会说外语优势多.doc

会说外语优势多:双语让人更聪明
SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
在这个日益全球化的世界,会说两种语言当然比只会单一语言的人有着明显的实际好处。但近些年来,科学家们的发现开始表明,比起能够跟不同母语的人言语交流,双语还有很多更为重要的优势。事实证明,会说两种语言会让你更聪明。双语机制会对你的大脑有深刻的影响,能提高与语言无关的认知能力,还能预防老年痴呆。
 
 
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
这种双语观点与20世纪以来人们对双语的理解有着显著差异。长期以来,研究者、教育家和决策者都认为第二语言是一种干扰,从认知角度来说,会阻碍儿童的学业和智力的发展。
 
 
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the bra