Benefit of speaking multiple languages

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Most people in the world speak more than one language, suggesting the human brain evolved to work in multiple tongues.

 

Was it easy to learn so many languages?

The answer is ......Yes.

 

Around the world, more than half of people – estimates vary from 60- 70% – speak at least two languages. Many countries have more than one official national language – South Africa has 11, China has 129.

 

There were warnings that bilingual children would be confused by two languages, have lower intelligence, low self-esteem, behave in deviant ways, develop a split personality and even become schizophrenic. It is a view that persisted until very recently.

However, research in the last decade by neurologists, psychologists and linguists, using the latest brain-imaging tools, is revealing a swathe of cognitive benefits for bilinguals. It’s all to do with how our ever-flexible minds learn to multi task.

 

Ervin-Tripp (American linguist) concluded that human thought takes place within language mindsets, and that bilinguals have different mindsets for each language – These different mindsets are continually in conflict, however, as bilingual brains sort out which language to use.

 

We always said bilingual  like one computer with Windows system and macOS at same time, the computer wont broken, the 2 system can run dependently just like  two separate minds in a bilingual brain.

 

Learning the new language improved cognitive conflict resolution. The part of the brain that manages this supreme effort is known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), part of the “executive system”.

 

In fact, says cognitive neuropsychologist Jubin Abutalebi, at the University of San Raffaele in Milan, it is possible to distinguish bilingual people from monolinguals simply by looking at scans of their brains. “Bilingual people have significantly more grey matter than monolinguals in their anterior cingulate cortex, and that is because they are using it so much more often,” he says. The ACC is like a cognitive muscle, he adds: the more you use it, the stronger, bigger and more flexible it gets.

 

Multilingualism has been shown to have many social, psychological and lifestyle advantages. Moreover, researchers are finding a swathe of health benefits from speaking more than one language, including faster stroke recovery and delayed onset of dementia.

 

From some studies, we notice the people who perform best on language study are the ones who don’t care at all about the task and just want to get it over as soon as possible. Students and teaching staff who try to work it out and find a pattern always do worst.

Children do the best. As young as children start to pick up multiple languages, they start develop language talent, that will benefit for all life. Bilinguals, it turns out, exercise their executive control all the time because their two languages are constantly competing for attention. For bilinguals, with their exceptionally buff executive control, the flanker test is just a conscious version of what their brains do subconsciously all day long – it’s no wonder they are good at it.

 

Such results suggest bilingualism helps keep us mentally fit. A superior ability to concentrate, solve problems and focus, better mental flexibility and multitasking skills are, of course, valuable in everyday life.

 

Immersing children in a second language may help benefit their performance in all subjects. The immersion approach is being trialled in the UK now, too. At Bohunt secondary school in Liphook, Hampshire, head teacher Neil Strowger has introduced Chinese-language immersion for a few lessons.

 

It is never too late to learn another tongue, and it can be very rewarding.