diff --git a/src/main/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/xpath/XPathScriptGenerator.java b/src/main/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/xpath/XPathScriptGenerator.java
index 83b3c82..2756258 100644
--- a/src/main/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/xpath/XPathScriptGenerator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/xpath/XPathScriptGenerator.java
@@ -83,10 +83,7 @@ public <T extends Expression> T composeFieldValueReference(PathExpression fieldR
     if ((MultilingualStringExpression.class.isAssignableFrom(type)
         || MultilingualStringListExpression.class.isAssignableFrom(type))
         && !XPathContextualizer.hasPredicate(fieldReference, "@languageID")) {
-      PathExpression languageSpecific = XPathContextualizer.addPredicate(fieldReference, "@languageID=$__LANG__");
-      String script = "(for $__LANG__ in $PREFERRED_LANGUAGES return " + languageSpecific.script
-          + "/normalize-space(text()), " + fieldReference.script + "/normalize-space(text()))[1]";
-      return Expression.instantiate(script, type);
+      return Expression.instantiate("efx:preferred-language-text(" + fieldReference.script + ")", type);
     }
     if (StringExpression.class.isAssignableFrom(type) || StringListExpression.class.isAssignableFrom(type)) {
       return Expression.instantiate(fieldReference.script + "/normalize-space(text())", type);
diff --git a/src/test/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/EfxExpressionTranslatorTest.java b/src/test/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/EfxExpressionTranslatorTest.java
index 6fea719..6a95ef7 100644
--- a/src/test/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/EfxExpressionTranslatorTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/eu/europa/ted/efx/EfxExpressionTranslatorTest.java
@@ -97,8 +97,8 @@ void testLikePatternCondition_WithNot() {
   @Test
   void testFieldValueComparison_UsingTextFields() {
     assertEquals(
-        "(for $__LANG__ in $PREFERRED_LANGUAGES return PathNode/TextMultilingualField[@languageID=$__LANG__]/normalize-space(text()), PathNode/TextMultilingualField/normalize-space(text()))[1]",
-        test("ND-Root", "BT-00-Text-Multilingual"));
+        "PathNode/TextField/normalize-space(text()) = efx:preferred-language-text(PathNode/TextMultilingualField)",
+        test("ND-Root", "BT-00-Text == BT-00-Text-Multilingual"));
   }
 
   @Test
@@ -1076,6 +1076,18 @@ void testFieldReference_WithAxis() {
         test("ND-Root", "ND-Root::preceding::BT-00-Integer"));
   }
 
+    @Test
+  void testMultilingualTextFieldReference() {
+    assertEquals("efx:preferred-language-text(PathNode/TextMultilingualField)",
+        test("ND-Root", "BT-00-Text-Multilingual"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  void testMultilingualTextFieldReference_WithLanguagePredicate() {
+    assertEquals("PathNode/TextMultilingualField[./@languageID = 'eng']/normalize-space(text())",
+        test("ND-Root", "BT-00-Text-Multilingual[BT-00-Text-Multilingual/@languageID == 'eng']"));
+  }
+
   /*** Boolean functions ***/
 
   @Test