The Benefits of Multilingualism to the Personal and Professional Development of Residents of the US

In the past two decades, new research on multilingualism has changed our understanding of the consequences of learning and using two or more languages for cognition, for the brain, and for success and well‐being across the entire lifespan. Far from the stereotype that exposure to multiple languages...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inForeign language annals Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 248 - 259
Main Authors Kroll, Judith F., Dussias, Paola E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley-Blackwell 2017
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Subjects
Adult Basic Education
Adult learning
Adult Students
Adults
Aging
Aging (Individuals)
Alzheimer's disease
Attitudes
Babies
Bilingualism
Brain
Brain research
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Ability
cognitive and neural consequences
Cognitive Development
Dementia
Economic indicators
Educational Benefits
Language
language experience
language learning
Language Research
Literacy
Multilingualism
myths
Native languages
Neurological Impairments
Neurosciences
Pathology
Preschool education
Psycholinguistics
Psychology of learning
Second Language Learning
Stereotypes
Stroke
Studies
Symptoms (Individual Disorders)
Trends
Well Being
Young Children
United States > US
cognitive and neural consequences
language learning
language experience
myths
multilingualism
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Summary:In the past two decades, new research on multilingualism has changed our understanding of the consequences of learning and using two or more languages for cognition, for the brain, and for success and well‐being across the entire lifespan. Far from the stereotype that exposure to multiple languages in infancy complicates language and cognitive development, the new findings suggest that individuals benefit from that exposure, with greater openness to other languages and to new learning itself. At the other end of the lifespan, in old age, the active use of two or more languages appears to provide protection against cognitive decline. That protection is seen in healthy aging and most dramatically in compensating for the symptoms of pathology in those who develop dementia or are recovering from stroke. In this article we briefly review the most exciting of these new research developments and consider their implications.
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Judith F. Kroll (PhD, Brandeis University) is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Riverside.
Paola E. Dussias (PhD, University of Arizona) is Professor of Spanish, Linguistics, and Psychology and Head of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
ISSN:0015-718X
1944-9720
DOI:10.1111/flan.12271