Lessons from exceptional language learners who have achieved nativelike proficiency: Motivation, cognition and identity

Abstract

Work in ‘ultimate attainment’ attests to an adult learner’s ability to pass for a native speaker in a second language (L2) community (e.g. Moyer 2021). There are, however, several questions inviting further enquiry into the late L2 learners’ approach to advanced attainment, including ‘how do they marshal different resources—often complex and shifting—to achieve remarkable learning outcomes?’, and ‘can their success be repeated by other students?’ With such questions in mind, the book under review is concerned with life experiences and learning practices of carefully sourced individuals who have reached advanced mastery of a second language. It not only explores these individuals’ language learning trajectories in a systematic fashion but also examines the sources of exceptionality and the factors that intersect in the process of exceptional language learning. In contrast to earlier work, which modelled exceptionality through quantitative surveys and experiments, the book adopts a narrative approach to help demystify the developmental and experiential dimensions of exceptional language learning, unlock the approach such individuals adopt to engage with language learning, and uncover unique insights that are currently overlooked by research and practice in the area of nativelike language learning. The volume, through its 12 chapters, explores diverse themes (e.g. the motivational capacity of vision, the motivation–cognition interaction, and professional identity development) which are of theoretical and applied value to researchers in second language acquisition, language teachers, and scholars working in the psychology of language learning.