This is the part of the brain that plays a large role in executive function, problem solving, switching between tasks, and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information. And while a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors increase for some bilingual students in cross-language tests, it also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in, and potentially strengthened, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed a child’s development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages, a view based largely on flawed studies. The idea of major cognitive benefits to bilingualism may seem intuitive now, but it would have surprised earlier experts. The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimer’s and dementia by as much as five years. Some of these are even visible, such as higher density of the grey matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages. Conversely, recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than in their native one. If this is true, learning a language in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts. The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization develops gradually with age, has lead to the critical period hypothesis.Īccording to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left. It’s well known that the brain’s left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split. But recent advances in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. Bilingual Brain vs Monolingual Brainīecause all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language regardless of accent or pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to a casual observer. Finally, Gabriella’s parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learn a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends. As a compound bilingual, Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously, with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to process the world around her. And depending on their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be classified into three general types.įor example, let’s take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she’s two-years old. While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, most bilinguals around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions. Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two passive parts, listening and reading. So what does it really mean to know a language? And besides having an easier time traveling or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends. If you answered, “sí,”, “oui”, “ja”, “会” or “si” and you’re reading this in English, chances are you belong to the world’s bilingual and multilingual majority. ¿Hablas español? Parlez-vous français? Sprichst du Deutsch? 你会说中文吗?Parli italiano?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |