How do bilinguals switch between languages in different interactional contexts? A comparison between voluntary and mandatory language switching

Abstract

How bilinguals switch between languages depends on the context. In a voluntary context, bilinguals are free to decide when to switch, whereas in a cued context they are instructed when to switch. While using two languages may be more costly than using one in cued switching ('mixing cost'), recent evidence suggests that voluntarily using two languages may be less effortful than using one ('mixing benefit'). Direct comparisons between mandatory and voluntary switching, however, are needed to better understand the effects of the interactional context on bilingual language control. The current study compared mandatory and voluntary switching within the same task, thus keeping the overall task characteristics the same. We observed overall slower mandatory responses and larger mandatory than voluntary mixing and switching effects. Thus, using two languages is more costly in a mandatory than voluntary context, showing that the interactional context can affect the effort needed to control two languages.

Bilingual switching between languages and listeners: Insights from immersive virtual reality

“…Studies that consequently let bilingual participants voluntarily switch between their languages in the lab have in some cases observed switch costs comparable to traditional switch costs observed in cued language-switching paradigms, but in other cases found reduced switch costs or even no switch costs at all (Blanco-Elorrieta & Pylkkänen, 2017;De Bruin et al, 2018;Gollan & Ferreira, 2009;Gollan, Kleinman, & Wierenga, 2014;Gross & Kaushanskaya, 2015;Jevtović, Duñabeitia, & de Bruin, 2019;Kleinman & Gollan, 2016;Reverberi et al, 2018). Findings on voluntary language switching may generalize mostly to dual language contexts in which language task schemas are not in competition (Green & Abutalebi, 2013;Heredia & Altarriba, 2001).…”

“…In the domain of language switches, regardless of whether colors, flags, or listener identities are used as cues, language switches often involve cue switches, such that it has been difficult to separate the cost of switching languages from the cost of switching cues. Notable exceptions are recent studies in which a 2:1 cue-to-language mapping was used (e.g., De Bruin, Roelofs, Dijkstra, & FitzPatrick, 2014Heikoop, Declerck, Los, & Koch, 2016;Jevtović et al, 2019;Zheng, Roelofs, Erkan, & Lemhofer, 2019). These studies typically observe that switching languages comes at a cost over and above the cost associated with switching cues (see also Philipp & Koch, 2009).…”

“…Studies using the cued language-switching paradigm have consistently observed that switching languages comes at a cost compared to using the same language on two consecutive trials. The large majority of previous studies using the paradigm, however, partially confounded language switches with cue switches, as language switches were typically induced by a switch in cues (but see De Bruin et al, 2014Heikoop et al, 2016;Jevtović et al, 2019;Philipp & Koch, 2009;Zheng et al, 2019). Here participants named pictures for four life-size virtual listeners that used naturalistic gaze cues to induce language switches in a 2:1 cue-to-language mapping.…”

Voluntary Language Switching in the Context of Bilingual Aphasia

“…However, other experiments have shown the opposite, where participants still had switch costs in the voluntary switching condition [18,19]. In contrast to cued language switching, proactive control for bilinguals in voluntary language switching has largely revealed a mixing benefit, where bilinguals named pictures faster in mixed-language vs. single-language contexts [18,19,38].…”

“…Voluntary switching is regarded as a more ecological measure of language switching [3], especially for bilinguals immersed in dual-language or dense code-switching contexts [4] such as is the case for most Catalan-Spanish bilinguals in the Barcelona metropolitan area. In past studies, this type of language switching task has been employed as an alternative to cued switching paradigms when studying the underlying control mechanisms of endogenous language switching within healthy individuals [18,19,[36][37][38] but there is no study to date that incorporates patients with bilingual aphasia. Consequently, any findings in the voluntary switching task for BWA will hold clinical and ecological significance.…”