Affective Dimension of Bilingualism

Geri McDonough Bell

Individuals who speak multiple languages are common in many parts of the world. The affective dimension of bilingualism refers to how bilingualism and multilingualism affect the emotional experience, expression, and representation of speakers of multiple languages and how they perceive themselves and are perceived by others. A better understanding of ways in which bilingual and multilingual individuals represent, process, perform, and experience emotions can be valuable for the fields of bilingual education and second-language acquisition. They are also an important matter for the fields of linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and communication. This suggestion was made by several scholars, such as Aneta Pavlenko, who also proposed that using the affective dimension of bilingualism and multilingualism as a unique lens provides new directions in the study of the relationship between languages and emotions. Finally, it enables researchers to put a human face on linguistic and psycholinguistic research, finding ways to bring speakers' lived ...

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