Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities
The 21st century has witnessed a substantial increase in research focused on the benefits of bilingualism for individuals. The aspects that have received the most attention have been executive functions. And communication skills. Less is known, however, about the noncognitive and nonlinguistic aspec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-07-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/8/3/180 |
| _version_ | 1797579188893384704 |
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| author | Patricia Arnaiz-Castro Roberto Espejo-Mohedano |
| author_facet | Patricia Arnaiz-Castro Roberto Espejo-Mohedano |
| author_sort | Patricia Arnaiz-Castro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The 21st century has witnessed a substantial increase in research focused on the benefits of bilingualism for individuals. The aspects that have received the most attention have been executive functions. And communication skills. Less is known, however, about the noncognitive and nonlinguistic aspects of bilingualism. Personality psychologists claim that personality is the result of a combination of nature-related and nurture-related factors, but the latter have not been sufficiently addressed in studies on bilingualism. Thus, to bridge this gap, the present contribution pursues this line of inquiry by adopting a quantitative approach to the examination of the self-perceived mobility, employability, and intercultural competence of participants who studied in a bilingual education program. A total of 835 respondents living in Brazil completed an online questionnaire. Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon W tests showed higher scores for bilingual graduates than for their nonbilingual counterparts on the three subscales. Correlation analyses revealed moderate-to-high positive correlations between bilingual graduates’ perception of their way of being and their way of life on the one hand, and among their self-perceived mobility, employability, and intercultural competence on the other. Likewise, the analyses showed statistically significant positive correlations between being proficient in more than one foreign language and the dimension of mobility. Our findings illustrate the influence that bilingualism/multilingualism exerts on factors that determine everyday life and corroborate and expand the research conducted in this strand. Avenues for further related research are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:33:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c7d669a031044b10b9de7e63b9d918cd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:33:23Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-c7d669a031044b10b9de7e63b9d918cd2023-11-19T11:35:41ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2023-07-018318010.3390/languages8030180Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual IdentitiesPatricia Arnaiz-Castro0Roberto Espejo-Mohedano1Department of Specific Didactics, Faculty of Education Sciences, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35004 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, SpainDepartment of Statistics, Econometrics, Operations Research, Business Organization and Applied Economics, Campus Universitario de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, SpainThe 21st century has witnessed a substantial increase in research focused on the benefits of bilingualism for individuals. The aspects that have received the most attention have been executive functions. And communication skills. Less is known, however, about the noncognitive and nonlinguistic aspects of bilingualism. Personality psychologists claim that personality is the result of a combination of nature-related and nurture-related factors, but the latter have not been sufficiently addressed in studies on bilingualism. Thus, to bridge this gap, the present contribution pursues this line of inquiry by adopting a quantitative approach to the examination of the self-perceived mobility, employability, and intercultural competence of participants who studied in a bilingual education program. A total of 835 respondents living in Brazil completed an online questionnaire. Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon W tests showed higher scores for bilingual graduates than for their nonbilingual counterparts on the three subscales. Correlation analyses revealed moderate-to-high positive correlations between bilingual graduates’ perception of their way of being and their way of life on the one hand, and among their self-perceived mobility, employability, and intercultural competence on the other. Likewise, the analyses showed statistically significant positive correlations between being proficient in more than one foreign language and the dimension of mobility. Our findings illustrate the influence that bilingualism/multilingualism exerts on factors that determine everyday life and corroborate and expand the research conducted in this strand. Avenues for further related research are discussed.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/8/3/180bilingualismgraduatesindividual identitiesmobilityemployabilityintercultural competence |
| spellingShingle | Patricia Arnaiz-Castro Roberto Espejo-Mohedano Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities Languages bilingualism graduates individual identities mobility employability intercultural competence |
| title | Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities |
| title_full | Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities |
| title_fullStr | Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities |
| title_short | Bilingualism in Brazil: An Examination of Its Effect on the Formation of Individual Identities |
| title_sort | bilingualism in brazil an examination of its effect on the formation of individual identities |
| topic | bilingualism graduates individual identities mobility employability intercultural competence |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/8/3/180 |
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