GoKawiilLearning another language is a highly complex mental activity. It requires people to remember words, distinguish unfamiliar sounds, recognize patterns, work out grammatical rules and retrieve the right expression at the right moment. All of this happens while listening, interpreting and preparing a response.
Could all this mental activity also help keep an aging brain healthier? Research suggests it can.
Concerns about memory and dementia can send aging adults looking for ways to exercise their brain and maintain cognitive function, whether it is solving crossword puzzles or playing a musical instrument. Language learning might not seem like the same kind of brain exercise, but it is a complex activity that engages several mental processes at once.
I am a linguist who studies language acquisition, use and loss. My new book, “Beyond Words: How We Learn, Use, and Lose Language,” examines language and the mind across people’s lifespans.
Research increasingly suggests that language learning and bilingualism can offer cognitive benefits – including for older adults. Learning another language can also create opportunities for communication and social connection.
A workout for the brain
A person’s brain remains capable of change throughout their life. This ability to adapt in response to experience is known as neuroplasticity.
Learning unfamiliar sounds, vocabulary and grammatical patterns requires the brain to form and strengthen connections. Language learning engages several mental processes at once, requiring people to absorb and retrieve information, notice when something does not work out, and adjust. This sustained mental effort makes language learning a particularly rich form of cognitive exercise.
Research on bilingualism has found differences in both the brain’s gray matter, which contains neurons and their connections, and white matter, which consists largely of nerve fibers linking different parts of the brain.
Studies have shown greater gray matter density or stronger white matter integrity in bilingual people, compared with people who speak one language. These findings suggest that language experience can be reflected in the brain’s structure, as well as its activity.
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