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DavidSingleton,SimoneE.Pfenninger
findthemselveslivinginanintercultural,binationalrelationship.Whileitis
arguedthatsuchacross-culturalexchangecanoffermanyadvantages,such
asthesharingoftraditionalcustoms,peopleininterculturalrelationshipsoften
findtheirownculturalunderstandingtobechallenged,astheyareconfronted
withthejugglingofidentitiesandtheideologiesassociatedwiththem(see
Breger&Hill,1998).Aslanguagehasbeenshowntoformanessentialpart
ofanindividual’sidentity(e.g.,Bucholtz&Hall,2004,2005,2010),beingable
tospeakone’snativelanguageinaninterculturalrelationshiphasbeenargued
tobeastabilizingcomponentofindividualidentityconstruction,whilethe
abdicationofnativelanguageusehasbeenportrayedasratheradverse.
Interlingualrelationshipshave,ontheotherhand,frequentlybeentalked
aboutinSLAresearchinconnectionwiththedramaticriseinL2proficiency
ofthepartnerwhooptstousethelanguageofhis/her“significantother.”One
thinksofMarinova-Todd’s(2003)studyof30post-pubertallearnersofEnglish
from25countries,whichfoundthatthesixmostproficientparticipantsco-
habitedwithnativeEnglishspeakers.OrofMuñozandSingleton’s(2007)
study,whichfoundthatofthemostsuccessfullateL2learners,inagroup
of11Spanish/Catalan-L1near-nativelearnersofEnglishtheyinvestigatedin
Ireland,onewasespousedtoanIrishmanandtheotherhadanIrishboyfriend
(whomshesubsequentlymarried).
Norarewesurprisedbysuchresults.Wealwaysknewthatfallinginlove
withaspeakerofanothertonguecouldchangenotonlyyourlife,butalsoyour
commandofhis/herlanguage—and,advertingtoourearlierpoint,tosomeex-
tentyoursenseofself.Suchchangesverymuchrelateto“thedegreetowhich
theindividualisopentodisruptivenoveltyintermsofdevelopingidentity”
(Skrzypek&Singleton,2016,p.89;cf.Schumann,1976).Thiskindofopenness
appearstobeencouragedbyromanticlove,whichseemstohavethecapacity
totakethethreatoutofthreatstoidentity.AsGonçalves(2013)pointsout,at
leastsomeofthepeopleexperiencinginterculturalrelationshipsare“culturally
hybridindividuals,”“livinginthein-between”(2013,p.528).Theyliveanother
identity,besidestheonetheygrewwith,andperformaccordingly.
Suchdevelopmentsarenotuniquetointerculturalcouples.Onethinksofthe
Latinpoet,QuintusEnnius,who,becausehehadthreelanguages,usedtosayhe
hadthreehearts.Inasimilarvein,Dewaele(2016)mentionsPavlenko’s(2006)
analysisofthefeedbackfromtheBilingualismandEmotionQuestionnaire.
Pavlenkofoundthatalmosttwo-thirdsofparticipantsreportedfeelinglikedif-
ferentpeoplewhentheyswitchedlanguages.Interlingual/interculturalcouples
dothoughofferprimeexamplesofthephenomenon!
Thispaperaimstocontributetoourunderstandingoflanguageacquisition
in“bilingual,cross-cultural,interpersonalcommunication”(Piller,2000,p.1).
Itoutlinestheobstaclesandcommunicativechallengesconfrontedbythreein-
terculturalcouplesaswellastheirvaryingmotivationandsuccessinlearning,
