Interpersonal perception of emotional intensity by English first (L1) and foreign (LX) language users in audio(visual) communication

ABSTRACT

Many studies have revealed multilinguals’ reduced emotionality of a foreign language (LX) compared to a first language (L1). Contrary to the bulk of research so far, which has focused on multilinguals’ own emotion experience or emotion processing, this study focuses on interpersonal communication and investigates how one perceives the intensity level of someone else’s emotional experience. Data were collected via an online survey. A total of 557 L1 users and 811 upper-intermediate to advanced LX users of English rated the intensity of the emotional experience of a British actress enacting different emotional events in six audiovisual or audio-only clips in English. Overall, audiovisual stimuli yielded higher intensity ratings than audio-only stimuli. More surprisingly, the L1 participants’ intensity ratings were lower than the LX participants’ ratings in both conditions. English proficiency was not significantly correlated with intensity ratings among L1 and LX users, which suggests that paralinguistic skills develop independently from linguistic skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional intensity
• interpersonal perception
• self-report
• modality
• status of language (L1/LX)

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Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2023.2184979)

Notes

1 We adopt the neutral dichotomy ‘foreign language user’ (LX user) versus ‘first language user’ (L1 user) rather than the loaded terms ‘non-native speaker’ versus ‘native speaker’ which imply eternal inferiority of the former and mythical superiority of the latter (Dewaele, 2018b). The term ‘LX’ refers to any language acquired after the age of three. L1 and LX users can have minimal to maximal proficiency in the language in various discourse domains, and in various language skills and all are legitimate users of these languages.