The affect of bilingualism.

Is has become quite common for people to speak multiple languages with information technology bringing cultures closer and immigration creating a need for second languages (Baker & Prys, 1998). Although globalization has supported English as a world language, most people speak at least one other language fluently. Today bilingualism is a reality for many if not for most people, and not the exception as it was in times past and the use of multiple languages contributes to a more complex and rich linguistic knowledge. Language is symbolic of the culture that creates it, and therefore if a people know two or more languages they also possess two or more mental representations of the meaning of the constructs used in language. An important issue is whether the unique cultural constructs associated with a language causes bilingual people to change their mental representation when shifting from one language to another? Hull, (1989, 1990) administered the California Personality Inventory to bilinguals under language appropriate conditions. The results showed that the respondents displayed different personalities depending on which language was employed in the test. Manifestations of different personalities were thought the outcome of the respondents identifying with the stereotypes of each language culture producing trait emphasis reflecting in test differences.

Bilinguals are thought to engage in cultural code switching, moving back and forth between culturally defined meanings associated with the language spoken (Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000). Even the attribution style used was dependent on the language spoken as in one study Americans made more individual attributions when primed whereas Chinese bilinguals used more culturally consistent collectivistic images (Benet-Martinez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002).

Bilingualism contributes to higher intelligence when controlling for social and economic factors (Lambert & Anisfeld, 1969). Bilingual children are advanced in creativity, the ability to think divergently, and demonstrate more cognitive complexity (Segalowitz, 1980). The interaction of languages within the individual creates also higher sensitivity to ambiguities in sentences and a greater awareness of intonation as a clue to meaning (Mohanty, 1994). Those of you that know more than one language may also have observed that bilingualism makes the learning of other new languages easier, probably by the discernment of overlap of lexical and grammatical content (Thomas, 1988).

Bilingual people who have professional experience in more than one country are among the most desired managers and CEOs in multinational corporations. They demonstrate the ability to work in a globalized world and more easily bridge relations with peers and employees from different cultures (Muna, & Zennie, 2010).

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 753