Abstract
Statistical analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online questionnaire from 429 participants who were in an intercultural relationship revealed strongly divided opinions on the pragmatic challenges of communicating emotions with their partner. Though most participants reported some degree of difficulty, most agreed that love and emotional acculturation helped them overcome language barriers. Difficulties in communication were attributed to linguistic, pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic issues by almost three quarters of the participants who filled out an open question. Participants with higher scores on Emotional Stability, Flexibility and – marginally – Openmindedness, male participants and participants with high levels of education reported fewer difficulties. Partners in intercultural couples thus faced serious and sometimes totally unexpected pragmatic challenges in communicating emotions but generally managed to overcome the obstacles after some months.
About the author
Jean-Marc Dewaele is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. He is President of the International Association of Multilingualism and General Editor of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. He won the Equality and Diversity Research Award from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (2013) and the Robert Gardner Award for Excellence in Second Language and Bilingualism Research (2016) from the International Association of Language and Social Psychology.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the participants who shared their experiences of being in intercultural relationships and the reviewers for their excellent comments. Many thanks also to Lora Salomidou for collecting the data.
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