A popular theme in the literature on bilingualism is that emotions are stronger if experienced in the dominant language. Substantiation of this phenomenon, however, mostly relies on anecdotes and subjective ratings. This study aimed to determine whether evidence of the phenomenon could be provided by measures of processing efficiency and arousal during online language processing. Students for whom English and Spanish coexist, albeit English is dominant in their academic and occupational lives, read aloud taboo and neutral words in either language while skin conductance measurement appraised arousal. Overall, Spanish was processed less efficiently and yielded greater arousal than English, suggesting a more effortful analysis of Spanish. Processing efficiency and arousal were greater for taboo than neutral words presented in English but not Spanish. Frequent use of a language can make processing not only less effortful but also likely to reflect emotional responses to aversive/threatening stimuli.

A recent discovery of research on bilingualism is that a bilingual’s two languages are both active during online speech production and comprehension. Speakers may manage the interference that arises from possessing two simultaneously active languages by inhibiting the language that is task inappropriate or enhancing the activation of the language they intend to use. These accounts were assessed by examining the consequences of earlier use of a language on the current use of another language and by determining whether such consequences are modulated by task demands. Unbalanced bilinguals for whom two languages coexist served as participants. Evidence indicated that the consequences of earlier use depend on task demands that modulate the interplay between inhibition and facilitation.