Analysis: Is The Brain Organized Differently In Bilingual Individuals?

Being bilingual is a tool that can enhance someone’s life tremendously. The development of this tool can happen either simultaneously or successively.

What do we know about the effects bilingualism has on cognitive development? Our world is becoming progressively bilingual; in the US 21% of school age children between the ages of 5-17 years old can speak other than English at home and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. On top of social reasons, the positive effects to the cognitive development of the brain when introduced to a second language are of many. The age of acquisition is vital due to the plasticity of the brain, which according to the critical period hypothesis, begins to level after five years of age. In addition to plasticity, bilingual speakers are more capable of focusing their attention to solve complex problems compared to monolingual speakers.

Whether bilinguals are smarter or not is a debatable topic to many. In the article, “Why Bilinguals are Smarter,” Yudhijit Bhattacharjee claims that being bilingual is not only useful, but also makes a person smarter. According to his article, switching between two or more languages uses a different parts of the brain. Furthermore, this actually helps a person monitor their environment more closely and allows them to multitask more easily, compared to monolinguals.

While some may think that this is not certain studies have proven otherwise. In The Power of a Bilingual Brain, Jeffery Kluger states that, “Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who know two or more languages….. Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(1) Clearly, a bilingual education places students a step ahead not only in their education careers but, as well as in their daily life’s outside school. Jeffery Kluger discusses how a bilingual brain is not necessarily smarter brain, but is a more flexible and practical brain. Evidently, demonstrating to us one of the many benefits of a bilingual

“Cognitive functions can be defined as cerebral activities that lead to knowledge, encompass reasoning, memory, attention, and language that leads directly to the attainment of information and, thus, knowledge” (What are cognitive functions). Many students at Doulos are unaware of the benefits of knowing two languages. Ironically students also don’t know that their own brain and its skills are improving because of their second language. Doulos teaches classes throughout the whole day in both English and Spanish. Students are regularly changing between languages and their brain is always active with both languages. “This constant practice strengthens the control mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). People who are bilingual are capable of switching between tasks more efficiently. “For example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape, they do so more rapidly than monolingual people, reflecting better cognitive control when changing strategies on the fly” (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). Students’ cognitive and sensory process skills are more developed due to being bilingual (Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook). These improvements allow students to better process and understand information in different environments, thus leading to better

Knowing more than one language has been shown to increase brain size and connectivity. Bilingual adults have denser grey matter, which is brain tissue that contains information processing nerve cells and fibers. The denser grey matter was most prominent in the left hemisphere where most language and communication skills are stored (The Bilingual Brain). In a Swedish study, conducted by researchers at Lund University, military recruits were taught a new language. Recruits at the

Lifelong bilingualism has been associated with enhanced cognition. Scientists suggest that the bilingual experience is closely related to neurological variations observed in brain anatomy and function of bilinguals versus monolinguals. For instance, research conducted by Olsen et al. (2015) investigated the structural brain differences of lifelong bilingualism. Given the importance of the frontal and temporal lobes in executive and language functions, they hypothesized that bilinguals would exhibit greater volume of these cortical areas. The researchers discovered that bilinguals had more white matter in frontal lobe regions, which emphasizes the importance of preserved white matter in executive function. Following immersion in a second language, young adults also demonstrated increases in grey matter in the inferior frontal gyrus and anterior temporal lobe (Stein et al., 2012). Not only have scientists examined white and grey

intend to expose in their studies how Educational Neuroscience can reshape educational policies and practices in teaching and learning the core content areas, especially in timing and sequencing content exposure. One approach was to study whether exposing a young child to two languages caused delay in language development and language confusion. Studies revealed that the optimal age for dual language development was before age five. Children were not delayed in phonetic contrasts acquisition. Imaging brains of monolingual and bilingual infants revealed that both groups presented similar neural activation. Regarding reading in bilingual children studies showed that children experiencing bilingual education in primary grades outperformed

In term of communication skills bilingual people have a bigger benefit than those who are monolingual.Bilingual brain can develop more closely together which makes the brain advantage in skills and abilities."Resercher Andrea Mechelli of London's Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and colleagues, including experts from the Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome, looked at brain densities of bilingual people."( Miranda Hitti 2004). They took 25 people who only spoke one language and another 25 who spoke a second language before the age of 5 and another 33 who learn to speak a second language between ages 10 and 15.All of the individual spoke English as their first and main language. In conclusion imaging showed that bilingual individuals brain had more gray matter when comparing them to the monolingual individuals.

(2011) stated that it proved better results from bilingual compared to monolingual children. It was concluded that bilingual children have a better level of cognitive abilities than monolingual children. They tend to have the ability to focus on the important things that requires “selective attention” and they are also able to change their responses according to the situation which is referred to as “cognitive flexibility”. In short, bilingual children have a stronger skill in keeping themselves focused since they have been practicing it in speaking two languages compared to the monolingual children who only speak one language. Conclusively, it can be suggested that the more a bilingual uses two languages in regularity, the more proficient he or she will be in both languages. As the bilingual gains proficiency in both of the languages and uses both languages consistently, he or she will have to strive for more control and attention to prevent intrusion from an inappropriate language system. Bilingual children have also been found to benefit academically in many ways, and because they are able to switch between languages, they develop more flexible approaches in thinking through

Numerous studies have been conducted on various benefits of bilingualism in multiple difference areas like cognitive, social- emotional, learning or global advantages. Regardless, there are multiple different reasons for an adolescent to learn a second language. Whether obligated when moving to a new county attending a school where it is a requirement, being enrolled in a class to satisfy a language credit, or simply for their own personal desire, when children are exposed to a second language in early formal education there are proven benefits; such as understanding other cultures in the classroom and the workplace, enhanced cognitive and learning development, and emotional bonds.

Bilingualism, or an ability to use at least two languages (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2004), has been studied for decades. A quick literature search will reveal that research on this topic goes back as far as the 1800s. This is hardly surprising considering that at least half of the world’s population is bilingual (Grosjean, 2010, p. 13), with some European countries reaching rates as high as 99 percent (European Commission, 2006, p. 3). Interestingly enough, until relatively recently it was believed that exposure to multiple languages at home was to blame for “producing mental retardation as measured by intelligence tests” (Goodenough, 1926, p. 393). The assumption that bilingualism is harmful and interferes with healthy development has been since debunked by research findings indicating exposure to two languages from birth enhances cognitive function (Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012). Although similar misguided perceptions have not vanished completely from our society and many educators and clinical practitioners continue to advise parents against exposing their children to multiple languages (Bialystok et al., 2012), bilingualism has become a desired trait in an increasingly globalized world and an integral part of the educational system in many countries.

Each time a bilingual speaks its brain functions in slightly different ways than that of a monolingual’s. Bilinguals deal with constant dual-language activation as they are able to switch between two sometimes very different languages. The ability to use one language without intrusions from the other language is seen as an important topic of study (Van Assche, Duyck, and Gollan, 2013). However, one of the costs of being bilingual is the reduced exposure to each language. Studies show that both sequential and simultaneous bilinguals score lower on vocabulary measures than monolinguals (Rosselli et al., 200 as cited in Kaushankaya, Blumenfeld and Marian, 2011). Strong evidence for weakened vocabulary performance in bilinguals comes from

Learning a second language at a young age has long-term benefits that can be felt even in old age. As human’s age their brains atrophy, but bilingual people can delay the consequences of this damage. These individuals are constantly experiencing the world using two languages so, while a monolingual person remembers how to ride a bike in one language, a bilingual person stores that memory twice, once in their first language a once in their second. This allows bilingual

Researchers are continuously investigating methods of advancing human development. Many studies have explored the world of bilingualism and found a few surprising results. The skill of knowing two or more languages has been linked to a variety of cognitive benefits. Knowing more than one language has been proven to impact more than just the linguistic system of cognitive development. This essay will review the positive effects bilinguals experience through early and middle childhood along with adulthood. In addition, with a few of my personal believes and experiences.