In recent years there has been a focus in language policy research on understanding how national policies are interpreted and negotiated by social actors on the ground. This paper looks at the interplay between government and grassroots initiatives to create Galician-speaking spaces in predominantly Spanish-speaking urban settings. While official…

This article demonstrates the use of structural equation modeling to develop norms for a translated version of a standardized scale, the Supports Intensity Scale-Children's Version (SIS-C). The latent variable norming method proposed is useful when the standardization sample for a translated version is relatively small to derive norms…

Several studies on multilingualism in the workplace have emphasized the role of English as a lingua franca. Other studies have paid attention to the interaction between English and local languages in workplaces where global orientations and local languages co-occur. The present study focuses on internationally oriented workplaces in the bilingual…

This study explores the degree of language knowledge of Japanese living in Catalonia and their perceptions of the two particular languages used in this multilingual/bilingual society. The data on language proficiency was obtained via a questionnaire survey which was evaluated by the subjects themselves and analysed by means of correspondence…

Immigrant integration in nation states increasingly focuses on the importance of learning the national state language. This is evidenced by increased emphasis on rigorous language testing and tighter citizenship regulations. This paper analyses immigrant integration in two sub-state contexts, Galicia and Wales, where presence of a national…

Previous studies have shown that study abroad has a positive effect on second language (L2) learning outcomes for students who spend at least a semester abroad. It is unclear, however, whether a short-term experience also has a measurable impact on L2 development. The present study examines the relationship between speaking proficiency gains made…

The present paper reports a study on communicative anxiety of two groups of adult users. The paper aims at exploring the communicative anxiety of multilingual speakers and at analysing the communicative anxiety in second and third languages. This study includes 532 participants who were divided in two groups according their L1. One group of…

This article reports on the results of undergraduate students that studied abroad (SA) and primary underlying factors behind their successful language study. The 189 participants were undergraduate students that studied abroad (Spain, Peru, and Honduras) in one of three advanced Spanish language semester-long programs through a Midwest four-year…

This paper presents the results of a study based on the change in language attitudes experienced by some allochthonous individuals through contact with the sociolinguistic situation in Catalonia. Previous studies have suggested that in some cases, contact with Catalan--a minority language with a valued identity--acts as a stimulus for some…

Despite institutional and national focus on the importance of study abroad (SA) in U.S. higher education, the number of students of color abroad is still disproportionately low (Institute of International Education, 2017). Moreover, there is limited literature examining how race and ethnicity shapes experiences abroad, despite SA research…

In this article we discuss the outcomes of a study into the languages of the workplace of internationally operating companies. Our aim is to contribute to studies of multilingualism in the workplace by adopting a holistic approach that focuses on several languages and relates the competences and attitudes of multilingual professionals to the…

This case study examines how one study abroad student oriented to social interaction during a semester in Spain. Using an activity theoretical approach, the findings indicate that the student not only viewed social interaction with his Spanish host family and an expert-Spanish-speaking age peer as an opportunity for second language (L2) learning,…

This article focuses on minority languages in education in Europe in contexts where they are in contact with national state languages and English. Teaching minority language implies bilingual education because it is not about replacing the majority language, but to come 'alongside' or at 'equal footing'. The cases of Basque and Frisian, comparing…

The present study focuses on the link between three factors, proficiency, language certificates and bilingualism, and levels of communicative anxiety in the third language (English) in two groups of adult users, university students and young professionals. The first group consisted of 217 university students who were enrolled at the University of…

Open-ended probing questions in cross-cultural surveys help uncover equivalence problems in cross-cultural survey research. For languages that a project team does not understand, probe answers need to be translated into a common project language. This article presents a case study on translating open-ended, that is, narrative answers. It describes…