Bilingualism Benefits Cognitive Development

The United States provides an interesting paradox: people describe the country both as a traditional “melting pot” of cultures, but also as culturally unaware relative to people from other countries. The sheer size of the country separates it from other areas with significantly different cultures, which makes many of us satisfied simply with interstate travel. A significant portion of the population has never even been out of the country. As of last year, only about 38 percent of Americans had valid passports.

Sadly, a result of this is that only about 20 percent of Americans are bilingual in comparison to 54 percent of Europeans. This makes sense considering the closeness of European countries; there, it is almost essential to know more than one language in order to freely travel, move, and work throughout the continent, as many Europeans do. America’s primary use of English throughout the country, however, eliminates the need for knowing another language. It is a shame nonetheless, especially since bilingualism has been shown to have a positive impact on cognitive development.

Our day-to-day activities and experiences throughout our lives have the potential to physically modify our brains. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity. Activities that seem like simple parts of our lives, such as playing videogames, driving taxis, and playing music, all contribute to neuroplasticity. Another phenomenon that contributes to neuroplasticity: speaking another language. Like playing videogames and driving taxis, this skill makes use of many functional connections and modifies our brains.

In the early 1920s, some scientists assumed that bilingualism had negative consequences on childhood brain development. In 1926, influential child psychologist and researcher Florence Goodenough posited, “This might be considered evidence that the use of a foreign language in the home is one of the chief factors in producing mental retardation as measured by intelligence tests.” Now, almost a century later, there exists substantial evidence against this claim.

In an interview with NPR, psychologist and researcher Elle Bialystok explained that even when a bilingual person uses one language at a given moment, the other one remains active at the same time. This coincides with the fact that bilinguals tend to show lower proficiency in each of their two languages than their monolingual counterparts show in their one. Once you acquire a language, you can’t just “turn it off,” the same way you can’t just turn off your ability to understand your native tongue. This interferes a good deal in a bilingual person’s use of each of their languages.

Fortunately, the brain continually strengthens its ability to separate the two tongues using executive control, which the Harvard Center on the Developing Child defines as “the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.” The NPR article where Bialystok was quoted explains the relevance to people who speak more than one language: “Bilinguals have to do something that monolinguals don’t do — they have to keep the two languages separate… The brain has to keep the two channels separate and pay attention to only one.”

The bilingual advantage is not significantly apparent in children or young adults; older people, however, experience a loss of executive control, and with that decline comes a reduction in high-level thought, sustained attention, and multitasking. But according to a 2011 meta-analysis study, older bilingual people are protected against this cognitive decline, and lose their executive control more slowly than monolingual people do. And a 2013 study found that the onset of dementia is delayed by about 4.5 years in bilingual people.

Americans often dismiss the importance of learning a second language, especially those with plans to stay in the country for the rest of their lives. Only seven percent of college students were enrolled in a foreign language course in 2015, according to an article published in The Atlantic. And less than one percent of American adults are proficient in a language they learned in the classroom. The cognitive benefits of using one’s brain to learn a second language could influence people to reconsider their choice to only study or use their native tongue.

Share your thoughts