Written by What happens in our brains when we speak a foreign language?
Do we think in that language?
Do our brains “Google translate” from our native tongue?
Through MRIs and electrophysiology, researchers took a look at the brain to see what visual effects manifest with foreign language learning.
They also analyzed what these effects can tell us about learning a language.
Brain Growth
In an article by Alison Mackey, an MRI study took a look at two groups: young military recruits with a propensity for language and a control group of medical and cognitive science students.
The language groups studied Dari, Arabic, and Russian, while the control group studied other intensive topics but not language.
Taking MRI scans of both the language students and the control group found that certain areas of the brain grew in size for the language group, while those of the control group did not.
Those in the language group who experienced more brain development in the hippocampus of the cerebral cortex (which has a primary role in learning and memory) demonstrated superior language skills to those who experienced more brain development in the motor region of the cerebral cortex (which has a primary role in speaking words).
The ease with which a language student learned, understood, and spoke the language saw a direct correlation with the areas of the brain that grew.
And brain development directly correlated to performance.
Immersion is Key
Another study, noted in an article by Guy Brockless on Bilingua, explored the inner workings of the brain via electrophysiology.
Completed by Professor Kara Morgan-Short at the University of Illinois, the study used an artificial language to identify the differences in the brain’s function when experiencing immersion learning versus rule learning.
Both groups learned the language, but the immersion group learned it via processes similar to native speakers, which is ideal if your goal is native-like fluency.
Morgan-Short said about the study:
“This brain-based research tells us not only that some adults can learn through immersion, like children, but might enable us to match individual adult learners with the optimal learning contexts for them.”
Both studies inform our understanding of how our brains work when learning a second language.
They also indicate that while not all brains work or develop the same during the process, that data can allow language learners to tailor and customize the best methods of language learning for their own personal growth.
Success Across Cultures 