Multilinguals’ use of L1 and L2 inner speech

Figures & data

Figure 1. Mean frequencies of L1 and L2 inner speech use.

Table 1. Overall difference in frequency of L1 and L2 in inner speech (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test).

Ranks		N	Mean Rank	Sum of Ranks
L1 IS–L2 IS	Negative Ranks (L2 < L1)	76	54.80	4165
	Positive Ranks (L2 > L1)	33	55.45	1830
	Ties	58
	Total	167

Figure 2. Mean frequencies of L1 and L2 inner speech use depending on current country of residence.

Table 2. Difference in frequency of using the L1 and L2 in inner speech depending on current country of residence.

Mann–Whitney tests
Language	N	p	U	Wilcoxon–W	Z	r
L1	159	.001	2023.50	7483.5	−3.268	−.26
L2	159	<.0001	1654.00	3194.5	−4.775	−.38

Table 3. Links between demographic variables and using L1 and L2 inner speech.

Age (Spearman Rank correlations)
Language	N		rho		p
L1	167		−.205		.008
L2	167		.025		.750
Gender (Mann–Whitney tests)
Language	N	p	U	Wilcoxon–W	Z	r
L1	167	.057	2075.00	10203.00	−1.905	−.15
L2	167	.548	2391.00	3211.00	−.601	−.05
Education level (Kruskal–Wallis tests)
Language	N	χ^2	df	p
L1	162	6.467	4	.167
L2	162	3.350	4	.501

Figure 3. Mean frequencies of L1 and L2 in inner speech use depending on the self-reported frequency of using English.

Table 4. Differences in frequency of using the L1 and L2 in inner speech based on self-reported frequency of using the L2.

Kruskal-Wallis tests
Language	N	χ^2	df	p
L1	153	19.917	2	<.0001
L2	153	14.560	2	<.001

Table 5. Links between language-related variables and the frequency of using the L1 and L2 in inner speech.

AoA (Spearman Rank correlations)
Language	N		rho		p
L1	167		−.166		.032
L2	167		−.105		.179
Number of languages known (Kruskal–Wallis tests)
Language	N	χ^2	df	p
L1	167	.873	3	.832
L2	167	8.996	3	.030
Self-perceived proficiency L1 (Spearman Rank correlations)
Language	N		rho		p
L1	164		−.063		.423
L2	164		.120		.127
Self-perceived proficiency L2 (Spearman Rank correlations)
Language	N		rho		p
L1	164		−.305		<.0001
L2	164		.442		.011
Bilingualism index (Spearman Rank correlations)
Language	N		rho		p
L1	155		−.160		.047
L2	155		.303		<.001
Language dominance (Kruskal–Wallis tests)
Language	N	χ^2	df	p
L1	167	15.060	2	.001
L2	167	16.179	2	<.001
Context of Acquisition (Mann–Whitney tests)
Language	N	p	U	Wilcoxon–W	Z	r
L1	164	.657	2931.50	4584.50	−.445	−.04
L2	164	.021	2428.50	8206.50	−2.309	−.18
Western vs. non-Western L1 background (Mann–Whitney tests)
Language	N	p	U	Wilcoxon–W	Z	r
L1	167	.006	2478.50	8149.50	−2.740	−.21
L2	167	.026	2612.50	4503.50	−2.219	−.17
Type of L1 (Kruskal–Wallis tests)
Language	N	χ^2	df	p
L1	162	10.378	2	.006
L2	162	4.991	2	.082
Type of L1: Mean ranks
Language		German	Chinese	Thai
L1		73.64	94.47	97.07
L2		86.42	82.03	68.57

Figure 4. Mean frequencies of L1 and L2 inner speech use depending on the overall number of languages known.

Figure 5. Mean frequencies of L1 and L2 inner speech use depending on self-reported language dominance.

Figure 6. Mean frequencies of L1 and L2 inner speech use: Western and non-Western L1 background.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, P.R., upon reasonable request.