How come that the language skills of adult language learners vary to such an important degree? This is one of the major, overarching questions that the field of SLA endeavors to respond to. Research on adult second language acquisition (L2A) has shown that some late L2 learners perform within the L1 speaker range for specific linguistic features (e.g. Lahmann, Steinkrauss and Schmid 2016). However, they generally do not perform within the L1 speaker range when assessed across the board for challenging L2 structures (see Abrahamsson and Hyltenstam 2009; Granena and Long 2013). Furthermore, researchers suggest that age effects tend to diminish after late adolescence and that the importance of social and psychological factors then increases (see also Hyltenstam 2018). Thus far, the most studied individual factor is that of language aptitude, which has been found to be an important factor in several studies (e.g. Granena and Long 2013). However, scholars argue that there is a need to include a larger variety of factors to fully understand adult L2A (e.g. Moyer 2013; Douglas Fir Group 2016).

This project situates in this line of research, based on a research project on the Swedish community in Paris, France, and the French community in Stockholm, Sweden. I will be speaking about three separate studies investigating both language proficiency, individual factors and language ideologies in late L2 learners of Swedish (French L1) (N=59) and of French (Swedish L1) (N=62) with a minimum length of residence (LoR) of 5 years in Sweden /France. The included individual factors are: language aptitude (LLAMA), reported language use, reported social networks, acculturation (VIA), and personality (MPQ). Two studies are quantitative, whereas the third, on language ideologies, is based on deep interviews with selected participants.

Through the interweaving of the individual, the social context and societal ideologies, the project attempts to account for the multi-factorial nature of adult second language learning in a migratory context.

Fanny Forsberg Lundell