Professor Caldwell-Harris, a dynamic public speaker, is available for speaking engagements on "Advertising to Bilingual populations."
Her research has shown that bilingual individuals have a stronger emotional response to emotional phrases presented in their first language, compared to their second language. She has conducted research on the following bilingual/bicultural groups: U.S. Hispanics, Russians and Russian Americans, Mandarin speakers in the U.S., Japanese in Japan and the U.S., and Turks in Turkey and the U.S. Dr. Caldwell-Harris has traveled to Mexico, Russia and Turkey and collaborated with Chinese, Taiwanese, Russian and Turkish scientists.
How do bilingual consumers react to printed solicitations in their first language vs. their second language?
Hispanics residing in the US report that Spanish is the language associated with home, friends and leisure, but English is associated with school, work and interactions with institutions (health care, government, large stores).
An implication is that Hispanics may resonate best to material about home, family and leisure when it appears in their first language (Spanish), but may have the best associations when material related to work and school (buying a computer) appears in their second language (English).
Hui-wen Cheng, an international student from Taiwan, said, "Yes, statements in Chinese will affect me emotionally and play on my nostalgia for home, but if I am going to buy a computer, I want to read about the details in English."
Dr. Caldwell-Harris has developed a measurement tool, the Bilingual-Bicultural Emotionality Scale, which places individual respondents on a bicultural, bilingual continuum.
Advertisers are advised to start thinking of their consumers not just as bilinguals, but as individuals who may vary in how bicultural they are, depending on age of immigration, family/parenting practices and and connections with country of origin.