-assess, self-confidence and attitudes to the target language and culture”) expressed by learners in guided interviews. She concludes, on the basis of the interview data, that it is still the teacher that plays the most fundamental role in the above. The next article by Ana Aldekoa, “Gure Ikastola en tres languages: the teaching and learning of trilingual oral expository skills by means of a didactic sequence”, takes the reader into the world of multilingual classrooms, where the development of trilingual oral expository skills in Spanish L1, Basque L2 and English L3 students is presented in a trilingual didactic sequence. The analysis clearly demonstrates that language alternation and integration during a lesson can result in the beneficial development of the three languages and thus, enhances students’ multilingual competence. The article by Beata Malczewska-Webb and Alicia Vallero entitled “Developing Learning Environments for Blended and Online learning” takes the reader to a modern language classroom where second language instruction makes use of modern technology by combining both the traditional face-to-face classroom teaching and possibilities online instruction offers. It presents the theoretical concepts, an innovative framework necessary for a successful implementation of language instruction at the university level as well as the students´ assessment of this type of pedagogy. The Authors demonstrate how such teaching is done at one of Australian universities, the leading centre for blended, online and distance learning. The last article in this issue by Sarah Mercer and Achilleas Kostoulas is entitled “Reflections on complexity: TESOL researchers reflect on their experiences”. It presents the Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), a fairly new theoretical framework in applied linguistics and demonstrates how researchers implement it in their practice of language teaching. The authors not only discuss the tenets of the theory of CDST but, more importantly, point out the challenges and promises of this new approach, as expressed in the narrative texts of researchers, experienced in implementing CDST in their work. They are fully aware of its benefits as well as of the difficulties that still need to be overcome. Nevertheless, they generally express an optimistic view to this new framework. The issue concludes with two book reviews. One of them is the review of the monograph by Katarzyna Ożańska-Ponikwia “Personality and Emotional Intelligence in Second Language Learning (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), a must-read for all those interested in the affectivity dimension of language acquisition/learning processes (reviewed by Danuta Gabryś-Barker). The other review is of the book by Anna Borowska “Avialinguistics. The Study of Language for Aviation Purposes“ (Peter Lang 2017), which presents a fairly new area of English for specific purpose (ESP) (reviewed by Adam Wojtaszek).

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue opens with a fascinating insight into the significance of the ‘love factor’ for late L2 proficiency development. In their paper “L2 Proficiency as a Function of Cultural Identity in Interlingual Couples” David Singleton and Simone Pfenninger offer a comprehensive review of a number of qualitative studies which demonstrate how significant the affective dimension can be both for the ultimate success in acquisition of L2 proficiency as well as for the adoption of cultural identity by one of the partners. The facilitative role of out-of-class immersion activities is presented by Jorge Pinto in the second article, entitled “Immersion Learning Activities: Developing Communicative Tasks in the Community.” The author argues for the extension of the learning environment to the beyond-the-classroom sphere which allows for a more extensive development of learners’ communicative skills in L2. Although the research results are based on an L2 Portuguese course taught at the University of Lisbon, the implications seem to be universally applicable. The third paper, “Social Constraints of Aspirations for Second Language Achievement” by Joanna Rokita-Jaśkow, seeks an explanation for the relatively unambitious and vague aspirations of Polish vocational school English philology students, adding another perspective to the discussion on the role of learning environments. The perspective is narrowed down to the classroom environment in the fourth paper, “New School, the Same Old Rut? Action Research of Unsuccessful First-Year Students in a High School” by Joanna Masoń-Budzyń. In order to formulate useful and experience-based suggestions, the author attempts to diagnose the sources of learners’ unsuccessful performance, looking at a number of potential contributing factors. The fifth article, “Rethink Your Old Teaching Methods: Designing a Pronunciation Course for Young Teenagers,” by Dorota Lipińska, also focuses on a FL classroom environment, but the author’s interest revolves around the issue of EFL pronunciation teaching to 11- to 13-year-olds. Lamenting the inefficiency of both the teaching resources and the primary school syllabi, the author proposes her own ideas about how pronunciation could be taught, providing some suggestive evidence from speech production and speech perception tests. The subject of pronunciation learning is also the topic of the last paper in the issue, “Pronunciation Learning Environment: EFL Students’ Cognitions of In-Class and Out-of-Class factors affecting pronunciation acquisition” by Magdalena Szyszka. The author attempts to identify the most significant contributors to the learners’ ultimate pronunciation learning achievement, looking not only at the classroom environment and at teachers’ pronunciation, but also at the patterns encountered by the learners in their daily exposure to entertainment media.

(read more in the Preface)

The present issue opens with an article by Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel “The Role of Social Support Systems in Adolescent Foreign Language Learning”, the main focus of which is on the role family, teachers and peers play in the academic success of adolescent FL learners. Research on social support, though not very extensive, unanimously demonstrates that social support influences learners’ resilience to the stress generated by FL learning situations. It contributes to the adolescent’s development of self-esteem, autonomy and building social competence among many other effects. The article overviews theoretical assumptions and selected studies on social support. Also Anna Bąk-Średnicka, in her text “Preservice teachers’ attitudes related to family involvement in light of their school placement experience”, focuses on social support issues in relation to partnership between teachers and parents. The author reports on an empirical study conducted among pre-service EFL teachers on the effects of their collaboration with parents of their learners and its visible effectiveness and impact on their learners’ success. The author stresses that despite the ministerial guidance for teacher training programmes, hardly any time is devoted to developing trainees’ awareness of this issue, thus more emphasis should be put on it in teacher training curricula. The main concern of the article by Małgorzata Szupica-Pyrzanowska and Katarzyna Malesa, entitled “Are they part of the equation? – foreign language teachers versus language attrition. A diagnostic study”, touches upon the problem of language competence deterioration in the case of foreign language teachers. The pilot study carried out in a group of M.A. students working as primary school EFL teachers revealed the plethora of factors contributing to the stagnation and even regression in their language competences. The authors, aware of the pilot nature of their study, suggest ways of researching the issue more thoroughly. The next article by Ewa Cieślicka and Arkadiusz Rojczyk, “Self-reported vs. self-rated pronunciation in a non-native language”, also focuses on non-native FL competence and more precisely on a non-native accent. In their empirical study, the authors observed that there were no visible differences between the way advanced students of English assessed their accent in English in general and, later on, how they rated it on the basis of their own recorded performance. The authors conclude that one’s self-image as expressed by the subjects of the study is a fairly stable characteristic. Konrad Szcześniak, in his article “Benefits of L1-L3 Similarities. The Case of the Dative Case”, discusses the influence of structural similarities between the Polish (L1) of a speaker and Portuguese (his/her L3). The author observes that the students are aware of similarities between L1 Polish and L3 Portuguese dative constructions and indeed positive transfer does occur in their performance. At the same time, it is not as frequent and widespread as might have been expected due to existing similarities in the dative case constructions of these two languages. The author discusses the reasons of this phenomenon.

(read more in the Preface)

[...] The present issue consists of articles in various areas of second/third language acquisition, but has a strong focus on foreign language instruction and materials used for this purpose in a variety of contexts and for different age groups. The issue starts with a presentation of a  fairly new context of foreign language teaching – a professional environment -  in the text by Dorota Lipińska “The Influence of Age and L2 on Third Language Acquisition in a Corporate Environment”. It focuses mainly on two important variables, of age and the influence of a formerly acquired foreign language on the current learning practices of adult learners who are professionally active. Katarzyna Bańka in the article “An Analysis of the Higher Education Systems of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Poland and China” presents a comparison of educational practices in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (ChFL) in China and in a non-native context of Poland. The author puts forward some ideas to improve ChFL instruction. Elżbieta Gajek looks at more innovative language sources in her article “ICT as Material Culture in CALL”, which treats information and communication technologies (ICT) as representing digital culture artefacts, a significant part of material culture. The author demonstrates their role in teaching foreign languages and aims to find relations between language teachers’ access to digital devices, their perceptions of the usefulness of ICT in foreign language learning and teaching, and the actual use of digital materials in their own language teaching, and beyond the classroom for non-professional uses. The next text introduces the theme of authentic and non-authentic foreign language teaching materials as Salama Embark Shihiba in “Some Libya EFL University Students’ Attitudes towards Using Authentic Materials for Reading Classes” investigates the attitudes of Libyan English foreign language (EFL) university students towards authentic materials used in FL instruction. The author believes that authentic materials not only present an invaluable source as language input, but first and foremost constitute a strong motivator for learners in their endeavour to become fluent FL users. An interesting and infrequently researched issue of teachers´ foreign language attrition is presented in the text by Teresa Maria  Włosowicz “English Language Attrition in Teachers: Questions of Language Proficiency, Language Maintenance and Language Attitudes.” The author discusses the occurrence of foreign language attrition in non-native English language teachers and presents the results of an empirical study of its manifestation at the level of advanced vocabulary and structures. It also comments on the participants’ attitudes to linguistic correctness and their autonomous strategies of language maintenance. Finally, Maria Stec’s article “Multimodality of Cultural Content in ELT Materials for Young Learners” deals with English non-authentic didactic materials but this time from the perspective of their value as cultural artefacts that can be used successfully in early language education. She identifies the most important aspects related to teaching elements of English culture as represented in English coursebooks for young learners. [...]

(read more in the Preface)

[...] The present issue consists of articles in various areas of SLA and also research in multilingualism, supplemented with two papers strictly related to aspects of foreign language teaching. In the incessant quest for recognition of the true role of motivation in foreign language learning, Mirosław Pawlak offers another interesting perspective, viewing the motivational system as encompassing a vital component of integrativeness, which is analyzed relative to three dimensions: an ideal self, an ought-to self, and L2 learning experiences. This intriguing insight, which results from a qualitative study, reveals a number of additional factors which take part in the shaping of motivational background. Ingrid Bello-Rodzeń recognizes the role of new technologies and the development of the blogosphere as increasingly important factors in promoting and shaping multilingualism, not just in the bloggers themselves, but in their children, whose multilingual development often becomes the main theme of their narratives. The theme of modern technologies used in communication is also addressed in the paper by Anna Turula, who focuses on the application of IT devices to the teaching of a foreign language. As the text reveals, a new realm of opportunities, but also problems, emerges at the meeting point between the digital and the real worlds. In a world of massive migrations, problems encountered by migrant children deserve special attention. One such problem is selective mutism, which affects a much bigger proportion of immigrant children than was initially assumed. The longitudinal case study by Lindsey R. Leacox, Margarita Meza, and Tammy Gregersen demonstrates the positive outcomes of pet-assisted therapy, against the background of music therapy and laughter therapy, offering some interesting implications and conclusions. In the context of changing views on the significance of the native-speaker as a language model, influenced by English as a lingua franca methodology, the study by Aleksandra Szymańska-Tworek confronts the recent methodological trends with the opinions of pre-service teachers of English. It turns out that while they are ready to embrace multicultural diversity, they are quite reluctant to accept too much linguistic variability in the teaching materials. We can never predict exactly where our second language skills are going to prove useful. Sometimes a unique ability or proficiency in a rarely practiced genre can boost our value as a much sought-after employee. Several interesting hints on how to develop the uncommon skill of composing obituaries in English are offered by Grzegorz Cebrat, who decided to translate the results of his indepth discourse analytic study into a practical teaching procedure. [...]
(read more in the "Preface")

The present issue consists of articles in various areas of SLA and also research in multilingualism. The thematic spread starts with the text related to the sociolinguistic variable of age: "The Age Factor in the Foreign Language Class: What Do Learners Think?" by Simone E. Pfenninger and David Singleton, followed by a study of non-native speaker e-mail communication (Jan Pikhart) and another paper addressing a sociolinguistic variable: "Do Girls Have All the Fun? Anxiety and Enjoyment in the Foreign Language Classroom by Jean-Marc Dewaele et al. The second group of articles begins with the text addressing the issues of multilingualism: "Multilingual Processing Phenomena in Learners of Portuguese as a Third or Additional Language" by Teresa M. Włosowicz, followed by a study of code-switching practices among immigrants in the UK by Katarzyna Ożańska-Ponikwia. The final paper by Beata Grymska represents a more theoretically-oriented perspective delving into the theoretical conceptualizations of language aptitude.

The present inaugural issue consists of articles in various areas of SLA and also research in multilingualism. The thematic spread of this issue ranges from the texts relating purely to linguistic aspects of second language acquisition/learning in different contexts and at different levels to issues of the identity of those involved in the process of foreign language learning, teachers and learners. Jolanta Latkowska reconsiders the validity of linguistic relativity proposal as a reference frame for modern research (How relevant is the Sapir-Whorf -Hypothesis to contemporary psycholinguistic research?), while Larisa Aronin and Vasilis Politis propose to view the concept of multilingualism from a philosophical perspective (Multilingualism as an edge). The construct of language self is applied in the study by Dorota Owczarek (Advanced FL students’ self-perception of their language identity), which signals a theme developed in the final paper by Tammy Gregersen (Aligning Who I Am with What I Do: Pursuing Language Teacher Authenticity), who characterizes language teacher identity and authenticity from both philosophical and pedagogical perspective. Two papers focusing on syntactic issues present the problem from the point of view of language learners (Xinyue Cécilia Yu - The acquisition at the interface of ditransitive constructions in Mandarin Chinese by French adult learners) and the teachers (Arzu Ünel, Meryem Mirioğlu – Syntactical Modifications in Teacher Talk of Native and non-Native Speakers in EFL Classrooms). Last but not least, Priya Ananth and Masaaki Kamiya demonstrate language-specific idiosyncrasies pertaining to the sensitivity of prosodic cues in disambiguating sentences (Effect of Prosody on Disambiguation: A Case of Universal Quantifier and Negation). As can be seen, the scope of the topics raised by the authors and the application of both theoretical and practical perspective harmonize very well with the title of our new journal.