Language is a complex thing, and so speaking or learning a foreign language is a great workout for the brain.
However, that view has not always been popular historically. As far back as the 1920s, experts in the fields of psychology and linguistics were debating the benefits of being bilingual. Anyone who speaks two languages can testify that sometimes those benefits don’t always seem so clear. It’s not that uncommon to lose track of where you are in a lengthy German sentence, for example. Or use an incorrect article when speaking in French.
This article revisits that age-old question – does learning a foreign language help your brain?
Benefits for Children and Their Cognitive Ability
Research shows that bilingualism can potentially enhance brain function, particularly if both languages are used on a daily basis. If you teach a second language to children according to certain methods, it can improve their future cognitive abilities. Research also indicates that the regular use of multiple languages can help stave off conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
It’s important to look at the relation between learning a language, and the effect it has on overall cognitive ability. Research seems to indicate that when children learn a second language early on, they’re able to reap the benefits throughout their entire lives. The primary advantage has to do with a process called “executive function”. These are the skills that enable you to plan, focus your attention, and control what you’re thinking about. Thanks to executive function, you’re able to block out unnecessary stimuli and instead focus on things that are relevant. In terms of language-learning, this function allows bilingual people to automatically use only vocabulary and grammar from one language at a time. They don’t mix things up and combe words from different languages.
Executive function relates similarly to speaking multiple languages, and to focusing on a job while you’re surrounded by distractions. The same areas of the brain are active during both of these scenarios. If your brain is able to use this skill for multiple languages, it will also improve performance in tasks unrelated to languages.
Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism
Executive functions constitute the most complicated brain functions. They distinguish humans from primates and the rest of the animal kingdom. Speaking in terms of evolutionary history, they usually take place in the most recently developed sections of the human brain. They’re the parts that control high-level processing, and the association between words and their meanings. The exciting thing is, studies have shown that these areas can be physically changed. They can actually improve as a result of learning a second language. The volume of gray matter (neurons) can actually increase. This accommodates the need for more neural connections as you master another language. One of the measures of any healthy brain is cell density, and the more neurons in your brain, the more cells you have.
Not only will there be benefits to the gray matter, but the health of white matter improves as well. White matter forms a protective sheath over every connection that a neuron makes to another neuron. This makes sure that mental associations and memories are kept safe. White matter deterioration happens with age. However, if you stimulate the growth of new white matter by using a second language regularly, you’ll be able to optimize overall brain function.
Is Bilingualism Dangerous for Children?
These fears are based on research done after both World Wars, in which the United States and the United Kingdom tested children on their linguistic abilities. The problem was, most or all of the subjects came from countries that were especially hard-hit during the wars. Some of them had even come from concentration camps. They may have been bilingual, but the conflict had interrupted their studies for the last several years. That alone would have been a reason for the poor test results. They also failed to consider the fact that the children were almost certainly suffering from PTSD, an unknown disorder at the time. These factors definitely skewed the test results. For whatever reason, the researchers decided to attribute the results to the fact that the children were bilingual.
Starting in the 1960s, new research began to come out which indicated the opposite of what the older studies said. It confirmed that bilingualism didn’t cause any kind of cognitive retardation. More than that, it indicated there were actually cognitive benefits to knowing two languages as a child. For instance, an aspect of cognitive function known as “metalinguistic awareness” improved. This improvement was seen in both children and adults who were bilingual. Metalinguistic awareness refers to the brain’s ability to identify various components of language with abstract associations. If the second language is written in a different alphabet, such as Greek or Russian, the letters will be associated with different phonetic sounds in each alphabet. It would make sense that if someone were able to recognize this and master the differences in language, it would add to their mental abilities.
Limitations of the Research
When the studies showing the benefits of speaking a second language came out in the early 1960s, quite a few people got excited. It’s possible that the general perception ended up being exaggerated due to all the media coverage; either way, skeptics started to complain that this seemed too good to be true.
However, it’s important to note that the study looked at trends over a large group of people. Nobody from the research group was saying that every single bilingual person would experience the same benefits; rather, they simply observed that an average bilingual child would have improved metalinguistic awareness. Another thing to keep in mind is that the differences between bilingual and monolingual subjects are most obvious in children. It’s unusual for a child to have that depth of knowledge on a subject, so of course it would mean that they’re fairly advanced compared to most children. In the case of young adults, it’s more common for them to learn advanced subjects in detail, so the differences aren’t as obvious.
Language Learning – the Difference Between Children and Adults
Children and adults usually learn how to speak a second language in totally different contexts. In most cases, children learn from close family members, and start speaking simply as a part of everyday life. There’s very little pressure to meet specific milestones, and it happens alongside all their other normal activities. Adults, on the other hand, have to set aside time for lessons and practice. It can seem like their normal life is encroaching on their efforts to learn another language.
This has led to the mistaken belief that you can only truly learn a second language if you start as a child. It is indeed true that a child’s brain can absorb that kind of information more easily than an adult’s. However, it’s also true that many people study a new language as an adult. Some learn it so well that they’re mistaken for native speakers. In the end, the ability to speak a language comes down to a combination of factors. This includes your brain’s ability to learn, and the conditions in which you’re learning. An adult is better at understanding the complexities of a new language, but a child growing up in a bilingual household will probably end up speaking a second language simply because of constant exposure.
Will Bilingual Brains Age More Slowly?
It’s a known fact that around age 25, the brain slowly begins to deteriorate. But remember how bilingualism increases both gray and white matter, resulting in more neural connections? Researchers have a theory called “cognitive compensation”. It describes the way that the body is able to use these connections as alternative communication channels as the brain ages. This means that older bilingual adults often keep their memories and overall mental sharpness well after their monolingual counterparts have started to experience mental decline. The results observed in elderly adults is the best evidence for an advantage given by bilingualism.
Could Studying a Language Protect Against Alzheimer’s?
Currently there’s no definitive proof, but studies are being done to determine whether or not this is possible. People from the age of 65 and higher are currently being observed as they learn a second language. The initial results are promising. The brain activity that’s required when you study a language involves several levels. This includes learning grammar rules, forming new syllables, memorizing vocabulary, and so on. All of these activities happen in the same locations in the brain where you would typically see degeneration from diseases like Alzheimer’s. Because of this, the researchers hope that they can use language-learning to in the fight against Alzhermier’s. This would see language-learning target and strengthen the parts of the neural network that are most severely affected by neurodegenerative diseases.
Since these studies are in the early stages, there’s still a lot more to find out. Researchers want to know details like, are there some languages that are better than others? How fluent do you have to be in order to benefit from it? Nobody knows the answers yet, but time will tell.
Advice For Raising a Bilingual Child
Don’t try to make it happen faster than it needs to. Since your child is learning two distinct sets of speech sounds, vocabulary, and grammar rules, it may take a little longer, but be patient. It’s much easier for children to learn both languages at once if they feel like they have a reason to use both. You should try to create a context that encourages them to practice each language. This could mean spending time with grandparents, enrolling them in a school that teaches in two different languages, or going to cultural events.
If your child starts mixing up vocabulary, don’t be too worried about it. This is actually seen as a positive sign, called “code mixing”. In children this is seen as an indication of bilingual competence. They’ll sort out the differences by themselves as they get older.
Continued Research on Bilingualism
One big question that still needs to be answered is why the effects of bilingualism aren’t always consistent. Sometimes you’ll see the benefits, and sometimes you won’t. It’s possible that the effects are more pronounced when the languages aren’t related. For instance, a current hypothesis is that you’ll see better results if you know English and Mandarin, as opposed to English and German. It could be that in the case of learning Mandarin, it’s so different from English that the brain has to make more connections than it would if you were learning German.
In any case, it’s clear to see that learning a new language has many cognitive benefits. New research is being conducted on many different aspects of bilingualism, and it’ll be exciting to learn what they find out next.
