ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the predicted dynamics of interaction between the factors under analysis: linguistic practices, namely language use for expressing emotions and perceived language dominance, acculturation attitudes, and personality traits. The emphasis is on the novel analytical pattern adopted to investigate mutual relationships among these factors in migration contexts. By alternating dependent variables and predictors, three analytical frameworks were developed to investigate changes in linguistic practices, changes in cultural attitudes, and changes in personality.
The main objective of the study is to provide evidence that multiple languages and cultures can coherently coexist in migrants’ psyches. This means to verify whether the use of a language for expressing emotions with different interlocutors, defined as the degree of affective socialisation, and its perceived cognitive dominance relate to migrants’ identification with the underlying culture without interference to other linguistic and cultural dimensions. This is conceivable if different aspects of their personality independently relate to either the maintenance of heritage linguistic and cultural practices or to the development of mainstream ones.
The distinction between the “heritage dimension”, which indicates migrants’ first language and culture of origins, and the “host dimension”, which indicates the language and culture of the country they reside in, was controlled for in the study design. These criteria led to a sample of 468 Italians living in English-speaking countries, who completed a web-questionnaire. As per methodological choice, narratives from five follow-up interviews and responses to open-ended questions will be used to illustrate the pre-identified statistical trends, giving them a human dimension.
