Exploring the Dynamics of Language and Thought in the Multilingual Mind: Effects of Multiple Language Learning

The classic question of whether the language we speak influences the way we think has received renewed interest in recent years with a number of new research paradigms. Empirical evidence shows that language can exert rapid and immediate or pervasive and stable effects on various cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning and categorization, in a flexible and context-dependent manner (Slobin, 1996; Whorf, 1956; Wolff & Holmes, 2011). For example, language effects can be profound in the sense of affecting even basic visual perceptions (Lupyan, 2012), and yet venerable to short-term experimental manipulations such as linguistic priming (Montero-Melis & Bylund, 2016), the language of task instructions (Athanasopoulos et al., 2015), or verbal interference (Trueswell & Papafragou, 2010).

Despite compelling empirical evidence from psychological experiments that our understanding and perception of the world are affected by language-specific categories, several issues regarding the language-thought debate remain unresolved. First, the evidence obtained is largely based on the investigation of monolingual speakers or L2 learners through cross-linguistic comparisons. Research on speakers of more than two languages remains very limited. As multilingualism is an increasingly common linguistic phenomenon worldwide (Aronin & Singleton, 2012) and multilinguals display unique linguistic and cognitive features (Cook & Li, 2016), extending language and thought research to the domain of multilingualism provides new insights into and has important implications for understanding the processes and effects of additional language learning. Second, although evidence suggests that language effects are largely context-dependent and malleable under various experimental manipulations (Wang & Li, 2019), it is still unclear whether such effects have long-term and lasting consequences across different times, contexts and modalities. As proposed by Sidnell and Enfield (2012), in addition to lab experiments, an ecologically valid approach to language-thought research should be outlined by examining naturally occurring conversations and their collateral effects in situated action. Thus, it is of theoretical and methodological importance to combine cognitive psychological methods with analyses of naturalistic behaviors.

The proposed study aims to extend the research on language, space, and cognition to the domain of multilingualism by examining the potential effects of multiple language learning on spatial expressions and representations. An innovative multidisciplinary approach that brings together linguistics, experimental psychology, as well as naturalistic observations, will be used. Specifically, a series of lab-based experiments combining both online (reaction time and eye movements) and off-line measures (language production and similarity arrangement) will be carried out to assess mental representations and visual perceptions of motion in functional multilinguals across different modalities. In addition, it will further examine instances of multilingual natural behaviors in real-life social interactions with regard to spatial expressions and spatial cognition. This study aims to extend the current theoretical and methodological debates over Linguistic Relativity to the domain of multilingualism and contribute to our understanding of the dynamics between language learning and the malleability of human cognition. It will shed light on whether language-specific ways of thinking can be used in teaching as a means to facilitate language learning in multilingual education. In addition, as cognitive patterns may influence communicative interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds, this study can have implications for promoting effective communication, especially between language learners and native speakers with different linguistic systems, for a better cross-cultural understanding and interpersonal social interaction.