Page 4 - ELG1711 Nov Issue 452

WELCOME . EDITOR’S LETTER

It all comes down to

the right brainwaves.

theteam
Neuroscientific studies into language learning could produce a wealth
of evidence to help teachers, writes Melanie Butler MELANIE
BUTLER,
editor-in-chief,
Neuroscience loves language learning. And I am learning to love started teaching
neuroscience. As my ageing brain struggles to deal with life in any of EFL in Iran in
my languages, I find it such a comfort to know that multilingualism 1975, she worked
for the BBC
protects against dementia. World Service,
Knowing that all my four languages are constantly active makes Pearson/Longman and Modern
me feel so much better when I inadvertently swear at my computer in English teacher magazine before
French. Or I spend five minutes trying to decipher a tweet in Catalan taking over at the Gazette in
1987 and also launching Study
before I realise it is in a language I have never actually learned. Travel magazine. Educated in ten
Multilingualism rocks. Or so says Anne-Marie Connolly, the Dublin schools in seven countries she
director of studies who does brain research, in an interview on page 28. Not content with speaks fluent French and Spanish
and rather rusty Italian.
wiring up bilinguals for her PhD now she’s got designs on her students. That’s what we
need, more language teachers looking at the scientific evidence. Because the evidence is IRENA
mounting up. And teachers need to BARKER,
commissioning
understand it. On page 13 we report editor,
Science raises a lot of scientific studies showing that bilinguals studied French
questions and slowly but emit so-called ‘P600’ brainwaves earlier and linguistics at
Durham, UK and
in the language learning process. But
surely the EFL profession what is P600 and why do teachers need taught English in France for two
years. Her subsequent 15-year
to design tasks that promote it?
is beginning to try and And then we come to Clil, all too career in UK news journalism
includes reporting for local and
answer them often sold as the one-stop solution to regional newspapers, a news
language learning. Are we ignoring the
agency and a 10 year stint at the
historical and cultural issues that can get Times Educational Supplement
in its way, as researchers from Bolzano magazine.
tell us on page 14? Should we take CLAUDIA
heed of the Canadian research which, CIVININI, chief
as we see on page 12, shows that all too reporter,
often children with special educational won a scholarship
to teach Italian
needs are underrepresented in bilingual in Australia in
programmes? 2009, where she
And how do we teach children who qualified as a state school teacher
have learned to read in a transparent in 2010. Bilingual in English and
Italian, she joined the Gazette
language such as Turkish or Spanish as head of research in 2014
to adopt the more complex processes after teaching for five years. She
needed to read in English, the most specialises in data journalism
opaque of all European tongues? and research news.
Science raises a lot of questions and
slowly but surely the EFL profession ANDREA PÉREZ
is beginning to try and answer them. EGIDO, online
And give a word of thanks to Dr Jun Zhao from the University of Augusta for showing us and production
that the differences between the academic language used by L1 and L2 undergraduates manager,
has a BA in
disappears with time. Journalism from
Don’t ask yourself if Bell is right in saying preschool English is the answer. Ask only, how Complutense
do we teach learners pouring into Chinese kindergartens so that they keep the language University, Madrid and a Masters
knowledge they acquire. Never forget the problem of language forgetting. I don’t. in Corporate Communications
from Kingston University,
There may be four languages rattling around in my brain now but there are two more London. She previously worked
that have disappeared. I acquired them both before the age of six, and like many who learnt on the international desk at the
‘nursery languages’, I barely remember a word. Spanish newspaper La Razón.
Earlier is not always better. MELANIE BUTER, She joined the Gazette as online
and social media editor in 2015.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

editorial@elgazette.com 5