Should we save languages or their speakers?Decreasing linguistic and cultural diversity in heterogeneous Central-Eastern Europe: a psychological problem

ABSTRACT

How does multilingualism affect thinking and behavior? Recent findings demonstrate that multilingualism influences executive functioning, as well as personality traits and dimensions. Concordant outcomes show that multilingual individuals are more likely to be successful at inhibiting certain types of conduct (e.g., impulsivity) than monolinguals. Multilingualism also impacts other components of executive functions, like monitoring and attention control. As for personality, multilinguals are more open to other cultures, and in relation to monolinguals they are less ethnocentric. There may be a connection between multilingualism and psychopathy, probably because of more expressed communicative sensitivity among multilinguals. The systematic review we conducted on these associations reveals a lack of research that would link such results with the global decline in linguistic and cultural diversity, which is related to changes in linguistic proficiency in different languages. To fill this gap, this article aims to identify the role of these effects regarding the decrease in linguistic and cultural diversity. This permanent drop, caused by globalization – especially among multilingual minorities living in diasporas (their numbers continue to fall, which holds partly true for multilingual majorities as well) – has prompted the psychological effects of multilingualism to shift in terms of range and intensity, thereby influencing people’s psychological functions in heterogeneous regions. This article discusses some aspects of this relationship from a scholastic angle by centering on educational psychology, pluralistic and anti-pluralistic concepts, and some unresolved issues regarding the philosophical status of inclusion in the educational context. By ensuring that languages and cultures in ethnically heterogeneous environments are not ranked, and by guaranteeing that the shift in languages and cultures does not serve as the main path to becoming part of the dominant group(s), we could mitigate language loss, thus preserving the number of multilingual speakers and their cultures. It is recommended, that in future research on the psychological effects of multilingualism the decrease of linguistic and cultural diversity should be treated as a separate variable.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Notes on contributors

Lajos Göncz

Lajos Göncz is a professor of Psychology at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia (retired), and a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Vojvodina. His main interest is in minority studies, particularly in psychological, educational and linguistic consequences of multilingualism and multiculturalism, but also in pre-service and in-service teacher personality and teacher education, and in parenting.