Despite not being bilingual myself, from growing up in New York City, to my undergraduate days spent in Montreal, to now calling Prague home, I have always been immersed in bi- and multilingual worlds. (Bilingualism being the ability to speak/use two languages, and multilingualism is the ability to speak/use more than two.) I even had the privilege to grow up in a home with a bilingual father yet was never taught his native language, Czech. I always resented this, as I dwelled on the fact that I didn鈥檛 have the opportunity to learn Czech the 鈥渆asy way.鈥�
In Prague, I work in an English-language bookstore and caf茅 where I meet many customers for whom English is their second or third-plus language. I am constantly amazed by our conversations because of the seamlessness through which they can switch between their languages. As a current student of Czech and a past student of Spanish, I find my mind working against me, for whenever I attempt at speaking Spanish with Spanish-speaking customers, the only words that come to me are in Czech. Apparently, my bi-multilingual friends have had similar experiences. They have assured me that this phenomenon has faded over time.
Partly inspired by my wanting to speed up my Czech-learning, and partly due to my newfound interest in language acquisition, I set out to try to answer the following questions: Why do children pick up languages faster than adults? Are there cognitive and neurological benefits to bi-multilingualism? And perhaps the most burning question to me, will I really be able to become fluent despite learning the language as an adult?
Why Do Children Learn Faster than Adults?
Let鈥檚 first explain the 鈥渃ritical period hypothesis鈥�. In the field of linguistics and cognitive science, the 鈥渃ritical period hypothesis鈥� suggests that there are certain periods of time in one鈥檚 life that are more suitable for language acquisition. While the length of this period 鈥� typically between the ages of 5 and 18 - and even its existence is heavily debated, the general consensus among experts is the earlier you can learn a language, the better. It has been observed that as people age, there are in language-learning abilities.
While some argue it is nearly impossible for people over the age of 10 to become fluent in a second or third language, a growing body of evidence suggests that this is not so. Attaining fluency is age bound. One may have an accent when speaking these other languages - since, after puberty, the articulatory system 鈥� the anatomical structure of the vocal tract - is set, but that does not have an impact on fluency levels. My father for example, learned English well after his 鈥渃ritical period time frame,鈥� yet he now believes his English is better than his Czech.
Despite the controversy surrounding the critical theory hypothesis, it does offer some insight into why children pick up languages faster. Biologically speaking, this may have to do with the fact that children learn language through an 鈥� their brains are like sponges. In this case, language acquisition often happens spontaneously, through passive listening. Then come the environmental factors. At home, children usually receive ample time to practice their language skills through listening or speaking. The child is fully immersed in language-learning in their early years, and they have one-on-one attention with a caregiver, something not as available in school settings. Researchers, Krista Byers-Heinlein and Casey Lew-Williams argue that in the , vocabulary and grammar are strictly defined, which, while effective, may not be as impactful as 鈥渄iscovering the language from the ground up.鈥�
Interestingly, this same review found that simultaneous bilinguals, those who learn two languages from birth, have distinct characteristics compared with sequential bilinguals, those who learn a first language and then a second. Simultaneous bilinguals tend to have better vocabularies, better accents, and greater grammatical proficiency.
I can corroborate this. In the Czech language, there are seven declensions that modify the grammatical endings of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numbers. Once, when speaking to my father about how and when to use these declensions, he looked at me as if I was speaking an unknown language. These are the very things that make my learning Czech a challenge, whereas for him, having learnt the language from birth, dative, locative, and instrumental hold no meaning.
Bilingualism and Cognitive Performance
What about the cognitive benefits of multilingualism? It was previously thought that being bi-multilingual made people smarter. Research has shown that while this is not the case, there are important cognitive benefits to consider.
When compared to their monolingual classmates, bilingual children have been seen to demonstrate advantages in non-linguistic related tasks related to decision-making and conflict resolution. Researcher Ellen Bialystok on podcast highlights this through explaining how bi-multilingual students outperform their monolingual peers on the Stroop test. In this test, individuals are shown words that are the names of colors, but the color of the ink used to print these words does not necessarily correspond with the word itself.
厂辞耻谤肠别:听
The task here is to ignore the word and only say the color of the ink. This is an incredibly difficult task, and one I have failed at numerous times.
My failure may be in part to my monolingual brain, as bilinguals excel at this task. According to a , this may have to do with greater volumes of white matter 鈥� a part of the brain that you to learn and recall information, as well as stay balanced when walking 鈥� present in the frontal lobes of bilingual peoples. Extra white matter volume suggests stronger and more efficient neural connections. Olsen et al. also found that there was a significant difference in grey matter thickness between bilingual older adults and monolinguals of the same age. This is important because grey matter is associated with greater thinking skills and memory.
Similarly, it has been hypothesized that when individuals juggle between languages, their brains become used to taking various pathways to reach the same conclusion. If one neural pathway is shut down, or deteriorates with age, then there are other pathways that can be used to get to the same conclusion.
We can understand the cognitive benefits of multilingualism in this way. While cognitive deterioration is inevitable, psychological studies carried out across the world have demonstrated that bi-multilingualism may the onset of Alzheimer鈥檚 and dementia by four to six years. Of course, it is important to note that we are not seeing preventive effects of bilingualism on Alzheimer鈥檚, but perhaps a delay).
Just one more reason further motivating me to keep on with my Czech!
Eva Kellner is a recent graduate from the Faculty of Arts and Science, with a major in Environment. Her research interests include urban green spaces, urban agriculture, and outdoor community spaces - all as promoters of climate resilience among city-dwellers.
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