Learning languages
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I read about a study where a magnetic resonance imaging machine was used to map the language centers in the brain on multilingual individuals. Some of the people learned a second language as children while others learned it in high school or college.
Among those who learned it as children, the study shows the brain dealt with the languages in the same area: a yellow area, for example, representing the Croatian language, and a red area representing the English language. There was also in the study a large orange area showing common characteristics in the way the brain merged the verbal communication capability.
In the case where people learned additional languages but later in life, the study indicated that the brain used a separate area to deal with the new language and this is possibly related to the brain finding it easier to use a different area of the brain for the second language. The study also showed that the brain processes the information in a total different way depending on the age of the learner.
Although there is still a lot to learn about the way our brain deals with languages, the study is already being utilized by brain surgeons as now they can easily locate the language centers or the area where speech production is managed in the patient’s brain so they are able to avoid language centers during surgery.
Experience puts in the picture that children seem better suited to picking up new languages, but there is not a clear explanation why. So, the questions arise: When is it easier to learn a second language? In early childhood or adulthood? Are learning, storage, and usage of the languages more efficient as an adult? While researchers investigate I will continue as an English Trainer for both adults and kids!
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com
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