Общая психология, психология личности, история психологии | Мир педагогики и психологии №10 (87) Октябрь 2023

Особенности эмоционально-оценочного компонента в структуре Я-концепции билингвальной личности

Свитюк Светлана Юрьевна
старший преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков №2 Института лингвистики и межкультурной коммуникации, Иркутский национальный исследовательский технический университет; аспирант, кафедра общей психологии, Иркутский государственный университет, г. Иркутск, Российская Федерация

Аннотация: Цель данной работы - выявить особенности самоотношения и уровень самооценки билингвальной личности. Было опрошено 180 человек, работающих в вузах г. Иркутск, средний возраст 49 лет, 90 билингвов и 90 монолингвов. Для выявления особенностей эмоционально-оценочного компонента в Я-концепции билингва использованы «Опросник самоотношения» В.В. Столина, С.Р. Пантелеева и тест самооценки С.А. Будасси. Для интерпретации результатов исследования использовался метод сравнения средних по критерию Стьюдента. Для билингвов характерны следующие особенности эмоционально-оценочного компонента в структуре Я-концепции билингвальной личности: адекватная положительная самооценка, самоуважение, большая уверенность в себе, лучшее самопонимание, более дружелюбное отношение к своему Я, больший самоинтерес, чувство собственного достоинства, большее самопринятие.
Ключевые слова: эмоционально-оценочный компонент, Я-концепция, самоотношение, самооценка, билингвальная личность, иностранный язык.

Svitiuk S.Yu.
senior lecturer of the Department of Foreign Languages No.2 Institute of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Irkutsk National Research Technical University; Postgraduate Student, Department of General Psychology, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russian Federation

Abstract: The purpose of this work is to identify the characteristics of self-attitude and the level of self-esteem of a bilingual personality.180 people working at the universities of Irkutsk were interviewed, average age 49 years. 90 of them are bilingual and 90 are monolingual. V.V. Stolin’s and S.R. Panteleev’s «Self-attitude Questionnaire» and self-esteem test by S.A. Budassi were used to find out the peculiarities of the affective component in the self-concept of a bilingual person. Student’s t-test was used to interpret the results of the research. Bilinguals are characterized by the following features of the affective component in the structure of the self-concept of a bilingual personality: adequate positive self-esteem, self-respect, greater self-confidence, better self-understanding, a more friendly attitude towards their self, greater self-interest, a sense of self-worth, greater self-acceptance.
Keywords: affective component, self-concept, self-attitude, self-esteem, bilingual person, foreign language.

The problem of studying bilingualism has become especially relevant in recent times because in the modern world cultural situation there are more and more people speaking and thinking in two or more languages. In psychology the phenomenon of bilingualism has a wide range of problematic issues: the study of the psychology of personality development in conditions of bilingualism, the study of psychological mechanisms and motivational foundations of acquiring a second language, features of the formation of bilingualism, the influence of bilingualism on human thinking. However, the distinctive features of self-attitude and self-esteem in the conditions of bilingualism have not been studied sufficiently.

The purpose of this work is to identify the characteristics of self-attitude and the level of self-esteem of a bilingual personality.

In the hypothesis of this study we assumed that the self-attitude and level of self-esteem of bilinguals will be significantly different from the self-attitude and self-esteem of monolinguals.

To achieve the goal of the study the following tasks were set: to study the self-attitude and self-esteem of bilinguals and monolinguals; analyze the results obtained, identify differences between bilinguals and monolinguals.

 Most scholars agree that bilingualism is a difficult term to define. Over times the definitions of bilingualism have undergone various changes. Some scientists define bilingualism as the ability to speak both languages fluently. Others refer bilingualism to the possessing of two languages with a level of competence equal to that of a native speaker. The more common definition of bilingualism is functioning in both languages in conversational interaction. A bilingual individual may achieve different levels of proficiency in the two languages, using both languages in different contexts, by learning a new language following educational requirements, immigration, or alternative circumstances. By this definition, a bilingual individual is not only necessarily someone who has acquired both languages from birth, or early in life, but also that one who learns a second language later in life. So, a bilingual person can be defined as a person who knows two language systems and their means, actively uses them for communication, and has also mastered the culture and national picture of the world of both languages studied [1].

It can be pointed out that bilingualism refers to the coexistence of more than one language system within an individual, as contrasted to monolingualism. The question of how two languages interact at the cognitive, affective and behavioral levels has been of long-standing interest to psycholinguists as well as to neurologists, clinicians, and educators. Research on bilingualism is closely connected with the study of its influence on personality and taking into account certain extralinguistic factors that determine the emergence of language contacts. In the works of such authors as J. Cummins, T. Skutnab-Kangas and P. Toukomaa, E. Paul and W.E. Lambert, W.F. Mackey, A.R. Dybolt, F. McLaughlin, R.S. Baur, R. Zangl, F. Grosjean, S. Ben-Zeev, D.S. Porsche the experience of such research can be observed [2].

Self-concept is one of the central categories of personality psychology. R. Burns defines the self-concept as the complex of all self-conceptions of a person, associated with their assessment, therefore the self-concept can be considered as a set of attitudes aimed at oneself. If we interpret the self-concept as a complex of self-directed attitudes, then, by analogy with attitude, the following three components are distinguished: cognitive, affective and behavioral [3].

Self-esteem is the main element in the affective component of a person’s self-concept. Self-esteem includes such substructural elements as self-attitude and self-esteem. Coopersmith states that self-esteem is an appraisal of oneself in terms of significance, success, and worth [4]. Dornyei and Ryan stipulate self-esteem as an assessment of value and self-perception [5]. Habrat defines self-esteem as competence, achievement, and interaction with the external world [6]. Personal self-attitude is formed as a result of self-knowledge and the accumulation of knowledge about oneself. This knowledge is a meaningful part of the self-concept and evokes certain assessments and emotions in a person. So, V.V. Stolin, for example, defines self-attitude as an integral part of the self-concept, which is based on the feeling of experiencing the degree of one’s unconditional value and self-acceptance [7]. R.S. Panteleev identifies the main function of self-attitude as signaling the individual about the meaning of self [8].

Researches on the self-concept of a bilingual personality are mainly devoted to the study of the mutual influence of bilingualism and self-esteem. Most modern research confirms the positive impact of bilingualism on self-esteem in the case of a high level of proficiency in a second language. Researchers have found that high self-esteem equates to positive emotions, better social adjustment, positive psychological outcomes, and life satisfaction in general. Narafshan and Noori, for example, found out that low self-esteem leads to low self-appreciation, self-defeating attitudes, psychological and social problems [9]. Some research is aimed at identifying the relationship between bilingual’s self-concept and various extralinguistic factors. Martinez, Chocano, Leon, and Jimenez in their systematic review study explored the relationship between self-concept and academic stress. In their study they found that as the participants progress academically, their academic stress increases and their self-concept decreases. As a result of this situation, they suggested some training for pre-service teachers’ academic stress to overcome this problem and increase their self-concept with some support [10]. Similarly, another systematic review on pre-service teachers’ self-concept was conducted by Filiz, Early, Thurston, and Miller. They aimed to find out how pre-service teachers’ self-concepts can be enhanced. The results indicated that the self-concept is continuously constructed by internal and external factors such as motivation, achievement, educational outcomes, different teaching methods, and attitudes [11]. Mandokhail, Khan, Malghani in their research found a significant relationship between student’s self-esteem and their speaking skills [12]. Satriani’s study found that there is a significant, positive and moderate relationship between the level of students’ self-esteem with their English speaking capabilities [13].

Despite there is literature profusion on self-esteem in psychology and other areas of second language learning, there are only a few studies focused on the peculiarities of the affective component in the self-concept structure of bilinguals in comparison with monolinguals, especially in foreign language teachers. When person acquires knowledge of culture and language, it can have a significant impact on changing his self-attitude and self-esteem. It is interesting to find out how proficiency in two languages affects self-attitude and self-esteem in the self-concept of a bilingual person.

Research methods

180 people working at the universities of Irkutsk were interviewed, average age 49 years. 90 of them are bilingual, including 30 men and 60 women, and 90 are monolingual, 30 men and 60 women. Bilinguals in this paper are English teachers who speak two languages: Russian (native language) and English (second language), while monolinguals are teachers who do not speak any foreign language and use only one language (Russian), which is their native language, in their daily communication.

V.V. Stolin’s and S.R. Panteleev’s «Self-attitude Questionnaire» and self-esteem test by S.A. Budassi were used to find out the peculiarities of the affective component in the self-concept of a bilingual person. Student’s t-test was used to interpret the results of the research.

Research results and discussion

Figure 1 shows the results of a comparison of self-attitude among bilinguals and monolinguals. It was found that there were significant differences with higher values among bilinguals on the scales “global self-attitude” (М = 21,6; М = 20,6; p = 0,001), “selfinterest” (М = 7; М = 6,6; p = 0,02), “autosympathy” (М = 12,5; М = 10,3; p = 0,000), “selfrespect” (М = 12,1; М = 10,9; p = 0,000), “self-confidence” (М = 6,7; М = 6,1; p = 0,000), “expected attitude from others” (М = 10,6; М = 10; p = 0,01), “self-acceptance” (М = 6; М = 5,4; p = 0,001), “self-interest” (М = 5,9; М = 5,3; p = 0,004), “self-understanding” (М = 4,7; М = 4,3; p = 0,004)  and on the “self-accusation” (М = 2,5; М = 2,8; p = 0,05) scale with higher values among monolinguals.

Figure 1. Comparison of self-attitude among bilinguals and monolinguals

The results show that bilinguals, compared to monolinguals, are characterized by a more positive self-attitude. The difference in the degree of expression of such scales as attitude from others, self-interest and self-understanding of the compared groups of respondents indicates that bilinguals are more likely to expect a positive attitude towards themselves from others, are more interested in their own self and perceive themselves as strong-willed, energetic, purposeful persons.

It should be noted that the greatest difference among the respondents of the compared groups was found in such levels of self-attitude as auto-sympathy and self-esteem, which are noticeably higher among bilinguals. That means that bilinguals treat to themselves more respectfully. At the same time, the level of self- accusation is slightly higher among monolinguals, which indicates their incomplete satisfaction with their own personality and a tendency to self-criticism.

According to the results of self-esteem test by S.A. Budassi it was found that, higher rates of adequate positive self-esteem prevail among bilinguals, that is, bilinguals have a more differentiated degree of correspondence of self-images.

So, the results suggest that bilinguals have more positive self-attitude and are more self-confident than monolinguals. We believe that these differences in the levels of self-attitude and self-esteem of bilinguals and monolinguals are determined by the fact that in the conditions of bilingualism a special linguistic cultural system is formed, as a result the amount of gained knowledge creates a sense of self-confidence and self-value. In addition, since the activities of professional bilinguals occur in the process of social interaction, in situations of helping and caring for others, thanks to this they develop positive self-esteem and positive self-perception.

Conclusion

So, as a result of a comparative analysis of the self-attitude and self-esteem of bilingual and monolingual personalities significant differences were identified among them.

Bilinguals are characterized by the following features of the affective component in the structure of the self-concept of a bilingual personality: adequate positive self-esteem, self-respect, greater self-confidence, better self-understanding, a more friendly attitude towards their self, greater self-interest, a sense of self-worth, greater self-acceptance. Thus, bilinguals have significantly more positive self-attitude and self-esteem than monolinguals.

We believe that the identified features of self-attitude and self-esteem of a bilingual personality are determined by the fact that the content of the images of the linguistic consciousness of a bilingual personality changes under the influence of learning a foreign language. Cognition of the foreign language culture and the transformation of the communicative competence of bilinguals occurs as a result of communicative practice in the native and foreign linguistic societies. This, in turn, causes a transformation of cognitive, affective and personal character and affects the manifestation of self-attitude and self-esteem of a bilingual person.

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