Additional findings on bilingual education
We just came across some more compelling research underscoring the benefits of bilingual learning that we wanted to share with you. Two Northwestern University professors, Viorica Marian and Margarita Kaushanskaya will be publishing a study called “The Bilingual Advantage in Novel World Learning” in the August issue of Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. The study focused on bilinguals who learned a second language at an early age. One of the conclusions of their research is that bilingual individuals can master twice the number of words as monolinguals when learning an additional (third) language. In fact, the bilinguals studied were actually better able than monolinguals to filter out irrelevant information while learning a new language — findings contrary to the lingering concern that bilinguals become “confused” between languages in early learning.
Study co-author Margarita Kaushanskaya states: “We’re seeing that exposure to two languages early in life carries far-reaching benefits. Our research tells us that children who grow up with two languages wind up being better language learners later on.” Additionally, the study found that this benefit is not limited to similar languages – meaning a French/English speaker will have an easier time learning a language such as Japanese.
Marian and Kaushanskaya’s research also cites other interesting benefits related to bilingualism. For instance, they found that the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in bilinguals is delayed by four years on average compared to monolinguals.
We’ll post more information about the study once it’s released!
À bientôt!