All Conference Presentations, Performances and Exhibits
The Effects of Stereotype Threat on Communication: Does Stereotype Threat Affect the Way Multicultural People Communicate?
Location
Guzman Lecture Hall
Start Date
4-15-2016 4:30 PM
End Date
4-15-2016 5:30 PM
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Afshin Gharib, Ph.D.
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
This study focuses on the effects of stereotype threat in multilingual university students. The stereotype of people for whom English is not their first language is that they have a linguistic disadvantage when communicating with people in English compared to monolingual English speakers. Previous research has established the negative effect of stereotype threat on academic performance of female students and minorities (Steele, 2011). Konan (2011) found that stereotype threat also affects people who have a background in more than one culture making them feel less adept to complete a task when compared to or working closely with people who identify with one culture and language. The current study will explore this cultural stereotype threat and find out if there is a relationship between multilingualism and performance on tests of English proficiency and test anxiety under threat conditions. There will be approximately 80 participants half of whom will be multilingual and 70% of whom will be female. Participants will be recruited from a small liberal arts college in Northern California and the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr and ages will range from 18-60 years old. Participants will be randomly assigned to a stereotype threat or non-threat condition. In the stereotype threat condition, participants will answer 10 English sentence equivalence questions selected from a GRE workbook after they read directions informing them that the questions measure English proficiency and predict academic performance. The non-threat group will answer the same 10 sentence equivalence questions but in the directions they will be informed that the test does not measure English proficiency and does not predict academic performance. Participants in both groups will answer demographic questions prior to the English exam and complete the Worry-Emotionality Scale (Morris et al., 1981), a measure of test anxiety, after the exam. It is hypothesized that in the stereotype threat condition, multi-linguals will score lower on the English test and report higher anxiety levels than monolinguals while in the non- threat condition, there will be no difference between the two types of participants. Data collection and analysis for this project will be completed in February 2016.
The Effects of Stereotype Threat on Communication: Does Stereotype Threat Affect the Way Multicultural People Communicate?
Guzman Lecture Hall
This study focuses on the effects of stereotype threat in multilingual university students. The stereotype of people for whom English is not their first language is that they have a linguistic disadvantage when communicating with people in English compared to monolingual English speakers. Previous research has established the negative effect of stereotype threat on academic performance of female students and minorities (Steele, 2011). Konan (2011) found that stereotype threat also affects people who have a background in more than one culture making them feel less adept to complete a task when compared to or working closely with people who identify with one culture and language. The current study will explore this cultural stereotype threat and find out if there is a relationship between multilingualism and performance on tests of English proficiency and test anxiety under threat conditions. There will be approximately 80 participants half of whom will be multilingual and 70% of whom will be female. Participants will be recruited from a small liberal arts college in Northern California and the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr and ages will range from 18-60 years old. Participants will be randomly assigned to a stereotype threat or non-threat condition. In the stereotype threat condition, participants will answer 10 English sentence equivalence questions selected from a GRE workbook after they read directions informing them that the questions measure English proficiency and predict academic performance. The non-threat group will answer the same 10 sentence equivalence questions but in the directions they will be informed that the test does not measure English proficiency and does not predict academic performance. Participants in both groups will answer demographic questions prior to the English exam and complete the Worry-Emotionality Scale (Morris et al., 1981), a measure of test anxiety, after the exam. It is hypothesized that in the stereotype threat condition, multi-linguals will score lower on the English test and report higher anxiety levels than monolinguals while in the non- threat condition, there will be no difference between the two types of participants. Data collection and analysis for this project will be completed in February 2016.