Languages smarten up your brain - Guardian Weekly - 1 views
www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=1418&catID=18
languages brain research linguistic skills language learning English
shared by Tero Toivanen on 14 Feb 10
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Now a study published by the European Commission reveals that learning an additional language such as English may bring benefits that go beyond the ability to use the language itself. This report has implications for why, when and how we teach and learn English as a second or foreign language.
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One of the significant findings for English language teaching is that changes in the brain’s electrical activity may occur much earlier than previously thought.
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this study suggests that changes in the brain may start even in the earlier stages of language learning.
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Most of the advantages described support overall competence-building for life and work in modern, information-rich, internet environments.
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The benefits reported include enhanced capacity for learning whereby knowledge of languages can lead to superior memory function, especially short-term “working” memory.
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Greater understanding of how language functions and is used to achieve specific goals in life acts as the fourth cluster.
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Finally the study reports on research that links knowledge of languages to a slowdown of age-related mental diminishment such as certain forms of dementia.
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The cognitive neurosciences stress the need for powerful learning environments, and yet not enough of our language education is spent encouraging learners to engage in higher-order thinking about meaningful content that fires up the brain.