Does the Complementarity Principle apply to inner speech? A mixed-methods study on multilingual Chinese university students in the UK

This paper investigates how inner speech in English as a foreign language (LX) and Chinese first languages (L1s) of 425 multilingual university students the UK is affected by their stay. An eight-item scale was developed to cover two different discourse domains for speech, namely academic general domain. LX socialisation operationalised frequency use daily life, sociocultural adaptation, previous immersion, length Factor analysis quantitative data combined with participants’ reports show that develops gradually domain domain, suggesting Complementarity Principle applies much articulated (Grosjean, Bilingual: Life reality. Harvard University Press, 2012). Frequency linked higher level socialisation, frequent having had immersion. However, adaptation no effect on speech.