1 There are a lot of bilinguals out there. “It is generally believed that more than half of the world’s population is bilingual”
2 The context for examining how bilingualism affects cognitive ability is functional
neuroplasticity, the study of how experience modifies brain structure and brain function
3 People used to think bilingualism has negative effect on children
4 Bilinguals have smaller vocabulary
5 Bilinguals have better executive control “ Executive control is the set of
cognitive skills based on limited cognitive resources for such functions as inhibition,
switching attention, and working memory”
6 *This paper will examine why 5 is true”
7 “ fluent bilinguals show some measure of activation of both languages and some interaction between them at all times, even in contexts that are entirely driven by only one of the languages“
8 There were studies done about how humans see the world through language
9 It takes brainpower to switch and pick between languages
10 There are studies done about what our brain does when recognizing language
11 Cognitive and linguistic outcomes are related
12 Studies that prove that bilinguals are better at multitasking
13 12 doesn’t only apply to children, but to adults as well
14 Bilinguals have better attention control
15 Benefits of bilingualism may vary depending on age
16 “It appears that bilingual advantages for young adults tend to emerge on tasks or conditions that are difficult”
17 “language switching was accompanied by activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), an area known to be part of the general executive control system”
18 Some technical stuff about brain areas
19 In other words, using these cognitive control networks for bilingual language
processing may reconfigure them for other purposes, providing part of the explanation for
the behavioral differences between monolinguals and bilinguals found in nonverbal conflict
tasks. Specifically, the evidence suggests that cognitive control networks may be more
broadly based in bilinguals as a result of their dual function.”
20 Studies that support 19
21 “bilingualism alters functional neural network at the response-selection level (congruent and incongruent trials), but not at the motor execution level (response inhibition no-go trials), a pattern consistent with previous results for both adults and children”
22 “Although bilingualism is a language experience, managing attention to two languages
imposes demands on the cognitive system that require brain regions not typically used for
language processing.”
23 “This evidence suggests that bilingualism is
associated with better maintenance of white matter structures in the course of normal aging”
24 Bilingualism causes better attention control
25 “bilingual advantage in the deployment of attention, enabling them to resist
‘capture’ by irrelevant information; such differences in attentional control may be the
consequence of superior conflict monitoring”
26 “In a sense, the bilingual must constantly
maintain the set of ‘respond in one language, suppress the other language’ whenever the
possibility of two languages exists”
27 “learning to keep two languages separate
leads to an improvement in selecting goal-relevant information from goal-irrelevant
information”
28 “Instead,
the ongoing experience of monitoring two languages, in conjunction with the need to
monitor context, speaker, and other environmental cues while inhibiting attention to the
currently unused but active language modifies how the mind and brain engage in ordinary
conversation for bilinguals”
29 BIlingualism might help prevent dementia
30 There was a study that found that bilinguals on average experience dementia later in life. “bilinguals experienced onset symptoms and were diagnosed approximately 3 – 4 years later than the monolinguals”
31 29 and 30 MIGHT be not 100% proven yet