Establishing rapport with Punjabi-English bilinguals: L1 vs. dominance
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Avnit Dhanoa [1] ; Elena Nicoladis [1]
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[1] University of Alberta
University of Alberta
Canadá
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- Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 45, Nº. 4, 2024, págs. 1143-1151
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
This study tested whether Punjabi-English bilinguals feel a stronger rapport with another bilingual stranger when communicating in L1 Punjabi or their dominant L2 English. Some previous studies have shown greater emotional reactions to a dominant language. We predicted that participants would feel more comfortable speaking their dominant language. Participants completed an origami task via Zoom with a confederate while communicating in English and Punjabi trials. The task was done in both languages and the order of languages was randomly assigned. Surprisingly, participants rated the Punjabi interactions more comfortable than the English interactions. Rapport was not correlated with proficiency in either language. One possible interpretation of these results is that communicating in the L1 elicits feelings of belongingness to a community, resulting in greater feelings of comfort. Future studies can test whether these results generalise to real-life interactions.
