Measuring Language Effects of Bilingual Advertisements on the Language Preference among Chinese students in a University

Abstract

The influence of advertising language on the readers’ emotion is pertinent in sustaining customer loyalty and long-term relationships. This study is a contrastive analysis of Chinese New Year seasonal greetings on English and Chinese print advertisements that identifies the language preference and its impact on the emotional affect of Chinese undergraduates. The quantitative study was carried out amongst 63 university students based on a questionnaire constructed on the PANAS-X Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The Basic Positive Emotion Scales (PANAS-X Manual) components identified in this study are Joviality, Self-Assurance and Attentiveness that covered several sub-components of affects. The overall scale for the three adverts in the English and Chinese adverts showed that the English adverts recorded a lower scale of the emotional affect compared to the Chinese adverts. Among the three different emotional affects too, the Attentiveness component recorded a higher emotional scale compared to Self-assurance and Joviality whereby reunion themes are preferred by the respondents’ in both the Chinese and English adverts. The study gives insights into language forms that evoke emotional interest and would be useful for planning the language writing tasks in various ways.

Keywords: Language preference, Relationship marketing, Emotional affect, Bilingual advertising