Comments on: Speak Deutsch?

Speak Deutsch?

Gyan — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 18:28:34 -0800

Being Bilingual Protects Against Some Age-related Cognitive Changes.
Full paper link.

By: boredomjockey

boredomjockey — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 19:46:09 -0800

¡Que chévere!

By: LairBob

LairBob — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 20:53:53 -0800

Ma maman m'a élévé bilingue, et moi, je suis un idiot complet. C'est une idée dingue.

By: crasspastor

crasspastor — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 21:09:44 -0800

Oh what? Now they're going to tell us science finds out things?

By: signal

signal — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 21:34:41 -0800

Estoy salvao, entonces.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 21:37:59 -0800

Bialystok?

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 21:53:52 -0800

Sugoi!

By: Gyan

Gyan — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 22:18:02 -0800

Eetna buhkwaas!

By: muckster

muckster — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 23:36:54 -0800

Das hört man gerne.

By: slater

slater — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:26:39 -0800

Säb findi schono guet!

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:50:28 -0800

Nem besszelom Magyarul. (you can imagine the proper oomlauts, right?)

By: sic

sic — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 01:30:14 -0800

Jaja ¡pringaos! ¡hablad cristiano! Anyway, I am very pleased that my precious cognitive skills are being conserved....

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 01:42:03 -0800

Epa, epa! Arriba! Andale! Actually, let me raise some doubt. How were the bilinguals selected? I know some immigrants who, after years in the country have still not really been able to pick up the language. On the other hand, I know others who can pick up a new language just like that! The former, it would seem, would get classed as monolingual, the latter as bilingual. But, clearly, there are already cognitive differences. That is, if not controlled properly, this experiment might say nothing more than "People with the cognitive strength to pick up a new language are cognitively different than others" which you can see is close to being a tautology. Let me be clearer. Assume these groups: M1 (=M1A+M1B) - Monolinguals never given the chance to acquire a second language M1A- but would have if they had had the chance M1B- would not have if they had the chance M2 - Monolinguals given the chance but failed to acquire B- Bilinguals (obviously given the chance and acquired) The worst is just to test (M1+M2) against B which is what was done here. Better yet is to test M1 against B. In the ideal world, the best control, but difficult to do would be to test M1A against B. In any case, the paper says the monlinguals were Canadians and the bilinguals were English-Tamil speakers from India, so that raises even more questions about bias.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 04:21:48 -0800

Dit is 'n goeie ding dat ek twee tale prat.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 06:52:01 -0800

vacapinta - I tend to agree. This seems like one of the most hopelessly tangled research questions I could imagine, fraught with complexities. You're right - this seems clearly tautological. Age related cognitive decline impairs ability to learn - and acquiring a new language is one of the most demanding of cognitive tasks. How do these 3 cited studies avoid cherry picking, in the bilingual group, subjects inherently smarter or merely more resistant to age related decline (than the monolinguists) ? I expected to see these difficulites acknowledged in the actual research paper. Not. Here a bit on the trial subject selection from one of the 3 studies cited in the research paper ( downloadable as a PDF ) - "All the participants in both groups had bachelor's degrees and shared similar middle-class socioeconomic backgrounds. The younger adults were recruited through e-mail postings, and the older adults were recruited through flyers posted in community centers in both countries." I'm willing to believe that bilingualism does confer protection against age related cognitive decline, but I'm very dubious of these studies as proof of that possibility. To demonstrate that, you'd need a dramatically more sophisticated methodology than the cited studies used. But perhaps I'm missing something here. I'm not really bilingual, so maybe it's just that my brain is going. Glub, glub......

By: Veritron

Veritron — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 07:38:13 -0800

By the way the test is described, wouldn't a better way of preventing "age-related cognitive changes" be playing video games like crazy for the rest of your life?

By: Gyan

Gyan — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 08:34:10 -0800

vacapinta, troutfishing: Bilinguals are defined as those who speak two languages since childhood. If you learnt a second language after age 10, it doesn't count. All the study is saying that brains that accommodate two languages since childhood are more elastic, overall. Doesn't seem controversial. I don't think the study is claiming that only additional language instruction can help stem the eventual rot.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 08:58:28 -0800

Chikusho! Bakayaro!! I believe this story regardless of any deficiencies in the research. My languages will save me!

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 20:58:52 -0800

Gyan - On preview, you're right and I'm wrong. I missed that point. I blame my parents for not speaking two languages. languagehat - at least, and also - if you were Italian - you could greet any invading army in it's native tongue. But we live in America and so we'll never need to cope with an invasion.

By: adzuki

adzuki — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:50:47 -0800

Ypa!!

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 14:06:46 -0800

MetaFilter: On preview, you're right and I'm wrong.