The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of multilingualism as an intrinsic need for brain development. This article also runs the cognitive benefits of multilingualism, including increased cognitive flexibility, neuroplasticity, enhanced executive function, improved memory, creativity and brain development.
Keywords: multilingualism, educational process, brain capacity, language learning process, cognitive development, multilingual individuals.
Multilingualism is defined as the ability of speaking and communicating proficiently in more than one language. It is a common and significant phenomenon in many parts of modern society. People use multiple languages in their daily lives. It’s also considered as a parametric variation in the faculty of a natural language and is possible to simultaneously acquire multiple languages, including dialects, at any age.
Multilingualism has a big impact on neurological structures and process of our brain. The process of acquiring a second, third or even forth language might be one people dedicate enormous time and efforts. While acquisition of a mother tongue occurs in synchrony with development of our brain as a multiple step process, other languages acquisition is continuous.
Modern research on multilingualism has grown over the last decades and has provided researches with new insights in the multilingual brain working mechanisms.
People can pick it up while travelling to another abroad and this process goes naturally and easier in some way.
How can it be that this process has such a profound impact on a brain cognitive development? Cognitive development refers to the progressive items of a child’s or adult’s intellectual, emotional and mental abilities. This process starts in infancy and goes through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, shaping individual’s intellectual abilities and executive functioning.
The human’s capacity to use native language is stored in the left hemisphere of the brain. The main parts of the brain, involved in language acquisition process are: the Broca’s area and the Wernice’s area. They both are located in the left hemisphere of our brain. This complex procedure involves information change between the left and the right hemispheres.
No wonder, how many elements a single language entails. Moreover, language learning process activate different parts of our brain, as «corpus callosum», a white matter pathway that connects both hemispheres, enabling the transfer and integration of information between them.
The part of the brain where people store a second or third language varies according to the age they acquire it. The recent research reveals that children who learn a second language early on childhood store it together with their native language. As opposed to it, adults store other languages in a different area of the brain.
This point signifies that our brain accommodates languages separately, which means that the structure involved in language acquisition and processing are not fixed. Our brain is flexible and change undergoing cortical adaptation when a new language is added.
By putting our brain to work, we alter its structure improving certain functions. As language learning is a complex process, the brain areas involved in it are enhanced. This is reflected in white and gray matter volume and in the number of fibers that provide wider cortical connectivity.
People who speak several languages, make imperceptible efforts for switching between them. One language is dominant and can intrude in our speech other languages we speak and keep.
It’s possible for our brain to change throughout a lifespan. The overall assumption was that our brain develops up until a certain point of time, from which connections become more fixed and then eventually start to fade. However, recent studies proved the exact opposite. Our brain never stops changing as a response to different experiments during our life. Moreover, our brain can restore after injury. This is explained by the concept of neuroplasticity. In neuroscience «plastic» signifies the capacity of brain to change and be molded into different shapes.
It’s the brain’s ability to adjust its physical structure and at the same time to repair damaged regions. The plasticity of the brain helps to grow new neurons, build networks, perform new tasks to think out of the box, to feel and remember, and also to dream about something. This concerns subsequent languages acquisition.
The infant’s brain is more plastic than adults. That’s why it’s easier for kids to learn a second or third language and become fluent in it. The infant’s brain makes it more easily adaptable and able to deal with the challenges of speaking two or more languages.
When our brain manages a dual or even multiple language process so as we learn how to use the right language at the same time, we are experiencing the parts of the brain responsible for our executive function in terms of neuroplasticity.
In this case, multilingual individuals show increased cognitive flexibility compared to monolingual individuals. It’s the ley point as learning multiple languages requires usage of multiple cognitive processes simultaneously. We may define attention, memory and problem solving. As a fact, multilingual individuals develop the ability to adapt new contexts of information process and switch languages more easily and efficiently.
It’s reasonable to assume that in terms of the compensatory mechanisms arising from knowing and using a second language, we can infer following benefits.
Fig. 1. Some benefits of multilingualism
Multilingual people tend to be effective communicators, more compelling writers, as they better understand how languages function including their native language.
Multilingualism can impact cognitive development positively. Multilingual individuals are advanced at analyzing, problem solving and multitasking. They can think out of the box. This happens because multilingualism requires individuals to think beyond the literal meanings of words, use metaphors, and express themselves creatively in different languages.
People who speaks several foreign languages have a larger working memory as learning and using languages requires to use such memory processes including working memory and long-term memory. The profound role plays the ability to hold and manipulate information in mind and retain this information for an extended period of time.
We can observe some changes in neurological processing in multilingual brain. Multilingual individuals have been found to have more connections between brain regions, suggesting enhanced neural communication and efficiency. This leads to better understanding how languages function and how we can adjust them in our daily life.
Multilingualism can level up literacy development in children. Multiple languages acquisition improves phonological awareness, expand vocabulary and comprehension faculties, which are crucial for literacy acquisition. Furthermore, multilingualism provides long-term benefits for literacy development, including better reading comprehension and writing skills.
Multilingualism’s phenomenon has dramatic effects on the brain development. It highlights the incredible plasticity of the human brain. It comprises highly interactive brain networks that adopt to serve multiple functions through our life-span.
References:
- Aronin, L. What is multilingualism? Twelve lectures on multilingualism (pp. 3–35). Multilingual matters, 2018.
- Baumgart, J. The impact of multilingualism and multiculturalism on teacher education. EAL research for the classroom: Practical and Pedagogical implications (pp. 134–163). Routledge, 2023.
- Raitskaya Lilia, Tikhonova Elena. Multilingualism and beyond: implications for education. Journal of language and education, 2023.
- Harrbason Sofia. The impact of multilingualism on cognitive development, 2023. www.sofiaharrbason.postach.io
