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Episode 05

Living between languages: identity, anxiety and belonging, with Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele

with Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele

In this fifth episode, I sit down with Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele, one of the world's leading researchers on language and emotion. We explore why our first language often feels richer, how a later-learned language can offer distance from painful memories, foreign language anxiety, raising a trilingual child, the language of the heart, and why therapists so rarely ask which language a client feels in.

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What we talk about

Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele is one of the world's leading researchers on language and emotion, and Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck, University of London. I came to his work through his book Emotions in Multiple Languages, which draws on data from more than 1,500 multilinguals around the world.

We talk about emotional resonance, why our first language often feels richer, foreign language anxiety, accents and belonging, raising a trilingual child, the language of the heart, swearing, and language in the therapy room.

In this conversation, we explore

  • L1 and LX: the key terms behind Jean-Marc's research
  • Why our first language often feels richer, and the memory systems behind it
  • How switching to a later-learned language can create distance from painful memories
  • Refugees at Room to Heal, and rebuilding an identity in English
  • Whether we really feel different in a different language, and how much of that is culture
  • Foreign language anxiety, and why it goes deeper than not knowing the words
  • Accents, being a Londoner, and "Where are you really from?"
  • Personality across languages, and presenting in French as a British academic
  • Raising a trilingual daughter, and how to pass on a first language
  • The language of the heart, and how it can shift over time
  • British indirectness, what is left unsaid, and reading the Gricean between-the-lines
  • Swearing versus "I love you", and why some emotions travel more easily than others
  • Whether multilingual confidence is partly a matter of privilege
  • Why therapists so rarely ask which language a client feels in, and how to invite other languages into the room
Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele

About Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele

Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele is one of the world's leading researchers on language and emotion, and Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck, University of London.

His research covers foreign language anxiety, emotional resonance, swearing, the language of the heart, and multilingualism in psychotherapy. He is the author of Emotions in Multiple Languages, which draws on data from more than 1,500 multilinguals around the world, and has published widely with clinicians and applied linguists on how language shapes what we can say, and where.

References mentioned in this episode

  • Emotions in Multiple Languages by Jean-Marc Dewaele (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), the book that started the conversation
  • Costa, B., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2012), "Psychotherapy across languages: Beliefs, attitudes and practices of monolingual and multilingual therapists with their multilingual patients", Language and Psychoanalysis, 1, 18–40 (Winner of the 2013 BACP Equality and Diversity Research Award)
  • Costa, B., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2019), "The talking cure: building the core skills and the confidence of counsellors and psychotherapists to work effectively with multilingual patients", Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 19(3)
  • Cook, S. R., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2022), "'The English language enables me to visit my pain': Exploring experiences of using a later-learned language in the healing journey of survivors of sexuality persecution", International Journal of Bilingualism, 26(2)
  • Dewaele, J.-M. (2016), "Why do so many bi- and multilinguals feel different when switching languages?", International Journal of Multilingualism, 13(1)
  • Dewaele, J.-M., & Salomidou, L. (2017), "Loving a partner in a foreign language", Journal of Pragmatics, 108
  • Dewaele, J.-M. (2004), "The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals", Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25(2–3)
  • Dewaele, J.-M. (2008), "The emotional weight of 'I love you' in multilinguals' languages", Journal of Pragmatics, 40(10)
  • Rolland, L., Dewaele, J.-M., & Costa, B. (2017), "Multilingualism and psychotherapy: Exploring multilingual clients' experiences of language practices in psychotherapy", International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(1)
  • Grice, H. P. (1975), "Logic and conversation", in Cole & Morgan (eds), Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3, on the maxims of quantity and quality
  • Room to Heal, a London charity supporting refugees who have survived torture and trauma

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