It is widely accepted that the mental juggling of more than one language in a single mind/brain is cognitively demanding.
– Bilingualism is a long‑term cognitively challenging experience that modulates metabolite concentrations in the healthy brain
Satori. To see things as they really are.
– Satori
Students here learn at least two languages. Some are concerned this would affect both languages adversely. Concerns include the issue of transliteration and inability to master more than one language. The focus has been on language outcomes. It turns out bilingualism and multilingualism have non-language related, overarching benefits. These benefits, elucidated by neuro-linguists, pertain to brain structure.
Before proceeding with the discussion on how a bilingual’s brain differs from a monolingual’s to confer general-purpose benefits, a little aside on mastery is in order. Shakespeare whose works are evergreen used language in ways which were not conventional in his day but have since become mainstream. Would you have guessed that words such as bandit, critic and green-eyed did not exist when Shakespeare used them?
Since language is used by people and the environment changes people, language is not static but organic and context dependent. So long as one is intelligible and able to communicate to fulfil objectives, the user is arguably sufficiently proficient. Therefore, inability to use more than one language at or close to mastery levels is not sufficient as a case against bilingualism given its multiple benefits, to which we shall now turn.
The first relates to access to environments. Someone fluent in shibboleths because of sufficient proficiency in various codes would be able to relate to and get along with people of all stripes. Isaacs (2018) states shibboleths are used as a means of “establishing insider and outsider status”.The ancient shibboleth test is still used today as seen in shows like, Fauda.
Bilingualism improves cognitive executive function. Backer and Bortfeld (2021) state that “speakers of more than one language develop executive functions and associated brain structures that differ from that of monolinguals” and such executive functions include, “the ability to plan and direct attention, ignore distracting information in the environment, inhibit habitual responses, be flexible, and switch among multiple tasks”.
It should be noted that these executive functions extend beyond communicative ability. Students who learn two languages might be better placed to achieve their chosen objectives because they are more attuned to time and place. Given that habits, including undesirable ones are really just tracks which have formed in the brain, bilinguals may be less susceptible to their deleterious effects because switching comes more naturally to them. Indeed, Backer and Bortfeld (2021) say of the “bilingual advantage”, bilingualism enhances, “domain-general inhibitory control”.
The reason for this, according to them and others who have studied the brains of bilinguals is that, bilinguals have dual representations of any concept and so when a speaker is using one language, these “mental representations from the unused language(s) remain active and compete with the one currently in use, thus requiring interference resolution of the cross-language competition” (Backer & Bortfeld, 2021).
For instance, someone who knows two languages may instinctively want to reply in one language but realise she is in a different language environment and would have to inhibit this impulse and select instead from the lexicon required in her immediate environment. This is what trains overall impulse control.
To confirm the bilingual advantage, pertaining to “selective attention and inhibition in particular” researchers have used tests which measure executive function. Such tests include, the Flanker task and Wisconsin card sorting task (Backer & Bortfeld, 2021).The Flanker task “allows for testing of both voluntary and involuntary attention” (Barrs & Gage, 2017). The Wisconsin card sorting task, developed by “Berg and Grant” measures, “abstract reasoning ability and the ability to shift cognitive strategies in response to changing environ-mental contingencies” according to Bruno Kopp and others (2019).
While the benefits of bilingualism are indisputable, there are various factors which influence the extent to which such benefits are experienced. Someone who has very rudimentary knowledge of another language or someone who learnt a second language but never used it may not experience any benefit.
Such factors; the relationship between them and changes in the brain have been conceptualised in the form of different frameworks. Such frameworks include, the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (ACH), The Conditional Routing Model (CRM), Bilingual Anterior to Posterior and Subcortical Shift (BAPSS), Dynamic Restructuring Model (DRM) and Unifying the Bilingual Experience Trajectories (UBET) (DeLuca et al., 2020). The last of these as the name suggests was an attempt by the researchers to weave together the various explanations and to fill what they perceived to be existing lacunae.
In essence, the relevant factors are, “intensity & diversity of use, language switching, relative proficiency, and duration” (DeLuca et al., 2020).
Someone who has to use two different languages in more than a superficial way, for a not insignificant amount of time for meaningful communication and has to switch frequently with only short intervals in between should experience “increased recruitment of cortical regions involved in control processes (e.g. the IFG, ACC, and IPL)” along with “greater grey matter volume” (DeLuca et al., 2020).
These lead to better ability to cope with situations which require quick switching between tasks and to sieve out the irrelevant from the relevant.
The UBET framework posits that with intense use of code switching, bilinguals would become more efficient in the way they code switch. It becomes less effortful for them.
To recapitulate, bilinguals not only find it easier to switch between languages over time (thus reducing the tendency to transliterate), they also experience better control over their attention whatever it is they may be engaging in.
Pilatsikas and others (2021) researched the difference in the brain structure of bilinguals with a different approach. They measured “metabolite concentration”. Metabolite concentration affects cognitive functions such as, “reading, episodic memory and executive control”. They found that bilinguals had a significantly “higher concentration” of certain metabolites associated with “brain plasticity”, over time.
Crucially, these positive effects were observed also among those who were not exceptionally proficient in any one language.
Bilingualism enables access. It keeps the brain healthy. It enables us to exercise greater control over attention. It increases impulse control and enhances ability to multi-task. Those are big things! From a communication perspective, bilinguals would be able to avail themselves of mental representations of concepts peculiar to their non-native language. This allows bilinguals to both see very clearly and make themselves very clear.
To its detractors, bilingualism, has no case to answer.
The Brain Dojo
