International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2024
This article presents the findings from a study that explored how the language practices and mana... more This article presents the findings from a study that explored how the language practices and management to which 156 students from universities in China reported being exposed at home, alongside their language beliefs, use of their entire linguistic repertoire when reading, listening, speaking, and writing at university, and emotions related to being multilingual predicted the language practices and management they envisioned for their own families. Data were gathered through a comprehensive questionnaire administered on campus. The results revealed that the more participants reported exposure to multilingual language practices at home and the stronger their beliefs in the benefits of a multilingual upbringing, the more determined they were to implement multilingual language practices with their own families. Moreover, using languages fluidly at university correlated positively with participants’ desire to adopt a more conscious approach to language management in their future families.
Literary competence is a critical component of foreign language education and has far-reaching im... more Literary competence is a critical component of foreign language education and has far-reaching implications for language learners’ linguistic and cultural development. This article reports on a study that examined how the receptiveness to literature, immersion, reading strategies, need for structure, and information processing of 72 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in upper-secondary schools predicted their literary competence. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, including a scored assessment of learners’ EFL literary competence via a cooperative argumentative dialogue (CAD) involving four short stories, post-CAD group interviews, reading logs, and an online questionnaire. The results revealed that participants had significantly higher levels of interpretative and empathic competence than aesthetic-stylistic and cultural-discursive competence. They also tended to favour problem-solving and global reading strategies, which negatively correlated with their literary competence. Meanwhile, their ability to process information analytically and systematically positively moderated the relationship between their receptiveness to literature and their literary competence.
The study reported in this article examined the dynamics of plurilingualism, ethnicity, and effec... more The study reported in this article examined the dynamics of plurilingualism, ethnicity, and effectiveness in intercultural encounters among a sample of 221 participants from Chinese universities via an online questionnaire and a situational judgement test comprised of three scenarios involving plurilingual and intercultural encounters. It employed latent profile analysis to identify distinct profiles based on participants' plurilingualism, including how they used their languages, their exposure to linguistic diversity in oral interactions, and their experiences with plurilingualism in society, school, and university. The study also considered participants' ethnic backgrounds and self-reported intercultural effectiveness. The findings revealed two latent profiles characterised by notable differences in ethnic background, language proficiency, language use, and experiences of plurilingualism in society, school, and university. Additionally, the most consistent predictors of participants' behaviour in the three scenarios were their fluid language use and exposure to linguistic diversity during oral interactions.
Language teachers cannot help their students develop high levels of metalinguistic knowledge and ... more Language teachers cannot help their students develop high levels of metalinguistic knowledge and language aptitude if they themselves are found lacking in these abilities. This article reports on a study that utilised a descriptive correlational mixed-methods research design to gather data from 89 multilingual teachers of English, Chinese, French, German, and Spanish from secondary schools regarding the relationship between their language aptitude, metalinguistic knowledge, language maintenance habits, self-efficacy, and anxiety. The findings revealed that participants’ metalinguistic knowledge, anxiety, and formally acquired multilingualism positively correlated with their language aptitude. Moreover, those possessing advanced language aptitude engaged in language maintenance habits that were both quantitatively and qualitatively different from those who exhibited weaker aptitude.
Research has shown that students learning English as a foreign language can enhance their vocabul... more Research has shown that students learning English as a foreign language can enhance their vocabulary knowledge through exposure to the target language outside of school. However, little is known about whether certain extramural activities have stronger links with vocabulary acquisition than others, and more crucially, the extent to which the vocabulary learning strategies that learners employ during extramural English encounters affect vocabulary learning outcomes. The study reported in this article investigated the relationship between the vocabulary learning strategies employed by 116 students in a Norwegian secondary school when gaming extramurally in English, their gaming frequency, engagement in other EE activities besides gaming, and their receptive and productive English vocabulary knowledge. The findings revealed that inferencing, using language references, and notetaking when gaming statistically significantly correlated with participants' productive vocabulary knowledge, whereas only inferencing predicted their receptive vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, a negative link was discovered between playing driving games and receptive vocabulary knowledge.
Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions:
The study investigated the relationship between t... more Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The study investigated the relationship between the L2 grit, domain-general grit, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), multilingualism, and self-reported literacy achievement of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in public upper-secondary schools in Norway. Specifically, the study sought to identify predictors of students’ EFL reading and writing achievement and examine the moderating effect of multilingualism on the relationship between L2 grit, FLE, and such achievement.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 181 upper-secondary school students learning EFL in southeastern Norway (one participant’s responses were discarded because they were incomplete).
Data and Analysis: Paired and independent sample t-tests and moderated multiple regression were used to analyse the collected data.
Findings/Conclusions: The study found that the perseverance component of L2 grit and daily language use (one of two aspects of multilingualism used in the study) positively predicted both reading and writing achievement (the consistency of interest component of L2 grit only positively predicted writing achievement). In addition, daily language use was found to negatively moderate the relationship between the perseverance component of L2 grit and reading and writing achievement, with the moderating effect dissipating as additional languages were used daily.
Originality: The study is among the first to explore the interplay between grit and multilingualism in the Nordic region and examine the relationship between multilingualism, grit, FLE, and achievement globally.
Significance/Implications: The study’s findings underscore the need for researchers to develop and use more comprehensive multidimensional measures of multilingualism when investigating its effects on language learning in formal contexts, design scales for grit that target specific language skills, and broaden grit-related research to cover the learning of multiple language and non-language subjects concurrently.
This article reports on a mixed-methods study regarding the extent to which the extramural Englis... more This article reports on a mixed-methods study regarding the extent to which the extramural English (EE), external attributions, self-efficacy (concerning EFL reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills), and gender of 42 students, learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in a Norwegian upper-secondary school, predicted their EFL learning outcomes. Data on participants’ EE (receptive and productive), external attributions, and self-efficacy were collected through a questionnaire and language diaries, while their learning outcomes were measured through a language proficiency test, mock exam, in-depth project, and receptive and productive vocabulary tests. The data revealed several interesting findings, including participants’ receptive EE statistically significantly and negatively predicting their productive vocabulary test scores, whereas their writing self-efficacy and attributions to specifically literature, TV, and film statistically significantly and positively predicted them. Moreover, neither receptive nor productive EE was found to mediate the relationship between self-efficacy, external attributions, and learning outcomes.
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2023
The long-standing emphasis on communicative language teaching has resulted in a de-emphasis of ex... more The long-standing emphasis on communicative language teaching has resulted in a de-emphasis of explicit grammar instruction (EGI) in favour of an implicit, intuitive approach to learning grammar that can lead to fossilized errors, which learners are then unable to correct. In terms of research, relatively little is known about how students and teachers approach EGI, especially at transition points between primary and secondary school. This article reports on an online questionnaire-based study that explored the beliefs of 405 learners and 17 teachers (including the latter's reported practices) regarding EGI in the English classroom in primary and lower-secondary grades in Norway. The findings revealed that primary school students, as well as female participants, had more positive beliefs about EGI than those in lower-secondary schools (and male participants). Furthermore, teachers' and students' affective beliefs about EGI differed meaningfully sometimes, as did teachers' implementation of EGI-related activities that the students most enjoyed.
Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2023
Research on the relationship between students' language learning motivation (LLM), language learn... more Research on the relationship between students' language learning motivation (LLM), language learning strategies (LLS), self-efficacy beliefs (SEB), and achievement in non-European languages has been both limited and overwhelmingly cross-sectional, often with little attention paid to their multilingualism. Combining complex dynamic systems and sociocultural perspectives, this article reports on a study that explored changes in the LLM, LLS, and SEB trajectories of two multilingual students taking Arabic at a university in Norway over two semesters, including how these trajectories, alongside their multilingual competence, related to their achievement in the course. Data were gathered through weekly semi-structured interviews and a rating scale-based log that the participants kept of their LLM and SEB, as well as their exam scores over two semesters. The results indicated that, although their LLS remained fairly consistent or grew more diversified, the participants were not completely successful in maintaining or boosting their LLM, SEB, or achievement. However, the use of more varied digital LLS appeared to prevent their LLM and SEB from further weakening. Moreover, participants' LLM and SEB trajectories were susceptible to changes based on different timescales in that mesogenetic events had a more pronounced effect on one participant while the other was more sensitive to microgenetic events. Finally, despite both participants being multilingual, they were unable to benefit from their multilingual competence past the first semester, indicating that not all manifestations of multilingual competence are useful over time, especially when such competence does not contain a multilingual morphosyntactic awareness component.
Students' mindsets, multilingualism, learning styles and selfregulation strategies, which represe... more Students' mindsets, multilingualism, learning styles and selfregulation strategies, which represent parts of their learning patterns, can affect their academic achievement in various ways. This article presents the results of a study that utilised a 185-item online questionnaire to investigate the interplay among the mindsets, learning styles, self-regulation strategies, multilingualism and achievement of 191 undergraduate students in France who were studying English as a foreign language (EFL) as part of their nonlanguage degrees. The findings indicated that students who held growth-oriented mindsets about EFL, used concrete experiences as part of their learning style, and were proficient in multiple languages performed better in EFL. At the same time, there were no statistically significant correlations between their mindsets, learning styles, self-regulation strategies or multilingualism and their achievement in non-language subjects. Interestingly, the students reported employing similar learning styles and self-regulation strategies for both EFL and non-language subjects.
Given the growing movement in support of blurring the divisions between language and literature t... more Given the growing movement in support of blurring the divisions between language and literature teaching, it has become increasingly vital to understand what language teachers think of literature as a language resource, the approaches they employ when teaching with it, the extent to which they can appreciate, understand, analyse, and interpret literary texts, that is, their literary competence, and whether certain traits predict such competence. Yet, research into the use of literature in language education has been primarily concerned with learners rather than teachers. This article reports on an online questionnaire-based study that explored the creativity, orientations towards literature, teaching approaches, and beliefs regarding literature of 170 language teachers in Central Asia and how these elements predicted their literary competence. Participants worked at universities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and were teaching Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish as foreign languages. The findings revealed that their reading habits and creativity statistically significantly predicted their literary competence while their selection of texts was partly at odds with their professed orientations towards literature.
Developing students' literacy skills and intercultural competence via literary works has become a... more Developing students' literacy skills and intercultural competence via literary works has become a key component of foreign language (FL) curricula at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels in many countries. In FL classrooms, the use of textual literature can also sometimes be complemented by multimodal literature like graphic novels and picture books, which are useful in enhancing the ability of students to interpret, synthesize, and analyze information from multiple media simultaneously. This article reports the findings from an online questionnaire-based study involving 265 university students in France who were studying English as an FL alongside their degree programs. The study explored their reported literary reading response, literary competence when reading textual and multimodal literature, aesthetic competence, and the extent to which their aesthetic competence and literary response predicted their literary competence. The findings indicated that participants’ literary response drew strongly from Story-Driven Reading while their literary competence was significantly lower for textual literature than for multimodal literature. Moreover, their literary competence was statistically significantly predicted by certain components of their literary response and, to some extent, their aesthetic competence.
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2022
This article reports on a study that used the online MULTITEACH questionnaire to examine the rela... more This article reports on a study that used the online MULTITEACH questionnaire to examine the relationship between the multilingual pedagogies 111 language teachers, employed in upper-secondary schools in Norway and Russia, reported implementing, their beliefs about how multilingualism benefitted students and teachers, and their self-assessed ability to teach language aspects and skills. The study also investigated whether sociobiographical variables and participants’ language habits outside of work affected their beliefs about multilingualism benefitting their students and implementation of multilingual pedagogies. The findings revealed that participants utilized multilingual pedagogies least frequently when teaching in first language contexts and that those who used foreign languages outside of work applied such pedagogies more frequently than participants who did not. Moreover, their beliefs about multilingualism benefitting their students were positively predicted by their beliefs about multilingualism benefitting teachers and negatively predicted by their support of the monolingual approach to language learning and teaching.
A growing number of family language policy studies have started to pay more attention to the emot... more A growing number of family language policy studies have started to pay more attention to the emotions that transnational multilingual families (TMFs) identify regarding their multilingual identity, even if much of the research remains primarily focused on TMFs residing in Europe and North America. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the emotions that five TMFs residing in Russia identified with their multilingual identity, and how these emotions affected their family language policy. The study combined ethnographic elements in the form of video recordings and two rounds of semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that the parents felt pride and satisfaction in their own multilingual identity yet feared that their children were developing a monolingual identity, which led to them experiencing anger and frustration. Coupled with these negative emotions, they were found to adopt monolingual practices with their children in hopes of making them more multilingual. The study adds to our understanding of how emotions, multilingual identity, and family language policy interact in TMFs outside of Europe and North America and is one of the first studies to explore the experiences of such families in Russia.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2022
As part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese government, cognizant of the fact ... more As part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese government, cognizant of the fact that establishing strong people-to-people bonds locally, regionally, and internationally will be key to the initiative’s success and that languages will play a pivotal role in facilitating this, has called for the diversification of language programmes beyond English at the tertiary and pre-tertiary levels. The aim is to boost the plurilingual and pluricultural competence (PPC) of Chinese citizens, who are often already multilingual because of their knowledge of Chinese dialects and minority languages. This article reports on a study involving 248 university students from over 20 provinces in China that explored the interactions between their reported PPC, translingual dispositions, interculturalism, orientations toward cultural differences, and identity-related views. The results revealed that the participants’ translingual dispositions entailed engaging in language negotiation practices to a greater extent than in resisting linguistic norms or exploring language. Moreover, the more multilingual the participants were, the more fluidly they reported moving between languages and the greater was their PPC, which was also positively and statistically significantly predicted by their age, ethnic background, acceptance of cultural differences, and views about their personal identity.
Linguistic identities in the Arab Gulf states: Waves of change, 2022
A growing number of countries are implementing school initiatives aimed at developing students’ k... more A growing number of countries are implementing school initiatives aimed at developing students’ knowledge of multiple languages to help them thrive in a globalized world. Research indicates that learning languages can be made more effective if teachers draw on their own and their students’ entire language repertoires during lessons, yet few studies have systematically investigated the extent to which language teachers are willing and able to do this. This chapter reports the findings of a mixed methods study on UAE-based secondary school teachers of Arabic, English, and French that explored their teaching practices using an ecological perspective. Drawing upon data collected via unstructured interviews, the study’s findings revealed common themes among the participants vis-à-vis their ability and willingness to draw on their and their students’ multilingualism as a pedagogical resource. The chapter concludes by offering recommendations for how schools and policymakers can implement specific measures to help teachers and students fully realize their multilingual potential.
Studies on transnational multilingual families and their language planning have mostly investigat... more Studies on transnational multilingual families and their language planning have mostly investigated their language ideologies and practices in relation to heritage language maintenance without exploring how such families view their multilingualism and how it might affect their language planning. Most studies have also exclusively focused on the experiences of transnational multilingual families residing in Europe and North America, with those living in other regions receiving comparatively little attention. This article reports on a qualitative study involving four transnational multilingual families located in China. Data were collected via a combination of semi-structured interviews and audio/video recordings. The study investigated the extent to which the participating families’ multilingualism mediated their language planning, as well as how they related to their multilingualism in its totality. The findings revealed that the families had a complex relationship with their multilingualism and saw it as a source of opportunities but also anxiety.
The research field of multilingualism in education has grown exponentially over the last two deca... more The research field of multilingualism in education has grown exponentially over the last two decades, with more and more studies published every year on the need for teachers to validate the whole linguistic repertoire of their students and help them draw on their multilingualism as a resource. What has, conversely, not been accorded sufficient attention by researchers is the multilingualism of the teachers tasked with realising this. This oversight, as it were, raises ethical issues for researchers that go beyond macro ethical considerations like the need to ensure participant anonymity, their protection from harm, and data confidentiality. Education is itself a complex, ethical enterprise, where engagement with teachers and students requires greater faithfulness, exactitude, and respect on the part of researchers. The need for such engagement, from an ethical standpoint, has been magnified as governments globally implement multilingual initiatives in schools and universities that encourage teachers to harness the growing linguistic and cultural diversity that surrounds them (and of which they are a part). Based on a systematic review of 59 published works between 2016 and 2021, this article discusses the importance of adopting a fidelity-to-participants approach when researching multilingual language teachers. Such an approach has been missing from most studies, yet it would benefit researchers and their participants, as well as policymakers and educators in several ways.
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2021
To boost the foreign language learning process, language teachers need to know how to implement a... more To boost the foreign language learning process, language teachers need to know how to implement a multilingual pedagogy, that is, they should be able to draw on their and their students' knowledge of other languages during lessons. This qualitative study explored the extent to which 21 foreign language teachers in Norwegian and Russian upper-secondary schools were willing and able to implement multilingual teaching practices and the factors that they thought affected this implementation. The findings revealed three main factors, namely, their language knowledge, their positioning as language learners, and the level of support they received, which the participants reported as strongly influencing the extent to which they were able and willing to draw on their and their students' multilingualism as a pedagogical resource. The findings also indicated that participants did not implement multilingual teaching practices differently based on the languages they taught, although there were differences between the participants from Norway and Russia concerning the teaching of English. The study has important implications for research on language teaching and learning in multilingual environments, educational institutions, and teacher development programs.
The Central Asian republics represent an interesting yet little-studied space for researching the... more The Central Asian republics represent an interesting yet little-studied space for researching the interplay between language learning motivation (LLM), multiculturalism, and multilingualism given their cultural and linguistic diversity and official promotion of multilingualism and positive multicultural attitudes through language learning initiatives in schools and universities. This article reports on a questionnaire study that investigated the LLM of 235 university students in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including their integrativeness and international posture. The students were learning Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish, with a majority of them learning two or more languages concurrently. The study also explored their views regarding the benefits of being multilingual and the extent to which their level of multilingualism, both formally and natively acquired, affected their multicultural attitudes and levels of prejudice towards outgroups. The findings revealed statistically significant gender differences in how the participants viewed the benefits of being multilingual, as well as statistically significant relationships between their levels of natively acquired multilingualism and their multicultural attitudes and levels of prejudice towards outgroups. International posture and integrativeness, meanwhile, were found to be distinct concepts with little overlap.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2024
This article presents the findings from a study that explored how the language practices and mana... more This article presents the findings from a study that explored how the language practices and management to which 156 students from universities in China reported being exposed at home, alongside their language beliefs, use of their entire linguistic repertoire when reading, listening, speaking, and writing at university, and emotions related to being multilingual predicted the language practices and management they envisioned for their own families. Data were gathered through a comprehensive questionnaire administered on campus. The results revealed that the more participants reported exposure to multilingual language practices at home and the stronger their beliefs in the benefits of a multilingual upbringing, the more determined they were to implement multilingual language practices with their own families. Moreover, using languages fluidly at university correlated positively with participants’ desire to adopt a more conscious approach to language management in their future families.
Literary competence is a critical component of foreign language education and has far-reaching im... more Literary competence is a critical component of foreign language education and has far-reaching implications for language learners’ linguistic and cultural development. This article reports on a study that examined how the receptiveness to literature, immersion, reading strategies, need for structure, and information processing of 72 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in upper-secondary schools predicted their literary competence. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, including a scored assessment of learners’ EFL literary competence via a cooperative argumentative dialogue (CAD) involving four short stories, post-CAD group interviews, reading logs, and an online questionnaire. The results revealed that participants had significantly higher levels of interpretative and empathic competence than aesthetic-stylistic and cultural-discursive competence. They also tended to favour problem-solving and global reading strategies, which negatively correlated with their literary competence. Meanwhile, their ability to process information analytically and systematically positively moderated the relationship between their receptiveness to literature and their literary competence.
The study reported in this article examined the dynamics of plurilingualism, ethnicity, and effec... more The study reported in this article examined the dynamics of plurilingualism, ethnicity, and effectiveness in intercultural encounters among a sample of 221 participants from Chinese universities via an online questionnaire and a situational judgement test comprised of three scenarios involving plurilingual and intercultural encounters. It employed latent profile analysis to identify distinct profiles based on participants' plurilingualism, including how they used their languages, their exposure to linguistic diversity in oral interactions, and their experiences with plurilingualism in society, school, and university. The study also considered participants' ethnic backgrounds and self-reported intercultural effectiveness. The findings revealed two latent profiles characterised by notable differences in ethnic background, language proficiency, language use, and experiences of plurilingualism in society, school, and university. Additionally, the most consistent predictors of participants' behaviour in the three scenarios were their fluid language use and exposure to linguistic diversity during oral interactions.
Language teachers cannot help their students develop high levels of metalinguistic knowledge and ... more Language teachers cannot help their students develop high levels of metalinguistic knowledge and language aptitude if they themselves are found lacking in these abilities. This article reports on a study that utilised a descriptive correlational mixed-methods research design to gather data from 89 multilingual teachers of English, Chinese, French, German, and Spanish from secondary schools regarding the relationship between their language aptitude, metalinguistic knowledge, language maintenance habits, self-efficacy, and anxiety. The findings revealed that participants’ metalinguistic knowledge, anxiety, and formally acquired multilingualism positively correlated with their language aptitude. Moreover, those possessing advanced language aptitude engaged in language maintenance habits that were both quantitatively and qualitatively different from those who exhibited weaker aptitude.
Research has shown that students learning English as a foreign language can enhance their vocabul... more Research has shown that students learning English as a foreign language can enhance their vocabulary knowledge through exposure to the target language outside of school. However, little is known about whether certain extramural activities have stronger links with vocabulary acquisition than others, and more crucially, the extent to which the vocabulary learning strategies that learners employ during extramural English encounters affect vocabulary learning outcomes. The study reported in this article investigated the relationship between the vocabulary learning strategies employed by 116 students in a Norwegian secondary school when gaming extramurally in English, their gaming frequency, engagement in other EE activities besides gaming, and their receptive and productive English vocabulary knowledge. The findings revealed that inferencing, using language references, and notetaking when gaming statistically significantly correlated with participants' productive vocabulary knowledge, whereas only inferencing predicted their receptive vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, a negative link was discovered between playing driving games and receptive vocabulary knowledge.
Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions:
The study investigated the relationship between t... more Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The study investigated the relationship between the L2 grit, domain-general grit, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), multilingualism, and self-reported literacy achievement of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in public upper-secondary schools in Norway. Specifically, the study sought to identify predictors of students’ EFL reading and writing achievement and examine the moderating effect of multilingualism on the relationship between L2 grit, FLE, and such achievement.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 181 upper-secondary school students learning EFL in southeastern Norway (one participant’s responses were discarded because they were incomplete).
Data and Analysis: Paired and independent sample t-tests and moderated multiple regression were used to analyse the collected data.
Findings/Conclusions: The study found that the perseverance component of L2 grit and daily language use (one of two aspects of multilingualism used in the study) positively predicted both reading and writing achievement (the consistency of interest component of L2 grit only positively predicted writing achievement). In addition, daily language use was found to negatively moderate the relationship between the perseverance component of L2 grit and reading and writing achievement, with the moderating effect dissipating as additional languages were used daily.
Originality: The study is among the first to explore the interplay between grit and multilingualism in the Nordic region and examine the relationship between multilingualism, grit, FLE, and achievement globally.
Significance/Implications: The study’s findings underscore the need for researchers to develop and use more comprehensive multidimensional measures of multilingualism when investigating its effects on language learning in formal contexts, design scales for grit that target specific language skills, and broaden grit-related research to cover the learning of multiple language and non-language subjects concurrently.
This article reports on a mixed-methods study regarding the extent to which the extramural Englis... more This article reports on a mixed-methods study regarding the extent to which the extramural English (EE), external attributions, self-efficacy (concerning EFL reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills), and gender of 42 students, learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in a Norwegian upper-secondary school, predicted their EFL learning outcomes. Data on participants’ EE (receptive and productive), external attributions, and self-efficacy were collected through a questionnaire and language diaries, while their learning outcomes were measured through a language proficiency test, mock exam, in-depth project, and receptive and productive vocabulary tests. The data revealed several interesting findings, including participants’ receptive EE statistically significantly and negatively predicting their productive vocabulary test scores, whereas their writing self-efficacy and attributions to specifically literature, TV, and film statistically significantly and positively predicted them. Moreover, neither receptive nor productive EE was found to mediate the relationship between self-efficacy, external attributions, and learning outcomes.
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2023
The long-standing emphasis on communicative language teaching has resulted in a de-emphasis of ex... more The long-standing emphasis on communicative language teaching has resulted in a de-emphasis of explicit grammar instruction (EGI) in favour of an implicit, intuitive approach to learning grammar that can lead to fossilized errors, which learners are then unable to correct. In terms of research, relatively little is known about how students and teachers approach EGI, especially at transition points between primary and secondary school. This article reports on an online questionnaire-based study that explored the beliefs of 405 learners and 17 teachers (including the latter's reported practices) regarding EGI in the English classroom in primary and lower-secondary grades in Norway. The findings revealed that primary school students, as well as female participants, had more positive beliefs about EGI than those in lower-secondary schools (and male participants). Furthermore, teachers' and students' affective beliefs about EGI differed meaningfully sometimes, as did teachers' implementation of EGI-related activities that the students most enjoyed.
Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2023
Research on the relationship between students' language learning motivation (LLM), language learn... more Research on the relationship between students' language learning motivation (LLM), language learning strategies (LLS), self-efficacy beliefs (SEB), and achievement in non-European languages has been both limited and overwhelmingly cross-sectional, often with little attention paid to their multilingualism. Combining complex dynamic systems and sociocultural perspectives, this article reports on a study that explored changes in the LLM, LLS, and SEB trajectories of two multilingual students taking Arabic at a university in Norway over two semesters, including how these trajectories, alongside their multilingual competence, related to their achievement in the course. Data were gathered through weekly semi-structured interviews and a rating scale-based log that the participants kept of their LLM and SEB, as well as their exam scores over two semesters. The results indicated that, although their LLS remained fairly consistent or grew more diversified, the participants were not completely successful in maintaining or boosting their LLM, SEB, or achievement. However, the use of more varied digital LLS appeared to prevent their LLM and SEB from further weakening. Moreover, participants' LLM and SEB trajectories were susceptible to changes based on different timescales in that mesogenetic events had a more pronounced effect on one participant while the other was more sensitive to microgenetic events. Finally, despite both participants being multilingual, they were unable to benefit from their multilingual competence past the first semester, indicating that not all manifestations of multilingual competence are useful over time, especially when such competence does not contain a multilingual morphosyntactic awareness component.
Students' mindsets, multilingualism, learning styles and selfregulation strategies, which represe... more Students' mindsets, multilingualism, learning styles and selfregulation strategies, which represent parts of their learning patterns, can affect their academic achievement in various ways. This article presents the results of a study that utilised a 185-item online questionnaire to investigate the interplay among the mindsets, learning styles, self-regulation strategies, multilingualism and achievement of 191 undergraduate students in France who were studying English as a foreign language (EFL) as part of their nonlanguage degrees. The findings indicated that students who held growth-oriented mindsets about EFL, used concrete experiences as part of their learning style, and were proficient in multiple languages performed better in EFL. At the same time, there were no statistically significant correlations between their mindsets, learning styles, self-regulation strategies or multilingualism and their achievement in non-language subjects. Interestingly, the students reported employing similar learning styles and self-regulation strategies for both EFL and non-language subjects.
Given the growing movement in support of blurring the divisions between language and literature t... more Given the growing movement in support of blurring the divisions between language and literature teaching, it has become increasingly vital to understand what language teachers think of literature as a language resource, the approaches they employ when teaching with it, the extent to which they can appreciate, understand, analyse, and interpret literary texts, that is, their literary competence, and whether certain traits predict such competence. Yet, research into the use of literature in language education has been primarily concerned with learners rather than teachers. This article reports on an online questionnaire-based study that explored the creativity, orientations towards literature, teaching approaches, and beliefs regarding literature of 170 language teachers in Central Asia and how these elements predicted their literary competence. Participants worked at universities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and were teaching Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish as foreign languages. The findings revealed that their reading habits and creativity statistically significantly predicted their literary competence while their selection of texts was partly at odds with their professed orientations towards literature.
Developing students' literacy skills and intercultural competence via literary works has become a... more Developing students' literacy skills and intercultural competence via literary works has become a key component of foreign language (FL) curricula at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels in many countries. In FL classrooms, the use of textual literature can also sometimes be complemented by multimodal literature like graphic novels and picture books, which are useful in enhancing the ability of students to interpret, synthesize, and analyze information from multiple media simultaneously. This article reports the findings from an online questionnaire-based study involving 265 university students in France who were studying English as an FL alongside their degree programs. The study explored their reported literary reading response, literary competence when reading textual and multimodal literature, aesthetic competence, and the extent to which their aesthetic competence and literary response predicted their literary competence. The findings indicated that participants’ literary response drew strongly from Story-Driven Reading while their literary competence was significantly lower for textual literature than for multimodal literature. Moreover, their literary competence was statistically significantly predicted by certain components of their literary response and, to some extent, their aesthetic competence.
International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2022
This article reports on a study that used the online MULTITEACH questionnaire to examine the rela... more This article reports on a study that used the online MULTITEACH questionnaire to examine the relationship between the multilingual pedagogies 111 language teachers, employed in upper-secondary schools in Norway and Russia, reported implementing, their beliefs about how multilingualism benefitted students and teachers, and their self-assessed ability to teach language aspects and skills. The study also investigated whether sociobiographical variables and participants’ language habits outside of work affected their beliefs about multilingualism benefitting their students and implementation of multilingual pedagogies. The findings revealed that participants utilized multilingual pedagogies least frequently when teaching in first language contexts and that those who used foreign languages outside of work applied such pedagogies more frequently than participants who did not. Moreover, their beliefs about multilingualism benefitting their students were positively predicted by their beliefs about multilingualism benefitting teachers and negatively predicted by their support of the monolingual approach to language learning and teaching.
A growing number of family language policy studies have started to pay more attention to the emot... more A growing number of family language policy studies have started to pay more attention to the emotions that transnational multilingual families (TMFs) identify regarding their multilingual identity, even if much of the research remains primarily focused on TMFs residing in Europe and North America. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the emotions that five TMFs residing in Russia identified with their multilingual identity, and how these emotions affected their family language policy. The study combined ethnographic elements in the form of video recordings and two rounds of semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that the parents felt pride and satisfaction in their own multilingual identity yet feared that their children were developing a monolingual identity, which led to them experiencing anger and frustration. Coupled with these negative emotions, they were found to adopt monolingual practices with their children in hopes of making them more multilingual. The study adds to our understanding of how emotions, multilingual identity, and family language policy interact in TMFs outside of Europe and North America and is one of the first studies to explore the experiences of such families in Russia.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2022
As part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese government, cognizant of the fact ... more As part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese government, cognizant of the fact that establishing strong people-to-people bonds locally, regionally, and internationally will be key to the initiative’s success and that languages will play a pivotal role in facilitating this, has called for the diversification of language programmes beyond English at the tertiary and pre-tertiary levels. The aim is to boost the plurilingual and pluricultural competence (PPC) of Chinese citizens, who are often already multilingual because of their knowledge of Chinese dialects and minority languages. This article reports on a study involving 248 university students from over 20 provinces in China that explored the interactions between their reported PPC, translingual dispositions, interculturalism, orientations toward cultural differences, and identity-related views. The results revealed that the participants’ translingual dispositions entailed engaging in language negotiation practices to a greater extent than in resisting linguistic norms or exploring language. Moreover, the more multilingual the participants were, the more fluidly they reported moving between languages and the greater was their PPC, which was also positively and statistically significantly predicted by their age, ethnic background, acceptance of cultural differences, and views about their personal identity.
Linguistic identities in the Arab Gulf states: Waves of change, 2022
A growing number of countries are implementing school initiatives aimed at developing students’ k... more A growing number of countries are implementing school initiatives aimed at developing students’ knowledge of multiple languages to help them thrive in a globalized world. Research indicates that learning languages can be made more effective if teachers draw on their own and their students’ entire language repertoires during lessons, yet few studies have systematically investigated the extent to which language teachers are willing and able to do this. This chapter reports the findings of a mixed methods study on UAE-based secondary school teachers of Arabic, English, and French that explored their teaching practices using an ecological perspective. Drawing upon data collected via unstructured interviews, the study’s findings revealed common themes among the participants vis-à-vis their ability and willingness to draw on their and their students’ multilingualism as a pedagogical resource. The chapter concludes by offering recommendations for how schools and policymakers can implement specific measures to help teachers and students fully realize their multilingual potential.
Studies on transnational multilingual families and their language planning have mostly investigat... more Studies on transnational multilingual families and their language planning have mostly investigated their language ideologies and practices in relation to heritage language maintenance without exploring how such families view their multilingualism and how it might affect their language planning. Most studies have also exclusively focused on the experiences of transnational multilingual families residing in Europe and North America, with those living in other regions receiving comparatively little attention. This article reports on a qualitative study involving four transnational multilingual families located in China. Data were collected via a combination of semi-structured interviews and audio/video recordings. The study investigated the extent to which the participating families’ multilingualism mediated their language planning, as well as how they related to their multilingualism in its totality. The findings revealed that the families had a complex relationship with their multilingualism and saw it as a source of opportunities but also anxiety.
The research field of multilingualism in education has grown exponentially over the last two deca... more The research field of multilingualism in education has grown exponentially over the last two decades, with more and more studies published every year on the need for teachers to validate the whole linguistic repertoire of their students and help them draw on their multilingualism as a resource. What has, conversely, not been accorded sufficient attention by researchers is the multilingualism of the teachers tasked with realising this. This oversight, as it were, raises ethical issues for researchers that go beyond macro ethical considerations like the need to ensure participant anonymity, their protection from harm, and data confidentiality. Education is itself a complex, ethical enterprise, where engagement with teachers and students requires greater faithfulness, exactitude, and respect on the part of researchers. The need for such engagement, from an ethical standpoint, has been magnified as governments globally implement multilingual initiatives in schools and universities that encourage teachers to harness the growing linguistic and cultural diversity that surrounds them (and of which they are a part). Based on a systematic review of 59 published works between 2016 and 2021, this article discusses the importance of adopting a fidelity-to-participants approach when researching multilingual language teachers. Such an approach has been missing from most studies, yet it would benefit researchers and their participants, as well as policymakers and educators in several ways.
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2021
To boost the foreign language learning process, language teachers need to know how to implement a... more To boost the foreign language learning process, language teachers need to know how to implement a multilingual pedagogy, that is, they should be able to draw on their and their students' knowledge of other languages during lessons. This qualitative study explored the extent to which 21 foreign language teachers in Norwegian and Russian upper-secondary schools were willing and able to implement multilingual teaching practices and the factors that they thought affected this implementation. The findings revealed three main factors, namely, their language knowledge, their positioning as language learners, and the level of support they received, which the participants reported as strongly influencing the extent to which they were able and willing to draw on their and their students' multilingualism as a pedagogical resource. The findings also indicated that participants did not implement multilingual teaching practices differently based on the languages they taught, although there were differences between the participants from Norway and Russia concerning the teaching of English. The study has important implications for research on language teaching and learning in multilingual environments, educational institutions, and teacher development programs.
The Central Asian republics represent an interesting yet little-studied space for researching the... more The Central Asian republics represent an interesting yet little-studied space for researching the interplay between language learning motivation (LLM), multiculturalism, and multilingualism given their cultural and linguistic diversity and official promotion of multilingualism and positive multicultural attitudes through language learning initiatives in schools and universities. This article reports on a questionnaire study that investigated the LLM of 235 university students in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including their integrativeness and international posture. The students were learning Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish, with a majority of them learning two or more languages concurrently. The study also explored their views regarding the benefits of being multilingual and the extent to which their level of multilingualism, both formally and natively acquired, affected their multicultural attitudes and levels of prejudice towards outgroups. The findings revealed statistically significant gender differences in how the participants viewed the benefits of being multilingual, as well as statistically significant relationships between their levels of natively acquired multilingualism and their multicultural attitudes and levels of prejudice towards outgroups. International posture and integrativeness, meanwhile, were found to be distinct concepts with little overlap.
Over the decades, researchers and educators have sought to understand how extramural language exp... more Over the decades, researchers and educators have sought to understand how extramural language exposure impacts formal language learning outcomes, a topic that has evolved dramatically with technological advancements, particularly in recent years with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Early studies, like Rubin (1975), highlighted the significance of "good language learners" utilizing opportunities outside the classroom, which were limited to activities like radio listening and cinema visits. Today, learners benefit from a plethora of technological resources, shaping what is known as extramural English (EE), notably observed among English as an additional language (EAL) students in Norwegian schools. This chapter explores the evolution of EE, examining the diverse forms it takes in contemporary contexts, driven by extensive digital and social media use among Norwegian teenagers, which has facilitated widespread exposure to English, a factor believed to strongly correlate with enhanced English proficiency. Understanding this exposure’s nature and its impact on scholastic achievements is pivotal for educational institutions and language educators, influencing language learning beliefs, motivation, and pedagogical strategies. In terms of specifics, the chapter presents recent research findings addressing the scarcity of EE studies, offering insights into EE’s integration into language curricula and practical suggestions for educators. Emphasis is placed on the need for teacher education programs to align with students’ actual EE experiences, bridging the gap between perceived and actual exposure. While providing a comprehensive overview of EE literature, the chapter also adopts a forward-thinking approach, highlighting the evolving landscape of EE in English language teaching and proposing future research directions to deepen our understanding of its complex interplay with EAL learning.
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Papers by Raees Calafato
The study investigated the relationship between the L2 grit, domain-general grit, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), multilingualism, and self-reported literacy achievement of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in public upper-secondary schools in Norway. Specifically, the study sought to identify predictors of students’ EFL reading and writing achievement and examine the moderating effect of multilingualism on the relationship between L2 grit, FLE, and such achievement.
Design/Methodology/Approach:
A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 181 upper-secondary school students learning EFL in southeastern Norway (one participant’s responses were discarded because they were incomplete).
Data and Analysis:
Paired and independent sample t-tests and moderated multiple regression were used to analyse the collected data.
Findings/Conclusions:
The study found that the perseverance component of L2 grit and daily language use (one of two aspects of multilingualism used in the study) positively predicted both reading and writing achievement (the consistency of interest component of L2 grit only positively predicted writing achievement). In addition, daily language use was found to negatively moderate the relationship between the perseverance component of L2 grit and reading and writing achievement, with the moderating effect dissipating as additional languages were used daily.
Originality:
The study is among the first to explore the interplay between grit and multilingualism in the Nordic region and examine the relationship between multilingualism, grit, FLE, and achievement globally.
Significance/Implications:
The study’s findings underscore the need for researchers to develop and use more comprehensive multidimensional measures of multilingualism when investigating its effects on language learning in formal contexts, design scales for grit that target specific language skills, and broaden grit-related research to cover the learning of multiple language and non-language subjects concurrently.
The study investigated the relationship between the L2 grit, domain-general grit, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), multilingualism, and self-reported literacy achievement of students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in public upper-secondary schools in Norway. Specifically, the study sought to identify predictors of students’ EFL reading and writing achievement and examine the moderating effect of multilingualism on the relationship between L2 grit, FLE, and such achievement.
Design/Methodology/Approach:
A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 181 upper-secondary school students learning EFL in southeastern Norway (one participant’s responses were discarded because they were incomplete).
Data and Analysis:
Paired and independent sample t-tests and moderated multiple regression were used to analyse the collected data.
Findings/Conclusions:
The study found that the perseverance component of L2 grit and daily language use (one of two aspects of multilingualism used in the study) positively predicted both reading and writing achievement (the consistency of interest component of L2 grit only positively predicted writing achievement). In addition, daily language use was found to negatively moderate the relationship between the perseverance component of L2 grit and reading and writing achievement, with the moderating effect dissipating as additional languages were used daily.
Originality:
The study is among the first to explore the interplay between grit and multilingualism in the Nordic region and examine the relationship between multilingualism, grit, FLE, and achievement globally.
Significance/Implications:
The study’s findings underscore the need for researchers to develop and use more comprehensive multidimensional measures of multilingualism when investigating its effects on language learning in formal contexts, design scales for grit that target specific language skills, and broaden grit-related research to cover the learning of multiple language and non-language subjects concurrently.