LAMiNATE Newsletter 2025.2
In this issue we bring together updates from across the platform, from recent research outputs and grants to upcoming talks and opportunities to engage. We hope the selection of updates gives you a useful sense of the latest developments within the platform.
Happy reading!
Marianne Gullberg & Jonas Granfeldt (Platform leaders)
Henriette Arndt & Frida Splendido (Platform coordinators)
Contents
- New Local LAMiNATEr
- LAMiNATErs Receive Funding
- The Modern Language Teacher Day
- LAMiNATE Talks
- Shut up and write!
- LAMiNATE at PLL
- LAMiNATE Membership
- Recent Publications
New Local LAMiNATEr
As of 1 December, we have a new local LAMiNATEr: Ilaria Venagli. Her research focuses on how (late) bilingualism interacts with developmental dyslexia, a specific learning disorder affecting reading abilities. During her PhD, she focused on how L2 reading proficiency affects visuo-attentional processing and reading strategies in Italian EFL learners. Her project as postdoctoral researcher in Lund will explore the effects of watching L2 captioned videos on L2 reading abilities, related cognitive and neurobiological underpinnings, and motivation in Italian and Swedish EFL learners with and without dyslexia. “As I begin this position, I look forward to learning from the many experts in the SOL department, further developing my skills, and continuing to explore ways to support L2 acquisition in students with dyslexia.”
LAMiNATErs Receive Funding
The LAMiNATE-packed research project Siv has received funding from Skolforskningsinstitutet. This project, full title “Svenska i vardagen: en intervention på sfi,” brings together three LAMiNATErs – Frida Splendido (PI), Alastair Henry and Henriette Arndt – to explore the effects of an intervention program where the aim is to highlight and create connections between classroom learning and everyday language use. While the form of the intervention is based on principles from research on informal second language learning, the content will be created by the teachers in collaboration with the researchers and integrated into the regular teaching. The effects of the intervention will be measured using scales that assess (i) engagement in language learning in the classroom, (ii) language use beyond the classroom, and (iii) motivation to learn Swedish.
Panos Athanasopoulos has received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for the project “From Grammar to Judgment: Cognitive and Social Effects of Grammatical Gender across Languages” (2026–2028). The project will investigates how grammatical gender in language shapes unconscious gender bias and decision-making in socially meaningful contexts. Using electroencephalography (EEG), it will test whether gender-marked language influences risk perception and moral judgment in speakers of different languages, and whether acquiring Swedish, a language without the masculine/feminine contrast in its noun system, can reduce such biases. The project group includes Athanasopoulos (PI) and Oleksandra Osypenko (an invited post-doctoral fellow). The findings will generate new knowledge about how language shapes social judgments and inform education, communication, and gender equality policy.
The Modern Language Teacher Day
On 11 November, the 2025 edition of the Modern Language Teacher Day took place. More than forty teachers of modern foreign languages from Lund and the surrounding area gathered for a half-day in-service training. The morning began with a presentation from the MoMs project, funded by Skolforskningsinstitutet and led by Jonas Granfeldt, focusing on motivation in modern languages. Researchers and collaborating teachers presented their findings and shared motivating language activities, which can also be found on the project’s website. After a coffee break the day continued with three language-specific session on the socio-political relationship between France and Algeria (French, Thierry Gilles), on women authors and post-crisis novels (Spanish, Christian Claesson) and on the importance of modal particles (German, Maria Alm). It was a very successful half day and we already look forward to next year!
LAMiNATE Talks
We are closing the autumn series on 16 December with a talk by Kara Morgan-Short (University of Illinois Chicago) on Individual differences in the neurocognitive processing of adult-learned additional languages.
While the spring series has not yet been finalised, we can already tell you that it will include a thematic block on the neural underpinnings of language in April–May, with Edith Kaan (University of Florida) and Jose Alemán Bañon (Stockholm University). The final programme will be announced on our website and on LinkedIn so stay tuned!
Want to end your week with a writing session?
A small group of LAMiNATErs is getting together online to “shut up and write” on Fridays 13–15. You are welcome to join at any time during the term for as many or as few sessions as you wish. Send an e-mail to Frida (frida.splendido@nordlund.lu.se) if you would like to join.
LAMiNATE at PLL
In May, a group of LAMiNATErs will be heading to Shantou, China for the 6th edition of the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning conference (PLL). This time the conference theme is “Positive Vis-à-Vis Negative and Beyond.” LAMiNATE will be represented by Henriette Arndt, Alastair Henry, Sophia Juul and Joyce Kling.
LAMiNATE Membership
Each LAMiNATE member plays a valuable role. Here are a few ways you can stay engaged and contribute:
- Take part in LAMiNATE activities, including our LAMiNATE Talks series.
- Use the LAMiNATE symbol (download available here) on your presentation slides when the topic is relevant to LAMiNATE at conferences or outreach events.
- Encourage colleagues and students to join the LAMiNATE Talks series.
- Link your research outputs and activities to LAMiNATE in LUCRIS whenever they relate to language acquisition, multilingualism, or language teaching. LAMiNATE should automatically appear under “contributors and affiliations”; if not, you can add it manually under “organisational unit.” Please remember to deselect any items not connected to LAMiNATE.
- Propose and coordinate a theme for an upcoming LAMiNATE Talks session and suggest potential speakers.
- Inform us of new publications so we can highlight them on our news page and on LinkedIn.
Recent Publications
Henriette Arndt and Osa Marie Krstic's new paper: Arndt, H. L., & Krstic, O. M. (2025). Research across contexts and timescales with the experience sampling method: Applications in the study of language anxiety. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.47115
Henrik Gyllstad and colleagues' new paper: Sundqvist, P., Peters, E., Skar, G.B., & Gyllstad, H. (2025). Study Protocol: STarting AGe and Extramural English: Learning English in and outside of school in Norway and Flanders (STAGE). Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(8), 793–809. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i8.1041
Henrik Gyllstad and colleagues' new paper: Gyllstad, H., Sundqvist, P., Peters, E., Rindal, U., Skar, G. B., & Ulfat, N. (2025). Young learners’ receptive L2 vocabulary knowledge in relation to Extramural English exposure at the onset of formal instruction in Norway. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0289.
Alastair Henry and colleagues' new paper: ang, J., Henry, A., Liu, M., & Thomas, N. (2025). The adjustment processes of international students at a UK university: an exploration using the L2 self-regulatory system. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–17. doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2570842
Jonas Granfeldt's piece (in Swedish) on Europakommentaren: Olika öden för EU:s språkpolitiska mål i Sverige
Alastair Henry and colleague's new article: Henry, A., & Liu, M. (2025). Ontology and Social Influence in Language Learning Psychology: A Theoretical Review Through the Lens of Dialogical Self Theory. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 1–26. doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2025.2595648
Frida Splendido and Anders Agebjörn's new article: Splendido, F., & Agebjörn, A. (2025). Definitioner och beskrivningar av translanguaging i svensk forskning – en litteraturöversikt. Nordand, 20(2), 216–231. https://doi.org/10.18261/nordand.20.2.7
Malin Ågren, Susan Sayehli and colleague's new article: Ågren, M., Bardel, C., & Sayehli, S. (2025). Developing measures of beginner language proficiency in French, German, and Spanish in the Swedish school context. The Language Learning Journal, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2025.2564704