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Exploring the relationship between multilingualism and tolerance of ambiguity: A survey study from an EFL context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2018

RINING WEI  and
YUHANG HU Open the ORCID record for YUHANG HU [Opens in a new window]
RINING WEI
Affiliation:
Department of English, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
YUHANG HU*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University
*
Address for correspondence: Yuhang Hu, Poulton Hall, 1421 37th Street NW, Washington, DC, USA20057-1051yh526@georgetown.edu
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Abstract

The relationship between multilingualism and tolerance of ambiguity (TA) has been examined in recent studies (e.g., Dewaele & Li, 2013; van Compernolle, 2016), which focus upon multilinguals with mixed nationalities in non-EFL contexts. Most of these studies regrettably reflect a failure to use effect sizes or provide information on the reliability and validity of the instruments used. The present study explored the relationship between multilingualism and TA by focusing upon 260 English-using multilinguals of one single nationality in an EFL context. Factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution, rather than a four-factor solution of the original TA scale, suggesting a need to re-examine the validity of such instruments when used outside of their native contexts. The results identified multilingualism, number of languages known and gender as important predictors for TA. Given the relative nature of effect-size benchmarks, a topic-specific effect-size benchmark system is proposed to (re-)interpret the present and previous findings.

Keywords

multilingualismtolerance of ambiguityfactor analysisvalidityreliabilityeffect size
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , November 2019 , pp. 1209 - 1219
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The completion of this paper was made possible thanks to the Research Development Fund of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (RDF-16-01-61). Part of this study was presented as a poster at the Harmonious Bilingualism Network (HaBilNet) colloquium (24-25 May, 2018) in Brussels. The authors would like to extend their thanks to the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. All remaining inadequacies are the authors’ responsibility.

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