There are many arguments to promote foreign language education and learning, with most of them coming under the banner of social, health and/or economic. And it seems a shame that, in America, there are consistent national budget cuts on foreign language instruction, while at the same time less than 1% of American students are proficient in whichever foreign language they studied in school. In addition, only 7% of American college students are currently enrolled in a foreign language course.
The Long-Term Cognitive and Health Benefits of Language Learning
The Centre for Applied Linguistics and the American Council On the Teaching of Foreign Languages agree that learning a foreign language during childhood has many benefits, including a positive effect on children’s mental health, their development, and intellectual growth, which ultimately translates into flexibility in their listening skills and in their thinking.
It’s also been shown in studies that people who speak more than one language fluently generally have better memories, and typically score better on standardized tests – especially in reading, math and vocabulary. In addition, it appears that multilinguals are more easily able to separate important information from misleading information, meaning that they’re less affected by framing techniques and conditioning. This means that multilinguals are less likely to be influenced by political rhetoric and marketing campaigns, making them better decision-makers than their monolingual counterparts.
Delaying Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
And perhaps the most important benefit of all the health and cognitive benefits of learning a foreign language is the fact that Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are diagnosed around 4 ½ years later in people than they are in monolinguals. Edinburgh University researchers explain that the link between multilingualism and the delaying of cognitive decline has to do with the fact that multilinguals have the ability to focus more on the details of language, with less importance on memory.
It was also found that learning a foreign language had a much more positive impact than intelligence and level of education when it came to delaying cognitive decline. And the good news is that it seems we’re able to enjoy the long-term cognitive and health benefits that come with learning a foreign language simply by just trying to learn a language, because according to the researcher’s findings, fluency is not important in this regard.
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