C 2 · Education, study & language

C1/C2 Word formation Learning a second language can boost brain power

Can that be true? Does learning a second language really have such a good effect on our brains? I’m absolutely sure that learning any language sharpens our mind, offers a wider range of possibilities in the job market and broadenes our horizons. But after reading this article, I wonder if learning three languages had any effect on me, I’m so absent-minded half the time!!!!

Probably one of the downsides of learning a language is the amount of time one has to invest in it. It happens to be a really arduous task that will take up a lot of our time. But contrary to what one frequently comes across nowadays, there is no such thing as learning a language ‘like a native’ in a couple of minutes a day as it is also true that you can’t expect to get really fit by just cutting down on some fatty foods and not doing much more.

Both areas, learning a language and showing off some super sexy abs, seem to be extremely lucrative businesses nowadays, but I honestly don’t think that something you can get in the blink of an eye, is really worth it, and certainly not within being healthy in mind and body.

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Created by blogdeserena

Vocabulary

C1-C2 Learning a second language can boost brain power

Read the text and  complete the text with a form of the word in bold. 

Adapted from BBC News 

Activity by Serena

The US researchers from North-western University say bilingualism is a form of brain training - a mental "work out" that fine-tunes the mind. Speaking two languages 1)... (PROFOUND) affects the brain and changes how the nervous system responds to sound, lab tests revealed. Experts say the work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides 2)... (BIO) evidence of this. For the study, the team monitored the brain responses of 48 healthy student volunteers - which included 23 who were bilingual - to different sounds. They used scalp electrodes to trace the pattern of 3) ...(BRAIN). Under quiet, laboratory conditions, both groups - the bilingual and the English-only-speaking students - responded similarly. But against a 4)...(BACK) of noisy chatter, the bilingual group were far superior at processing sounds. They were better able to tune in to the important information - the speaker's voice - and block out other 5)... (DISTRACT) noises. And these differences were visible in the brain. The bilinguals’ brainstem responses were 6)... (HEIGHT). Prof Nina Kraus, who led the research, said: "The bilingual's enhanced experience with sound results in an auditory system that is highly efficient, flexible and focused in its automatic sound processing, especially in 7) ...(CHALLENGE) or novel listening conditions."Co-author Vitoria Marian said: "People do crossword puzzles and other activities to keep their minds sharp. But the advantages we've discovered in dual language speakers come simply from knowing and using two languages. "It seems that the benefits of bilingualism are particularly powerful and broad, and include attention, inhibition and 8) ... (CODE) of sound."

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