The Merits of Multilingualism
We spend a lot of time helping children learn things, but how much time do we spend thinking about how to best do that? In “The Science of Learning”, we’ll explore what research says about how we best learn. Most importantly, we’ll find out how we can apply theories and research to our real lives as parents, mentors, teachers, and learners.
Parents are often told that bilingual kids are better. Especially in Canada, where we have two official languages and many more spoken all over the country, it seems intuitive that children should try to learn more than one language. Today, however, we’re going to move past this common wisdom and explore what science says about the benefits of a bilingual (or even multilingual!) brain.
Those who learn new languages also learn more about cultures and places. This might happen more naturally because words in languages are shaped by culture. For instance, many languages within cultures that value family hierarchies will have distinctions between older and younger siblings. Cultural learning also occurs because language learners will visit a place where that language is spoken and/or engage in cultural experiences.
Multilingual individuals are more tolerant of differences and ambiguity. According to a study done by Dewaele and Wei in 2021, people who spoke more than one language were better at handling and understanding uncertainties. This may be because there are always phrases in languages that don’t translate well, so those who speak multiple languages learn to tolerate some forms of uncertainty through language.
Multiple studies (New York Times, BBC) suggest that those who learn more languages have better executive functioning, better problem solving abilities, and are less likely to develop certain cognitive diseases. Specifically, those who were multilingual developed Alzheimer’s about 5 years later than monolinguals with a similar risk level for the condition. There are a variety of potential explanations for these impacts (the BBC article goes into more detail if you’re interested in knowing more). In accessible terms, the difficulty of learning a new language helps develop grey matter, which counterbalances loss of grey matter as individuals age or experience cognitive decline.
Figure 3: Robina Weermeijer, Unsplash
In addition to these personal benefits, being multilingual can have wonderful professional advantages. Some jobs are only open to those who speak multiple languages. Even when multilingualism isn’t a requirement, it’s still often a huge benefit, especially in Canada.
