Living between languages: identity, anxiety and belonging, with Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele

Jean-Marc Dewaele is one of the world's leading researchers on language and emotion, and Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck, University of London. We talk about emotional resonance, foreign language anxiety, accents and belonging, raising a trilingual child, the language of the heart, swearing, and language in the therapy room.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction

01:14 L1, LX and emotional resonance: the key terms

03:09 Why our first language feels richer

04:02 Talking about trauma in another language

06:06 Refugees, Room to Heal, and rebuilding an identity in English

08:42 Do we feel different in a different language?

10:27 What is foreign language anxiety?

13:48 His advice: speak up

17:35 Personality across languages: presenting in French as a British academic

20:02 Raising a trilingual daughter

24:04 The language of the heart

25:55 Empathy, what is left unsaid, and British politeness

28:59 Swearing versus "I love you"

38:54 Working with interpreters, and what therapy taught him about teaching

43:03 Inviting a client's other languages into the room

44:28 "Other languages are not a threat"

45:57 Where to start with his work

46:49 Outro

SOURCES MENTIONED

00:35 

Dewaele, J.-M. (2010). Emotions in Multiple Languages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

04:21 

Costa, B., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2012). Psychotherapy across languages: Beliefs, attitudes and practices of monolingual and multilingual therapists with their multilingual patients. Language and Psychoanalysis, 1, 18–40. (Winner of the 2013 BACP Equality and Diversity Research Award.)

Costa, B., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2019). The talking cure – building the core skills and the confidence of counsellors and psychotherapists to work effectively with multilingual patients through training and supervision. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 19(3), 231–240. doi.org/10.1002/capr.12187

06:29 

Cook, S. R., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2022). "The English language enables me to visit my pain": Exploring experiences of using a later-learned language in the healing journey of survivors of sexuality persecution. International Journal of Bilingualism, 26(2), 125–139. doi.org/10.1177/13670069211033032

09:31 

Dewaele, J.-M. (2016). Why do so many bi- and multilinguals feel different when switching languages? International Journal of Multilingualism, 13(1), 92–105. doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2015.1040406

22:51 

Dewaele, J.-M. (2000). Trilingual first language acquisition: Exploration of a linguistic "miracle". La Chouette, 31, 41–45.

Dewaele, J.-M. (2007). Still trilingual at ten: Livia's multilingual journey. Multilingual Living Magazine, March/April, 68–71.

24:25 

Dewaele, J.-M., & Salomidou, L. (2017). Loving a partner in a foreign language. Journal of Pragmatics, 108, 116–130. doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.12.009

26:41 

Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts (pp. 41–58). New York: Academic Press.

29:05 

Dewaele, J.-M. (2004). The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25(2–3), 204–222. doi.org/10.1080/01434630408666529

Dewaele, J.-M. (2008). The emotional weight of I love you in multilinguals' languages. Journal of Pragmatics, 40(10), 1753–1780. doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.03.002

31:20 

Dewaele, J.-M., & Pavlenko, A. (2001–2003). Web questionnaire: Bilingualism and Emotions. University of London.

37:09  What multilingual clients say about language in therapy

Rolland, L., Dewaele, J.-M., & Costa, B. (2017). Multilingualism and psychotherapy: Exploring multilingual clients' experiences of language practices in psychotherapy. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(1), 69–85. doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1259009

38:56 

Costa, B., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2020). How to prepare psychotherapists for interpreter-mediated therapy. The Linguist, 59(5), 16–17.