Research suggests that as you learn or regularly speak a second language, it becomes constantly “active” alongside your native language in your brain. The parallel activation of the two languages creates competition across the two languages, making the bilingual a 'mental juggler'.
Bilingual people show increased activation in the brain region associated with cognitive skills like attention and inhibition. For example, bilinguals are proven to be better than monolinguals in encoding the fundamental frequency of sounds in the presence of background noise.
Bilingual students concentrate better, ignoring distractions more effectively than those who only speak one language. “Because the language centers in the brain are so flexible, learning a second language can develop new areas of your mind and strengthen your brain's natural ability to focus."
This could unlock new parts of your life
People tend to become more open to new ways of looking at things [like the Boroditsky example] , but you also become more lenient and understanding because you know how to navigate differences and are more likely to gain empathy.
Summary: Speaking more than one language does not improve a person's general mental ability. However, while there is no cognitive advantage to being bilingual, there are broader social and lifestyle benefits that come from speaking multiple languages.
In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the sixties found the opposite. Bilingual people scored higher than monolinguals, people who speak only one language.
How Many Languages Does the Average Person Speak? An average person can speak two to four languages in a lifetime. However, human brains work differently, and an average person's brain can handle a maximum of four languages. It takes one year to learn the basics of a language for an average person.
Bilinguals have been shown to outperform individuals who can only speak one language in tasks that require working memory. The response rate amongst those who can speak more than one language was more accurate in response to trials, which suggests that bilinguals have an advantage in executive functioning.
Previous studies have shown that people who are bilingual show symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias later than people who speak just one language – around a 4.5-year delay.
A study conducted at the University of Granada and the University of York in Toronto, Canada, has revealed that bilingual children develop a better working memory -which holds, processes and updates information over short periods of time- than monolingual children.
Learning a second language can protect against Alzheimer's as well. Recent brain studies have shown that bilingual people's brains function better and for longer after developing the disease.
The study did not substantially show that bilingualism deters Alzheimer's disease incidence rates; only that it helps to delay symptoms. “Bilinguals and monolinguals eventually show the same number of Alzheimer's disease cases, but bilinguals tend to be able to stave off those symptoms for longer,” Grundy said.
Bilingualism can stave off the symptoms of dementia 5 to 7 years, according to new research. Dr. William Burke goes over a PET brain scan Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018 at Banner Alzheimers Institute in Phoenix.
In the past, studies have shown that people who are bilingual show symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and dementia around 4.5 -5 years later than people who speak just one language.
There are tangible benefits to being bilingual: It can help you in your career; It can improve your memory and brain functions; It can help increase your understanding of the languages you already speak.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
Some studies have shown bilinguals perform better on executive control tasks, for example in activities when participants have to focus on counterintuitive information. Speaking multiple languages has also been linked to delayed onset of dementia symptoms.
Language does not completely determine our thoughts—our thoughts are far too flexible for that—but habitual uses of language can influence our habit of thought and action. For instance, some linguistic practice seems to be associated even with cultural values and social institution.
But the most languages spoken by one person and who holds the Guinness book of records is Ziad Fazah. Fazah claims to be able to read and speak 58 languages including Arabic, Polish, Thai, Urdu, Norwegian, and many more.
The findings that students learn grammar well until age 18 were based on a grammar quiz taken by 670,000 students amid language acquisition. This is a large number of participants, which makes the results more certain. It's not clear why age 17 or 18 is the cut-off.
Cognitive psychologist Dr. Christos Pliatsikas found that even in so-called “late” bilingual people who gained their skills in adulthood had stronger, more-efficient brain structures than monolingual peers. Immersion is key, he says: “bilingualism 'reshapes' the brain, but […]
According to a historical review in "The Journal of Genetic Psychology," various researchers held these beliefs, noting a "problem of bilingualism" or the "handicapping influence of bilingualism." Following studies reported that bilinguals performed worse in IQ tests and suffered in most aspects of language development ...
According to the study, when bilinguals speak in their second language, their brain inhibits their emotions and intuitions, prompting them to make more rational decisions in their second language.
As scientists around the world seek solutions for Alzheimer's disease, a new study reveals that two indigenous groups in the Bolivian Amazon have among the lowest rates of dementia in the world. An international team of researchers found among older Tsimane and Moseten people, only about 1% suffer from dementia.