Conference paper

Multilinguals and Language Choice in Dreams

Marta Šarčanin orcid.org/0000-0003-1170-5033 ; University of Zagreb

Abstract

The study explored the complex question of multilingual dreaming, more specifically, the choice of language in multilinguals’ dreams. Studies have already proven the importance of proficiency for dreaming in a language other than the participants’ L1, so the intention of this study was to look at language choice more closely and take into account the frequency of use and the influence of the environment on dreaming in an L2, L3, L4, etc. The instrument used was a questionnaire combined with a dream journal distributed to 11 students who have studied at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. All of the participants were speakers of Croatian between 23 and 25 years old who had learnt more than one foreign language. The questionnaire was used to determine the participants’ language proficiency, frequency of use of their languages and whether they were living in a country where their L1 was not spoken. The participants were asked to keep a dream journal for one month and write down references to language in their dreams. The dream journals demonstrated the complexity of the matter of multilingual dreaming and provided a more detailed insight into multilingual dreaming.

Keywords

multilingualism; dreams; language choice

Hrčak ID:

200187

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/200187

Publication date:

24.4.2018.

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