Why Bilinguals Are Smarter
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, in his article written for The New York Times “why bilinguals are smarter,” explains that more than just being able to communicate with people from other countries, being bilingual makes you smarter; it causes a great effect on people’s brains from infancy to old age. Being bilingual improves cognitive skills such as the executive function, helps become more adept at solving certain puzzles, enhances people’s ability to monitor the environment, and even helps prevent dementia and Alzheimer in old age.
Additionally, according to the article, although some researchers, educators and policy makers from the 20th claimed that a second language is a cognitive interference that obstructs children intellectual and academic development, researchers have found out that this interference is truly beneficial. “It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles,” states the writer.
I consider Yudhijit’s article is effective in explaining the cognitive benefits obtained by learning a second language. Yudhijit Bhattacharjee presents …show more content…
For instance, when he says that bilinguals “seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles,” he fundaments the statement with an study in which monolingual and bilingual kids were asked to sort some colors and shapes, bilinguals performed the task faster. And from my experience as a bilingual, the writer is right; when people acquire more than one language, they start developing diverse skills that monolingual cannot develop as they as they are not constantly exercising their brains by learning and remembering vocabulary, correct pronunciation and grammar structures, and trying not to mix up both or more languages in a sentence when