Multilingual learning stories: threshold, stability and change

Abstract

The article presents a reflection on the ways multilingual language users perceive their L2 and L3 learning experiences in retrospect. Emphasis is placed on sequential learning of foreign languages in classroom settings for learners/users homogenous in terms of their learning histories, with L1 Polish and L2 English (advanced), but at two different levels of advancement in L3 French. Twenty beginning and twenty advanced learners of L3 French were asked to produce retrospective narratives on their L2 vs. L2 learning experiences. In the article, we offer a comparison of those learning experiences in terms of the subjects' motivations, attitudes, learning styles and strategies and their perceptions of cross-linguistic influences between the languages. The narratives are analysed in terms of features stable (similar) and different for both L3 learning contexts. It seems that there is a huge discrepancy between the less and the more advanced learners of L3 with respect to all the features enumerated. Thus, an attempt is made to interpret the differences between the L3 beginning and advanced learners within the threshold hypothesis framework.

Keywords:

• retrospective narratives
• L2 vs. L2 learning experiences
• affective factors
• threshold in L3