Why Bilingual Speakers Switch Languages during Emotional Episodes?

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Why Bilingual Speakers Switch Languages during Emotional Episodes?
Bilingual speakers can alternate between the two languages at any time within the same conversation. The practice is also referred to as code-switching. Code-switching can range from inserting single words to altering large segments within a single conversation. Notably, bilingual speakers often associate the use of their first language and the second language within the same conversation to varying emotional experiences that influence their language switch. This interesting observation raises critical queries on the relationship between code-switching and individual emotions and experiences. Bilingual speakers also associate language-switching with the need to manage an ongoing conversation, achieve certain conversation effects, and position themselves within the social setting and assert their multilingual identities. Different authors, in recent and prior studies, provide evidence that demystifies the relationship between emotions and code-switching and why bilingual people switch between one language to the other within a single conversation when different emotional states. This discussion queries why multilingual people alternate between two languages in a single conversation and attempts to provide the emotional link attached to the practice.
The relationship between emotional experiences and code-switching is a puzzle that can be examined in at least three theoretical approaches. First, the emotional regulation approach posits that bilingual speakers can switch from the first language to the second language within a single conversation with the aim of controlling and adjusting their emotions. Pavlenko notes that bilingual speakers are likely to switch to their native language when expressing intense and extreme emotions, and can change into their second language when expressing moderately-intense emotions (26). An individual’s native language and their second language are distinctly linked to emotional variations that have been acquired through learning and over time habits, thus defining different emotional situations. For instance, Caldwell-Harris notes that the native language is usually learned at individual’s early age and is often used in extreme emotional situations, including at home, whereas the second language is acquired in significantly less emotional environments such as the second-language classes (1). The outstanding language acquisition difference can result in the involuntary processing of the second language that creates weak and less intense emotional responses during a conversation (Thoma & Baum 6). Therefore, it is common for bilingual speakers to express themselves using their native language in an event of an aggravated emotional situation and exhibit less emotional response using their second language.
Another perspective on the emotional response approach is that bilingual speakers tactically switch language within a conversation to alter the trajectory of their emotions. Different researchers use their clinical case study findings to suggest that individuals can deliberately switch their language to regulate their emotional responses. For instance, emotional responses exhibited by patients during treatment, including showing symptoms, crying and becoming angry were accompanied by switching to the native language (Rozensky & Gomez 157). According to Marcos and Alpert, patients with traumatic experiences often switched to their native language, associating it with the remembrance of their traumatic and chaotic past, such as abuse and neglect in childhood (1276). Conversely, patients portrayed better controls when expressing their emotions using their second language (Foster 110-111). A study conducted by Santiago-Rivera, et al. also recorded similar findings that showed that patients used their second language to express reduced emotions when they were engrossed in fear (437;441). Therefore, code-switching is common when individuals want to regulate their emotions when facing varying emotional contexts.
The second approach that favors switching languages for bilingual speakers in a conversation is referred to as the cognitive control approach. The approach describes the prevalence of code-switching in a competition context where individuals within a conversation yearn to find out the best language to use when conveying a particular message at a given point on a conversation. Given that bilingual speakers have more than one active language in the mind, different control processes are involved in evaluating the appropriate language to fit in a given context during a conversation (Green & Abutalebi, 517-8; Green & Wei, 506). In a code-switching environment, more than one language can be used as part of the conversation. Therefore, a cognitive control approach is necessary for settling on an appropriate language to put into text when engaging in a code-switching environment.
Extreme emotional contexts have a higher likelihood of interfering with cognitive control mechanisms that are necessary for language selection, thus increasing the incidences of code-switching. For example, intense emotional contexts are associated with decreased capacity for cognitive control compared to less emotional environments, thus promoting language switching (Tottenham, Hare & Casey 1). Negative emotional instances are likely to have the most impact on bilingual speakers. Indeed, adverse emotional stimuli disrupt cognitive control mechanisms of bilingual speakers increasing incidences of code-switching during conversations. Notably, a study conducted by Fabbro, Skrap, and Aglioti confirmed that individuals with negative emotional incidences practiced code-switching, violating instructions not to do so (652). Language switching during incidences of intense emotions is, therefore, likely to happen due to the influence of extreme emotions that negatively affects an individual’s cognitive control mechanisms.
Another critical approach that explains language switching is the cultural framework switching approach. Various researchers concur that bilingual and multilingual speakers are likely to switch their language during a conversation to fit into culturally accepted emotional contexts (Mesquita, Boiger, & De Leersnyder 97; Wang, Shao, & Li 557). Different cultures have developed widely accepted emotional patterns that can influence the choice of language in such an environment. Therefore, the choice of language when displaying various emotions can be traced from the acceptability of a culture. For instance, Camras et al. observed that cultures that find high arousal positive states, such as excitement, valuable have different emotional responses than that of other cultures (104...