Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:32:32.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

L1 + L2 to the power of culture: acculturation and language use for cognitive domains in bilinguals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2018

KATE HAMMER*
Affiliation:
Birkbeck, University of London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London, 26 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DQ. e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent of second language (L2) use in four cognitive domains including mental calculation, planning (action plans), note-taking, and shopping lists. Participants include 149 highly educated L2-competent sequential Polish–English bilinguals who relocated to the UK1 in early adulthood, and underwent processes of acculturation. The independent variables in this study include acculturation level, social network profile, predicted future domicile, and length of residence. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Participants completed an online questionnaire and 14 were interviewed by the researcher. The study included the Complementarity Principle (CP) into the operationalisation and measurement of language use in bilinguals (Grosjean, 2010). The results show that acculturation level, social network profile, and predicted future domicile are strong predictors of the extent of L2 use in cognitive domains. Effects of context-specificity and language-dependence were also found, the latter specifically in the domain of mental calculation.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

references

Acton, W. R., & Walker de Felix, J. (1986). Acculturation and mind. In Valdes, J. M. (Ed.), Culture bound: bridging the cultural gap in language teaching (pp. 2032). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(11), 417423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barbier, M.-L., Roussey, J.-Y., Piolat, A., & Olive, T. (2006). Note-taking in second language: language procedures and self evaluation of the difficulties. Current Psychology Letters [Online], 3(20), 113.Google Scholar
Berry, J. W. (2005). Acculturation: living successfully in two cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(6), 697712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bochner, S. (2006). Sojourners. In Sam, D. L. & Berry, J. W. (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology (pp. 181197). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowerman, M., & Levinson, S. C. (Eds.) (2001). Language acquisition and conceptual development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. I., & Epp, L. J. (2004). An encoding-complex approach to numerical cognition in Chinese–English bilinguals. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale, 58(4), 229244.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. I., Kanz, C. L., & Xue, Q. (1999). Number processing in Chinese–English bilinguals. Mathematical Cognition, 5(1), 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, R., & Luna, D. (2011). The other meaning of fluency. Journal of Advertising, 40(3), 7384.Google Scholar
Chiaro, D. (2009). Cultural divide or unifying factor? Humorous talk in the interaction of bilingual, cross-cultural couples. In Norrick, N. & Chiaro, D. (Eds.), Humor in interaction (pp. 211231). Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiswick, B. R., & Miller, P. W. (2005). Do enclaves matter in immigrant adjustment? City and Community, 4(1), 535.Google Scholar
Cook, V. (Ed.). (2002). Portraits of the L2 user, Vol. 1. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Cook, V., & Bassetti, B. (Eds.) (2011). Language and bilingual cognition. New York: Psychology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, R. (1971). Degree of bilingualism. In Fishman, J., Cooper, R., & Ma, R. (Eds.), Bilingualism in the Barrio (pp. 273309). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Council of Europe (2011). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.Google Scholar
da Costa Pinto, A. (1991). Reading rates and digit span in bilinguals: the superiority of mother tongue. International Journal of Psychology, 26(4), 471483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daming, X., Xiaomei, W., & Wei, L. (2009). Social Network Analysis. In Wei, L. & Moyer, M. G. (Eds.), The Blackwell guide to research methods in bilingualism and multilingualism (pp. 263274). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Debaene, E. (2013). Emigration versus mobility: the case of the Polish community in France and Ireland. In Singleton, D., Regan, V., & Debaene, E. (Eds.), Linguistic and cultural acquisition in a migrant community (pp. 127). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Dehaene, S. (2011). The number sense: how the mind creates mathematics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2004a). Blistering barnacles! What language do multilinguals swear in? Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 5(1), 83105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2004b). Perceived language dominance and language preference for emotional speech: the implications for attrition research. In Schmid, M., Koepke, B., Keijzer, M., & Weilemar, L. (Eds.), First language attrition: interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues (pp. 81104). Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2006). Expressing anger in multiple languages. In Pavlenko, A. (Ed.), Bilingual minds: emotional experience, expression, and representation (pp. 118151). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2007). Multilinguals’ language choice for mental calculation. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(3), 343376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2009). The effect of age of acquisition on self-perceived proficiency and language choice among adult multilinguals. EUROSLA Yearbook, 9(1), 245268.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2010). Emotions in multiple languages. Basingstoke: Palgrave-MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. (2015). Culture and emotional language. In Sharifian, F. (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 357370). New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M., & Pavlenko, A. (2001). Web questionnaire: Bilingualism and Emotions. Unpublished ms, University of London.Google Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M., & Pavlenko, A. (2003). Productivity and lexical diversity in native and non-native speech: a study of cross-cultural effects. In Cook, V. (Ed.), L2 effects on the L1 (pp. 120141). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). The psychology of the language learner revisited. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dunn, O. J. (1964). Multiple comparisons using rank sums. Technometrics, 6, 241252.Google Scholar
Epstein, I. (1915). La pens é e et la polyglossie: Essai psychologique et didactique [Thought and multilingualism: a psychological and didactic essay]. Lausanne: Librarie Payot et Cie.Google Scholar
Esser, H. (2006). Migration, Language and Integration (AKI Research Review). Berlin: Social Research Centre.Google Scholar
Frenck-Mestre, C., & Vaid, J. (1993). Activation of number facts in bilinguals. Memory & Cognition, 21(6), 809818.Google Scholar
Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second-language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1989). Neurolinguists, beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and Language, 36(1), 315.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1997). The bilingual individual. Interpreting: International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting, 2(1/2), 163187.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2002). Interview on bilingualism, with questions asked by Judit Navracsics, Veszprem University, Hungary; interview conducted in February 2002.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: life and reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2015). Bicultural bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(5), 572586.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2016). The Complementarity Principle and its impact on processing, acquisition and dominance. In Silva-Corvalán, C. & Treffers-Daller, J. (Eds.), Language dominance in bilinguals: issues of operationalization and measurement (pp. 6684). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F., & Ping, L. (Eds.) (2013). The psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hammer, K. (2012). Web questionnaire on language use and language choice in bilinguals (E-PLUS). Unpublished manuscript, University of London.Google Scholar
Hammer, K. (2014). Linguistic and cultural acquisition in a migrant community. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 17(4), 503508.Google Scholar
Hammer, K., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2015). Acculturation as the key to the ultimate attainment? The case of Polish–English bilinguals in the UK. In Forsberg Lundell, F. & Bartning, I. (Eds.), Cultural migrants and optimal language acquisition (pp. 179202). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Hoffman, G. (1971). Puerto Ricans in New York: a language-related ethnographic summary. In Fishman, J., Cooper, R., & Ma, R. (Eds.), Bilingualism in the Barrio (pp. 1342). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Home Office (2017). Immigration Rules/Permanent Residence Card/Eligibility (2017). Online: <https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-a-uk-residence-card/permanent-residence-card>..>Google Scholar
Hoosain, R. (1979). Forward and backward digit span in the languages of the bilingual. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 135(2), 263268.Google Scholar
Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A. (2008). Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. M. (1969). Language and the child. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales.Google Scholar
Magiste, E. (1979). The competing language systems of the multilingual: a developmental study of decoding and encoding processes. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18(1), 7989.Google Scholar
Marian, V., & Fausey, C. M. (2006). Language-dependent memory in bilingual learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20(8), 10251047.Google Scholar
Marian, V., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2004). Self-construal and emotion in bicultural bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(2), 190201.Google Scholar
Marsh, L. G., & Maki, R. H. (1976). Efficiency of arithmetic operations in bilinguals as a function of language. Memory and Cognition, 4(4), 459464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, C. (1996). Language in cognitive development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (Ed.) (2011). Thinking and speaking in two languages. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (2014). The bilingual mind: and what it tells us about language and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A., & Driagina, V. (2007). Russian emotion vocabulary in American learners’ narratives. Modern Language Journal, 91(2), 213234.Google Scholar
Piolat, A. (2004). La prise de notes: Écriture de l’urgence [Note-taking: emergency writing]. In Piolat, A. (Ed.), Ecriture. Approches en sciences cognitives [Writing: approaches in cognitive science] (pp. 206229). Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Provence.Google Scholar
Piolat, A. (2007). Effects of note-taking technique and working-memory span on cognitive effort and recall performance. In Torrance, M., van Waes, L., & Galbraith, D. (Eds.), Writing and cognition: research and applications (pp. 109124). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Planas, N., & Setati, M. (2009). Bilingual students using their languages in the learning of mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 21(3), 3659.Google Scholar
Ransdell, S. E., & Barbier, M.-L. (2002). An introduction to psycholinguistic approaches to understanding second language writing. In Ransdell, S. E. & Barbier, M.-L. (Eds.), New directions in research on L2 writing (pp. 110). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Richards, K. (2009). Interviews. In Heigham, J. & Croker, R. A. (Eds.), Qualitative research in applied linguistics: a practical introduction (pp. 182199). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ryder, A. G., Alden, L. E., & Paulhus, D. L. (2000). Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? A head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 4965.Google Scholar
Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. (Eds.) (2006). The Cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, A. (2014). Between the languages: code-switching in bilingual communication. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Schrauf, R. W. (2002). Comparing cultures within-subjects: a cognitive account of acculturation as a framework for cross-cultural study. Anthropological Theory, 2(1), 98115.Google Scholar
Schrauf, R. W. (2009). English use among older bilingual immigrants in linguistically concentrated neighborhoods: social proficiency and internal speech as intracultural variation. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 24(2), 157179.Google Scholar
Schrauf, R. W. (2014). Using correspondence analysis to model immigrant multilingualism over time. In Duarte, J. & Gogolin, I. (Eds.), Linguistic super-diversity in urban areas: research approaches (pp. 2744). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Schumann, J. H. (1976). Social distance as a factor in second language acquisition. Language Learning, 26(1), 135143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumann, J. H. (1986). Research on the acculturation model for second language acquisition. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 7(5), 379392.Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. J., Unger, J. B., Zamboanga, B. L., & Szapocznik, J. (2010). Rethinking the concept of acculturation: implications for theory and research. American Psychologist, 65(4), 237251.Google Scholar
Singleton, D., Regan, V., & Debaene, E. (Eds.) (2013). Linguistic and cultural acquisition in a migrant community. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Smith, J. A. (2011). ‘We could be diving for pearls’: the value of the gem in experiential qualitative psychology. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Bulletin, 12, 615.Google Scholar
Spelke, E. S., & Tsivkin, S. (2001). Language and number: a bilingual training study. Cognition, 78(1), 4588.Google Scholar
Stoessel, S. (2002). Investigating the role of social networks in language maintenance and shift. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 153, 93132.Google Scholar
Straub, J. (2006). Understanding cultural differences: relational hermeneutics and comparative analysis in cultural psychology. In Straub, J., Weidemann, D., Kolbl, C., & Zielke, B. (Eds.), Pursuit of meaning: advances in cross-cultural psychology (pp. 163241). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamamaki, K. (1993). Language dominance in bilinguals’ arithmetic operations according to their language use. Language Learning, 43(2), 239261.Google Scholar
Vaid, J., & Menon, R. (2000). Correlates of bilinguals’ preferred language for mental computations. Spanish Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 325342.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language, rev. edn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, R., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2010). The use of web questionnaires in second language acquisition and bilingualism research. Second Language Research, 26(1), 103123.Google Scholar