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Deciphering the role of multilingualism in creativity at university: the influence of context

  • Elena de Prada Creo ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Mercedes Mareque ORCID logo and Margarita Pino-Juste ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: October 7, 2021

Abstract

Despite the close connection between creativity, multilingualism and multiculturalism, limited research has focused on their specific features in contexts where English is a foreign language. In order to fill this gap, this paper examines this relationship in two different bilingual situations: Spanish–Galician (same cultural context) and Spanish–English (different cultural context). For this purpose, a survey was devised to elicit students’ multilingualism, multicultural experiences and creativity. The results show that advanced English skills improve creative development. They also verify that living in a new cultural context benefits bilingualism/multilingualism (English) and creativity. Additionally, it was confirmed that being bilingual in Spanish–English fosters creativity. However, no significant differences were found when students were bilingual in the same cultural context (Galician–Spanish). Thus, bilingualism/multilingualism is confirmed to impact creativity only when it occurs in different cultural contexts. The most significant implication emphasizes the need to foster opportunities for multiculturalism to increase creativity.


Corresponding author: Elena de Prada Creo, English, French and German Studies, Faculty of Business and Tourism, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain. E-mail:

Funding source: ECOBAS (Economics and Business Administration for Society), Spain

  1. Research funding: This work was supported by ECOBAS (Economics and Business Administration for Society), Spain.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2020-0170).


Received: 2020-11-02
Accepted: 2021-09-20
Published Online: 2021-10-07
Published in Print: 2023-09-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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