War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality
IntroductionThe processing of a foreign accent is known to increase cognitive load for the native listener, establish psychological distance with the foreign-accented speaker, and even influence decision-making. Similarly, research in the field of emotional processing indicates that a foreign accent...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Language Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/flang.2024.1357828/full |
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| author | Luca Bazzi Susanne Brouwer Zoha Nisar Khan Rinus G. Verdonschot Alice Foucart |
| author_facet | Luca Bazzi Susanne Brouwer Zoha Nisar Khan Rinus G. Verdonschot Alice Foucart |
| author_sort | Luca Bazzi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionThe processing of a foreign accent is known to increase cognitive load for the native listener, establish psychological distance with the foreign-accented speaker, and even influence decision-making. Similarly, research in the field of emotional processing indicates that a foreign accent may impact the native listener's emotionality. Taking these aspects into consideration, the current study aimed to confirm the hypothesis that a foreign accent, compared to a native accent, significantly affects the processing of affective-laden words.MethodsIn order to test this hypothesis, native Spanish speakers participated in an online experiment in which they rated on a Likert scale the valence and arousal of positive, neutral and negative words presented in native and foreign accents.ResultsResults confirm a foreign accent effect on emotional processing whereby positively valenced words are perceived as less positive and negatively valenced words as less negative when processed in a foreign accent compared to a native accent. Moreover, the arousal provoked by emotion words is lesser when words are processed in a foreign than a native accent.DiscussionWe propose possible, not mutually exclusive, explanations for the effect based on linguistic fluency, language attitudes and the linguistic context of language acquisition. Although further research is needed to confirm them, these explanations may be relevant for models of language comprehension and language learning. The observation of a reduction in emotionality resulting from a foreign accent is important for society as important decisions are made by representatives with diverse language and accent backgrounds. Our findings demonstrate that the choice of the language, which entails speaking in a native or a foreign accent, can be crucial when discussing topics such as the consequences of wars, pandemics, or natural disasters on human beings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:26:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-18533a16934f4038bbf4c68e6888c8f8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2813-4605 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:26:24Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Language Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-18533a16934f4038bbf4c68e6888c8f82024-04-03T04:34:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Language Sciences2813-46052024-04-01310.3389/flang.2024.13578281357828War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionalityLuca Bazzi0Susanne Brouwer1Zoha Nisar Khan2Rinus G. Verdonschot3Alice Foucart4Nebrija Research Centre for Cognition, Faculty of Education and Languages, Nebrija University, Madrid, SpainCentre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, NetherlandsNebrija Research Centre for Cognition, Faculty of Education and Languages, Nebrija University, Madrid, SpainNeurobiology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, NetherlandsNebrija Research Centre for Cognition, Faculty of Education and Languages, Nebrija University, Madrid, SpainIntroductionThe processing of a foreign accent is known to increase cognitive load for the native listener, establish psychological distance with the foreign-accented speaker, and even influence decision-making. Similarly, research in the field of emotional processing indicates that a foreign accent may impact the native listener's emotionality. Taking these aspects into consideration, the current study aimed to confirm the hypothesis that a foreign accent, compared to a native accent, significantly affects the processing of affective-laden words.MethodsIn order to test this hypothesis, native Spanish speakers participated in an online experiment in which they rated on a Likert scale the valence and arousal of positive, neutral and negative words presented in native and foreign accents.ResultsResults confirm a foreign accent effect on emotional processing whereby positively valenced words are perceived as less positive and negatively valenced words as less negative when processed in a foreign accent compared to a native accent. Moreover, the arousal provoked by emotion words is lesser when words are processed in a foreign than a native accent.DiscussionWe propose possible, not mutually exclusive, explanations for the effect based on linguistic fluency, language attitudes and the linguistic context of language acquisition. Although further research is needed to confirm them, these explanations may be relevant for models of language comprehension and language learning. The observation of a reduction in emotionality resulting from a foreign accent is important for society as important decisions are made by representatives with diverse language and accent backgrounds. Our findings demonstrate that the choice of the language, which entails speaking in a native or a foreign accent, can be crucial when discussing topics such as the consequences of wars, pandemics, or natural disasters on human beings.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/flang.2024.1357828/fullforeign accentemotional word processingemotionaffective valence and arousalmultilingualism |
| spellingShingle | Luca Bazzi Susanne Brouwer Zoha Nisar Khan Rinus G. Verdonschot Alice Foucart War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality Frontiers in Language Sciences foreign accent emotional word processing emotion affective valence and arousal multilingualism |
| title | War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality |
| title_full | War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality |
| title_fullStr | War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality |
| title_full_unstemmed | War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality |
| title_short | War feels less horrid in a foreign accent: exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality |
| title_sort | war feels less horrid in a foreign accent exploring the impact of the foreign accent on emotionality |
| topic | foreign accent emotional word processing emotion affective valence and arousal multilingualism |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/flang.2024.1357828/full |
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