Transcultural flows of capital, culture and communication have created conditions for the widespread movement of people around the globe, leading to increasing diversity in countries of destination. In contexts of global migration lingua franca English is indispensable in initial and survival communication. For migrants to northern European countries where lingua franca English functions as a 'contact language' in 'contact zone encounters', it is of value not only as a communication medium, but also as a resource for learning typologically similar host-country languages. Drawing on the concept of affordances, the purpose of this study is to create an inventory of the ways in which English can facilitate, but also constrain social interaction and the acquisition of Swedish. Interviews conducted with 14 recently arrived migrants with English in their repertoires revealed the presence of enabling and constraining affordances in social, classroom, material and cognitive domains. Discussing the study findings, it is suggested that the ways in which the individual attunes to an affordance associated with English, perceiving it as either enabling or constraining, is dependent on their current motivational and affective state and in-the-moment cognitive processing

Patterns of transmigration emerging as a consequence of globalization are creating new and complex markets for communicative resources in which languages and language varieties are differently valued. In a Swedish context, where lingua franca English can facilitate communication but where monolingual norms prevail and Swedish is positioned as the key to 'integration', the purpose of this study is to examine English-speaking migrants' experiences of opportunities to use Swedish and English in communication. Interviews were conducted with 14 recently arrived migrants with English in their repertoires. Drawing on participants' experiences of language use in institutional contexts, analyses focus on the influence of value assessments, orientations to ideal-type norms, processes of self-surveillance and the effects of discursive positionings. While migrants' language choices are understood as a consequence of structural conditions, attention is also drawn to the ways in which such choices are flexibly negotiated. Analyses shed light on participants' creative and critical capacities and how, in their language choices, they evaluate, relate to and resist macro-social structures. Different varieties of English are shown to offer different communicative opportunities and not all are equally exchangeable. Opportunities to use English also differ as a consequence of the intersections of discursive positionings.

While teacher–student relationships are of central importance for students' motivation, they remain under-investigated. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and focusing on the 'relationality' of teacher–student relationships, this study examines the identity-work that takes place when a teacher makes visible an aspect of identity not normally salient in the classroom. Framing self-disclosure as a relational practice, and drawing on ethnographic data that includes observations of English lessons (N = 258) in Swedish secondary schools, a relational conceptualization of the motivational influences of teacher identity-work is offered. Since language teachers are sensitive to the psychology of learning–teaching processes, relationally-grounded perspectives on motivation can be of particular importance in shaping classroom practices.

In Dörnyei's (2009a) theorizing, motivation is conceptualized to be generated by discomfort associated with the learner's experience of a discrepancy between their current L2 self, and their ideal L2 self. However, in the L2 Motivational Self System, this discrepancy is not operationalized. A questionnaire containing measures of current L2 selves was administered to two cohorts of students learning English in Sweden, one in grade 7, and one in grade 9. Using structural equation modelling, results revealed that the discrepancy between the ideal L2 self and the current L2 selfwas greater for the grade 7 cohort. So too was the impact on a criterion variable measuring intended effort. Arguments for the operationalization of the selfdiscrepancy process in research designs are put forward. In studies tracking changes over time, it is suggested that the inclusion of a variable measuring the current L2self could provide important insights into self-discrepancy trajectories, facilitate the investigation of motivational dynamics, and bring greater sensitivity to intervention design.