[...] 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)