By: Shiv Jhattu
Multilingualism provides a neurological advantage as the brains of such individuals adapt to more than one language, making it easier for them to master a third or fourth language. A theory known as the cumulative enhancement model of language acquisition, claims that language acquisition is additive; all languages known can affect the speed and efficiency in which a new language is learnt and can affect subsequent knowledge acquired. The language acquisition skills of multilinguals are superior to that of bilinguals, according to Professor Kuniyoshi L. Sakai from the University of Tokyo, an expert in the neuroscience of language and last author of the research study recently published in Scientific Reports.
A research project was conducted in collaboration with professor Suzanne Flynn at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Neuroscientists observed the brain activity of 21 bilinguals and 28 multilinguals who were native Japanese speakers that were made to identify words and sentences in Kazakh, which was a language that was completely new to all participants. The participants of the study had to identify the grammatical accuracy of a sentence and recognize the verb-noun pairs to identify sentence structure(if the sentence ends in a noun or verb; in Japanese, the sentence usually ends with the noun). They would recognize it purely based on sound. Although bilingual and multilingual participants had the same pattern of brain activation, the activation is more sensitive and happens at a greater speed in multilingual.
Usually, sections of the left frontal lobe such as the Broca’s area and parts of the temporal lobe such as Wernicke’s area become active when understanding a sentence in a new language but the corresponding area on the right side becomes active as well, in order to aid the understanding process. In multilinguals, the right side of the brain showed no detected activation, while in bilinguals, both sides of the frontal lobe were activated. Differences detected in the basal ganglia(responsible for motor control, motor learning, working memory and emotions: it is considered a fundamental part of the brain). In bilingual people, there was low activation in this area of the brain initially. Activation spiked and then dropped back to a lower level. In multilingual people, there was a similar low activation that spiked and remained at a high level throughout the experimental tests instead of dropping. This shows that multilingual people can build on pre-existing knowledge and use it as a foundation when approaching new knowledge, whereas the pattern in bilingual people shows that they approach each new grammar rule as a separate idea.
A similar study by the University of Edinburgh published in 2013 showed a connection between the progression of dementia and the number of languages that an individual knows. This study had 648 patients from Hyderabad, India where Telugu and Urdu are the primary languages. Individuals were either monolingual or bilingual. A group of researchers found that bilingual individuals developed dementia at least 4.5 years later than those that were monolingual which suggests that multilingualism has a great impact on neurological structures and processes.
References:
Multilingual people have an advantage over those fluent in only two languages. (2021, April 10). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210401112530.htm
What happens to your brain when you learn a new language? (2019, November 13). Retrieved from https://unbabel.com/blog/brain-language-learning/
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