本文转自：讯飞易传闻
近些年，世界校园、双语校园益发抢手，今世家长关于双语气氛的寻求可见一斑。咱们都知道双语开展有优点，能考更高的分数啦、能更便利的出国啦等等。但其实最大的优点是对自己自身，来看这期的TED讲演，详细阐明把握双语会给大脑带来怎样的优点。
The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain
双语脑的优点
（时长5′03″，双语字幕，主张在WiFi环境下观看）
为何需求把握第二言语？
Hablasespa ol? Parlez-vousfran ais? ni hui shuo zhong wen ma? If you answered “si”,“oui” or “hui” and you are watching this in English, chances are you belong to the world bilingual and multilingual majority. And besides having an easier time traveling, or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends. So what does it really mean to know a language?
你会西班牙语吗？你会讲法语吗？你会说中文吗？假如你能答复“si”、“oui”或许“是的”，并且看这个视频用的是英文原声，那么你就或许跟世界上大大都人相同、具有双语才能或是多语才能。除了旅行时比较便利、看电影不需求字幕这些优点之外，把握两到三种以上的言语，意味着你的大脑在结构上或运作上与你那些只会一种言语的朋友有着显着的不同。所以“把握一门言语”终究意味着什么呢？
最初以三种言语进行设问，引出本文的评论目标：学习双语有什么优点？此种办法新颖风趣。罗列几点把握双语所具有的优势后，指出单、双语者的“脑回路”不同，终究差异几许，请看下文。
Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking andwriting, and two passive parts, listening and reading. While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, mostbilinguals around the world know and use their languages invary proportions.And depending on their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be classified into three general types.
一般而言，衡量言语才能，首要包含两个自动部分——说和写，以及两个被迫部分——听和读。各方面才能均衡的双语者，两种言语的传闻读写水平根本差不多，但世界上大大都的双语者知晓和运用言语各方面才能的比率不同。依据个人所在的环境以及习得言语的办法，双语者一般能够分红三类。
每个人的言语才能各不同，依据主（学习办法）客（外部环境）观条件的不同，双语者分三类。
For example, let’s take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she was two-years old. As a compound bilingual, Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously, with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to process the world around her. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be acoordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends.
举个比方来说，Gabriella在两岁时跟着家人由秘鲁移民到美国。她归于“复合型双语者”，Gabriella一起建立了两套言语编码，为同一套概念，既学英语又学西班牙语，以两种言语一起了解周围世界。另一方面，她的已经是青少年的哥哥则或许是“和谐型双语运用者”，他运用两套的概念，一方面在校园用英语，另一方面用西班牙语和家人、朋友沟通。
Finally, Gabriella’s parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learned a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.
终究，Gabriella的爸爸妈妈，则归于“隶属型双语者”，经过母语过滤来学习第二言语。
经过举例，三个年纪段的人别离代表三类双语者。1.幼时就开端承受双语：复合型双语者；2.青少年时期开端触摸第二言语：和谐型双语运用者；3.成年阶段处于第二外语环境中：隶属型双语者。
Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language regardless ofaccent and pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to be a casual observer. But recent advances in imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain.
假如不考虑口音和发音问题，这三种类型的双语者至少都算能通晓一门言语。因而，一般人很难发现这三种类型的差异。可是现在，由于大脑成像技能不断进步，神经言语学家能够知道言语学习的不同方面是怎么影响双语者的大脑的。
怎么差异三类人，神经言语学家把大脑扒开，来给你讲讲。
It’s well known that the brain’s left hemisphere is more do minant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split.
咱们都知道，大脑的左半球是掌管剖析和逻辑思维，而大脑的右半球则掌管情感与社交才能，不过这仅仅程度问题，不是彻底的左右切割。
引出左右半球的功用差异，左逻辑右理性。
The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization（左右侧偏性）develops gradually with age, has lead to the critical period hypothesis. According to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains let them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left.
言语一起包含了左脑和右脑的功用，而跟着年纪的增加，大脑的功用会逐步偏重其间的一边，这就引出了“关键时期假说”。依据这个理论，儿童学习言语更简单，是由于他们的大脑仍在开展、可塑性更强，他们能够一起调用左右两头大脑的机能来学习言语；可是大都成年人只经过大脑的一边（一般是左脑）学习言语。
借由“关键期假说”阐明儿童与成年人在学习言语时大脑的差异。儿童长于调用双脑来学习，而成人多用左脑。
If this is true, learning a language in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts. Conversely, recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adult hood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than their native one.
假如这个假说是真的，那么在儿童时期学习言语能够让你更能从全体上把握言语的社会和情感布景。相应地，近期的研讨标明，成年人学习外语时的情绪性成见没那么多，一起比较于母语环境，他们在外语环境中遇到问题时也更为理性。
继续就“关键期假说”指明二者终究习得作用的差异。
But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages. Some of these are even visible, such higher density of the gray matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimers and Dementia by as much as 5 years.
但无论怎么，当你学习一门新的言语时，把握多种言语对你的大脑大有助益。有些优点乃至是可见的，比方脑灰质的密度更高，那里包含了大大都的神经元和突触，并且在运用第二言语时，大脑的部分区域会变得更活泼。双语者的大脑能够继续不断地接纳强化练习，这能协助推迟阿尔茨海默和老年痴呆症的发生，达五年之久。
把握多种言语的可见优点，从大脑结构说开来，从科学视点阐明双语者可推迟得老年痴呆等疾病的时刻。
The idea of major cognitive benefits to bilingualism may seem intuitive now, but it would have surprised earlier experts. Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the child’s development by forcing them to spend them too much energy distinguishing between languages, a view based largely on flawed studies.
双语才能对认知才能的有所协助在现代来看是很好了解的，可是关于前期的专家来说，却是意料之外。在1960年之前，人们认为运用双语关于儿童的生长来说是一种妨碍，由于这需求儿童花费精力去分区分不同言语，这种观念的发生源自过错的研讨剖析。
话锋一转，尽管现在这种优点清楚明了，但前期人们关于双语才能却有着过错认知，认为双语会阻止儿童开展。
And while a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors increase for some bilingual students in cross-language tests, it also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in, and potentially strengthened, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This is the part of brain that plays a large role in executive function, problem solving, switching between tasks, and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information.
最新的研讨确实显现，在跨言语检验傍边，双语者的反应时刻与过错次数增加了；一起也标明，学生需求花费更多的尽力和注意力进行言语的转化，这也使得前额叶脑区愈加活泼、从而强化其机能。这是大脑中主管履行功用的部分，处理问题、多任务转化、会集注意力、扫除无关信息的才能。
经过最新研讨，指出双语者的大脑更活泼，各项机能更完善。
So, while bilingual may not necessarily make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy, complex and actively engaged, and even if you didn’t have the good fortune of learning a second language likea child, it’s never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, ”Hello” to “Hola”, ”Bonjour” or “ninhao’s”because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.
尽管学习双语不一定能让你更聪明，可是它能够让你的大脑愈加健康、杂乱和活泼。即便你在年幼时没有机会学习第二言语，可是现在学习永久都不或许太晚。从现在开端学一门外语吧，把“hello”转化成“Hola”、“Bonjour”、“你好”(本文作者母语为英语)等外语问好。对咱们的大脑来说，即便仅仅小小的练习，也会有大大的助益。
