The psychology of multilingual learners and teachers

Research linking multilingualism and psychology has largely been limited to exploring the cognitions and attitudes of multilingual individuals, whereas few studies have focused on other aspects of the psychology of multilingual learners and teachers. Meanwhile, research on the Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching (PLLT) has examined a range of constructs and issues but has often focused on one language at a time, thus failing to capture the holistic nature of multilingual individuals language repertoires. This edited book seeks to address these limitations by taking an interdisciplinary perspective combining multilingualism and PLLT scholarship to enhance our understanding of the complex realities of multilingual learners and teachers. The different chapters of this edited book examine various psychological constructs concerning the experiences, practices, and beliefs of learners and teachers in relation to multilingualism, bringing them together in one coherent publication. Some of these constructs include learner and teacher motivation, engagement, self-efficacy, wellbeing, and identity. This edited volume is innovative in two main ways. Firstly, it combines the fields of multilingualism and PLLT, offering an interdisciplinary lens that accounts for the multitude of languages which infuse learners and teachers linguistic lives and repertoires. Secondly, it provides a dual focus on both learner and teacher psychology, whereas previous research in both fields has concentrated primarily on learners. By considering the perspectives of both groups, the volume offers a broader understanding of the diverse challenges, resources, practices, and experiences that shape language learning and teaching. The chapters draw on a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches, including interviews, retrospective timeline graphs, reflective journals, large-scale surveys, focus groups, language portraits, and Q-methodology. They also span a diverse set of multilingual contexts and educational settings, such as Finland, Catalonia, Australia, Estonia, Japan, and Hungary. This cross-linguistic and cross-contextual breadth provides readers with a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of learners and teachers psychologies in relation to multilingualism across varied sociolinguistic and educational settings.