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Katarzyna Ozanska-Ponikwia
The present study investigates the link between personality traits (OCEAN Personality test), emotional intelligence (EI) (Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire) and the notion of ‘feeling different’ while using a foreign language among 102 Polish–English bilinguals and Polish L2 users of English who were immersed in a foreign language and culture. Statistical analyses reveal that personality traits such as Extraversion, Agreeableness and Openness had an effect on self-perceived changes in behaviour or body language and occurred while a foreign language was used. A similar effect had been found for EI factors such as Emotion expression, Empathy, Social awareness, Emotion perception, Emotion management, Emotionality and Sociability. These results could explain why some people report changes in personality when switching languages and some do not. Therefore, it is speculated that the existence of self-reported personality changes could be assigned more to certain personality traits and EI, which enables such subtle changes to be noticed, rather than stemming from a difference in the existence of such changes in these participants. The results of this study show the complexity of the relationship between language, culture and emotions, suggesting that both higher- and lower-order personality traits should be incorporated into further research on various aspects of bilingualism.
