Expression and perception of emotions by Polish–English bilinguals I love you vs. Kocham Cię

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe present article aims to focus on the perception and expression of emotions by Polish immigrants to England and Ireland. The informants of the study were 72 Polish–English bilinguals living in England and Ireland from 1 to 324 months. Data analysis discussed emotional expression in the L2 as well as perception of such emotional statement as I love you and its Polish equivalent Kocham Cię. The results showed that even though the emotionality of the I love you phrase was stronger in the participants L1, perception of its emotionality in the L2 changed with the length of stay in an English-speaking country, self-perceived L2 proficiency and frequency of the L2 use. At the same time, statistical analysis revealed that the strongest predictors of the emotional expression in the L2 were such factors as socialisation into L2 culture and the degree of L2 use that accounted for almost 55% of the variance (adjusted R2 = .554). Findings of this study suggest that socialisation process as well as self-perceived L2 proficiency and frequent L2 use might be the key factors determining successful communication of emotions in the foreign language.