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The paper describes the results of a study whose main aim was to find the interrelationship between pupils' school grades in Czech language (native), mathematics, and physics and pupils' cognitive predispositions to problem-solving in science and mathematics diagnosed by the Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning and the Culture of Problem Solving test. A total of 180 pupils from the Czech Republic aged 14-15 took part in this study. The results show that pupils with better grades in the monitored subjects achieve better results in both tests. It also turns out that there are generally statistically insignificant differences between the results of pupils assessed by grades 1 or 2 and between those assessed by grades 3 or 4. Pupils' performance in the two tests might help to strengthen the objectivization of grading at school. They might also help identify the indicators important for developing problem-solving skills. The research specifically points to the need to develop algebraic thinking, the conception of infinity, spatial imagination, geometric imagination in the plane, proportional reasoning, and the ability to control variables.

Many bilinguals switch languages in daily-life conversations. Although this usually happens within sentence context and with another speaker, most research on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the production of language switches has studied individual words. Here, we examined how context influences both switching frequency and the temporal cost associated with it. Sixty Bulgarian-English bilinguals named pictures in their language of choice without any context, in a sentence context, and in interaction with another (recorded) bilingual. Switching frequency was lower, and costs higher, when bilinguals switched languages with context than without context. This suggests switching costs were not an artifact of tasks without context. Furthermore, both switching frequency and costs correlated across the tasks. In addition, we examined the potential influence of sentence context and the conversation partner. Predictability in sentence context has previously been argued to reduce language competition, which in turn could influence switching. We therefore compared sentences with a predictable or unpredictable target word. As hypothesized, bilinguals were less likely to switch languages when a word was predictable in its sentence context, potentially because words in the other language were less active. The conversation partner's overall switching behaviour had little impact on a bilingual's general switching rate, showing relatively low global alignment. However, local alignment was observed as switching was influenced by the partner's switching in the immediately preceding utterance. Together, these findings show that while production tasks without context can reliably measure switching costs, studying effects of context is necessary to better capture a bilingual's language-switching behavior.

The emotional stance of the instructor in an educational video can influence the learning process. For this reason, we checked the first link of the cognitive-affective model of e-learning, namely, whether learners can recognize emotions that an instructor expresses only with their voice. Since English is not the native language for many learners and most instructional videos are produced in English, we tested for possible differences in emotion recognition between native and non-native speakers. We focused on positive emotions typically conveyed in such videos - enthusiasm and calmness. Native and non-native English speakers watched 12 short video clips about wood as a building material spoken by an instructor in different emotional tones - five videos expressed enthusiasm, five calmness, one boredom and one frustration. Participants rated the extent to which they thought the narrator expressed a specific emotion, the valence and activation level of the narration and solved an English vocabulary test. Both native and non-native speakers recognized the correct emotions (except for frustration), demonstrating the power of voice prosody to convey emotion in a multimedia learning scenario. Native speakers rated the enthusiastic videos more positively than non-native speakers, indicating a subtle difference in the way the two groups perceive emotions expressed through voice.

The involvement load hypothesis (ILH), which predicts the lexical learning potential of tasks, assumes that writing sentences (SW) and compositions (CW) using novel target words (TWs) lead to similar lexical gains. However, research on the issue is scarce and contradictory. One possibility is that the higher cognitive load of CW hinders learning relative to SW. To verify the learning potential of SW and CW, we selected 20 English academic TWs and conducted a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment with Polish advanced learners of English. First, all participants wrote a control essay (without TWs), then SW participants wrote sentences and CW participants wrote two essays, each with 10 TWs. Generalized linear mixed models revealed higher gains in breadth and depth of knowledge for SW than for CW, which contradicts the predictions of the ILH. Furthermore, to detect signs of cognitive load, we derived three task-based performance measurements from the compositions: holistic scores, number of errors, and words per minute. The measurements found that the control essay and essays with TWs were of similar quality (holistic scores), but that the control essay was written faster and with fewer errors than the other two. Concluding, using TWs in essays probably increased learners' cognitive load, slowing down their writing, generating more errors, and ultimately, decreasing learning of the TWs.

The purpose of the paper is to point out the possibilities of teaching and learning Slovak as a foreign language. The course Slovak as a foreign language allowed foreign students to overcome problems while studying professional subjects in manufacturing technologies. The goal was the creation of suitable professional study material tailored for technical specialization students. Slovak language teachers used mixed methods and forms of study (face-to-face and online). They tried to improve the Slovak language communication skills of manufacturing technologies students. The results of e-exercises and the final e-test of 120 foreign students in the 1st year of bachelor's studies in the summer semester of 2022 were compared. Later the strengths and weaknesses of students were found. The level of professional Slovak terminology was improved by eliminating the most common mistakes. The Moodle platform was used for learning and teaching Slovak as a foreign language as well as Slovak professional terminology.

Different linguistic classifications of Spanish and Slovak make the differences between these two languages. The genetic criterion classifies languages, clustering them into language families, the largest among which is the Indoeuropean one. The typological criterion divides languages according to their grammatical structures. Meanwhile, Slovak is genetically a Slavonic language, and Spanish is a Romance language. Therefore, they both belong to different language families. Also, according to the typological criterion, Slovak is a synthetic language, and Spanish is an analytic language. Based on a theoretical study of the standard features and differences between the Slovak and Spanish verb systems, we formulated the hypotheses about language interferences, which are accepted or rejected at the end of the research. The current research aims to examine the errors in the use of past tenses by Slovak university students who study Spanish as a foreign language, and then analyze where these errors are due to interference with their native language. The present paper observes what errors students make in using past tenses in Spanish. The research question is: What interferences do Slovak learners of the Spanish language experience in the use of past tenses? We applied scientific methods (an observation, a textual analysis, a synthesis) to conduct the study. The first method was an observation. Applying this method made it possible to gather data by watching the process of doing grammatical exercises in Spanish during classes held from September 2020 to May 2022 for the first- and second-year students at the Faculty of Applied Languages of the University of Economics in Bratislava. These students knew English and were generally better at it than Spanish. We also conducted a textual analysis that primarily looked at the learners' short-text writing skills. We used a form with 30 phrases the respondents needed to complete using past tenses. Then, we assessed the written and spoken communication skills of students. The analysis results show that, on the one hand, most respondents needed help distinguishing between the past continuous and simple past tenses, resulting in misuse. On the other hand, we found some slight errors in phrases in which the present perfect tense was supposed to be used.

The study addresses the research gap of how being a speaker of a Slavic language influences the ability to convey tempo-aspectual meanings in Romance languages by examining personal and impersonal narratives delivered in written and spoken mode by learners of L3 Spanish and L3 Italian with L1 Slovak and L2 English. Narratives are analysed following the methods of interlanguage analysis proposed by Ellis and Barkhuizen [(2005). "Analysing learner language." Oxford University Press] and Salaberry and Comajoan [(2013). "Research design and methodology in studies on L2 tense and aspect." De Gruyter Mouton], such as coding for grounding, frequency analysis of tense forms and lexical aspectual classes, etc. Following the ideas presented by Bayley (2013, Data analysis: Quantitative approaches. In M. R. Salaberry & L. Comajoan (Eds.), "Research design and methodology in studies on L2 tense and aspect" (pp. 357-390). De Gruyter Mouton), binomial logistic regression models were built which showed that (a) the combination of discourse grounding and lexical aspect is of predictive power regarding the appropriateness of participants' choices of morphological marking; (b) the distributional characteristics of morphological marking on telic predicates differs from activities and statives. One of the main differences compared to the results of previous studies, conducted on speakers of Germanic languages, is that the data did not provide enough evidence for morphological marking being used to convey primarily temporal distinctions (see Salaberry, 1999, The development of past tense verbal morphology in classroom L2 Spanish. "Applied Linguistics," 20(2), 151-178. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/20.2.151; Wiberg, E. (1996). Reference to past events in bilingual Italian-Swedish children of school age. "Linguistics," 34(5), 1087-1114. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1996.34.5.1087]) and presented the marking of telic predicates in foreground with perfective morphology as consistent, disregarding the level of participants' performance.

While study-abroad students generally prefer destinations where the local language relates to their personal, academic, or professional pursuits, the Czech Republic ranks as the 25th most popular destination for U.S. study abroad, signalling an interest in exploring beyond traditional language choices. This study addresses the gap in the literature on learning a less commonly taught language in the study abroad setting, which is unrelated to the student's major fields of study (Czech). Over thirteen weeks, data were gathered through a qualitative methodology involving initial questionnaires, learner diaries, and semi-structured interviews with a sample of five students. Drawing on the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), the research underscores the impact of the L2 learning experience and the construct of the ideal L2 self on motivation. Findings revealed a general increase in motivation for learning Czech throughout the semester, accompanied by a decline in the ideal Czech self by the end and an indicative enhancement in the ideal multilingual self-concept. This study additionally emphasizes the vital role of mandatory language courses in augmenting motivation, particularly when aligned with learners' objectives. These insights broaden the understanding of motivational dynamics in acquiring languages other than English (LOTEs), highlighting the necessity for continued exploration of the multilingual motivational self-system within study-abroad contexts.

This study examined student teachers' beliefs about teaching multilingual classrooms across three European contexts; Slovenia, Spain (Catalonia), and Finland. Research shows that teachers' confidence in handling linguistically diverse classrooms is lacking. Linguistically sensitive teaching (LST) was used as a lens to explore different expressions of 'fears' in student teachers vis-à-vis handling plurilingual pedagogies. We collected reflections of 128 student teachers and carried out an inductive, thematic content analysis in multiple cycles. The findings showed that student teachers' fears were related to the following five categories: 1) languages in society; 2) building relationships; 3) teaching skills and methods; 4) external evaluation and teacher's autonomy, and 5) legislation and policies. Student teachers in all three contexts shared concerns over how to protect minority languages and how to obtain enough opportunities to train for LST. A major difference between the contexts emerged in the categories of building relationships and external evaluation. By examining student teachers' expressions of fear in the Slovene, Catalan and Finnish contexts, the study gives clues to better design initial teacher education courses that support the inclusion of LST in teacher practices.

Community language schools are grassroots initiatives set up by immigrant communities aiming to teach language and culture to children and descendants of migrants. During the COVID-19 pandemic, issues around ICT and equity sat at the heart of educational planning, ranging from student access to ICT to ensuring teachers' understanding of technological affordances. Although a myriad of emerging research highlights the many benefits and challenges mainstream teachers experience during the pandemic, little is known about community language planning before, during, or after the pandemic. With a micro-level language planning perspective, the aim of this study is to explore the context of ICT in community language schools and teachers' decisions around ICT uptake for teaching and learning both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic survey and follow-up interviews show that community language school teachers had limited access to ICT for teaching purposes before periods of teaching from home, but teachers' agency during online teaching afforded innovative solutions that will likely continue to impact ICT in community language planning post-pandemic.

This study reports on the outcomes of internationalising a course on Nutrition for medical students. Two interventions towards internationalised learning experience included: 1) introducing new readings and activities that invited students to consider geographical and cultural factors of dietary recommendations and 2) asking students to suggest an intervention for a hypothetical patient with a nutritional problem through discussing the assigned case in purposefully mixed groups. Changes were made both in the group that predominantly consisted of home students (N = 18) and the group of international students (N = 21). The interventions encouraged an increase in student awareness of the cultural and geographical contexts of nutrition. Students learnt through sharing diverse knowledge and experience and recognised peer learning experience as useful and enjoyable. The innovation achieved more impact in the group of international students than in the group of home students, in which diversity and previous experience from learning in multicultural groups was low.

This paper is based within the framework of step-by-step approach to teaching legal translation. The underlying philosophy behind this approach is that when specific aspects of legal translations are tackled in isolation and trainees become aware of the pitfalls involved and the possible solutions, this helps them in further training as well as in their professional practice. Drawing on this assumption, this paper introduces a case study dealing with understanding and interpretation of English legal texts from the classroom perspective. The paper presents a number of problems that pose difficulties to trainees and proposes exercises to help them overcome such problems in a systematic way. Although this paper uses Czech as a target language, the exercises can be adapted to teach legal translation from English into other target languages. The issues have been selected based on the author's experience with addressing recurring problems faced by legal translation trainees. Such issues include understanding complex sentences showing all-inclusiveness and syntactic discontinuities, legal cross-referencing expressions (e.g. "subject to" and "without prejudice to") or conjunctions whose meaning may not be transparent (e.g. "provided," "however," "that").

We examined the naturalistic pronunciation development of two groups of L2 speakers over 10 years. Initially, 50 beginner ESL students participated in production tasks; despite attrition, the tasks were administered eight more times. Here we report listener judgements of accentedness, comprehensibility and fluency for the remaining six Mandarin and 12 Slavic language speakers at Year 10. Analyses of listener judgments of accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency of utterances recorded at the 2-month, 1-year, 2-year, 7-year and 10-year points revealed that the Slavic language speakers improved in comprehensibility and fluency at each comparison point, while the Mandarin speakers' results were variable; there was improvement in comprehensibility from Year 7 to Year 10, but only after worsening at earlier points. The Slavic language group showed improvement in accentedness several times, whereas the Mandarin group showed no improvement in accentedness at any point. The data were examined for individual differences in learning trajectories. Interview responses and a survey of language use were compared to participants' trajectories. Some speakers showed steady improvement from Year 7 to Year 10, but the majority plateaued or regressed. We also elicited speakers' views of their progress. The results are interpreted through Complexity Theory and the Willingness to Communicate framework. Suggestions are made for research and teaching interventions.

Linguistic diversity at Czech schools has increased in the last decade, and it has become a new everyday reality. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of studies investigating lived experiences with managing multilingualism at schools. Our study examines schools as multilingual social spaces in which the visible language choice on signs reveals the language regime based on ideologies and policies. We contextualize our study according to top-down language policy, and the essential theoretical concepts such as social space or language regime are explained. The linguistic landscapes at schools (so-called schoolscapes) are analysed and interpreted to capture schools as multilingual social spaces. The focus lies on: (1) displayed languages; (2) authorship of the object: (3) location of the object. The data from schoolscaping are complemented by interviews with school principals, who are responsible for language choice decisions. The investigation took place in four schools, where multilingualism plays an essential role. The results indicate that despite the multilingual reality and the promotion of multilingualism by anchoring it in the agenda of inclusive education, language homogenization is operative in schools. Our results are relevant for exploring the linguistic environments and language regimes at schools and reveal possible explanations for linguistic homogenization.

In an increasingly globalised and multilingual world, the use of different scripts in the same semiotic landscape is an increasingly frequent and widespread phenomenon. For this reason, it is vital to conduct research focusing on multiscriptality in order to better understand the linguistic and semiotic functions of the use of multiple scripts that have become more or less officialised by the political-administrative power. This study examines the use of Latin characters in Greece and Bulgaria, the only two European Union member societies that formally adopt different scripts. Using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach, we analyse the coexistence of the national and Latin alphabets in the graphic texts of commercial signs in two urban areas: the Ladadika district in Thessaloniki, Greece and the Kapana district in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The results show that the advancement of the Latin alphabet is not homogeneous; sometimes unconventionally represents the national language; is not completely preferred to the recessive national script, but creates with it new orthographic-communicative forms; and can take place regardless of the overwhelming prestige of Global English. This paper demonstrates the importance of studying multiscriptality and the Romanisation process in the context of contemporary multilingualism.

Although motivation is an extensively discussed topic, minor languages deserve more research attention. This qualitative multiple case study explores motivation to learn Czech as a second language in Beginners' Czech language courses for Erasmus students in the Czech Republic through the lens of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), searching for the critical motivation sources in this type of setting. The data were collected in language learning journals, two semistructured interviews, and a final questionnaire. Five cases were chosen to demonstrate the key sources of motivation. In the profiles, the ideal L2 self, closely tied to the sojourn in the country, and the L2 learning experience in the language course were the most prominent components of the L2MSS. The data also suggested a possible role of the multilingual self. Finally, the paper presents pedagogical implications suitable for this type of course and broader instructional contexts.

This study investigates the use of overt and null subjects in Bulgarian in child heritage speakers with L2 German. The alternation of overt and null pronominal subjects in null-subject languages like Bulgarian depends on grammatical and discourse conditions and contrasts with German. Oral narratives were elicited in Bulgarian, comparing the performance of the heritage children to that of monolingual children and adults. Overall 68 Bulgarian narratives of 39 speakers were analysed as to the use of overt and null pronominal subjects in topic-continuity and topic-shift contexts. The results reveal similar subject realisation for all speakers, supporting early acquisition of null-subject grammars. Analyses of topic-continuity and -shift contexts showed similar overall patterns in children's and adults' subject use, with children producing somewhat more overt subjects in topic-continuity and ambiguous overt pronouns in topic-shift contexts than adults. However, the bilinguals used significantly more ambiguous null subjects than monolinguals. These results suggest that fine-grained discourse constraints of null-subject grammars are more difficult for bilinguals to acquire and maintain. The near adult-like performance of the bilinguals in some contexts can be attributed to the fact that most of them were Bulgarian-dominant and received non-attrited parental input. Differences are also attributable to cross-linguistic influence.

The main aim of the article is to identify Slovenian children's attitudes towards foreign languages (FL), their motivation for learning languages, the influence of different significant others (teachers, parents, peers) on their language attitudes, and the ways they perceive languages which they are exposed to. The focus is on FLs in general rather than on a particular FL. The study is linked to the project 'Languages Matter' whose principal goal is to determine which factors support the creation of a supportive learning environment for the development of plurilingualism in the Slovenian school context. The article presents the results of a survey conducted in different primary schools in Slovenia on a population of 472 pupils aged 8/9 (n = 472). The survey questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part uses the LANGattMini scale (Bratož et al., 2021) to investigate the following factors: FL learning motivation, FL attitudes, and importance of significant others. The second part uses a qualitative paradigm and aims to gain an insight into the respondents' perceptions of FLs. The results of the study indicate that children's attitudes towards FLs are generally positive but at the same time build a complex picture of interdependence between attitudes, motivation, and significant others.

Purpose: We examined the properties of mean length of utterance (MLU) in Czech, a morphologically complex Slavic language. We compared the scores of MLU calculated in different units and based on different sample lengths and assessed its validity against another transcript and test-based measures. Method: One hundred nine children were recorded during free-play at 2;6 and 3;11 (years;months). We compared MLU in syllables, morphemes, and words (MLU[subscript w]) in transcripts of different lengths (50, 75, 100, and all available utterances). For evaluating the validity of MLU, we also calculated Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) and number of different words (NDW) and used results of receptive vocabulary and grammar comprehension tests. Results: The different MLU measures based on different sample lengths correlated closely with MLU in transcripts of all utterances (all "rs" > 0.87). We found mostly strong correlations between MLU, IPSyn, and NDW at both time points and weak or moderate correlations between MLU and grammar and vocabulary. Regression models showed the significant unique effect of MLUw at 2;6 for MLUw ([beta] = 0.29) and grammar ([beta] = 0.33) at 3;11 and vocabulary ([beta] = 0.27) at 3;7. Conclusion: MLU[subscript w] based on all utterances was confirmed as a valid measure of early language skills in Czech, as it is stable in time and shows concurrent and predictive relations with other transcript-based and test-based measures.

A cohort of American students came to Prague for their Study Abroad in spring 2020. They signed up for a Czech language course but had to leave the country in the middle of the term and continue learning from homes. At the end of the term, they were asked to write a short reflective essay on how their motivation to learn Czech transformed throughout the term and what motivational factors they regarded as key for themselves. This text explores what the students have to say about their own learning experience from their unique study abroad experience and confirms that the integrative factor plays the most important role in the study abroad context.

Reading comprehension (RC) is a multi-faceted construct but is often assessed with a single instrument. Previous research has highlighted that commonly used RC tests are only mildly correlated and vary in the skills they assess, including the differential contribution of oral language and decoding to children's performance. Our study, framed within the Simple View of Reading model, examined the contribution of underlying component skills for multiple RC measures and evaluated whether the contribution of decoding and oral language skills changes according to the RC test used and developmental level. Two hundred Slovak-speaking children were assessed across two time points, using multiple RC tests and measures of decoding and oral language skills. The RC tests showed weak to moderate correlations, echoing findings from other languages. At the end of Year 1, the contribution of decoding and oral language to RC was similar in the Slovak transparent orthography. At the end of Year 2, the contribution of oral language had increased threefold, while decoding remained unchanged from Year 1. Crucially, there were also differences between the tests, with some more reliant on oral language. The results highlight the potential benefits of increasing understanding of the differential effects of the component skills in commonly used RC assessments as an aid to interpretation of children's scores. Such an approach could not only identify children with poor scores, but also pinpoint where weaknesses lie in the underlying components so intervention targets could be formulated accordingly.

Every year, more and more foreign students are enrolled at the Faculty of Manufacturing Technologies in Prešov of the Technical University in Kosice. For this reason, Slovak Language for Foreign Students was introduced as a compulsory subject in the 1st year of bachelor's study. The purpose of the paper was to emphasize the teaching of Slovak as a foreign language and thus help to overcome the problems of foreign students in studying professional subjects. The aim is to provide them with suitable tailor-made study material within the blended form of teaching. Slovak language teachers at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities used mixed innovative methods and forms of study and tried to increase the language and communication skills of students. The paper compares the results of e-exercises and the final e-test of 140 foreign students from different study programmes in the first year of their bachelor study in the winter semester 2021. Slovak language teachers were able to identify students' strengths and weaknesses based on the results of experimental research. Elimination of the most frequent mistakes will help students to increase the level of technical Slovak language, which they can apply during the study of professional subjects and in future practice in Slovak companies. The university-wide Moodle platform was used for blended learning in teaching Slovak as a foreign language at the Faculty.

The present study investigated relationships between statistics anxiety (SA), trait anxiety, attitudes towards mathematics and statistics, and academic achievement among university students who had at least one study course related to statistics in their study programme. Five hundred and twelve students from the University of Ljubljana completed the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and answered questions about their perceptions of mathematics and statistics. The results showed below-average mean scores on the STARS dimensions, except for the Test and Class Anxiety with the average score around the midpoint of the scale. Female students reported higher levels of SA than male students did. The highest levels of SA were reported by students who perceived mathematics and statistics as a threat. The subscales of the STARS correlated positively with students' trait anxiety. Students who reported less enjoyment in mathematics in high school perceived statistics to be a less worthy subject and had a lower computation self-concept. Students who had better mathematics performance in high school and higher average study grades also reported a higher computation self-concept. In the present study, we translated the STARS questionnaire into Slovenian and confirmed the six-factor structure of the questionnaire. The results provide a basis for further research on statistics anxiety and further validation of the STARS questionnaire. The results can also aid statistics teachers in better understanding students' worries, fears, and attitudes towards statistics and in learning about the factors that affect students' statistics anxiety and their work in the course.

Motor competence as an indicator of gross motor development is characterized by changes in movement patterns and outcomes. The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 consists of six locomotor and seven ball tasks used to assess the quality of fundamental motor skills in children. The purpose of this study is twofold--to produce a Slovenian translation of Test of Gross Motor Development-3 and to evaluate it on a sample of Slovenian children. First, a back translation was carried out with the help of relevant field professionals, thus producing a Slovenian version of Test of Gross Motor Development-3 with excellent content validity. Second, trained assessors rated the video-recorded test tasks of 452 Slovenian children with smaller groups of measured participants repeating the procedure within 2- and 4-week interval to assess reliability. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using several statistical methods. The data showed good to excellent reliability for intrarater, interrater, test-retest reliability, structural validity, and internal consistency for the majority of motor skills, as well as good measurement invariance across genders.

We adopted a person-oriented approach to identify patterns of how classroom talk and internal behavioral engagement are combined in students. The research was conducted on a sample of 639 ninth-grade students (32 classes). We measured the duration of classroom talk for each individual student during Czech language and language arts lessons. The students completed an inventory to determine their internal behavioral engagement. Student achievement was measured using the results from standardized reading literacy tests. We also inquired about the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students. We identified five distinct participation profiles (eager, chatty, diligent, aloof, and disconnected) and analyzed whether the profiles could predict student achievement. We found that the profile with high talk and high internal behavioral engagement performed best, and the profile with low talk and low internal behavioral engagement performed worst. Analyzing the inconsistent profiles, we found that high internal behavioral engagement did not guarantee student achievement if the engagement was not accompanied by talk. Our findings thus highlight the important role of classroom talk in relation to student learning.

This study investigated the influence of phonological word representations from both first language (L1) and second language (L2) on third language (L3) lexical learning in L1-dominant Spanish-English bilinguals. More specifically, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to determine whether L1 Spanish and L2 English phonology modulates bilinguals' brain response to newly learned L3 Slovak words, some of which had substantial phonological overlap with either L1 or L2 words (interlingual homophones) in comparison to matched control words with little or no phonological overlap. ERPs were recorded from a group of 20 Spanish-English bilinguals in response to 120 auditory Slovak words, both before and after a three-day-long learning period during which they associated the L3 Slovak novel words with their L1 Spanish translations. Behaviorally, both L1 Spanish and L2 English homophony facilitated the learning of L3 Slovak words in a similar manner. In contrast, the electrophysiological results of the post-training ERPs, but not the pre-training ERPs, showed an N100 effect for L2 English interlingual homophones and opposite N400 effects for L1 Spanish and L2 English interlingual homophones in comparison to control words. These findings suggest different neurocognitive mechanisms in the use of L1 and L2 phonological information when learning novel words in an L3.

The Slovene language has several roles in the educational process in the Republic of Slovenia, including its role as a subject in the curriculum in its own right. It is a basic general education subject in public primary schools and has the most hours of all of the subjects. All teachers were forced to teach remotely for the first time in the history of education (first during the 2019/20 school year and then in the 2020/21 school year) during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The results of a survey comprising 348 teachers with the ability to teach the mother tongue at primary school level (grades 1-9 of primary school; 59% were class curriculum teachers and 41% were Slovene language teachers) show, among other things, that teachers mostly have a good attitude towards distance teaching and feel empowered for this type of teaching, although they feel that this method makes them mentally and physically more tired than teaching in the classroom. Among the advantages of distance teaching, teachers mention the greater use of modern information and communication technology, more use of e-material and the opportunity for formal monitoring of students. In their opinion, the biggest problems of distance teaching (of the Slovene language) include: lack of student participation; lack of non-verbal communication, thus creating difficulties in understanding; and technical issues. Most teachers believe that students acquire less knowledge or far less knowledge by distance education than they would from education in the classroom. Teachers who feel more empowered to teach remotely also have a better attitude towards teaching their mother tongue and are more satisfied with the communication aspect with students in distant teaching. Teachers who have received the necessary training for distance teaching as part of their work feel more empowered to teach this way than teachers who have not had such training.

The purpose of this research is to set the characteristics of the contents of the course books that are prepared for the lessons of mother tongue education in secondary schools in different countries. Within the frame of the purpose, the content of the course books in Germany, Austria, Finland, Northern Macedonia, Hungary and Turkey were analyzed in three aspects. The first of all is about which sections are included in the general content, the second is about how the classification of the content was made and finally the third one includes how the language skills and the fields of learning are placed in the content. Figured in a quantitative way and the document of the research in which the content analyzed is composed by the 23 course books used in the countries that are mentioned above. In the analysis of the data 3 arguments and a checklist that enables to make a systematic evaluation consists of 28 items is used. As a result of the research, it is confirmed that the content of mother language course books in countries differ from each other due to the general properties of content; while classifying the course books generally multiplied structure dominated by thematic, functional and grammatical segmentation, it has been determined that all language skills, vocabulary teaching and grammar, both theoretical and practical, are included in the books. At the end of the study, it is recommended to take the course books in Germany and Hungary as an example while preparing the Turkish course books.

Gender issues in Languages are very sensitive and interesting, especially in the societies making effort to empower the presence and the role of women in respective society. Kosovar society is one of the examples of such efforts and debates initiated by women's rights groups and organizations. The situation has changed rapidly in some senses of the use of different linguistics markers regarding the use of respective terms that are considered more appropriate or politically correct than the traditional ones. For example, the terms 'gender' and 'sex' are alternating each-other, not only to denote biological distinctions but also cultural ones. The most rapid changes have been noticed in the use of the term 'woman' instead of the traditional term 'female', which in the perception of the average speakers was not an offensive term for women. But, there is still in use the term 'female' to denote the person of certain gender or sex, especially in informal and social use and in instant messaging. One of the issues identified during the monitoring of media for this paper, was the use of masculine plural to cover also the feminine members of certain groups, especially while naming occupations and this situation is unavoidable because the gender in Albanian has clear grammatical features in the plural as well. To complete this research, I monitored media in different formats (newspapers, online media, social media, radio, and television, in Albanian, Serbian and Macedonian), and also I did a focus group with youngsters on instant messaging platforms.

In Germanic and Slavic languages, the Verb is the most extensive grammatical item, which causes most of the troubles for second language learners. It has been noticed that Slavic L1 learners of English make mistakes in using verb forms due to the transfer of their L1 grammatical system (grammar concepts) onto the English language. The goal of the paper is to show how the wording of grammatical explanations in English influences the conceptualisation of grammatical items. The paper refers to one of the most probable sources of such misunderstanding -- the way grammatical forms are named and explained in frequently used course books and grammars of English, which leads to a corrupted or limited understanding of the functionality of a grammatical form in L1 Slavic learners. The practical clues presented below might be beneficial for authors of course-books, FL language teachers and teacher trainers in solving the dilemma between the implicit vs explicit approach to teaching grammar, in constructing concept questions and formulating clear explanations in class.

The presented study examines the question of colour categorization in relation to the hypothesis of linguistic relativity. The study is based on research conducted by Gilbert et al. (2006) and their claim that linguistic colour categorization in a particular language helps colour recognition and speeds the process of colour discrimination for colours from different linguistic categories but only for the right visual field. Our study approached the research question differently. We used the same methodology as Gilbert's team et al. (2006), but we used different colour categories in the Czech language and significantly enlarged the number of participants to 106 undergraduate psychology students. Our results show that the fastest reaction times were in trials when the target was located in the left visual field, quite opposite from the Gilbert's et al. (2006) study. We argue that this finding is based on different processes than simple colour linguistic categorisation and attentional processes actually play an important role in the task.

This study investigated the L2 motivation of five Chinese undergraduates learning Bulgarian as their major and studying in Bulgaria in a one-academic-year exchange programme. The focus of the study concerned a rarely explored L2 learning situation, namely when the L2 is associated with a host community of limited ethnolinguistic vitality. Based on the theoretical foundations of the L2 Motivational Self System and the ideal multilingual self, and drawing on the principles of retrodictive qualitative modelling, this study identified three distinct motivational patterns emerging during the one-year study abroad in Bulgaria: decreasing motivation with a weakened ideal Bulgarian self; fluctuating motivation with a weakened ideal Bulgarian self; and fluctuating motivation with a strengthened ideal Bulgarian self. A comparative analysis of these patterns suggested that: (1) language learners' agentic interpretations of their sojourn in the host country had a considerable impact on their cultural interest, thereby shaping the quality of their ideal Bulgarian self; (2) the impairment/enhancement of the ideal Bulgarian self was a principal cause of the decrease/increase of the participants' Bulgarian-learning motivation; and (3) an ideal multilingual self can work as compensation for the impaired ideal Bulgarian self, by directly motivating student's learning when the ideal Bulgarian self was weakened.

The article highlights the importance of transliteration in the field of machine translation, correct writing of personal and place names, and information retrieval. It provides an overview of various approaches, models and methods available in the field of transliteration. It shows the types of transliteration methods. The article also highlights the principles taken into account during the process of transliteration. It shows advantages and disadvantages of the proposed transliteration methods for different languages. It explains the accuracy of mentioned transliteration techniques through transliterated words. It is noted that proposed transliteration methods for one language may not be significant for others. Moreover, it may not be enough to apply only one method in the field of direct and backward transliteration of languages with different graphemes and phonemes. Therefore, different transliteration techniques have to be combined.

The following article attempts to characterise the current changes in the communication of people living in the area of Polish-Czech borderland based on the results of the study conducted in 2018 and 2019. The aim is to determine the dominant mode of supranational communication, as well as the reason behind its prevalence by analysing the language skills of the interviewed Poles and Czechs, along with their language preferences and selected personal experiences. The multilingual modes known as English as a "lingua franca" and "lingua receptiva" as well as their combination, constitute a platform of reference. The analysis proves that in more peripheral areas of the globalised world where different languages and cultures cross, postmonolingual practices have been developed. They maintain the leading position of the first language but they also adapt other multilingual modes. It is suggested that these practices should not be treated as a transitional phase on the way to rich multilingualism but rather as a specific glocalisation effect.

The aim of this paper is to support and foster the research on the Croatian Glagolitism within the digital humanities framework, by identifying and examining the features of a virtual research environment that would enhance the possibilities of an interdisciplinary collaborative research of Croatian Glagolitism in a digital environment, supported by the use of digital methods and tools. A survey was conducted among scholars in the Croatian Glagolitism to find out their opinions on the use of digital tools and methods in researching Glagolitism, and get an insight into their experience with digital tools and methods in their research. The scholars were also asked to identify the digital infrastructure elements that would be the most useful and applicable for their research process. This study 1) summarizes the feedback of scholars in Glagolitism obtained in a survey that examined their expectations of a virtual research infrastructure for studies in Glagolitism, 2) provides a fresh insight into the current situation regarding virtual research environments and manuscript studies and 3) gives a proposal of features that a virtual research environment should have to enable collaborative interdisciplinary research in Glagolitism.

The problems of preserving the language and culture of small ethnic groups are relevant in world society. The Yukaghirs are one of the disappearing ethnic groups due to their small number and long-term adaptation in a multi-ethnic environment that does not contribute to the development and preservation of linguistic and cultural traditions. The lack of a language environment, scientifically grounded educational programs and teaching materials, violation of psychological foundations that contribute to the preservation of an ethnic group are the main bases of the relevance of the study. The article presents the results of a long-term educational experiment on the preservation of the Yukaghir language and culture in the Nelemnoye secondary school of the Verkhnekolymsky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the successful management of the educational process in the new conditions, its progressive expansion, development, and creation of a socio-educational space to preserve the native language and culture in the Yukaghir village. The practical results of the experiment can be used to solve similar problems in the world's educational society.

This research aimed to determine the anxiety levels of students towards Bosnian, their native language, and Turkish, which is a foreign language. With this aim, two separate scales were used in the study to determine speech anxiety levels. The sample of the study is comprised of 49 female students. It is a qualitative research, and the data gathered in this study were evaluated on SPSS 21.0 software package. The findings indicated that the levels of anxiety of students comprising the sample group toward mother tongue were moderate, and their out-of-class speech anxiety level, one of the levels of anxiety toward foreign language, was higher than the mean. There was no significant difference between the levels of anxiety toward mother tongue and the levels of anxiety toward foreign language of the students comprising the sample group. In line with the findings obtained from the application, interviews were conducted with the students on the causes of anxiety. The causes of anxiety students referred to include getting excited, being embarrassed, being badly criticized, fearing that their knowledge is inadequate.

Picture books discussed with pupils in primary school are considered multimodal texts, as they combine at least two communication codes (verbal and visual). A discussion involving picture books will normally be included in Slovenian language lessons, with pupils focussing mostly on the text. The visual aspect, which equally carries a message, is often neglected. The objective of the present case study that was conducted among fifth-grade primary school pupils in the 2018/19 school year was to explore how a cross-curricular approach to planning and executing the lessons in the Slovenian language and visual art can help pupils learn about the characteristics of the picture book as a multimodal text. We conducted a set of didactic activities entitled "Getting to know the picture book," introducing selected picture books to pupils as part of their Slovenian language classes, which resulted in them developing their receptive skills while observing and defining the structure of the texts. In visual art classes, the pupils learned about the visual features of the picture book. As a productive response to the picture book discussed, the pupils were instructed to complete the following tasks: design a cover for their own picture book, design endpapers, illustrate their own poem, and produce their own leporello. The survey involved 21 pupils, a generalist teacher, and a researcher in art didactics. The case study was completed in five weeks. The data were obtained by means of initial and final testing, questionnaires for pupils, and participant observation.

This paper presents findings from an extensive study conducted in Brazil. The main subjects of the study were Bulgarian children living and studying in Brazilian schools. The main goal was to indicate what kind of problems and obstacles they experience during the school time in Brazil and how the Brazilian government and people support these Bulgarian children. The data was collected by a Bulgarian research team that travelled to the remote regions of Brazil where many Bulgarian citizens live and work. The researchers took interviews with the Bulgarian children and their parents as well as school staff at the schools in Brazil with a high population of Bulgarian children. The analysis revealed many different problems that Bulgarian children and their parents highlighted, such as problems with the language of instructions, misunderstandings of school rules and general problems related to living in the remote areas of Brazil, such as weather and heat-related issues. Although many Bulgarian families reported some problems, they were still determined to continue their life and career in Brazil, and they want to continue to pursue their dreams.