Skip to main content

Journal Entry 8–Ted Ed’s–The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain

0

Fig. 1. Still from Ted Ed’s website.


dictionary-2317654_1280

 

In this TED Ed video, Mia Nacamulli explains that being bilingual means you know two languages, while multilingual means you know more than two.  However, being bilingual isn’t just an external show of knowledge, bilinguals are also different internally – especially in the brain.  Nacamulli states that the brain of bilingual people actually looks and works differently than the brains of those who are monolingual (or who just know one language).

N Flowers alphabet-6916985_1280

 

acamulli explains that language ability is measured in two parts: active and passive. In the active part, the tasks of speaking and writing happen, while in the passive parts, listening and reading take place. While a balanced bilingual has an almost equal ability in two languages, most bilinguals use their language in various degrees. This is determined by the age in which they were exposed to a second language.

Nacamulli states there are three classifications of bilinguals:

•Compound Bilinguals – individuals who were exposed to language at a very young age. These, individuals can learn two linguistic codes simultaneously with a single set of concepts as they learn the world around them.

•Coordinate Bilinguals – individuals who were exposed to a language as teenagers. They work with two sets of concepts, learning one language at school, but use their primary language at home.

•Subordinate Bilinguals – individuals who were exposed to a language as adults. They learn the language by filtering it through their own language.


I Flowers

 

n the 1960’s, it was incorrectly thought that being bilingual was harmful to children because it made them use too much energy to distinguishing between languages. However, Nacamulli states that the heightened workout a bilingual brain receives in its life can delay the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Dementia by five years.

N Flowers alphabet-6916985_1280acamulli also relates that while being bilingual might not necessary make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy and more actively engaged. Additionally, she states it’s never too late to benefit from being a bilingual because even just learning a few words from a new language can go a long way.

-----------------------------------

Works Cited:

Geleynse, Joyce. “alphabet-6916985_1280.” Pixabay, 22 Jan. 2022. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/alphabet-letters-decorated-letters-6916985/. Accessed 5 Sept. 2023.

Kavanagh, Tessa. “dictionary-2317654_1280.” Pixabay. 16 May 2017. https://pixabay.com/photos/dictionary-languages-learning-2317654/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023.


Nacamulli, Mia. "The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain." Ted-Ed, ed.ted.com/lessons/how-speaking-multiple-languages-benefits-the-brain-mia-nacamulli. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journal Entry 10: Discovery Journal Assignment Reflective Note

  Thank you so much for visiting Julie’s Journal! Here is my video - Discovery Journal Assignment Reflective Note. I've learned so much through this assignment - check out my video for all the details !
Post a Comment
Read more

Journal Entry 2: Why Do Languages Have Gender? by Lexicon Valley Podcast

Fig. 1. Still from Lexicon Valley.       I am a new listener of Lexicon Valley Podcast, and I ran across an episode with a subject that seemed very interesting and answered a question I hadn’t previously thought to ask. Why do languages have gender, and more importantly, why doesn’t the English language have that?                  Having an advantage of being bilingual in Spanish, I was instantly struck with this question and realized it had never occurred to me that English doesn’t follow the same pattern of adding gender to nouns. First, Some Rules:   Lexicon Valley Podcast’s host, John McWhorter, tackles this question expertly. In some languages, gender is divided between masculine and feminine, and some gender rules in some languages makes sense.           McWhorter continues and states that the gendered feminine and mascul...
Post a Comment
Read more

Journal Entry 9–The History of English Podcast–Bonus Episode 2: History of the Alphabet

Fig. 1. Still from The History of English Podcast Website.     This podcast episode from The History of English, hosted by Kevin Stroud, deals with looking at the core group of letters which have stayed constant since the Phoenician alphabet. Stroud explains that their shapes might have changed, but the sounds they make and their position in the alphabet shows the consistency of these letters for over 3000 years.      Stroud also points out that the original alphabet only had consonants, so all of these letters were also consonants – which he calls Constant Consonants. He reminds us that the vowels present in our modern English language were added later by the Greeks. The Constant Consonants are:  B, D, L, M, N, P, R,  and T.      Stroud further states these letters are still found in the same order as the original Phoenician alphabet, and besides  their individual shapes and their modern English names...
Post a Comment
Read more