The effect of type of acquisition context on perception and self-reported use of swearwords in L2, L3, L4 and L5 Jean-Marc Dewaele This paper deals with the impact of the acquisition context (instructed, natu- ralistic, mixed) on two variables reflecting sociolinguistic, sociopragmatic and sociocultural aspects of communicative competence, namely perception of emotional force of swearwords and self-reported language choice for swearing. Data for L2, L3, L4, and L5 were collected from a total of 1039 multilinguals through a web questionnaire containing closed-ended Likert- type questions and open-ended questions. Multivariate analyses revealed that context of acquisition and type of contact (instructed, mixed, naturalistic) had a significant effect on the self-reported use and perceived emotional force of swearwords. The effect was generally stronger for self-reported language choice for use of swearwords than for perception of their emotional force. Multiple regression analyses showed that other variables, namely frequency of use of the language and, to a lesser degree, age of onset are good predictors of perceived emotional force of swearwords and preferred language for swearing. 1. Introduction Children growing up in a specific social environment develop not only lin- guistic skills but also the crucial communicative competence, i.e. the socio- linguistic and pragmatic rules of their speech communities. They learn to produce “appropriate” speech in a wide variety of situations with different interlocutors. They realize that words, expressions, utterances have not only propositional meaning or locutionary force, i.e. a certain “face value” (Austin 1962) but also an illocutionary force, referring to the speaker’s intended meaning or “goal” (Leech 1983: 13). The process, as parents and teachers can testify, may take some time but leads ultimately to full compe- tence. No such success is guaranteed for the older instructed second lan- guage learner. Grammatical skills can be learned in the classroom, but it is