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, ...