Dr. Julie Jacobson shared excerpts from research done by Northwestern University. Northwestern News:
The researchers found the experience of bilingualism
changes how the nervous system responds to sound.
"People do crossword puzzles and other activities to keep their minds sharp," Marina said. "But the advantages we've discovered in dual language speakers come automatically simply from knowing and using two languages. It seems that the benefits of bilingualism are particularly powerful and broad, and include attention, inhibition and encoding of sound. "Bilingualism serves as enrichment for the brain and has real consequences when it comes to executive function, specifically attention and working memory," said Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor at Northwestern's School of Communication. In future studies, she and Marian will investigate whether these advantages can be achieved by learning a language later in life." The bilingual's enhanced experience with sound results in an auditory system that is highly efficient, flexible and focused in its automatic sound processing, especially in challenging or novel listening conditions." The World Languages Department certainly agrees!
