ABSTRACT. This study explores how language choices and perceived cultural distance (PCD) shape international student adjustment. We conceptualize language as a social action that structures access to host cultural-knowledge and hypothesize that PCD affects adjustment through its impact on communication patterns and language use. Using longitudinal data from 253 international students in a non-English-speaking country, we tested a mediation model and complemented it with Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA). PCD did not predict with whom students communicated, but strongly predicted how they communicated: higher PCD was associated with greater use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and reduced use of both the host language (HL) and mother tongues (MTs). Language use had asymmetric effects: HL use enhanced both sociocultural and psychological adjustment, MT use hindered these outcomes, and ELF use showed no significant direct effects. NCA indicated that perceived cultural similarity was a necessary condition for HL and MT use, and that sociocultural adjustment was necessary for psychological adjustment. Reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with 41 students elaborated these pathways: PCD shaped the perceived affordances of each language; HL use offered privileged access to host meanings and relationships; ELF sustained broad, mainly international networks; and MT-based networks buffered stress but, when overused, constrained engagement with Polish-speaking contexts. Accordingly, it is not only which languages students know, but how and when they deploy them, that determines whether intercultural contact supports adjustment.

ABSTRACT. This study examines multilingual longitudinal development in the context of heritage bilingualism, with a particular focus on the development patterns of L3 English among heritage bilingual students. The data were drawn from 301 heritage bilingual secondary school students of Russian-German and Turkish-German background who participated in three waves of a large-scale project on multilingual development. Analyses were conducted using latent growth curve modelling. The results indicated a statistically significant positive baseline level of L3 English, with slight variations across participants. However, the L3 English growth rate, although quite small, was found to be negative and did not vary considerably within the sample at hand. Furthermore, initial L3 English proficiency did not predict subsequent L3 English development across the waves. A theoretical model of L3 English development was subsequently fitted to the longitudinal data to examine a set of linguistic (e.g., heritage language and majority language proficiency) and non-linguistic (e.g., socio-economic background, cognitive ability) factors that might exert an impact on L3 outcomes. This model aimed to capture how these factors interact over time and whether they contribute to L3 English development. Overall, the results did not suggest a substantial bilingual advantage as neither positive growth trajectories nor positive growth rates were observed. It was concluded that this outcome may have to do with the impact of contextual factors, bilingual profiles and age of the participants, as well as how heritage languages are positioned and maintained across schools, communities, and family environments. These findings emphasised the significance of taking broader sociolinguistic and educational contexts into account when examining multilingual development.

ABSTRACT. Recent research emphasizes the importance of teacher plurilingual awareness in adopting reflective plurilingual approaches in language education (Jasor et al., 2024; Otwinowska, 2014). Particularly in linguistically super-diverse classrooms (Vertovec, 2007), teachers’ cultivation of a holistic understanding of language as a cognitive, affective, social, power-related, and performative phenomenon is crucial for the implementation of plurilingual practices supporting linguistically diverse learners (Turner & Tour, 2025). While professional development initiatives increasingly promote plurilingual approaches (Payant & Galante, 2022), relatively little attention has been paid to teachers’ beliefs, awareness, and declared practices prior to participation in such initiatives, especially in adult newcomer contexts. Understanding this pre-project phase is essential for designing responsive and sustainable professional learning opportunities. Drawing on semi-structured pre-project interviews with 16 FSL teachers working with adult newcomers, this qualitative study examines the relationships between teacher plurilingual awareness and pedagogical beliefs. Participants reflected on their linguistic trajectories, identities as plurilingual learners and teachers, and classroom practices in linguistically diverse settings. Interview data were transcribed and thematically analysed using MAXQDA, focusing on three interconnected dimensions: plurilingual awareness, teacher language awareness, and declared teaching practices. Preliminary findings indicate that most teachers demonstrate strong affective and social engagement with linguistic diversity, often grounded in personal language learning experiences and empathy toward learners, and generally recognize the pedagogical value of drawing on learners’ linguistic repertoires through crosslinguistic comparisons and informal mediation strategies. However, cognitive, power-related, and performance-oriented dimensions of plurilingual awareness remain unevenly developed and strongly dependent on teachers’ individual linguistic backgrounds, and declared practices tend to be intuitive and reactive rather than systematically planned. Overall, the findings reveal a gap between teachers’ positive beliefs and ability to implement sustained plurilingual pedagogies, underscoring the need for targeted professional development initiatives aimed at strengthening, valorizing, and mobilizing learners’ languages as resources for learning in adult FSL classrooms.

ABSTRACT. (Complete Abstract including the list of references uploaded)

In multilingual educational contexts, English is increasingly taught as a third or additional language (L3+), yet classroom practices often remain shaped by monolingual norms (Aronin, 2022; May, 2014). Although translanguaging has been widely promoted as a pedagogical approach for multilingual learners (Cenoz & Gorter, 2020; Fang et al., 2022; Wei & García, 2022), empirical research has largely focused on teachers’ beliefs rather than on how attitudes toward translanguaging evolve through classroom enactment, particularly in L3 English instruction. Recent work has further highlighted the potential of pedagogical translanguaging to enhance both linguistic and academic achievement while mitigating educational inequalities, especially in multilingual contexts where English functions alongside other societal and instructional languages (Cenoz & Gorter, 2025).

Addressing this gap, the present paper reports on an ongoing qualitative intervention study examining how pre-service and in-service teachers’ attitudes toward translanguaging develop before, during, and following classroom enactment in L3 English classrooms. The study is guided by the following research question: How do pre-service and in-service teachers’ attitudes toward translanguaging change prior to, during, and through the enactment of translanguaging-oriented instruction in L3 English classrooms? The research is conducted in lower secondary school contexts (grades 6–9) in Norway, where learners typically draw on Norwegian, English, and additional home languages.

Data collection includes pre- and post-intervention interviews and systematic classroom observations. Analysis involves iterative qualitative coding and comparative analysis across phases of the intervention, tracing patterns of continuity and change in teachers’ expressed attitudes and instructional practices, with particular attention to how classroom enactment shapes and reshapes teachers’ attitudes and instructional decisions (Flick, 2022).

ABSTRACT. Research on gender and multilingual pragmatics is very scant (Safont, 2025). Gender is a critical variable in contemporary pragmatic research, reflecting the need to integrate social dimensions into linguistic analysis (Esfahlan & Boroumand, 2020; Safont, 2023; Salazar-Campillo, 2023; Okamoto, 2024). Existing studies on L2 requests predominantly report that females use more indirect strategies and modification devices than males to mitigate the threatening nature of this speech act. Nevertheless, the vast majority of this research has been conducted at higher education levels and has adopted a monolingual paradigm by analysing request production in individual languages, especially English. This study addresses this critical gap by investigating the influence of gender on primary school students’ pragmatic production of requests across multiple languages: Catalan, Spanish, and English. We specifically analyse the use of request strategies and modification devices. Seventy-two multilingual learners, aged 9-11, participated in a written multilingual pragmatic test. This instrument required the production of requests in social situations that involved different degrees of imposition, relative power and social distance. Findings from Mann-Whitney U-tests showed that females produced more appropriate requests in the three languages. Furthermore, females used a significantly higher number of conventionally indirect request strategies and external request modification devices in Catalan and English compared to males. The analysis also confirmed the existence of pragmatic transfer phenomena among the three languages analysed. The study concludes that gender patterns do exist in young learners’ pragmatic production, highlighting the necessity to further explore gender-related differences in students’ pragmatic production of requests by considering their whole language repertoire. This has direct implications for integrating explicit and gender-aware pragmatic instruction into multilingual education curricula.

ABSTRACT. Research on L2 requests comprehension has focused on the identification of specific forms and recognition of the intended pragmatic effect, but a deeper focus is needed to acknowledge the understanding of those politeness variables (i.e. P, D, R) that influence requestive behaviour (Saviç & Myrset, 2022). Hence, we may say that there has been a focus on the forms and functions of request strategies but not so much on the contextual variables underlying their use. In addition to that, recent literature (McConachy, 2018; Kesckes, 2022) reconsiders the native vs ESL speaker perspective in examining multilingual speakers’ pragmatics. In fact, existing studies adopting a multilingual perspective in the analysis of multilingual learners (Safont, 2013; Safont and Portolés, 2016) show how all pragmatic systems interact and they also point to the role of attitudes in requests production (Safont, 2022). Yet, more studies are needed to confirm these findings.

In an attempt to meet the above quoted gap, the present study adopts a sociopragmatic and multilingual focus in analysing the extent to which multilingual learners of English are aware of the sociopragmatic variables underlying appropriate requestive behaviour. In doing so, a particular focus on the relationship between language attitudes and multilingual pragmatic awareness is established. Participants include 60 adolescent learners of English as an L3 from a multilingual sociolinguistic setting in which Catalan, Spanish and English coexist. They took part in a discourse evaluation task and a semi-structured interview in which they assessed the appropriateness of specific request forms by focusing on contextual variables and they commented on their preferred languages and their uses. Results show that multilingualism may be a good predictor of pragmatic awareness. They also indicate a clear role for language attitudes as far as specific politeness variables are concerned.

ABSTRACT. The acquisition of German as a third language (L3) is strongly shaped by learners’ prior English (L2) knowledge. Due to typological proximity, cross-linguistic influence (CLI) emerges prominently in early stages. This study examines CLI as a dynamic component of L3 development rather than a deficiency. It addresses three research questions: (1) whether language-awareness-based instruction influences early L3 vocabulary development; (2) how it affects the nature of CLI in production; and (3) what qualitative changes occur in learning behavior. The study involved a six-month intervention with Chinese university students (EG, n=15; CG, n=12) who have firmly established L2 English knowledge and are beginner L3 German learners. The EG received explicit instruction in L3 strategies, while the CG followed a moretraditional, L2-oriented instructional approach. Quantitative data from pre- and post-tests were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests in SPSS. Qualitative content analysis was applied to learner associative paths to identify lexical organization patterns. The results indicate that learners in the EG tended to demonstrate greater lexical expansion, particularly in tasks requiring active vocabulary retrieval and associative processing. Meanwhile, these learners produced a higher number of cross-linguistic interference errors in the early phases of learning. Rather than indicating regression, these errors functioned as transitional phenomena associated with hypothesis testing and strategic engagement with the target language. Over time, both the frequency and nature of interference changed, suggesting increasing selectivity in the use of cross-linguistic resources. From a pedagogical perspective, the findings challenge strictly norm-oriented approaches to error treatment. Instead, they highlight the potential value of instructional practices that encourage learners to reflect on cross-linguistic relationships and to actively manage their multilingual resources, thereby supporting more sustainable learning processes in German instruction after English.

ABSTRACT. Lexical access in third language (L3) learning refers to the retrieval of words from the mental lexicon during spoken or visual word recognition. The main objective of the present study was to investigate crosslinguistic influence (CLI) in lexical access in English as L3 in native speakers of Spanish as L1, who are also speakers of Brazilian Portuguese as L2 and are learning English as part of the school curriculum in Brazil. Specifically, this study examined whether visual word recognition in multilingual speakers of Spanish as L1, Brazilian Portuguese as L2 and English as L3 reflects cognate effects and whether there are differences in the processing of triple cognate words (Spanish – Brazilian Portuguese – English) as compared to double cognate words (Spanish – English or Brazilian Portuguese – English) and non-cognate words. The final sample consisted of 33 adolescents attending high school in the Brazilian public educational system. Participants were required to answer a Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (the LEAP-Q) and to perform three tasks: (1) An English proficiency task, (2) A self-paced reading task, (3) A meaning recognition task. The data was analysed in R by means of a multiple mixed-effects linear regression model to account for fixed and random effects. The results showed that there were no significant differences across conditions (B_0=6.53 and p = <0.001; B_1= -0.03, -0.03, 0.00, -0.01, 0.01 and p >0.05). The only fixed effect for which there was a statistical significance was length of word measured in number of letters (B_1= 0.3, [0.01 – 0.04], p = <0.001). These results are taken as an indication that the cognate facilitation effect is influenced by the recency, frequency and typology of words and by the environmental, linguistic and social experiences of multilingual speakers.

ABSTRACT. Multilinguals need to constantly choose between the labels corresponding to names in their first and second language. This effort is supported by cognitive control mechanisms which help to resolve interference caused by a constant co-activation of the two languages. However, it is unclear whether dealing with the cross-linguistic competition is modulated by the proximity between the competing languages.

In this study, we investigated whether language proximity alters the magnitude of language co-activation and language control in multilinguals. We tested three groups of multilinguals: one using languages of low proximity (Polish-Spanish, n=71) and two using languages of high proximity with the same script (Polish-Czech, n=41) and different scripts (Polish-Russian, n=71). Participants completed a series of linguistic tasks assessing language co-activation indices (cognate effect, homograph effect) and language control indices (L2 after-effect, switch costs, N-2 repetition costs).

For the language co-activation indices, we hypothesized that there should be more co-activation between languages of greater proximity. We based this assumption on previous research that associated greater cross-language overlap with facilitated language performance. Our results demonstrate that higher language proximity leads to increased language co-activation when operationalised as cognate facilitation effect.

For the language control indices, we hypothesize that using languages of high proximity engages more language control than using languages of low proximity. We argue that increased co-activation between languages of greater proximity should result in stronger between-language competition, which in turn should set greater demands on language control. The data from the language control tasks are currently at the stage of statistical analysis with the results available at the time of the conference.

Study hypotheses, design and data analysis have been preregistered and are available at OSF (https://osf.io/tsk8q).

ABSTRACT. A significant body of research has investigated how being multilingual advantages subsequent language acquisition, largely using offline measures (Hirosh & Degani, 2018). Though still understudied, some work has addressed multilingual effects on language processing, where some find advantages (Długosz et al., 2025; Długosz, 2023), and others disadvantages (Długosz, 2024), for processing speed. A separate area of research investigates the effect of acquiring an L3 on an L2 system, with much of the focus on (non-)facilitation resulting from regressive cross-linguistic influence (Cabrelli, 2023). Again, primarily judgement data has been collected (though see Olszewska & Długosz, 2025). This study unites these two research areas by investigating (dis)advantages stemming from multilingualism in judgement accuracy and processing speed in the L2 following L3 acquisition.

Four adult groups were recruited: L1 English (n=20), L1 German/L2 English (n=21), L1 Polish/L2 English (bilingual Polish; n=19), and L1 Polish/L2 English/L3 German (multilingual Polish; n=18). The non-L1 English groups were matched for English proficiency (low-mid intermediate). Participants completed a speeded two-alternative forced choice judgement task in which they saw a simple picture, heard a polar question about the picture, and indicated ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by keypress. Two conditions were employed: Negation (Positive, High Negation, Low Negation) and picture/question Match (Yes, No). Polar questions and negation were chosen because they are highly frequent in the input, yet accuracy and processing effects can still be found even among advanced learners (e.g., Park & Dubinsky, 2023).

Reaction time (RT) data was analyzed using linear mixed models, and judgement data using logistic mixed models. It was found that multilingualism benefited the multilingual Polish group in judgement responses compared to the bilingual Polish group, particularly for low negation, but there was no effect of group for RT. That is, the multilingual (dis)advantages found for L3 acquisition were only partially mirrored in the L2.

ABSTRACT. Previous research has found that bilingual speakers cannot simply deactivate one language while using another, resulting in co-activation of the first (L1) and second language (L2). For multilinguals, this process is even more complex, as multiple languages may influence the processing of an additional language (Lago et al., 2021). Such cross-language activation is often examined through cognates – translation equivalents that share form and meaning across languages (e.g., German-English Kaffee-coffee). Cognates are typically processed faster and more accurately than translation equivalents without such form overlap (i.e., noncognates; German-English Tasse-cup), with facilitation increasing as form overlap grows (Dijkstra et al., 2010). Despite robust evidence from bilinguals, it remains unexplored whether gradual effects emerge in a third language (L3). Therefore, this study investigated whether degree of form overlap affects word recognition in L2 vs. L3 learners. Forty-five adolescent low-intermediate L2/L3 learners of English (MAge=13.5; SDAge=0.6) completed an English visual lexical decision task containing cognates and noncognates with varying orthographic overlap. Participants were native speakers of German with either no additional (N=30) or a second native language (N=15). Beyond decision accuracies and RTs, pupillary responses were recorded as real-time index of cognitive effort during word recognition, with larger pupil dilations reflecting increased effort (Mathôt, 2018). Mixed-effects analyses yielded higher accuracies and faster RTs with increasing overlap in both groups. The interaction between group and overlap was descriptive in accuracy and marginal in RTs, with L2 learners showing stronger gradual facilitation than L3 learners. For pupillary responses, generalized additive mixed models revealed that greater form overlap reduced pupil dilation (reflecting lower cognitive demands), with a stronger effect in L2 learners. These findings indicate that group differences in facilitation emerge most clearly in more sensitive online measures and suggest that L1 German influence is attenuated in the L3 group, likely due to less German exposure.

ABSTRACT. Bilingual research shows a strong link between language exposure and proficiency; evidence on trilingualism is limited. Exposure is typically based on external factors (home, school) but comfort levels may also influence language choices. 25 children aged 8–12 in Montreal participated, exposed to Farsi (home), French (school), and English (classes/incidental). Parents reported cumulative exposure; children completed questionnaires on current exposure, a self-reported proficiency (SRP) and a comfort-level measure. Cumulative exposure was highest for Farsi (M = 23,537, SD = 6,685), followed by French (M = 13,474, SD = 6,376) and English (M = 7,580, SD = 5,015). Current exposure was highest for French (M = 43%, SD = 12), then Farsi (M = 34%, SD = 11) and English (M = 24%, SD = 10). SRP was high across languages (Farsi: M = 7.49; French: M = 7.33; English: M = 7.19). Comfort was higher in Farsi (M = 0.41) and English (M = 0.44) than French (M = 0.73). Regression analyses showed no relation between exposure and SRP in Farsi (cumulative: R² = .001, p = .86; current: R² < .001, p = .93) or French (cumulative: R² = .14, p = .065; current: R² = .08, p = .19). In contrast, cumulative exposure predicted SRP in English (R² = .22, p = .019), with a non-significant current exposure trend (R² = .14, p = .069). Adding comfort significantly predicted SRP in Farsi (R² = .27, p = .031) and French (R² = .49, p < .001); in English, cumulative exposure remained significant (R² = .28, p = .049), and both exposures predicted SRP (R² = .34, p = .015). The results may reveal the role of language-use context in shaping how trilingual children rate their SRP, as well as lower comfort in languages in evaluative and demanding settings.

ABSTRACT. This study was conducted via art-based research (ABR), with multimodal material serving as primary data. It examines multimodal ideology and practices at a Deaf school in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Research (Eisner 1997) reveals that an arts-based approach provides deeper understanding of non-verbal voice, learning, and interaction. This archival research examines the multimodal, multilingual, and creative pedagogy. NSD has closed (1964-2010) but research findings are relevant, for they have implications for Deaf children currently educated in inclusive education. NSD created its own curriculum based on learners' needs. Deaf children regularly used ASL (American Sign Language), Signed English, written English, spoken English, as well additional forms of linguistic and artistic expression (e.g., fingerspelling, non-verbal expression, performance-based learning). Data, collected from provincial and university archives, and members of local Deaf and hearing communities, who provided consultive insight, were analyzed via an arts-based framework. Categorizing data into a) visual data, b) language-related data, and c) performance-based data helped identify multilingual practices. Also analyzed were NSD policy, curricula, and material artifacts, including students' short stories, poetry, theatre scripts, academic work, school newsletters, photographs, yearbooks, posters, collages, and individual and collaborative artwork. The data and analysis revealed that NSD took a holistic approach to language that benefited students in four main areas: 1) identity formation, 2) cognitive and skill development 3) communicative practices, and 4) emotional wellbeing and social cohesion. Such practices can also support both Deaf and hearing children today, for support of multilingualism contributes not only to effective communication but fosters a diverse and healthy environment where Deaf and hearing people coexist.

References Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational Researcher, 26(6), 4–10.

ABSTRACT. Globally, multilingualism has become a subject of interest in academic, social and political spheres. In addition, there is consensus among academics as well as politicians regarding the transformation of the linguistic landscape across the world. The common consent is based on the fact that multilingualism has become a norm. Research has shown that most countries that have been promoting a monolingual ideology have accepted the multilingual state of affairs in most communities and effort is being made to promote multilingualism. The study is situated in a class where students have been introduced to two indigenous languages i.e Setswana and South African Sign Language as a way of promoting multilingualism among medical students. The students in this research were introduced to learning the two languages in order to prepare them for their encounter with patients in hospitals who speak Setswana or South Africa Sign Language. The study was qualitative, therefore, for data collection, focus group discussion were conducted with four medical students who took the two modules during their first year at a selected South African university. The results show that languages cannot be separated as standalone entities that should be considered individually. In fact, multilingual student use languages as a source of funds to use for both communicative purposes as well as for academic purposes. Furthermore, the results suggest that multilingual pedagogy can be innovated by lecturers in their respective classrooms to assist students to understand content material. Besides, students use their already existing language practices for them to acquire the target languages. This is a remarkable quality of multilingualism where students can tap into their existing language practices to enhance their learning.

* Setswana is a South African Indigenous language

ABSTRACT. This study investigates the methodological complexities and possibilities involved in researching the translingual writing practices of emergent multilingual children—Russian-speaking ethnic Koreans (Koryoin)—in South Korea. Based on a four-month qualitative case study with three focal participants, the research traces Koryoin children’s multilingual literacy experiences across multiple contexts, including school, home, community, and a purposefully designed afterschool translingual writing program. The collection and analysis of data in three languages—English, Korean, and Russian—required close attention to issues of translation, interpretation, and the cultural meanings embedded in each setting. Throughout the research process, ethical concerns and power relations also became salient, particularly in relation to how participants’ voices were represented and whose linguistic practices were legitimized. Although the participants actively engaged multiple languages during their writing processes, these multilingual practices were rarely visible in their final written products due to prevailing institutional language norms. This gap between process and product highlights the limitations of outcome-focused research approaches when studying translingual literacy. The findings underscore the importance of adopting flexible and context-sensitive methodological frameworks that are responsive to the linguistic realities of migration societies. By foregrounding multilingual processes rather than solely textual outcomes, this study contributes to ongoing discussions in multilingual qualitative research and offers practical methodological strategies for enhancing both the ethical integrity and analytical rigor of research with emergent multilingual populations.

ABSTRACT. This study investigated L2 implementation of English phonotactics during perception, specifically regarding onset consonant clusters in English learners from L1 Spanish or Mandarin. The two groups of L2 English learners and a native English control group rated nonce words on a scale of one to five based on their possibility as an English word. The nonce words began with a voiceless fricative followed by a liquid or voiceless stop. Three independent variables were considered: (1) the rater’s L1; (2) the cluster’s presence in English; and (3) the cluster’s adherence to the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), which posits the ideal syllable to have an onset rise in sonority. Mandarin does not allow any clusters, Spanish only allows onset clusters that follow the SSP, and English has onset clusters that follow (e.g., /fl/) and violate the SSP (e.g., /st/). All L1 groups had the same ratings: the English clusters and the non-English clusters that obey the SSP were rated equally possible as English words. Crucially, all participants judged the nonce words beginning with a non-English cluster that violates the SSP (e.g., /ft/) as being impossible as an English word. A cluster’s SSP adherence only mattered for the non-English clusters. There were no significant differences between the L1 Spanish and L1 Mandarin learners. The English controls, as expected, were more confident in their implementation of English phonotactics. The L2 English learners successfully employed L2 phonotactic intuitions when available, as with English clusters. In the absence of L2 knowledge, as with the non-English clusters, they relied on SSP-based predictions, judging SSP-obeying clusters as possible and SSP-violating clusters as impossible English constructions. These results indicate that all participants, regardless of L1, used both English-specific phonotactics and SSP-based markedness during perception, though they only resorted to the SSP when direct L2 phonotactic knowledge was unavailable.

ABSTRACT. The goal of this study was to examine whether L3 Spanish words are able to access their conceptual representations through learners’ previously acquired languages at different L3 proficiency levels. In order to do so, a crosslanguage repetition priming task, consisting of an encoding phase and a test phase, was administered. During the encoding phase, eighty-eight (88) adult Tagalog-English bilinguals were asked to perform an animacy decision task (ADT) using L3 words. The cues from the encoding phase were translated to either Tagalog or English to serve as the stimuli in the test phase. Participants in this phase were randomly assigned to one of their previously acquired languages and were asked to perform a lexical decision task (LDT) in that language. Both phases were administered online using PsychoPy via Pavlovia.

We analyzed the participants’ reaction times and accuracy rates in relation to their L3 proficiency, the language used in the LDT, and condition (learned vs not learned) using a linear mixed effects model and a mixed effects binomial logistic regression model, respectively. Contrary to previous L3 studies (Chen, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2024), no crosslanguage repetition priming effects were found related to proficiency level or condition variable. Only one significant effect was found in the Tagalog LDT group, in which participants responded more slowly than those in the English LDT group. However, our results reflect findings in bilingual processing studies where no priming effects are found in the L2-to-L1 direction (Jiang, 2023). We interpret our findings in light of the Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus (BIA+) Model (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002) and the Parasitic Model (Hall & Ecke, 2003).

ABSTRACT. How do children negotiate between three or more languages while seeking asylum? This paper explores the language policies and linguistic landscape of asylum seekers in transit in Bangkok, Thailand. Unable to permanently resettle in Thailand, families send their young learners into Thai school while seeking permission to resettle predominately in English-speaking countries (Broadhead, 2012; Lee, 2011; Jittiang, 2021). In this context, they must learn and negotiate between their heritage languages, English, Thai, and a plethora of other relevant languages (i.e. Mandarin, Arabic, other regional languages) to construct meaning as their country of long-term residence remains uncertain (de Brujin, 2009). Via colouring task-based interviews with children, semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers, and a linguistic landscape of the spaces that students navigate, namely community, school, and the places in between, this study uncovers how students navigate external influences and form a language policy for themselves. Interviews with 28 children and 21 parents from Afghanistan, Somalia, and Vietnam, discussions with 12 of their educators in three separate schools, and linguistic landscaping of 9 different zones are the basis of this investigation. Findings add nuance to discussions of multilingualism, question previously held notions on heritage language maintenance, and open the black box of learning in transit. Grounded in Bonacina Pugh’s (2024) Language Policy as Practice, Spolsky (2004)’s understanding of language policy as community-based and practice-dependent, and Fishman (1972)’s understanding of language policy as specific to participant, location, and topic, this work refreshes the field via collaboration with underrepresented communities. A new method branching from the language portrait method advances the methodological innovations of scholars such as Yoshida and Nichols (2022) and Soares et al. (2020) to construct novel practices for examining language policy. Ultimately, this paper furthers the visual turn in linguistics and provides insights into more inclusive and cooperative multilingual research.

ABSTRACT. Research in the domain of bilingualism and cross-linguistic influence has extensively examined how bilinguals manage their linguistic repertoire and retrieve lexical items (Green, 1998; Dijkstra et al., 2019). However, no single framework fully captures the complexity of multilingual language processing (see De Bot 2024; Kroll et al., 2013) and the interaction of variables such as proficiency, language context, and cross-linguistic similarity (Bailey et al., 2024). One well-established method for investigating cross-linguistic influence is using cognates – lexical items that share form and meaning across languages – which are typically processed faster and more accurately than noncognates, a phenomenon known as the cognate facilitation effect (CFE; Otwinowska, 2024). Complementary insights are provided by language-switching paradigms, which show that switching costs are modulated by proficiency and contextual constraints, with restrictive contexts potentially impairing language production (Broersma et al., 2016). The present study integrates these approaches in a forced-switching picture naming task to examine cross-linguistic similarity effects in a dynamic language environment. Twenty-one Afrikaans–English bilinguals with Dutch as a third language (L3) completed an Afrikaans–English switching task involving cognate and noncognate items. Testing took place in the Netherlands, resulting in variable Dutch proficiency across participants. It was expected that participants would show a robust CFE and increased costs on switch compared to non-switch trials. Preliminary results revealed a CFE in reaction times modulated by relative language proficiency. Higher self-rated L1 proficiency was associated with slower naming overall, whereas higher L2 proficiency facilitated faster responses. Error analyses showed that most errors occurred when switching into the dominant L1, with 66% of all errors produced in L1 contexts. These findings suggest interference rather than facilitation during Afrikaans naming, plausibly due to overlap with Dutch L3 knowledge (Gooskens & van Bezooijen). Ongoing data collection with Afrikaans–English bilinguals without Dutch proficiency will further test this interpretation.

ABSTRACT. Recent trends of globalisation and migration have resulted in multilingualism becoming increasingly common in Europe, and migrant languages jostle for space among majority languages, taught languages in schools and minority languages in education. Pre-service teachers (PSTs) feel underprepared for the linguistic diversity they face in the classroom (Robinson-Jones et al., 2022). Engaging PSTs with their own multilingual identities can help them connect with their pupils’ multilingualism. Dominant language constellations (DLC) is a model of multilingualism which focuses on the core of the lingusitic repertoire, allowing teachers to engage more effectively with their pupils’ multilingualism, rather than limiting their language use to the majority language or focusing on the entire lingusitic repertoire (Aronin, 2006, 2021; Ibrahim, 2022). Our research question is: How can PSTs’ engage with their multilingual identities using the DLC framework? The goal of this study was to creatively engage teachers with their own multilingual identities while also providing them with a multilingual activity that can be used in the classroom. 40 PSTs studying in the north of the Netherlands created a DLC artwork and answered a survey on their language use and cognitions of multilingualism, and 20 PSTs participated in an interview where they described their artwork, its meaning and their language identity. The results of the three methods were triangulated in order to create a clear overview of the participants’ multilingual identities and cognitions. All the participants identified as multilingual, with at least two languages. Early analysis shows that PSTs approached their DLC creation in diverse ways, from typical cultural representations such as flags to abstract creations. The DLC artworks and interviews will be analysed thematically. We expect to find complex multilingual identities and cognitions of personal multilingualism in the DLCs, with a positive relationship between complex artworks and a stronger multilingual identity.

ABSTRACT. Primary-school children increasingly begin learning English as a foreign language (EFL) at early ages (e.g., from Grade 1 in Finland), alongside formal literacy instruction. Cross-linguistic form overlap may support EFL word processing: cognates sharing phonological and orthographic form across languages (e.g., music–musiikki) are often processed faster than noncognates, yielding a cognate facilitation effect (CFE). However, it remains unclear whether metalinguistic awareness modulates cognate processing (Koşkulu-Sancar et al., 2025; Otwinowska et al., 2020). We tested whether phonological awareness, one aspect of metalinguistic awareness, modulates CFE during sentence reading. Seventy-one Finnish-speaking 10–11-year-old children (42 girls) read English sentences containing English–Finnish cognates and matched noncognates embedded in identical contexts while their eye movements were recorded. We analyzed reading times for the target word (first fixation duration, gaze duration, go-past time, total fixation time). Phonological awareness was assessed using rhyme, word, syllable, and phoneme-level tasks and modeled both as subskills and as a composite score (Adams, 1990; Gillon, 2017; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Sentence-level total reading time was included as a continuous index of reading fluency (Bosma & Nota, 2020). We employed linear mixed-effects models to test (i) CFE (cognate vs. noncognate), (ii) CFE moderation by phonological awareness, and (iii) CFE moderation by reading fluency, controlling for age, SES, cognitive ability, and gender. Noncognates elicited longer reading times than cognates across all measures, indicating a robust CFE. Phonological awareness was not associated with CFE: neither the composite score nor any subskill significantly interacted with cognate status. Reading fluency moderated CFE at later stages of lexical processing (go-past time and total fixation time): as sentence reading time increased (lower fluency), CFE became more pronounced. These findings suggest that, at this stage of EFL literacy development, online CFE is robust and is closely tied to momentary reading fluency but not to phonological awareness.

ABSTRACT. There is substantial evidence from neurolinguistic research that managing multiple languages results in both structural as well as functional changes in the brain (Mechelli et al. 2004; Pliatsikas 2019). Current research findings show a partial neural overlap of brain areas implicated in language control and different domain-general executive functions for bilinguals (Baene et al. 2015) that are subject to activity-dependent plasticity (Calabria et al. 2018). While there are multiple studies on how simultaneous interpreting enhances executive functions from both behavioral as well as neuroscientific methodologies (e.g. Hervais-Adelman et al. 2015) several aspects are still underresearched: Studies on written translation are sparse. Executive functions have often been studied in a cross-sectional or longitudinal design that lack the precision of experimental studies. In our study, we tested experimentally whether written translation as a task and multilingualism as a factor has a short-term effect on the executive function of interference suppression measured by a Flanker task (inhibition). The experiment was conducted on two groups of translation students: group 1 (L1-German, L2-English), group 2 (L1-Polish, L2-English), all of whom also had a different L3 as their working language. Our participants were tasked with translating a text and copying a text as a control situation. Texts and tasks were counterbalanced and matched for length as well as difficulty. The Flanker task was administered three times, once before any experimental task was shown, once after the first task (either copy or translation) and once after the second respective task. We hypothesized that similar to multilingualism, written translation as a task that requires suppression of the interfering language representations and monitoring for the right output has a short-term enhancing effect on executive functioning. Linear mixed regression models as well as estimation of effect sizes revealed first results that show a small effect of task on reaction times.

ABSTRACT. Phonological abilities (PA) are developing from simpler to more complex skills, progressing from rhyme to syllable and phoneme awareness [1,2], and are typically assessed through multiple tasks [2,3,4]. While studies in first language acquisition have shown that phonological subskills are correlated in preschoolers [5], much less is known about how PA are structured and differentiated in older EFL learners. Research on PA in this age group and in EFL contexts has largely focused on reading, spelling, or word recognition outcomes, with PA typically treated as a predictor or covariate rather than as a central object of investigation [6]. Evidence is limited on how phonological subskills interact and develop in later primary school across different populations, and which linguistic and non-linguistic variables account for individual differences, questions addressed in the current investigation. We examined PA in EFL 4th graders across Germany (n =467), Finland (n = 320), and Norway (n = 146), assessed through rhyme, word-, syllable-, and phoneme-awareness tasks with varying discriminative power. Descriptive and comparative analyses revealed clear differentiation across PA components. Rhyme awareness was at ceiling across all countries, whereas word-, syllable-, and phoneme-level skills showed greater variability. Phoneme awareness, particularly medial and final sound identification, showed the lowest performance and most clearly differentiated the German sample from the Nordic samples, with Finland and Norway showing largely comparable profiles. We further examined country-specific correlations between PA components and linguistic outcomes (reading fluency, grammatical knowledge), non-linguistic variables (socio-economic status, gender, cognitive ability), and linguistic distance. Across all countries, phoneme-level PA showed the strongest associations with reading fluency and grammatical knowledge, whereas rhyme awareness showed weak or no associations. In the presentation, we will provide more in-depth analyses, detailed information on the design, piloting, validation, and reliability of PA assessment, and discuss implications for EFL instruction in later primary school.

ABSTRACT. Previous electrophysiological research showed that phoneme discrimination is less accurate in non-native than native languages (e.g., Näätänen et al., 2007). However, relatively little is known about whether pre-attentive phonological processing differs between speakers' first foreign language (L2) and additional ones (L3 or Ln) and how it may be influenced by factors such as phonological features or learning context.

This contribution provides an overview of three ERP studies investigating phoneme processing in multilingual individuals, in which we examined Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and Late Discriminative Negativity (LDN) components across three languages. A passive auditory oddball paradigm was used to assess neural responses to phoneme discrimination in a total of 88 L1 Polish - L2 English - L3 Norwegian participants.

In the first two studies, vowel discrimination patterns were examined in relation to language learning context (instructive vs. immersive groups). The selected stimuli included /ɨ/-/ɛ/ in Polish, /ɪ/-/ʊ/ English, and /i/-/ʏ/ Norwegian. The results revealed a graded MMN effect, which was the largest in L1, smaller in L2, and smallest in L3/Ln, however only for participants with instructed but not immersive setting. Different patterns were observed for the LDN component indexing phonological representation with statistically significant differences attested only between L1 Polish and the two non-native languages (Authors, 2023, 2025).

In the subsequent study, the flip-flop design featured three vowel contrasts: /e/-/a/ (Polish), /æ/-/ɑ:/ (English), and /ø/-/u/ (Norwegian). Statistical analyses revealed that language status influenced (a)symmetry of the ERP effects, with L3/Ln Norwegian being the only language where asymmetry was observed for both MMN and LDN, while L1 Polish triggered asymmetry for LDN (Authors, under review). The findings are partly consistent with Featurally Underspecified Lexicon model (Eulitz et al., 1995), Perceptual Magnet Model (Kuhl et al., 1992) and Natural Referent Vowel framework (Bohn & Polka, 2011).

ABSTRACT. The learning of academic L2/L3 words when writing essays remains largely unexplored (Silva, 2022). Digital tools used when writing (e.g. Google Translate, ChatGPT) can aid vocabulary learning, because they provide learners with immediate access to information. Using ChatGPT or Google Translate may also yield different levels of learner engagement with unknown L2/L3 words than traditional dictionaries, leading to different learning gains. Still, their impact on academic-word learning is under-researched (Jolley & Maimone, 2022), especially for cognates, which abound among academic words.

To bridge this gap, we recruited 134 learners of L2/L3 English: 77 bilingual Polish (L1-Polish; M_age=22.04, range=18-34) and 57 multilingual Swiss (L1-French or L1-German; M_age=22.86, range=18-34). We designed a within-subject experiment spanning five weeks. In sessions 1 and 5 participants took vocabulary and memory tests (LLAMA_B, Digit_Span). In sessions 2-4, one week apart, participants wrote three 60-minute argumentative essays (min. 250 words). In each, they had to use 12 novel academic words (6 L1/L2/L3 cognates, e.g. 'ethically'; 6 noncognates, e.g. 'readily') controlled for part of speech, length, L2 frequency, and concreteness. Three 12-word sets were created, counterbalanced. For each essay, participants used a different tool: Google Translate, ChatGPT, or dictionary-like glosses, order counterbalanced.

We examined lexical learning across digital tools, context (Polish vs. Swiss), and word type (cognates vs. noncognates) using generalized linear mixed models. Outcomes included L1-to-English translation accuracy and correct sentence use. No differences emerged between Google Translate, ChatGPT, and glosses for either word type or outcome. Cognates were translated more accurately than noncognates by both groups and used more accurately in sentences by Polish learners. At average proficiency, cognates outperformed noncognates, but this gap vanished at higher proficiency. Proficiency and aptitude mainly benefited noncognate learning, while working memory showed no effect. Overall, word type and learner abilities outweighed effects of digital tools or multilingualism.

ABSTRACT. Cross-linguistic differences in the encoding of motion events (cf. the typological distinction between satellite- vs. verb-framed languages; Talmy, 1985, 2000; Slobin, 2004) may influence how L2 (second language) learners conceptualize these events and express them linguistically (Treffers-Daller & Tidball, 2016). Yet, little is known about how multilingual learners select between alternative motion event descriptions in their chronologically third acquired language (L3). Addressing this gap is important because such choices reflect underlying L3 processing routines and reveal how multilingual learners recruit and reweight knowledge from previously acquired languages. The present study investigates how multilingual children (age range: 12-16) make decisions about the description of motion events in L3 English, focusing on their preferences for competing linguistic encodings. Participants were Ln English learners who permanently resided in Germany and received regular English instruction (2-3 times a week) at a German public school. Their multilingual practices were captured via Anderson et al. (2018)’s questionnaire. In an experimental session, they watched six-second animated video clips which depicted a motion event (e.g., the boy running into the house). Then they completed a pairwise preference task in which they evaluated alternative English descriptions of this event (e.g., manner-focused like the boy ran into the house or path-focused like the boy entered the house running) using a continuous slider. Preference data will be analyzed using hierarchical models of pairwise comparisons (Böckenholt, 2001; Bradley & Terry, 1952; Caron & Doucet, 2012; Thurstone, 1927) which estimate latent preferences for description types and simultaneously account for individual differences in response consistency and response style. We further examine whether individual multilingual experiences predict systematic variation in preference strength or reliability. Full results will be available at the time of the conference presentation. We will discuss how our findings advance L3 processing theory and outline their implications for language teaching practice.

ABSTRACT. South Africa is a multilingual country with twelve official languages, and those languages are to be promoted at all levels of education from as early as pre-primary school to Higher Education (HE). Despite progressive policies in education (LiEP, 1997; LPPHEI, 2022) and students in SA institutions of HE being very multilingual, English remains the dominant language of learning and teaching. Most institutions in the country have multilingual language policies that encourage the promotion of the official languages. The North-West University where this research was undertaken has a multilingual language policy that advocates for a translanguaging approach to teaching and learning (2022). This paper reports on a mixed method larger PhD study and only the qualitative data whereby students were recorded during consultations frequently using translanguaging as a strategy to consult with their lecturer will be used. Students used translanguaging strategies during consultations to make meaning and navigate a highly English monolingual setting while also exhibiting the strength of multilingual education. The ease with which the participants applied strategies such as transliteration and seamlessly applying all their linguistic repertoire during consultations showed that students leverage the languages in their repertoire to make meaning, find expression and assert their voice in a highly English monolingual system. This exposes the limitation of a monolingual English HE system and highlights interesting ways in which multilingualism can be beneficial to students. The consultations sessions through translanguaging practices reveal that multilingual students are eager to use their languages and that the practice is highly beneficial to South African HE students. Translanguaging as a practice should be encouraged and promoted from mainly being associated with unofficial or social forms of use such as consultations, to more formal multilingual settings in teaching and assessment.

ABSTRACT. While motivation has been a major focus in language learning research, its ‘dark side’, demotivation, has attracted comparatively limited attention, particularly in third language (L3) learning contexts and individual differences among learners. In multilingual educational settings, learners’ experiences may involve distinct challenges and emotions that require closer scrutiny. To address this gap, this study investigates salient demotivating factors in L3 learning among Thai undergraduate students and explores how these factors are associated with individual differences in personality, drawing on Control–Value Theory (Pekrun, 2006) as an interpretive framework.

Data were collected from 139 undergraduate students enrolled in an English-medium instruction (EMI) program at a Thai university through a survey questionnaire. Demotivating experiences were measured using context-relevant items adapted from Dörnyei’s (2001) classification of demotivating factors, focusing on teacher-related experiences, multilingual interference, assessment difficulty, and learning materials and environments. Personality traits were assessed using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). Exploratory factor analysis identified two dimensions of L3 demotivation: Pedagogical Demotivation and Cognitive-Linguistic Demotivation. The extracted factors demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency reliability.

Descriptive analyses revealed that pedagogical factors, particularly unengaging teaching methods and unclear teacher explanations, emerged as the most salient demotivators. ANCOVA analyses indicated no significant differences in demotivation between Year 2 and Year 3 learners after controlling for prior L3 experience and overall L3 proficiency. However, overall L3 proficiency significantly predicted Cognitive-Linguistic Demotivation. Correlational analyses further revealed a significant negative relationship between Emotional Stability and Cognitive-Linguistic Demotivation, suggesting that emotionally stable learners tended to experience lower levels of cognitive-linguistic demotivation. These results suggest that instructional quality and emotional stability play important roles in shaping learners’ demotivating experiences in multilingual educational settings.

By extending demotivation research beyond L2 contexts and incorporating individual differences, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of L3 demotivation in multilingual educational settings.

ABSTRACT. Previous research indicates that bilinguals’ moral decisions can differ when scenarios are presented in their first (L1) versus second (L2) language, a phenomenon known as the (moral) Foreign Language Effect (FLe/MFLE; Keysar et al., 2012). However, while previous research has focused on first versus second language differences, no study investigated whether differences in moral judgments hold between multilinguals’ second and third (L3) languages. We administered a custom-made survey to 43 secondary school and university students with Polish as their L1, English as L2, and French as L3. The questionnaire included 4 moral dilemmas to evaluate and comprehension questions in the respective languages to winnow out answers provided without understanding the content of the scenarios. In a rotated within-subject between-item design, each version of the survey presented two scenarios in English and two in French. In every scenario, a hypothetical individual committed an act violating social and/or moral norms, with variations in the severity of the consequences. The participants rated the wrongfulness of each act utilising a Likert scale. As hypothesised, the results showed no significant distinctions in scenario evaluations across non-native languages (x̄=2.37, SD=0.98 in L2 vs x̄=2.19, SD=0.7 in L3; t(37)=.811, p=.422, d=.133[−.191,.456]). This finding suggests that both non-native languages may function similarly in moral decision-making, possibly due to their shared “foreign” status. This interpretation aligns with the L2 Status Factor hypothesis (Bardel & Falk, 2012) in studies of crosslinguistic influence, which proposes that learners of successive languages forge closer mental associations between their various ‘foreign’ languages than between these and the native tongue (De Angelis, 2007:29), and appeals to the implicit/explicit divide assumed between the naturalistically-acquired, automated, emotionally charged, and/or normatively influenced L1 and more metalinguistically-driven, effortful and detached non-native linguistic systems. Minor variations in the results appear to be scenario-specific rather than language-dependent.

ABSTRACT. L3-investment is a sociological extension of motivation in tertiary language teaching, an aspect central to language learning, that foregrounds learners’ identities in relation to surrounding ideologies and the forms of capital available to them (Norton, 2013). As investment is embedded in social contexts, it can be explored through case studies that consider the specific context. In this study, a French as a tertiary language classroom was chosen in which the students work with (multilingual) portfolios conceived as individual learning archives. The study aims to explore the multilingual component of L3-investment in the French language classroom in Germany. To this end, a qualitative, ethnographic case study was conducted with a group of 23 learners at a grammar school in Hamburg over three years (grades 7-9). Data were generated through ethnographic interviews combined with portfolio elicitation and analysed using the grounded theory method to foreground learners’ perspectives and the specific educational context. Most students’ L1 is German; some have heritage languages. All of them started learning English before French. The findings indicate that L3-investment emerges when learners are enabled to work multilingually in the classroom by establishing connections across languages and language subjects. This affordance allows learners to draw on prior linguistic and procedural knowledge (Hufeisen & Neuner, 2005) and fosters their L3-investment; Because working on a topic in the German and English classroom can influence their engagement with it in French, when “it worked out quite well”. However, the study highlights structural constraints: for one heritage language speaker, the predefined selection of language subjects and institutional expectations limited his agency, preventing the emergence of L3-investment. The study advances investment by demonstrating how it emerges in the L3 context. The multilingual component of L3-investment in the context of French classroom with multilingual portfolio work includes learners’ linguistic repertoires, agency, and institutional conditions.

ABSTRACT. There is a growing body of evidence that bilingual experience can lead to third language (L3) learning advantages (e.g., Cenoz & Valencia, 1994; Hopp et al., 2019; Maluch et al., 2015; Tribushinina & Boz, 2025), yet the underlying mechanisms of these effects are not fully understood. This study aims to address this gap by examining whether executive functions, metalinguistic awareness, motivation to learn English and proficiency in the language of instruction mediate the relationship between bilingualism and L3 performance. Participants included 224 Mongolian-Mandarin bilingual children (Mage=10;9) and 219 Mandarin monolinguals (Mage=10;10), learning English as L3 and L2 respectively. Children’s English proficiency was assessed through receptive vocabulary and receptive grammar tests. We also controlled for non-verbal IQ, amount of EFL instruction, extramural exposure to English, English private tutoring and parental education. Results of multilevel structural equation models revealed no direct effects of bilingualism on English outcomes (see Figures 1-2). However, metalinguistic awareness functioned as a significant positive mediator, suggesting that bilingualism could indirectly support L3 learning by enhancing children’s metalinguistic skills. In contrast, Mandarin proficiency emerged as a negative mediator, indicating that weaker instructional language skills could hinder L3 development for bilinguals. Among the control variables, private English tutoring, the amount of formal instruction and parental education were positive predictors of English achievement. These findings highlight the indirect pathways through which bilingual experience can facilitate or constrain foreign language development.

ABSTRACT. Previous research has often reported that bilingual children outperform their monolingual peers in learning foreign languages (Hirosh & Degani, 2018). Yet, empirical findings remain inconsistent and are predominantly based on older age groups in primary or secondary education. Moreover, little is known about how potential bilingual advantages emerge or change over time, as longitudinal evidence is scarce (e.g., Hopp et al., 2019; Lorenz et al., 2024; Maluch et al., 2016). This study addresses this gap by tracking the development of English proficiency as L2 for monolingual children and L3 for bilingual children from kindergarten to the end of primary school. Participants included 691 Dutch-speaking monolinguals and 162 bilinguals who spoke Dutch and a heritage language other than English. Children’s English receptive vocabulary (PPVT-4; Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and grammar (TROG-2; Bishop, 2003) were measured at four time points: kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3, and Grade 6. Several covariates were controlled for, including school type (bilingual education, early English instruction, or mainstream), English exposure outside of school, attitudes toward English, non-verbal intelligence, gender, and parental education. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that bilingual children outperformed monolinguals in both vocabulary and grammar during the earliest measurement points: kindergarten and Grade 1. However, this initial advantage was no longer evident by Grade 3 and Grade 6. Growth analyses further indicated that monolingual children showed steeper gains in EFL skills over time, eventually reaching bilingual peers in later grades (see Figure 1). These findings suggest that bilingualism provides an early but short-lived advantage in foreign language learning. With formal English instruction, monolingual children’s proficiency gradually catches up to that of bilinguals, indicating that the bilingual L3 advantage is strongest early in development and declines as monolinguals gain multilingual experience through schooling.

ABSTRACT. In increasingly multilingual classrooms, content-based approaches to language education, which integrate disciplinary knowledge with language learning (Snow & Brinton, 2017), hold strong potential to support multilingual learners (MLs). However, such approaches often overlook the linguistic and cultural diversity MLs bring to the classroom (Christison et al., 2022). These linguistic and cultural funds of knowledge are a rich pedagogical resource that should be acknowledged and leveraged in the classroom (González et al., 2005). The Multilingual Approach to Diversity in Education (MADE; Krulatz & Christison, 2023) offers a holistic framework for addressing this gap through seven interrelated indicators that guide inclusive pedagogical practices. This presentation focuses on the MADE indicator Language and Culture Attitudes, which promotes valuing MLs’ multilingual and multicultural identities as central resources for learning.Drawing on a thematic analysis of 35 content-based lesson plans developed by pre-service teachers of English as an Additional Language (EAL) in Norway, we examine the extent to which pre-service teachers show explicit interest in students’ home languages and cultures, support multilingual identity development, foster intercultural learning, and draw on students’ funds of knowledge. The findings reveal that while many pre-service teachers demonstrate an awareness of students’ linguistic repertoires and cultural backgrounds, there remains a need for more intentional and sustained pedagogical practices that affirm multilingual identities and foster intercultural understanding. In addition to reporting on the empirical study, the presentation offers practical examples from a teacher education course built around the MADE model, illustrating how future educators can design multilingual classrooms as inclusive spaces for all learners. By combining theoretical perspectives with classroom-based practices, this contribution advances the discussion on multilingualism in language teacher education and highlights how frameworks such as MADE can foster more equitable and culturally responsive pedagogies.

ABSTRACT. Bilinguals frequently score lower on vocabulary measures than monolinguals in one or both of their languages (Bialystok et al., 2010; Oller et al., 2007). In contrast to assessments of single-language vocabulary size, which measure the number of words a speaker knows in a given language, research on conceptual vocabulary size - or the number of distinct concepts for which a label is known in any language - suggests that accounting for cross-linguistic knowledge can reduce or eliminate these group differences (Ehl et al., 2020; Gross et al., 2014; Siow et al., 2023). However, the existing literature has focused primarily on children and less is known about conceptual vocabulary in adults (Fridman et al., 2024). Moreover, to our knowledge, no prior work has assessed conceptual vocabulary in trilinguals.

We compared 150 trilingual, bilingual, and monolingual adult participants on single-language vocabulary in each of their known languages, and on conceptual vocabulary across all of their languages combined, using the MINT Sprint 2.0 (Multilingual Naming Test; Garcia & Gollan, 2022). Single-language vocabulary size was measured as the number of items named accurately in each language, while conceptual vocabulary size was measured as the number of items named correctly in at least one language. We fitted a linear mixed-effects model to test how MINT scores varied as a function of language (ranked by dominance) and group.

Results showed that monolinguals' vocabulary size in their one language was larger than bilinguals' and trilinguals' vocabulary in their respective dominant languages, yet conceptual vocabulary scores did not differ between the groups. Our findings suggest that multilinguals' lexical proficiency is distributed across languages, while their overall conceptual knowledge remains comparable to that of monolinguals. This study advances our understanding of multilingual lexical access and highlights the importance of cross-linguistic conceptual assessment for accurately characterizing multilinguals' linguistic profiles.

ABSTRACT. The present study investigates vocabulary retention in English as an additional language (L3) during a text-based writing task in young Swiss multilinguals (lower secondary school). Prior research suggests that writing tasks may enhance vocabulary retention (Eskandari et al., 2024; Teng & Zhang, 2023) in a non-L1 target-language, but only as long as the cognitive load of the task does not exceed a certain level (Silva, 2022). Digital tools -- e.g. glosses or translation tools -- may help reduce cognitive load during L3 writing. To our knowledge, no study has yet assessed the combined effects of a writing task while using digital tools on incidental vocabulary learning. We employed a within-subjects design to compare the effects of glosses, Google Translate, and ChatGPT on incidental L3 vocabulary learning during a coherent text writing task. Participants were multilingual university students learning English as an L3 (occasionally also L4/x or L2) at a B1–B2 proficiency level (N = 79, mean age = 24 years). Each participant completed a vocabulary before and after the writing task. The test required translation of 36 keywords from their dominant language into English, followed by sentence production using each target word. Productive vocabulary knowledge was assessed using two dependent variables: a form-recall score and a sentence-score. Generalized mixed models with the specific tool used in writing and item- and person-related covariates were fitted to the data. The results reveal a significant increase in L3 vocabulary retention: 18% in sentence-score and 16% in form-recall score, with no significant differences between the digital tools. Higher degrees of individual multilingualism and target language proficiency were associated with more vocabulary knowledge, but not with greater vocabulary gains. The findings will be discussed in the context of incidental vocabulary acquisition during writing tasks.

ABSTRACT. Despite the growing popularity of non-English audiovisual content, English remains the most widespread language used in films (Vogel & Shipman, 2023). Many viewers of English-language content are non-native speakers of English, for whom subtitles play a key role not only in film understanding and enjoyment, but also in enabling incidental learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

Increasingly, English is no longer ‘the second language’ (L2), but could be the third (L3) or fourth being learnt. Despite the reality of multilingualism, it is unclear if/how knowing multiple languages affects the way EFL is learnt via film. Do multilinguals differ from bilinguals when it comes to viewing habits, subtitle language preferences, reading patterns, and amount of learning from subtitled audiovisual content?

The present study was designed to answer these questions. Participants were 40 Polish bilinguals (L1-Polish, L2-English) and 20 Swiss multilinguals (L1-French, L2-German, L3-English), all English learners at intermediate level (B1/B2). They watched six clips (4-6 min, two per condition) from an English nature documentary in three conditions: no subtitles, L1 subtitles, English (L2/L3) subtitles. We assessed visual processing via eye tracking, and learning of 50 keywords (14 triple cognates, 14 matched noncognates, 22 extra noncognates). The keywords were pre-selected (prior norming study) from a pool of words appearing in the clips. Several word-related variables (e.g., word length, frequency, concreteness) were controlled for.

Participants were pre-tested the week before, and post-tested immediately after watching via meaning recognition (English multiple choice) and meaning recall (L2-L1 translation). After watching each clip, participants answered comprehension questions to check understanding. Learner-related variables (English proficiency, age, working memory, reading fluency, and experience with English subtitles) were collected. The data collection is still in progress. We will present our methodology, preliminary results, and reflect on the learning potential of film subtitles in modern multilingual societies.

ABSTRACT. Growing linguistic diversity in education worldwide highlights the limitations of monolingual assessment approaches, which often fail to reflect how multilingual learners use language and construct meaning (De Angelis, 2021). These approaches are underpinned by language separation and monolingual norms, marginalising multilingual learners’ full linguistic repertoires. Pedagogical translanguaging (Cenoz & Gorter, 2021) has been proposed as a framework for challenging these ideologies and supporting more equitable assessment practices. Teachers, however, report having limited knowledge and skills for considering linguistic diversity in assessment, and questions remain about how translanguaging-based assessment can be designed and enacted within institutional constraints (Robinson-Jones et al., 2026). This qualitative exploratory study addresses this gap through participatory design research conducted in three primary schools in the Netherlands (n = 5 teachers) and one in Australia (n = 2 teachers). Through teacher-researcher collaboration, we co-designed and piloted a Functional Multilingual Assessment for Learning (De Backer et al., 2017) framework focused on reading engagement across learners’ languages. In this presentation, I address the following research question: How do translanguaging stances and shifts emerge and influence co-design processes during teacher-researcher collaboration on reading-focused Functional Multilingual Assessment for Learning? Using reflexive thematic analysis, data from two design cycles were analysed to examine how translanguaging beliefs, pedagogical decisions, and constraints emerge during and shape co-design (García et al., 2017; Shepard-Carey & Tian, 2023). Findings show how teacher-researcher collaboration can: (1) support teachers in navigating institutional and ideological constraints to translate positive views into concrete strategies; (2) disrupt monolingual ideologies and position multilingualism as an asset; and (3) encourage the use of home languages as learning resources, participation, and identity. Across both contexts, similar challenges were experienced, including time constraints and learner reluctance to use home languages, reflecting internalised monolingual norms. This presentation concludes with implications for multilingual assessment design, teacher professionalisation, and policy.

ABSTRACT. Crosslinguistic awareness (XLA) is believed to enable comparison and interaction between multiple languages in multilinguals and to support the exploitation of previously acquired linguistic resources in additional language learning. Yet, the nature of the relationship between different levels of XLA and multilinguals’ tendency to activate, compare, and exploit knowledge of multiple languages remains insufficiently understood.

The present study examined the relationship between tacit and explicit crosslinguistic awareness at the lexical level in multilingual adolescents. The participants were 75 Croatian-Italian-English trilinguals (aged 16–18) with comparable age of onset, degree of exposure, and levels of proficiency in each of the three languages. Tacit XLA was examined in an unprompted synonym provision task in English (L3) and operationalized as systematic instances of lexical crosslinguistic influence from Croatian and Italian (L1 and L2). Explicit XLA was elicited through a set of retrospective tasks, ranging from questions about the way in which specific lexical items were recalled in the synonym provision task to explicit questions about crosslinguistic consultations and strategies. Explicit references to crosslinguistic relations were coded and classified using a scheme developed in a pilot study.

The crosstabulation of instances of tacit and explicit XLA revealed different levels of conscious awareness underlying multilingual performance. Instances identified as tacit XLA were not always accompanied by explicit XLA, suggesting that crosslinguistic sensitivity can operate without conscious reflection. At the same time, different degrees of explicit XLA were observed, ranging from vague item-related intuitions to clearly articulated crosslinguistic comparisons. Additionally, the data revealed instances of explicit XLA at the lexical level that were not capitalized on in the production task, pointing to a partial dissociation between explicit awareness and performance.

ABSTRACT. Foreign language (FL) attrition refers to the attrition of school-instructed languages (Mehotcheva & Köpke, 2019). While L1 attrition has been associated with decreased use of the target language, cross-linguistic interference, and extralinguistic factors, such as attitude and motivation (ATM), far less is known about L2/FL attrition (Ecke, 2004; Paradis, 2004; Schmid & Cherciov, 2019). The present study investigates L2/FL English attrition during L3/FL Japanese acquisition among native Chinese speakers.

In this study, I ask two research questions: (1) Are there L2 attrition patterns during L3 acquisition, and if so, are they fully accounted for by L3 gains? (2) What extralinguistic factors play a role in the process? Sixty participants were recruited from first-year (20), second-year (20), and third-year (20) Japanese-major cohorts at a Chinese university. They completed a language background questionnaire (Marian et al., 2007) in Chinese, language proficiency tests and two verbal fluency tasks (VFTs) in English and Japanese. The order of English and Japanese tasks was counterbalanced among participants.

The results showed a significant cross-sectional decrease in English proficiency scores, increase in Japanese VFTs and proficiency scores. K-means cluster analysis (k=2) identified an English-dominant group and a Japanese-dominant group, primarily differentiated by English proficiency and Japanese task outcomes (Figure 1). Cluster proportions (Figure 2) displayed a mirror pattern by year (Year 1 English-dominant, Year 3 Japanese-dominant), suggesting a graded shift in dominance. Binary logistic regression analysis showed a significant interaction between the use of English and ATM towards English (p = .027, OR = .21), supporting Mehotcheva and Mytara (2019). A subsequent cluster analysis (k=3) revealed a specific learner profile with lower English proficiency scores despite the absence of significant L3 gains (Figure 3-4). These findings suggest that L2 attrition during L3 acquisition is also driven by extralinguistic factors (language use, ATM) rather than mere cross-linguistic competition.

ABSTRACT. Research on speech perception shows that listeners experience processing costs when adapting to variability across speakers and accents, reflected in increased pupil dilation as an index of cognitive effort (Van Engen & McLaughlin, 2018). While processing costs associated with speaker switches have been studied in L1–L2 contexts (McLaughlin et al., 2024), within-language accent switching has received far less attention. Among L1 German speakers, we found clear within-language switching costs and asymmetric adaptation, with switches into a less familiar regional accent eliciting greater cognitive effort than switches into familiar Standard German. However, less is known about whether such costs arise in L3 learners and whether they show similar asymmetries during L3 speech perception. To address this gap, we measured pupillary responses in 45 L1 Chinese learners of L3 German (MAge=23.6, SDAge=3.3) while they listened to a semi-natural dialogue in which speaker turn-taking (switch vs. no switch) and accent (Standard German vs. an unfamiliar Alemannic regional variety) were manipulated. We examined whether L3 learners’ processing effort varies with speaker switches and accent, and whether switching costs are asymmetric. Growth curve analyses revealed a main effect of speaker switch, with switches inducing larger pupil dilations, reflecting increased cognitive effort. In contrast to L1 German listeners, no main effect of accent emerged, and switching costs were equal for both directions, indicating comparable effort when adapting to the regional variety and to Standard German. An exploratory cluster analysis identified two distinct learner groups, revealing that learners with higher German proficiency and greater exposure showed reduced switching costs. Nevertheless, neither cluster displayed asymmetric costs. We argue that, unlike L1 German listeners, L3 learners show less sensitivity to slight accent differences, likely due to limited experience with sociophonetic variation in German (Cowan & Olmstead, 2023) and the generally high cognitive demands of processing an L3.

ABSTRACT. As socially engaging, cognitively challenging and purposeful life experience, multilingualism has been found, under certain circumstances and in certain phases of life, to contribute to cognitive reserve later in life and to more efficient additional language learning (e.g. Bak et al. 2014; Bialystok et al., 2012). However, while empirical research has shown that the effects of multilingual experience can vary over time due to evolving linguistic and cognitive demands (e.g. De Bot & Verspoor, 2019; Herdina & Jessner, 2002), little is known about how they may change over time, mediated by potential shifts in cognitive, affective and contextual resources. This study investigates, for the first time, how and for whom knowledge-based, usage-based, and attitudes-based multilingual experience variables (including bidialectism) affect cognition and EFL learning in older adults over time. 44 healthy German-speaking individuals in Switzerland (aged 63-66), who participated in a 2-year-long English course, were assessed biweekly on written and oral EFL measures, cognitive parameters (working memory, executive functioning), socio-affective variables (e.g. wellbeing) and daily (e.g. physical) activity. The data were analyzed using generalized additive mixed modeling and visual-quantitative analyses for significance testing in order to detect potentially temporally limited non/linear effects. We found a stable positive linear effect of cumulative language proficiency – rather than language use or attitudes – on cognitive functioning as well as written and oral EFL performance, mediated by cognitive baseline resources and, to some extent, wellbeing, and daily cognitive activities. This suggests that multilingual experience accumulates over time, rather than being a short-lived boost, which makes effects of multilingual experience, in principle, detectable in cross-sectional comparisons.