Change the language, change and identity

As the ability to speak more than one language affects the consciousness of man

"Газета.Ru" understood, what do you think about bilingualism scientists, biologists, and psychologists: does switching between two languages on human behavior, whether bilingualism increases brain volume, whether speaking two languages forces the child to perceive the world differently and what are the similarities between the brain of London taxi driver and bilingual.

Bilingualism — speaking two languages — may be as early (i.e., acquired from birth, when the child's parents immediately begin to talk to him in different languages) and later, when man, as an adult, consciously begin to teach a second language. Common at the household level of opinion about bilingualism you can find the most different: some believe that bilingualism is useful for a person — contributes to the development of mental abilities and even helps to develop the traits of multiple personalities, while others believe that early development of two languages gives the children porridge in the head" and does not good to learn any one language. "Газета.Ru" understood, what do you think about bilingualism biologists and psychologists.

Bilingualism is changing the perception of the world
The researchers found that if a child starts to speak two languages since childhood, this skill can substantially change the perception of the world. The full text of the article can be found in the journal Developmental Science.

The study involved 48 children aged five to six years. Some of the young participants possessed one language, some were bilingual from birth, some children began to learn the second language at a later age. All the kids told the story about how child-an Englishman raised in a family of Italians, and of duckling, which grew up with dogs. After this the children were asked to answer the following questions: "what language will tell the child when you grow up?", "Will there be a duck to bark or quack?", If the duck is covered with hair or feathers?".

Scientists believed: children aged five to six years to realize that language is acquired in the course of parenting skills, but the barking and quacking, as well as wool and fur, are innate features of an animal. It turned out that things are not so simple — mistakes are made all the kids, but these errors were of different types.

If speaking the same language the child is inclined to think that are all innate qualities (i.e., raised in a family of Italians, the English will still speak English), a bilingual believes that the ability to bark and hairy legs, as well as language depend on the environment, which means that duckling from communication dogs bark and covered with hair.

The authors of the study believe that their findings prove that bilingualism significantly changes a child's perception of the surrounding world. This means that learning a second language can be used in order to demonstrate to them the diversity of surrounding cultures and societies.

Sooner does not mean better
A group of German scientists decided to test whether a person learns a second language faster and better if begins to teach him at an early age. As a result of work published in the journal International Journal of Bilingual Education and bilingualism is, this assertion was refuted.

The experiment involved 200 children from native German speakers, divided into two groups. Children from the first group began teaching English as a foreign language at the age of eight years and the second thirteen. Observing the success of students in mastering the English language lasted five years.

During the first months of training younger students really progressed faster than their elders, however, this difference is smoothed out after only six months after the start of classes.

Moreover, thirteen teenagers soon began to show great progress than younger children: they have built more complex from the point of view of the syntax proposals made fewer grammatical errors, faster caught shades of lexical meanings of different words.

The authors also note that at the beginning of lessons, the knowledge of German did not help children to master the English language, but, on the contrary, prevented. Despite the fact that these languages belong to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, the grammatical structure is different, and began learning English children sought to establish the words of others according to the rules of the native grammar. Over time, this problem disappeared.

Bilinguals have more brain
Another group of researchers whose work was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex in July this year, proved to have bilingual people, the volume of gray matter in the brain than those who speak only one language.

The experiment was attended by people who spoke English only, and the speakers of English and Spanish. In the result of the examination of the brain of the subjects revealed that

bilinguals have the volume of gray matter in the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain more. These areas of the brain responsible for conscious perception and the processing of information received from the external senses, and also control the voluntary movements of the body and help a person to navigate in space.

(previously, scientists have found that London taxi drivers, who are familiar with the city, the volume of gray matter in the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain also more than the average).

As suggested by the authors, such a development is responsible for the control and management of areas of the brain due to the fact that the bilinguals when switching from one language to another have to exert much more effort to control his speech and to build it in accordance with the rules of a language.

Read about England in the original
Speaking two languages affects thinking not only children but also adults. So, a group of researchers whose work was published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, found: the language of the written text affects the way people perceive the information contained therein.

The study involved 18 people are bilingual, speaking English and Welsh. All participants experience the researchers offered to read a set of sentences in both languages and then asked to retell the content of the text.

The result revealed:

people better perceive the text about Wales, if it is written in the Welsh language rather than English, and Vice versa. If the proposal contains neutral information which is neither Welsh nor English culture, language does not affect perception.

According to the authors, this means that even in the case of adults the language in which they speak in the moment affects the perception of the world and human consciousness.

Change the language — switched personality
Another discovery regarding the influence of bilingualism on the identity of the person was published in the journal International Journal of Bilingual Education and bilingualism is in 2012. Scientists conducted an experiment involving 102 bilinguals (native speakers of Polish and English languages) and found that the transition from one language to another change the behavior of the person and his style of communication.

Participants were asked to rate the truth of statements such as "I feel like a different person when speaking in English, My friends say that I behave differently when speaking in English." The result revealed that this is true:

many people begin to exhibit some traits of his character (to be treated, for example, openness, emotionality, sociability and social awareness — the ability to understand what other people feel) only when said in English, not in Polish.

These changes were noticeable in the case of those people who had a high degree of socialization and had many friends and acquaintances. However, as the authors suggest, this does not mean that the rest bilingualism does not have such influence, perhaps it is just less noticeable. Scientists believe their work proves that between language and the human psyche is much more profound than is commonly thought, communication and it requires further careful study.