Title page and the list of contents of the issue.

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 paper analyzes beliefs about the age factor of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different starting ages (early vs. late starters), in different grades (in Year 7 at the beginning and in Year 12 at the end of secondary school), and with different levels of EFL proficiency (high achievers vs. low achievers). The sample for the study was drawn from a larger sample of 200 secondary school students who were part of a longitudinal study, undertaken in Switzerland between 2008 and 2015. From this sample we selected 10 early starting high-achievers, 10 early starting low-achievers, 10 late starting high-achievers, and 10 late starting low-achievers. A qualitative analysis of language experience essays written at the beginning and at the end of secondary school revealed that learners with different starting ages, in different grades, and with different levels of proficiency displayed different beliefs about the age factor.  The overall lack of age effect on FL achievement found in our previous studies may be explicable in terms of a number of affective factors (e.g. disengagement of the early starters due to language practices of the classroom) and contextual factors (e.g. transition from English in primary to English in secondary).

The author has investigated a corpus of informal email messages produced by post intermediate Czech learners of English. The method of analysis draws upon Biber & Conrad (2009) employing primarily a qualitative analysis as part of the author´s dissertation. First of all, the paper touches upon such descriptive terms as style, register and genre. Secondly, the paper presents the results of an analysis of genre features including deviations. In the concluding part, the article outlines implications for practice.

The present study focuses on gender differences in Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) among 1746 FL learners (1287 females, 449 males) from around the world. We used 21 items Likert scale ratings reflecting various aspects of FLE (AUTHORS), and 8 items extracted from the FLCAS (Horwitz et al., 1986).  An open question on FLE also provided us with narrative data.  Previous research on the database, relying on an average measure of FLE and FLCA (AUTHORS) revealed significant gender differences.  The present study looks at gender differences in FLE and FLCA at item level.

Independent t-tests revealed that female participants reported having significantly more fun in the FL class where they felt that they were learning interesting things, and they were prouder than male peers of their FL performance.  However, female participants also experienced significantly more (mild) FLCA: they worried significantly more than male peers about their mistakes and were less confident in using the FL. Our female participants thus reported experiencing both more positive and more mild negative emotions in the FL classroom.  We argue that this heightened emotionality benefits the acquisition and use of the FL.

The purpose of the study has been an analysis of Polish students’ cued translation of Polish (L1) and English or French (L2) sentences into Portuguese (third or additional language in De Angelis’s (2007) terminology). In particular, the study investigates cross-linguistic interaction (Herdina and Jessner’s (2002) term) in multilingual processing involved in L3 production. In fact, translation constitutes a special case of production because, on the one hand, the content is already contained in the L1 or L2 source sentences, but at the same time, this is not necessarily a facilitation, as the cues may require the use of words or structures the participants might not use in free production.

The present paper aims to present a qualitative study on code-switching practices among L2 users immersed in the L2 culture. Code-switching practices were measured among 62 Polish L2 users of English who had immigrated to the UK and Ireland and reported using English on everyday basis. The informants of the study were to answer an open question concerning situations in which they switch from their L2 to L1 most frequently. The analysis of the results reviled that the participants reported code switching mostly in emotionally charged situations as well as when discussing personal topics with known interlocutors.  The results of the study are in line with some quantitative studies (Dewaele, 2010) as well as some autobiographical findings (Grosjean, 2010, Pavlenko, 2004, Wierzbicka, 2004) and shed some more light on a complex notion of bilingualism and code-switching.

The chapter sheds light on new conceptualizations of foreign language aptitude by emphasizing the role of working memory (WM). It is organised into 3 sections. The first section presents a brief historical overview of the research on language aptitude based on John Carroll’s work. The second part elaborates on working memory construct discussing Baddeley’s multi-component model of WM and its functions.

The paper proposes incorporating working memory as a crucial component of language aptitude construct. In the light of the issue mentioned above, the third section of the article focuses on the newest and original empirical evidence which supports the role of WM in different aspects of L2 learning, i.e. reading, listening, speaking, writing and bilingual interpretation as well as vocabulary and grammar learning. Its concluding part reflects upon the relevance of language aptitude paving the way for future research.