مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Two Languages, Two Selves: Exploring the impact of Bilingualism on personality

Abstract :

This article aims at investigating the psychological effect of fluently learning and speaking a second foreign language on personality. Specifically, to serve the purpose of narrowing down a wide topic, the research project behind the present paper focuses on the case of Arabic-English, with the first being vernacular Arabic, the mother tongue, and the second being the foreign acquired language. It is evident that acquiring a foreign language comes with the acquisition of the entire cultural history of that language. Recent neurological research demonstrates how bilinguals seem to use two different mental channels for each language. However, the discussion about what learning a foreign language does to the brain is a never ending set of theories and hypotheses. From the possibility of foreign languages affecting morality, to the claim that Emotional intensity is reduced when the subject is using a foreign language, to how foreign languages empower multitasking and problems solving, and could even prevent brain aging and mental diseases such as Alzheimer. The questions are endless and the answers are still sought for, and will probably always remain open for further research because when it comes to the human brain, no answer is final. Similarly to any other scientific research topic, there is almost always a contradicting side of the hypothesis. The other side of the hypothesis advances the argument that even monolingual people have more than one personality because the human identity, in general, is a set of personalities which occur and adapt to the situations given. Each context requires a different version of personality whether the person is monolingual, bilingual or multilingual. Therefore, all results are falsifiable. However, since the present paper aims at focusing on the hypothesis that the bilingual mind is represented through two different personalities, it will fairly attempt to present evidence in line with the argument advanced across the paper, and theoretically discuss the potential application of the hypotheses on the case of Arabic-English, which is not only a quite original area since it has not been academically explored yet, but also a much more complicated case because of the position of English in the life of Moroccan speakers, and the nature linguistic landscape which characterizes Morocco.