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New Discoveries from the Bilingual Brain and Mind across the Life Span: Implications for Education

Posted on by jannetteaguilera

The research article “New Discoveries from the Bilingual Brain and Main across the Life Span” by Laura-Ann Petitto was published in 2009. The article discusses neuroscience research with the goal to see if there are sensitive periods in the human development of language and reading and to understand the development and functions of brain tissue. The new field of educational neuroscience has emerged that allows us to analyze educational problems. This study shows how language research in educational neuroscience can help with educational policy and practice. Multiple studies were performed in this article. The first finding was that introducing a new language did not “damage” or “contaminate” the language first taught at home. The second finding was that bilingual babies have an “increased sensitivity to a greater range of phonetic contrasts, and extended developmental window of sensitive for perceiving these phonetic contrasts relative to monolingual children” (5). Another finding include that bilinguals who learned two languages by the age of, process the languages very similar to monolingual individuals. Bilinguals who learned a second language later “exhibit more bilateral activation, recruits more distributed frontal lobe tissue (including working memory and inhibitory areas) and recently exhibit more cognitive effort” (7).

This source is very useful in determining how the bilingual brain is different from the monolingual brain. It also shares how factors such as the age of language acquisition factors into how the brain is developed. These are essential to my guiding questions regarding the development of the bilingual brain. 

Article Source:
Petitto, L.-A. (2009). New Discoveries from the Bilingual Brain and Mind across the Life Span: Implications for Education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3(4), 185–197. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ862467&site=eds-live
Posted in Article

The Developing Bilingual Brain: What parents and teachers Should Know and Do

Posted on by jannetteaguilera

The research article ” The Developing Bilingual Brain: What parents and teachers Should Know and Do” is about the findings of about how the bilingual brain functions in order to improve dual-language development. What is interesting is that in Europe, the knowledge of the mother tongue plus two more languages is what is recommended in education. The belief is that the ages between 6 and 12 are the best ages to learn a new language and that it should be taught intensely. Traditional ways of teaching focused on learning one language at a time due to it being “confusing and a cause for learning delays; however, now there is an increase in dual-immersion programs and thus an expansion on bilingual research and how it is “associated with higher levels of cognitive control.” In the U. S. we use use the terms “bilingual” and “dual” which is unusual for other countries who are multilingual. Compound/ simultaneous bilinguals are those who learned two languages simultaneously while sequential /coordinate bilinguals learn one language at home and another at school. The term “emergent bilingual” is becoming more popular for students who speak a different language at home as the one at school. What is understood is that the strong the first language is, the better the language will support cross-linguistic transfer to the second language. “Meaning that elements of one are used in the other.” Newer neuroscientific studies show that early exposure to a language changes the physiology of the brain. ” According to Bialystok (2009), “bilingualism is one of the experiences capable of influencing cognitive function and, to some extent, cognitive structure.”

Another section of the article talks about the bilingual advantage. First it discusses how “the brains seem to process both languages in similar regions that are associated with language processing. ” Activity was shown in the left inferior frontal cortex and medial frontal gyrus. Advantages noted include: improved working memory and flexibility with using strategies in different situations. They can do better in conflicting options and ignore certain elements. Another important quote I found was: ” while discernible differences in neural activation is termed a Bilingual Signature, the cognitive benefits of processing multiple languages have been termed the Bilingual Advantage.” The advantage is that bilinguals demonstrate better executive function (sophisticated processing like decision making and inhibition and metalinguistic awareness. (knowledge of how language functions). In addition, domain-general processing advantage (like making associations, recalling and attention) is more accurate, reacting with appropriate times, fluid switching, and performing better on tasks involving memory. Two disadvantages are noted such as smaller vocabulary in either language and slower language processing initially, but these do not continue through the process of learning. Lastly, it would be best if parents can have their child learn early in age but can still be successful in done in school.

This article is useful to answer questions regarding the advantages of the bilingual brain and how it works. 

Article Source:
Mohr, K. A. J., Juth, S. M., Kohlmeier, T. L., & Schreiber, K. E. (2018). The Developing Bilingual Brain: What Parents and Teachers Should Know and Do. Early Childhood Education Journal, 46(1), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-016-0833-7