Bilingua
How many languages do you speak? Chances are, in our SCIE 300 class, more than half of the students speak at least two languages fluently. Most studies and statistics show that 50%-60% of the world population can speak at least two languages. If you were required to learn your mother tongue at home, or forced to go to language classes against your will, or put through French Immersion at school, you’re in luck—here are three interesting scientific facts about bilingual brains!
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Different brains.
srireddy, Flickr Commons
Even if you don’t realize it, being fluent in two languages requires a lot of skills, including: being more sensitive to tones, knowing when and where to use which language, quickly switch between languages, and remembering a wide vocabulary in each language. These all require many different parts of the brain to communicate with each other. Therefore, studies suggest that bilinguals have a much more interconnected neural system in the brain that results in better cognitive control (which will be discussed later). The same paper linked above also notes that certain parts of a bilingual’s brain are denser than that of monolinguals (people that can only speak one language), which have implications on a concept called “neuroplasticity”. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to physically rewire and restructure itself either when learning something new or after taking damage, in order to allow an individual to continue to function properly.
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Improved executive functions.
Stroop Colour Test. mediocre2008, Flickr Commons
As human beings, and particularly as university students, skills such as planning, prioritizing, multitasking, goal-setting, focusing, and filtering distractions are essential in everyday life. These processes can be referred to as “executive functions,” and require specific parts of the brain to carry out. Although it is still an area that requires further research, many studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between bilingualism, and enhanced executive function abilities. Current evidence suggests that bilinguals have better conflict resolution skills, which was tested by measuring the response times of bilinguals and monolinguals for three different tasks—one of which is the infamous Stroop colour task: where a participant has to say the colour of the word presented to them, rather than the word it self (for example, if the word “red” is coloured yellow, participants have to say “yellow” and try not to read the word provided; if you try it out yourself with the link below, it is quite difficult!). The study showed that bilinguals consistently did better than monolinguals.
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Bilingualism has potential positive effects on cognitive aging, and could delay the onset of dementia.
The effect that it has on the executive functions of the brain also have beneficial effects in the long run. The cognitive abilities mentioned above tend to decline over time, but evidence suggests that the advantage that bilinguals have in this area helps to slow down the decline of these abilities. Although further research needs to be done to determine exactly how this works, researchers think that it could also be due to the changes in brain structure mentioned in number 1.
Many of these studies also emphasize that the benefits of knowing a second language are still apparent even if you learned it later in life. So, whether you have been practicing a second language since birth or acquired it later on, you have quite the set of advantages not just from a social perspective, but also cognitively! Perhaps this will help motivate you to learn a new language, or stop complaining about your French professor.
Written by Annica Eustaquio
