English 中文网 漫画网 爱新闻iNews 翻译论坛
中国网站品牌栏目(频道)
当前位置: Language Tips > Special Speed News VOA慢速

Are people who speak more than one language smarter?

[ 2011-03-10 14:57]     字号 [] [] []  
免费订阅30天China Daily双语新闻手机报:移动用户编辑短信CD至106580009009

Are people who speak more than one language smarter?

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

In the early 1950s, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the 1960s found the opposite. Bilingual people scored higher than monolinguals--people who speak only one language. So which is it?

Researchers presented their newest studies last month at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystock says it probably does make you better at certain skills.

ELLEN BIALYSTOCK: "Imagine driving down the highway. There's many things that could capture your attention and you really need to be able to monitor all of them. Why would bilingualism make you any better at that?"

And the answer, she says, is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention -- a function called the executive control system.

ELLEN BIALYSTOCK: "It's quite possibly the most important cognitive system we have because it's where all of your decisions about what to attend to, what to ignore, what to process are made."

Ms. Bialystock is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different colors. The person has to ignore the word but say the color. The problem is that the words are all names of colors.

ELLEN BIALYSTOCK: "So you would have the word blue written in red, but you have to say red. But blue is so salient, it's just lighting up all these circuits in your brain, and you really want to say blue. So you need a mechanism to override that so that you can say red. That's the executive control system."

Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to suppress one to be able to speak in the other.

This mental exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are better able to separate a word from its meaning, and more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Foreign language study has increased in the United States. But linguist Alison Mackey at Georgetown University points out that English-speaking countries are still far behind the rest of the world.

ALISON MACKEY: "In England, like in the United States, bilingualism is seen as something special and unique and something to be commented on and perhaps work towards, whereas in many other parts of the world being bilingual is just seen as a natural part of life."

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Kelly Nuxoll. Tell us about your experience learning languages. Go to voaspecialenglish.com or the VOA Learning English page on Facebook. I'm Steve Ember.

salient: most important or noticeable 最重要的;显著的;突出的

Related stories:

研究:语言的转换可能带来个性转变

In class with Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, Asia

Rebuilding higher education in South Sudan

Can America win the education race?

(来源:VOA 编辑:崔旭燕)

 
中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
 

关注和订阅

人气排行

翻译服务

中国日报网翻译工作室

我们提供:媒体、文化、财经法律等专业领域的中英互译服务
电话:010-84883468
邮件:translate@chinadaily.com.cn