Are stories just as transporting in your foreign language?

Individuals from diverse backgrounds are routinely exposed to a second language, whether it is through formal education, within the community, or at home. As such, many individuals are consuming stories in a language other than their native tongue. Although past research has shown that sequential bilinguals typically report weaker emotional experiences when processing emotional content in their second language (Pavlenko, 2012), there is little to no research on how processing a story in a second language influences how engaged we are in a storyline and its characters. Hence, the proposed study will recruit French-English bilinguals who will read a story in either French (first language) or English (second language) followed by a measure of narrative transportation in each language. Based on previous findings from the emotion literature, it is hypothesized that reading a story in a second language will elicit lower scores in narrative transportation. Such findings will have implications for media consumption, literacy, and education.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ellen Bialystok

Student:

Partner:

University of Fribourg

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

York University

Program: