by Melissa Mui
Learning another language is a challenging yet fun task that many
adults consider but don’t actually try. It often makes its way onto many
New Year’s resolutions lists but is neglected just as quickly. With
easy-to-use phone apps and other software tools, excuses are
disappearing. New studies show that bilinguals have a serious advantage
over monolinguals. In the past, being able to speak more than one
language was regarded as advantageous primarily for college hopefuls and
career seekers. Now, researchers have a much better understanding of
what being multilingual really does for the brain, and the effects are
monumental.
Psychologist Ellen Bialystok of York University has done multiple studies
concerning bilingual individuals and their ability to utilize two
separate “networks” of the brain while speaking. “The evidence is very
dramatic. Even if you are in a context that is utterly monolingual,
where you think there is absolutely no reason to think about Chinese or
Spanish or French, it is part of the activated network that’s going on
in your brain.” By constantly switching between the two languages, the
speaker is exercising brain functions, keeping the speaker constantly
alert. This exercise helps to promote cognition and the ability to think
critically in a way that does not come naturally to monolinguals.
Bialystok also noted in her research that those who are bilingual have a higher chance of delaying the effects of Alzheimer’s.
The European Commission appointed their own research team
to analyze the benefits of being multilingual. David Marsh, coordinator
of the international research team, believes that the work done by
neuroscientists holds the key to linking multilingualism to improved
functions of the brain. The research compiled by the team showed that
there is one area of the brain used primarily for short-term memory.
Like Bialystok, they believe that exercising the brain could help hold
off dementia. Unlike Bialystok, however, the team also reports that the
differences found in an already-multilingual brain could also be found
in a person just starting to learn another language. Their research did
not differentiate between children and adults, though children who grow
up multilingual have more time to exercise and develop brain function.
Raising a multilingual child in a diverse home is much easier than in
a monolingual one. Foreign languages in schools are extremely popular
for this reason, but many schools that provide classes are still not
utilizing the full potential of the students. Marsh highlights his
concerns through his research, stating that not all children can learn
languages as a separate subject like math or science; instead, he
suggests integrating language into all other subjects. In Utah, 20 percent of public schools
provide an integrated language curriculum where students spend half of
their day learning in English and the other half learning in Spanish,
French, Mandarin or Portuguese. On a smaller scale, public schools in
Milton, Massachusetts offer a French Immersion
program, which begins in first grade and is taught entirely in the oral
and written form of the language. If more states followed similar
models, the country would be able to produce more multilingual citizens.
This would not only improve positions in international public
relations, but it would also improve the education and capabilities of
the nation.
Did You Know?
In October 2013, the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn hosted a free “crash course” language event they called Foreign Language Hopscotch.
Taught by native speakers, students were given the opportunity to
expose themselves to 22 languages in just three hours. Hosted in seven
classrooms, about a hundred people gathered in rooms to learn languages
such as Japanese, Spanish, Hindi, Russian and Igbo. Some of the students
sat in on only one or two classes, while other stayed the entire day to
try to pick up on the nuances of a new language.
The classes didn’t promise fluency, but were intended for students to
learn “snippets” of the language—useful, and sometimes humorous,
sentences that would teach them a range of language skills from
greetings to ordering food. According to Cédric Duroux, program director
for the Walls and Bridges festival (a 10-day event
that also includes the hopscotch approach to learning a language), it’s
impossible to become fluent in a half hour. However, Duroux notes that
students can “go back home with a clearer sense that each language goes
with a different culture, which goes with a different idea of the word
itself. . . . [T]rying to connect with different languages and cultures
is a way to change your perspective on the world as a whole.”
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