Exploring the relationship between multilingualism and tolerance of ambiguity: A survey study from an EFL context

Abstract

The relationship between multilingualism and tolerance of ambiguity (TA) has been examined in recent studies (e.g., Dewaele & Li, 2013; van Compernolle, 2016), which focus upon multilinguals with mixed nationalities in non-EFL contexts. Most of these studies regrettably reflect a failure to use effect sizes or provide information on the reliability and validity of the instruments used. The present study explored the relationship between multilingualism and TA by focusing upon 260 English-using multilinguals of one single nationality in an EFL context. Factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution, rather than a four-factor solution of the original TA scale, suggesting a need to re-examine the validity of such instruments when used outside of their native contexts. The results identified multilingualism, number of languages known and gender as important predictors for TA. Given the relative nature of effect-size benchmarks, a topic-specific effect-size benchmark system is proposed to (re-)interpret the present and previous findings.