This book offers several insights into cross-cultural and multilingual learning, drawing upon recent research within two main areas: Language Studies and Multilingual Language Learning/Teaching. It places particular emphasis on the Polish learning environment and Poles abroad. Today's world is an increasingly complex network of cross-cultural and multilingual influences, forcing us to redefine our Selves to include a much broader perspective than ever before. The first part of the book explores attitudes toward multiculturalism in British political speeches, joking behaviour in multicultural working settings, culture-dependent aspects of taboos and swearing, and expressive language of the imprisoned, adding a diachronic perspective by means of a linguistic study of The Canterbury Tales. In turn, the studies in the second part focus on visible shifts in contemporary multilingualism research, learners' attitudes towards multiple languages they acquire, teachers' perspectives on the changing requirements related to multiculturalism, and immigrant brokers' professional experience in the UK.

This book introduces readers to the principles of a fairly new branch of psychology - positive psychology - and demonstrates how they can be applied in the context of second language acquisition in a natural environment and in instructed foreign language (FL) learning. It focuses both on the well-being and success of the learner and the professional and personal well-being of the teacher. Further, the book stresses the importance of the positive emotions and character strengths of those involved in the process of language learning and teaching, as well as the significant role played by enabling institutions such as school and, at the micro-level, individual FL classes.

Affectivity is at the core of everything we do in life. Thus, its development is also central to learning/acquisition and is important for educational contexts. The studies presented in this volume consider the different contexts of language learning and examine different types of participants in this process. Most of them look at a formal instruction context, while others look beyond the classroom and even report on the author's own affectivity and its involvement in learning experiences. Affectivity is discussed here in relation to learners but also to teachers in their own professional contexts of teaching foreign languages. In the majority of cases, affectivity is explored in the case of bilinguals, but there are also articles which focus on multilingual language users and their affectivity as an evolving factor.

This book presents a selection of empirical papers dealing with second and multiple language acquisition, in which qualitative research methodology is employed. Each of the studies reported in individual chapters is based on a solid theoretical background and an overview of studies in a given area. Although the main focus is on qualitative methods, some of the papers demonstrate the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative approaches in studying language acquisition.

This volume depicts the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influences in the specific context of multilingual language acquisition. It consists of articles on various issues relating to the syntactic and lexical development of foreign language learners from different L1 backgrounds, in many cases involving languages which are typologically distant from English, such as Russian, Croatian, Greek and Portuguese. Individual chapters highlight different areas expected to be especially transfer-prone at the level of grammatical and lexical transfer in particular contexts of language contact.

The book presents most recent investigations into foreign language teaching and learning discussed by prominent scholars in the field. A wide variety of topics ranges from theoretical approaches to foreign language instruction to a discussion of findings of empirical research in language learning and pedagogy. The theoretical part of the volume tackles issues which constitute the backbone to the understanding of the processes involved in language development, learning and teaching and thus contribute to applied research. The empirical articles in Parts Two and Three of the volume report on studies focusing on such important issues as various dimensions of awareness (language, cross-cultural competence or affectivity) and specific methodologies implemented in different educational settings (such as, for instance, dyslexic learners) or in teacher training programmes.

People are increasingly reaching the so-called third age, a period when seniors search for a renewed purpose to life and spend time undertaking activities that they consider motivating, such as the learning of a foreign language. The study of language learning among aging populations has become a fast-growing area of research and this book is one of the first attempts to bring together what we know about this age group and their profiles as foreign language learners. Contributors to the volume discuss the issue from various psychological, neurological and pedagogical perspectives. Each of the chapters provides an updated theoretical background and offers some initial conclusions on the basis of original empirical studies carried out. Chapters challenge certain familiar preconceptions and assumptions about senior learners, offer the reader ideas for future research in this under-studied area and provide some practical advice for applying the proposals and solutions offered in real foreign language third-age classrooms.

This book offers several insights into cross-cultural and multilingual learning, drawing upon recent research within two main areas: Language Studies and Multilingual Language Learning/Teaching. It places particular emphasis on the Polish learning environment and Poles abroad. Today's world is an increasingly complex network of cross-cultural and multilingual influences, forcing us to redefine our Selves to include a much broader perspective than ever before. The first part of the book explores attitudes toward multiculturalism in British political speeches, joking behaviour in multicultural working settings, culture-dependent aspects of taboos and swearing, and expressive language of the imprisoned, adding a diachronic perspective by means of a linguistic study of The Canterbury Tales. In turn, the studies in the second part focus on visible shifts in contemporary multilingualism research, learners' attitudes towards multiple languages they acquire, teachers' perspectives on the changing requirements related to multiculturalism, and immigrant brokers' professional experience in the UK.

This book introduces readers to the principles of a fairly new branch of psychology - positive psychology - and demonstrates how they can be applied in the context of second language acquisition in a natural environment and in instructed foreign language (FL) learning. It focuses both on the well-being and success of the learner and the professional and personal well-being of the teacher. Further, the book stresses the importance of the positive emotions and character strengths of those involved in the process of language learning and teaching, as well as the significant role played by enabling institutions such as school and, at the micro-level, individual FL classes.

The book presents most recent investigations into foreign language teaching and learning discussed by prominent scholars in the field. A wide variety of topics ranges from theoretical approaches to foreign language instruction to a discussion of findings of empirical research in language learning and pedagogy. The theoretical part of the volume tackles issues which constitute the backbone to the understanding of the processes involved in language development, learning and teaching and thus contribute to applied research. The empirical articles in Parts Two and Three of the volume report on studies focusing on such important issues as various dimensions of awareness (language, cross-cultural competence or affectivity) and specific methodologies implemented in different educational settings (such as, for instance, dyslexic learners) or in teacher training programmes.