| With the rise in linguistic diversity in the U.S., many companies are requiring bilingual employees to speak English, even if English is one's low-fluency language. Surprisingly, there is no research investigating the impact of such practices on bilinguals' performance. Therefore, this dissertation examined the link between language use (high-fluency vs. low-fluency) on bilinguals' self-regulatory performance. Self-regulation was chosen as the dependent variable because this construct underlies important behaviors, such as persistence on difficult tasks and controlling emotions. The underlying framework for the current research is that of a depletion model, which regards self-regulation as drawing on a finite pool of resources (Baumeister et al., 1998). Based on this empirically supported model, I hypothesized that use of a low-fluency (compared to high-fluency) language would exhaust one's self-regulatory resources, leaving fewer resources for subsequent tasks that also require self-regulation. This depleted state was expected to manifest itself in decreased subsequent self-regulatory performance. The two main experiments were closely modeled after prior depletion studies and were conducted with samples of bilingual university students who were all new to the U.S. Language use was manipulated by having participants orally describe a picture (Study 1) or engage in an off-line personal conversation with a fellow student (Study 2). Study 1 showed that while use of a low fluency (but not high fluency) language led to reduced mood and state self-esteem, it did not significantly impact subsequent persistence on a difficult task. Study 2 revealed that, contrary to the hypothesis, those using a low-fluency language outperformed those speaking a high-fluency language on a subsequent self-regulatory task. In Study 2, language use did not impact mood or state self-esteem. The findings of these studies do not provide clear support for a depletion model of language use. One speculative possibility is that use of a low-fluency language involves additional psychological processes that override the effect of depletion. Specifically, bilinguals may compensate for poor perceived language performance by working harder on subsequent tasks. The discussion includes possible explanations for the results, a review of the strengths and limitations of the current research and suggested areas for future research. |
