Page 29 - ELG1711 Nov Issue 452

PEOPLE . FEATURES & COMMENT

I encourage the
‘HOW DO YOU SAY THAT AGAIN?!’ – DR CONNOLLY
students to look beyond EXPLAINS THE UPS AND DOWNS OF BEING BILINGUAL
It all the short-term benefits ‘If I am an English–Italian bilingual misleading information. Bilingual

of learning English and
ordering a sandwich in Milan there
pre-schoolers have also been shown to
is no reason to expect that my brain
have more advanced social skills than
see the potential
will prepare the request both in Italian
their monolingual peers.
The consequences of having
it has to reward them
starts with long-term cognitive and in English. But this is not how the joint activation of two languages in
bilingual mind works.
the mind of bilinguals affect both
It will offer both English and Italian,
and it is the job of the executive
linguistic and non-linguistic processing.
benefits
control network to suppress English
in this context and select Italian. The advantages far outweigh the
disadvantages. However, bilinguals
with n How do you implement an that the executive control network vocabulary set in each of their
have been found to control a smaller
It is out of this additional usage
evidence-based approach in your
is strengthened and the bilingual
languages than monolinguals (but not
daily practice as a director of studies?
advantage is born. Studies have found
overall if you combine both languages).
At the moment we are developing a
They can also be slightly slower on
that bilingual children are superior
longitudinal study to track our learners
dreams from the moment they arrive at the on most cognitive tests, especially lexical retrieval and verbal-fluency
those requiring symbol manipulation
tasks and less accurate on picture-
school, all through their course and
naming tasks. Bilinguals also encounter
and reorganisation. This is attributed
beyond, if possible. We want to capture the
to bilingual children’s superior
more tip-of-the-tongue experiences
background of the learner before and as
than monolinguals and demonstrate
metalinguistic awareness, or ability
they learn with us – for example whether
to solve linguistic and non-verbal
poorer word identification through
they are with a host family or in a shared
in English apartment. problems that require them to ignore noise.’
Who are they spending their out-of-
class time with and how much are they
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MIND OF A LATE BILINGUAL?
switching between L1 and English, and
in what circumstances? Imagine the
possibilities that would be born out of this
parasitic dependence of L2 on
before L2 is acquired, which
data to be able to tailor a language student’s
L1, late bilinguals must recruit a
means that a relatively automatic
experience to ensure they get the best out ‘For late bilinguals, L1 is solidified in L2. In order to reduce the
of their course. neural circuit of syntactic and host of cognitive mechanisms and
I am working with my former PhD semantic networks has already metacognitive strategies such as
Claudia Civinini asks Dr Anne-Marie Connolly about her research into the supervisor Paul Dockree to come up with a become entrenched by the time rehearsal, imagery and recoding. It is
therefore reasonable to assume that
L2 is introduced. This results in
positive effects on the brain of being a late bilingual and why bilingualism is a battery of tests and questionnaires that will L2 acting in a parasitic capacity late bilinguals who have managed
enable us to collect an umbrella of data.
precious resource for Ireland Paul and I recently met with Thomas Bak, to L1, requiring the speaker to to achieve high levels of proficiency
a leading figure in bilingual research, to call to mind a target word in L1 have developed and exercised these
discuss some of the specific questions that in order to retrieve the same word things successfully.’
our research found that the later in life. Therefore, the extra effort those who spoke just one language. might be an interesting place to start and
brains of those who learnt required on the part of the brain involved This finding has later been shown again we will continue to seek his advice as the
a second language later – the executive control system – translates and again all over the world. project develops.
Yin life find it easier than into an extra gain. In addition, bilinguals have also I also encourage students to look beyond
early bilinguals or monolinguals to The executive control system manages been found to show significantly better the short-term benefits of learning English
complete tasks involving switching a host of cognitive processes such as cognitive recovery following stroke than and see the potential it has to reward them
and focusing attention. How did your planning, working memory, attention, monolinguals. Ireland has at its fingertips with long-term cognitive benefits.
experiment work and what are the problem-solving, inhibition, mental a powerful tool to help combat age-related I enjoy speaking to students about what is
conditions necessary to develop this flexibility and initiating and monitoring cognitive decline in our citizens: learning or going on for them as they learn, for instance
cognitive benefit? actions. We observed this bilingual using our national language, Irish. A 2012 the first time they dream in English, or the
I used a computer-based task where advantage on people who had a reasonably review estimated that the overall cost of first time they notice that their internal
subjects were presented with two sets of high level of proficiency in their second dementia to Ireland was over €1.69 billion. dialogue, or self-talk, has started to happen
rules, much like the two sets of linguistic language and used it daily or almost daily. Far less tangibly measurable are the in English.
rules that a bilingual will have, and a set of social, economic and psychological strains These are all markers that, in my opinion,
circumstances under which each set of rules n What could be the implications of that the illness confers on both the people suggest that English is acting less as a
must be employed. these findings for policy-makers? with the condition and their careers. parasite to their more solidified L1 and
It allowed me to measure something Following the logic that bilingualism These figures underline the urgency is becoming a candidate for selection for
called the ‘switch cost’, a measurement uses the executive control system, the of the problem, and until biological or cognitive processing – step one on the path
of the time it takes the brain to disengage lifelong bilingual’s switching between two pharmacological interventions are available to bilingualism.
from one set of rules, switch to the new set, languages would boost the brain’s resilience. to cure or prevent the disease it is useful to
and engage with them. It would be better able to deal with the turn to other factors that may improve the
I found that those who had acquired early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. brain’s resilience. n Dr Anne-Marie Connolly is the director of
their second language later in life were able Bialystok and colleagues (2007) found The findings of these kinds of studies studies at Everest Language School in Dublin.
to make this switch more quickly [than that even in cases where monolinguals had have far-reaching implications for national She recently completed a PhD at Trinity
monolinguals or early bilinguals]. I attribute significantly more formal education than policy and underscore the merit of assigning College Dublin with the thesis: ‘Exploring Remove wires before entering the
this to the fact that it is cognitively far bilinguals, bilinguals sought clinical help for resources to reinvigorate and promote Bilingual Cognition in Younger and Older swimming pool. Dr. Connolly at work.
more difficult to learn a second language observable symptoms 4.1 years later than bilingualism in Ireland. Adults and Second Language Learners’
28 November 2017 editorial@elgazette.com 29