Language as a Key to Growth

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We often think of language as a tool for expressing the thoughts we have already formed in our heads, but what if it’s actually the other way around? Language itself deserves to be treated as a much more powerful tool than just a vessel for thought. It not only allows us to form thoughts but can also limit our ways of thinking. What does it mean to be shaped by the language you speak? Are people held back from reaching their full philosophical and moral potential by monolingualism? How does language shape, define, constrain, and allow for the ways in which humans interact?

Bilingualism is a great place to start answering these questions. Traditionally, bilingualism has been defined as having an equal level of proficiency in two languages, both spoken with native-like control. However, in a modern context, it is fair to define a bilingual speaker as someone who uses each language in a different context, with different purposes, and with varying degrees of proficiency. Bilingual speakers themselves have reported changes in their emotional state based on the language they were using. The concept of emotional regulation based purely on language is particularly compelling. It is important to recognize that language can shape emotional expression and sometimes limit a person’s ability to fully communicate their thoughts and feelings. This serves as a good reminder for people to approach one another with greater patience and understanding, rather than mistaking differences in expression for differences in thought or emotion. Applying this concept beyond emotional regulation raises broader questions about the extent to which language influences other aspects of human behavior.

A concept that has been heavily studied is the Foreign Language Effect (FLE). By definition, the Foreign Language Effect is a systematic change in processing regarding reasoning when using different languages. This level of processing affects three main domains: people’s treatment of risks and rewards, the way people process different events, and morality. 

Language can affect people’s perception of risk and reward by actually reducing the perception of risk and increasing people’s perception of benefit. Interestingly, people who are dependent on a single language process these factors differently than bilingual or multilingual people. In addition, the way people interpret cause and effect is actually much more refined with a second language. An experiment of bilingual participants demonstrated just that. Two groups of students, both fluent in English and Spanish, were randomly assigned to complete a task in either language. Participants were instructed to act as doctors, who were then asked if a fictional drug could cure a disease. They tested forty patients and then were asked to describe any trends they saw between the drug and the patient’s curability. The results of the two groups were then compared to each other; researchers saw that using Spanish reduced the illusion of causality, hence the foreign language specifically reduced bias in this experiment. Marcos Diaz-Lagos and Helena Matute, the authors of the study, concluded that presenting information in a different language can be a strategy to undo bias in individuals. These findings suggest that using a second language can create greater distance from our instinctive judgments, allowing us to evaluate risk, reward, and cause and effect with less prejudice. 

Lastly, increased language skills have shown that individuals are more likely to approach a moral situation from a utilitarian perspective. Hence, decisions are made placing a higher value on outcome rather than motive. Having fluency in another language decreases intense emotional responses relative to a singular native language when processing the same situation. With emotions playing a smaller role, individuals may be better able to approach social and cultural interactions from a more objective perspective. Thus, language becomes more than a means of communication; it can serve as a tool for developing a more controlled understanding of personal experiences and a more rational perspective on life and its complexities. 

The language we use and the language we choose to learn can expand our understanding of ourselves and one another, bringing humanity closer to its full potential of human interaction. Understanding the limitations of monolingualism is an important step toward recognizing this. It is neither necessary nor realistic to expect everyone to acquire fluency in a new language within the next year; however, understanding that there are constraints to singular-language proficiency is essential to challenging the biases that shape our understanding of each other as a whole and as humans. A deep understanding of society, especially in a country as diverse as the United States, begins with recognizing that a melting pot is defined by the cultures, languages, and perspectives within it. By embracing even a small part of that diversity, we can use language to better understand one another and create a greater, lasting connection as the human race. 

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This article was edited by Anita Boniface and Sophie Reilly.