The impact of multilingualism and learning patterns on student achievement in English and other subjects in higher education

A Polyglot’s Strategies in Learning Foreign Languages: a Case Study

“…On the other hand, studies aimed at examining multilingualism at the individual level have also been growing, and a specific term, i.e. plurilingualism, was coined to emphasize the focus of the study (Calafato & Simmonds, 2023;Cenoz, 2013;Jeoffrion, Marcouyeux, Starkey-Perret, et al, 2014). Most studies focusing on individual multilingualism addressed the characteristics of multilingual individuals, such as motivation (Calafato, 2021;Macatuno-Nocom, 2022;Thompson & Erdil-Moody, 2016), learning strategies (Alshaghel & Pappuswany, 2021;Brosh, 2018;Chattaraj, 2017;Dolgunsöz, 2013;Macatuno-Nocom, 2022;Qomariyah et al, 2022;Raftari & Vosoughi, 2013), learners' performance and the factors affecting the performance (Bin-Tahir et al, 2018;Bensalem, 2018;Brosh, 2018;Shishova, 2020), the cognitive and neural characteristics of multilingual individuals (Bright, Ouzia & Filippi, 2015;Hayakawa & Marian, 2019;Wattendorf, Festman, Westermann et al, 2014), as well as the impacts and benefits of multilingualism (Botes et al, 2020;Calafato, 2021;Calafato & Simmonds, 2023;Dolgunsöz, 2013;Lewis, 2023;O'Brien, Curtin & Naqvi, 2014;Pitkänen-Huhta, 2019).…”

“…The belief stemmed from Leonard Bloomfield's idea of what he called 'true multilingual.' However, the belief has been criticized as the imposing of a nativelike proficiency on foreign language learners would mean shoving a monolingual bias towards them, and that foreign language learning is much more complex than learning a first language (Anastassiou et al, 2017;Calafato & Simmonds, 2023;Jeoffrion et al, 2014;Macatuno-Nocom, 2022;O'Brien et al, 2014;Pinto & Alexandre, 2004;Pitkänen-Huhta, 2019;Shishova, 2020;Souza, 2018), especially if the learners are learning the new language not as a second language but as a third language or fourth language and so on (Hayakawa & Marian, 2019;Jeoffrion et al, 2014). On the other hand, Cenoz (2013) states that accepting minimum competence and/or proficiency for one to be considered multilingual is also rather problematic.…”

“…As such, multilingualism is now accepted as the umbrella term which includes not only bilingualism but also trilingualism, pentalingualism, and beyond. This perspective makes more sense as each of the terms deals with the same phenomenon, albeit having different degrees in terms of the number of languages involved (Calafato & Simmonds, 2023).…”

“…Among the various aspects being studied up to the present time, learning strategy stands out as one of the most interesting and beneficial aspects. This is because it correlates with various variables, such as motivation and anxiety, and it plays a significant role in facilitating effective learning, predicting outcomes, and even determining the success of learning (Castillo, 2013;Calafato & Simmonds, 2023;Hemaidia, 2013;Shishova, 2020). The significance of learning strategies about multilingualism and foreign language learning also lies in the general acknowledgment that multilingual individuals indeed possess unique characteristics that both provide and result in advantages and superiority against monolingual individuals (Anastassiou et al, 2017;Dolgunsöz, 2013;Wattendorf et al, 2014).…”

“…The significance of learning strategies about multilingualism and foreign language learning also lies in the general acknowledgment that multilingual individuals indeed possess unique characteristics that both provide and result in advantages and superiority against monolingual individuals (Anastassiou et al, 2017;Dolgunsöz, 2013;Wattendorf et al, 2014). Considering the unique characteristics of multilingual individuals, it comes as no surprise that they typically would employ a set of learning strategies that are often relatively, or may even be significantly, different compared to those of monolingual and even bilingual individuals (Brosh, 2018;Calafato & Simmonds, 2023;Chattaraj, 2017;Dolgunsöz, 2013;Hemaidia, 2013;Macatuno-Nocom, 2022;Qomariyah et al, 2022;Zarei & Baharestani, 2014).…”