Language, Identity, and Adjustment: The Role of Linguistic Self-Confidence in the Acculturation Process

Abstract

Research in both cross-cultural psychology and the social psychology of language has examined the changes in identity and language behavior that occur when two ethnolinguistic groups come into contact. This study attempted to integrate these two fields of inquiry through an investigation of the relations between identity, interethnic contact, linguistic self-confidence, and psychological adjustment in 179 Chinese university students. The findings indicated that exclusive identification with either the first or second language group was the most commonly endorsed identity. Correlational and path analyses of the relations between interethnic contact, self-confidence in using the English and Chinese languages, Chinese and Canadian identities, and adjustment variables supported the proposed model in which communication variables mediate the influence of interethnic contact on identity and adjustment. The results are interpreted within the context of current formulations of acculturation and intercultural communication.