Beyond translation: a quantitative study on foreign language proficiency, academic identity, and dissonance among educational researchers

Abstract

For non-Anglophone scholars, high-level foreign language proficiency (FLP) may serve as a form of agency that alleviates the identity conflict present in global academia. This research quantitatively analyzes the relationship among foreign language proficiency (FLP), global academic integration, and identity constructs through a survey of 496 Egyptian educational researchers. Through correlation and multiple regression analysis, we found that elevated FLP significantly predicts a more robust sense of global academic integration and, most crucially, lower identity dissonance. A strong local identity was the main factor linked to higher identity dissonance. However, a higher FLP was the only factor that was linked to lower dissonance. Our results suggest that learning the academic lingua franca is not just a matter of fitting in. Instead, it can be a strategic tool that gives scholars the rhetorical confidence to cross academic borders and take part in global scholarly discourse in a more authentic way. It therefore reframes proficiency as an important part of scholarly agency. As these conclusions are based on self-reported, cross-sectional data, they should be interpreted as highlighting associations rather than causal links.