How Chinese and Japanese preschool educators use mental state language: a cross-cultural study of educator–child interaction

Mental state language (MSL) refers to language that describes individuals’ internal states, including desire, emotion, perception, and cognition. It plays a crucial role in children’s social-cognitive and emotional development. While extensive research has examined MSL in Western contexts, less is known about how educators use MSL in non-Western settings. This corpus-based, mixed-method study examined how Chinese and Japanese preschool educators use MSL during free play interactions. A corpus of 8,453 clauses produced by 24 educators was analyzed for MSL frequency, type distribution, and referential features. Results reveal both commonalities and differences. Across both groups, desire and perception were most frequent, followed by cognition, with emotion least frequent. Educators predominantly referred to children’s mental states. However, Japanese educators used MSL more frequently overall, with greater reliance on desire and emotion. Chinese educators used cognition with higher frequency and greater lexical diversity. In referential practices, Japanese educators predominantly used ellipsis and proper names, while Chinese educators favored pronouns. These differences reflect culturally shaped pedagogical priorities that influence children’s early experiences of minds and social understanding. The findings suggest that educators in multicultural settings can support children as active thinkers by intentionally using diverse MSL types and tailoring interactions to cultural backgrounds.