One study finds that “Speaking Multiple Languages Can
Influence Children's Emotional Development”
On the classic TV show "I Love Lucy," Ricky
Ricardo was known for switching into rapid-fire Spanish whenever he was upset,
despite the fact Lucy had no idea what her Cuban husband was saying. These
scenes were comedy gold, but they also provided a relatable portrayal of the
linguistic phenomenon of code-switching.
This kind of code-switching, or switching back and forth
between different languages, happens all the time in multilingual environments,
and often in emotional situations. In a new article in the July issue of
Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for
Psychological Science, psychological scientists Stephen Chen and Qing Zhou of
the University of California, Berkeley and Morgan Kennedy of Bard College delve
deeper into this linguistic phenomenon.
Drawing on research from psychology and linguistics, the
researchers seek to better understand how using different languages to discuss
and express emotions in a multilingual family might play an important role in
children's emotional development. They propose that the particular language
parents choose to use when discussing and expressing emotion can have
significant impacts on children's emotional understanding, experience, and
regulation.
"Over the past few years, there's been a steadily
growing interest in the languages multilingual individuals use to express
emotions," says Chen. "We were interested in the potential clinical
and developmental implications of emotion-related language shifts, particularly
within the context of the family."
Existing research from psychological science underscores
the fact that language plays a key role in emotion because it allows the
speakers to articulate, conceal, or discuss feelings. When parents verbally
express their emotions, they contribute to their children's emotional
development by providing them a model of how emotions can be articulated and
regulated.
When parents discuss emotion, they help their children to
accurately label and consequently understand their own emotions. This explicit
instruction can further help children to better regulate their emotions.
Additionally, research from linguistics suggests that
when bilingual individuals switch languages, the way they experience emotions
changes as well. Bilingual parents may use a specific language to express an
emotional concept because they feel that language provides a better cultural
context for expressing the emotion. For example, a native Finnish speaker may
be more likely to use English to tell her children that she loves them because
it is uncommon to explicitly express emotions in Finnish.
Thus, the language that a parent chooses to express a
particular concept can help to provide cues that reveal his or her emotional
state. Language choice may also influence how children experience emotion, such
expressions can potentially elicit a greater emotional response when spoken in
the child's native language. Shifting from one language to another may help
children to regulate their emotional response by using a less emotional,
non-native language as a way to decrease negative arousal, or to help model
culture specific emotional regulation.
Overall, the authors argue that research from
psychological science and linguistics suggests that a child's emotional
competence is fundamentally shaped by a multilingual environment. These
findings may be particularly useful in the development of intervention programs
for immigrant families, helping intervention staff to be aware of how the use
of different languages in various contexts can have an emotional impact.
"Our aim in writing this review was to highlight
what we see as a rich new area of cross-disciplinary research," says Chen.
"We're especially excited to see how the implications of emotion-related
language switching can be explored beyond the parent-child dyad -- for example,
in marital interactions, or in the context of therapy and other
interventions."
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/959135
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/959135
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