Here’s the second post in my Case for Early Language Learning series. For me personally, this is the number one reason I want my kids to learn a second language.
Early language learning leads to denser brain development and higher cognitive ability. Several studies indicate that learning a second language as a child increases cognitive ability. One researcher, D.W. Robinson, concluded, “. . . a youngster whose experience with two language systems seems to have left him or her with a mental flexibility, a superiority in concept formation, and a more diversified set of mental abilities.” (Robinson, 1992.) In 2004, Andrea Mechelli and other researchers from London’s Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience studied the brain densities of bilingual people. They found that bilingual speakers had greater gray matter density in the areas of language, memory, and attention than did monolingual study participants, particularly in the brain’s left side. The earlier the second language learning, the denser the gray matter in the brain’s left region. These findings suggest that the actual structure of the brain is altered by the acquisition of a second language. (de Vries 2004).
