The Relationship Between Bilingualism And Emotion Perceived By Vietnamese College Students

Abstract

The study of the correlation between language and emotion is an emerging area of enquiry which has attracted many researchers. Dewaele and Nakano (2012) conducted a study examining multilinguals’ perceptions of being different when using different languages and discovered a systematic shift on most feelings scales. Their findings support the existence of a relationship between bi-/ multilingualism and emotion. The present study aims to pursue this line of research in the Vietnamese context by investigating 160 Vietnamese-English speaking students at International University (IU) (VNU_HCMC). They were asked to complete a questionnaire based on the Bilingualism and Emotion Questionnaire (Dewaele & Pavlenko, 2001–2003). It includes closed questions regarding shifts on specific feelings scales and an open question for explaining the difference perceived. The scales, chosen with reference to the research of Dewaele and Nakano (2012), consist of feeling logical, serious, emotional, fake, and different. The results of quantitative analyses revealed a regular shift on most scales, with most participants feeling more logical, more serious, more fake, more different, and less emotional when using the L2. Simple linear regression revealed that the variation in certain feelings scales was mostly predicted by selfperceived proficiency in the L2.