Multilingualism, as a pervasive phenomenon in the world, is believed to influence language learning process and assist language learners to effectively learn additional language(s). This phenomenon may also exert some effects on the level of affective factors experienced by learners while performing language-related activities. The importance of multilingualism may become more prominent in multilingual societies such as Iran. Accordingly, considering the vital role previous linguistic experience may play in learning additional languages, the current work aimed at investigating the possible effect of multilingualism on reading anxiety of Iranian EFL learners. This book includes five chapters which present an introduction to the work, review of the related literature, method of the study, results and discussion, and conclusions and implications. The findings of the work are further discussed in relation to effective EFL instruction especially to multilinguals.

This research examines the possible effects of bilinguality on additional language proficiency, and the academic achievements of Iranian EFL learners. The study is a longitudinal survey of 98 students in the English Language Department, Urmia University, in Azerbaijan, Iran, over a period of two academic years. It compares, in three phases of data collection, 56 Turkish-Persian bilinguals with 42 Persian monolinguals, in terms of their performances on the FCE language proficiency tests, i.e., speaking proficiency, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing proficiency. The two groups were also compared, with regard to their academic achievements, based on their recorded grades at every stage of the study. Analyses of the data submitted to a series of independent t-tests indicated that bilinguals performed significantly better than monolinguals in all measures of language proficiency (except for the writing skill), and attained higher levels of academic achievement. The findings, therefore, appear to provide support for the argument that bilinguality is a good predictor of success in learning additional languages - in this case, English.