The paper constitutes an attempt to define the role of soft skills in the process of FL learning. The data derive from the questionnaire distributed among the English philology students, and reveal the subjects’ attitudes to the qualities under investigation, as well as their strengths and weaknesses within the competences given. Having identified the students’ needs, the author of the project suggests ways of developing and promoting soft skills when shaping FL competence.

The article investigates the level of language awareness manifested by the advanced learners of Polish as a FL (146 students of the Polish Language Course attending the School of Polish Language and Culture at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland). The exact focus is on learning outcomes (areas of language progress and regress), and perception of the Polish language material learnt (including grammar, vocabulary and phonology), an emphasis being put on most problematic issues. Having presented learners’ opinions and reflections on language, implications for teachers including teaching materials raising language awareness are offered.

The article aims at presenting a few neuroanatomical models and neuroanatomically based theories (the Maturational State Hypothesis, the Aging Hypothesis, the Fragile Rote Hypothesis and the Entrenchment Hypothesis, among other things,) inherent in the concept of fossilization. The models will be considered from the point of view of the advanced users of language, an emphasis being put on an interplay of factors responsible for the fossilized language competence.