MULTILADA

DwuZam

Intentional bilingualism occurs when one (or both) parents choose to address their child in a language other than their mother tongue and other than the language of the community. For example, Polish-speaking parents who were born and raised in Polish monolingual families, although living with their families in Poland, choose to speak English to their children.

Aims of the project

In the project we will try to estimate how many families in Poland introduce intentional bilingualism. We will investigate the socio-economic, psychological, and linguistic environment of children raised in non-native bilingualism. We will find out what impact it has on children's linguistic, cognitive and emotional development.

Why is this important?

More and more families are introducing intentional bilingualism, especially in Eastern Europe and Asia. What we don't yet know is how this decision affects the family's life: its well-being and the child's linguistic and cognitive development. Our project is one of the first to be able to answer these questions.

Who will we invite to participate in the study?

We will be inviting parents practicing intentional bilingualism with their children between the ages of one year and about 10 years old (online questionnaire study). For an offline study with children and parents, we will be inviting families with children aged 3 to 6 years: monolingual, naturally bilingual (with a parent coming from an English-speaking country) and practicing non-native bilingualism. We plan to launch the study in the third or fourth quarter of 2025.

Research Assistants

Get to know research assistants involved in our project

Mateusz Dudka

Mateusz Dudka is an assistant at the Institute of Psychology at UMCS in Lublin, as well as a psychology teacher in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP). His research interests focus on the impact of foreign language learning on executive functions, a topic also explored in his PhD dissertation.

Dominika Lis

Dominika Lis is a research assistant within the DwuZam project, which focuses on the phenomenon of intentional bilingualism. She completed her master’s degree at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Warsaw. She was involved in research on the autism spectrum within the project “A jak Autyzm 2024,” under the supervision of Professor Ewa Pisula. Her research interests are related to developmental psychology, with particular emphasis on children’s language and social development.

Monika Mordawska

Monika is a fourth-year psychology student at the University of Warsaw. She has chosen child and family clinical psychology as her specialization. Her interests include developmental psychology, particularly psychodynamic and systemic theories, as well as psycholinguistics. She is developing her research skills and serves as the head of the Research Section of the Child and Youth Psychology Student Association "El Niño."

Aleksandra Możdżeń

Aleksandra Możdżeń is a psychology graduate from the University of Warsaw and currently a student at the Faculty of "Artes Liberales." She loves working and interacting with children, and her research interests include both human development and issues related to social change. She is particularly interested in the interplay between language development and socio-cultural development in children, especially in the context of bilingualism.

Katarzyna Piwko

Katarzyna Piwko is a psychology graduate from the University of Warsaw, with a specialization in child and family clinical psychology. In September 2025, she joined the DwuZam project (focused on intentional bilingualism) as a research assistant. Previously, she completed an internship at the Therapeutic Center of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, working with a group of preschool-aged children. She is currently developing her skills at a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy school. In the future, she would like to combine clinical practice with scientific research.

Bartosz Postawa

Bartosz Postawa is a psychologist by education. He is currently working as a research and teaching assistant at the Department of Psychology at Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa. His research interests focus on issues related to the psychology of the self.

ORCID

Natalia Ziętara González

Natalia Ziętara González is a third-year psychology student at the University of Warsaw. She is a member of the Research Section of the Child and Youth Psychology Student Association “El Niño” at UW, where she coordinates the “React Baby” project on stress reactivity in infants. Her interests include, among others, childhood bilingualism. She is currently a research assistant in the DwuZam project on intentional bilingualism, where she takes part in school-based studies and works with English-speaking children.

The project is conducted at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw

and financed by the National Science Center (SONATA 19 programme). Full title of the project: Parenting in a non-native language: quantity, quality, and consequences for child development (2023/51/D/HS6/02480).