Language: Much neglectd yet important in cross-cultural psychology?

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Language Much neglectd yet important in
cross-cultural psychology?

• Itesh Sachdev
• SOAS, University of London, UK
• Presentation at 19th International Congress of
  the International Association for Cross-Cultural
  Psychology (IACCP), Bremen, Germany, July 2008.

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Plan Today

• Introduction to culture, language identity
• Conceptual framing, definitions etc
• A little data from sunny bilingual Tunisia
• Concluding notes

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Language, Culture Identity in JCCP
(1970-2008)
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (1970-2008, 180 issues) Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (1970-2008, 180 issues)
In Titles (n2000) Keywords
Culture Cultural 176 342 59 69
Language Linguistic 34 3
Identity 24 9
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Language, Culture, identity in JCCP
(1970-2008) Bremen IACCP (2008)
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (1970-2008, 180 issues) Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (1970-2008, 180 issues) Bremen IACCP (2008) Bremen IACCP (2008)
In Titles (n2000) Keywords Symposium Titles (n 100) In Abstracts
Culture Cultural 176 342 59 69 13 10 907 2201
Language Linguistic 34 3 1 227 (15 in titles)
Identity 24 9 4 275
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Definitions framing

• Language
• Includes languages, dialects, accents, speech
  styles even non-verbal communication
• Identity (group/cultural)
• the individual's knowledge that s/he belongs
  to certain social groups together with the
  emotional and value significance to her/him of
  the group membership (Tajfel Turner, 1986)

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What contributes to distinctive cultural identity?

• Clothes? Geographic origin? ethnic origin?
  Religion? Food? Values? Occupation?...etc
• Much previous research
• .language is perhaps the most important - even
  more than cultural background and geographic
  origin, MDS studies by Giles et al in Wales,
  Canada USA

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Language Cultural Identity

• It is important to learn Gujarati to understand
  our culture. We have to keep Gujarati alive. By
  learning Gujarati we can keep our identity.
  (Gujarati Interviewee of Creese et al, 2006,
  Language and Education).
• Mexican-Americans who cant speak Spanish should
  CHOKE on their CHILLI BEANS - New York subway
  graffiti
• Our languages are the cornerstone of who we are
  as a People. Without our languages our cultures
  cannot survive
• - Assembly of First Nations, 1990

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Previous research

• (i) Language is the place where actual and
  possible forms of social organization and their
  likely social and political consequences are
  defined and contested. Yet it is also the place
  where our sense of ourselves, our subjectivity,
  is constructed (p. 21, Weedon, 1997),
• (ii) relationship between language and identity
  is not static and varies as a function of the
  power relations ... (Sachdev Bourhis, 1990)
• (iii) next a model of multilingual
  communication (Sachdev Bourhis, 2001 Sachdev
  Giles, 2004)

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• MACRO
• INTERGROUP
• CONTEXT
• - Ethnolinguistic vitality of
• groups
• State language policies
• Ideologies
• - Stability, legitimacy of
• intergroup stratification

EVALUATION BEHAVIOUR - speech accommodation -
discourse - Non-verbal
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES -
Similarity-Attraction - Social Exchange -
Social Attribution - Intelligibility -
Predictability - Social identification -
Stereotyping - Vitality Beliefs - Acculturation
Beliefs
Additive- Subtractive Multilingualism
Multiculturalism
MICRO SOCIOLINGUISTIC SETTING - Norms rules -
Networks of linguistic contact
Language Culture Maintenance Shift
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(No Transcript)
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Response to French AND Arabic use in streets of
Bilingual Tunisia (Lawson Sachdev, 1995, 2000)

• Method procedure Trained Tunisian Researchers
  made requests from 1000 Tunisian Arab pedestrians
  randomly in streets of city
• Excuse me, where is the post office?
• IVs (i) Language of Question - Arabic or
  French
• (ii) Ethnic Background of Tunisian
  Researchers - Arab, European African
• DVs (i) Language of response convergence,
  divergence or code-switching

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Response to French AND Arabic use in streets of
Bilingual Tunisia (n 1000, Lawson Sachdev,
1995, 2000)
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Response to French AND Arabic use in streets of
bilingual Tunisia (n 1000, Lawson Sachdev,
1995, 2000)
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Response to French AND Arabic use in streets of
bilingual Tunisia (n 1000, Lawson Sachdev,
1995, 2000)
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Concluding notes

• Ignore language(s) at your peril!!
• Language-Culture-Identity intertwined
• Effects on intercultural intergroup
  communication, acculturation, etc, etc
• Language use reflects AND creates cultural
  identity
• Language is key to expressing, conceptualising
  and constructing indigenous cultures and
  knowledge
• . Methodologically, focus on language allows
  actual behavioural study good for
  cross-cultural/social psychologists, (etc) whose
  mainstay is paper and pencil measures