Bilinguism- The advantages of speaking 2 languages by Teacher Rita Grazina

Nossa professora de Inglês e Espanhol, Rita Grazina criou essa linda atividade para quem quer aprender inglês grátis e sem sair de casa! 

A primeira parte tem uma pergunta que você deve responder nos comentários, assim vamos ajudando a melhorar seu inglês!

Depois, você deve ler o texto, ver os vídeos e fazer os exercícios. Se você quiser uma correção completa da sua atividade, é só enviar para nosso e-mail: suporte@elearningforall.org, será um prazer te ajudar a aprender!

Esperamos que você goste da atividade!! Não esqueça de deixar seus comentários e se inscrever para receber nossas atividades grátis no seu e-mail todas as semanas.

1. In your opinion, what are the advantages of speaking more than one language?

2. Now read the following text and answer the questions.

What are the advantages of speaking more than just one language?

The advantages go beyond the capability of easily communicating! At a first glance, it seems that being able to communicate wherever you are is the most important advantage.

However, scientists have concluded that the benefits of being bilingual go much further! For example, did you know that being bilingual may delay dementia?

Apparently, those who speak more than just one language tend to develop dementia up to five years later than those who are monolingual! The explanation to these results lies in the so called cognitive reserve, which consists on the capacity of the brain to work even stressed or harmed. Bilingualism promotes this capacity by "teaching the brain" how to stop paying attention to one thing in order to pay attention to another. This way, the brain might keep doing its job even in early stages of dementia. That seems quite an advantage!

Also, people who speak more than one language tend to be more open-minded due to their knowledge of the diversity between different cultures. So, they tend to be more sensitive people! That makes them good listeners! And that is literal! When one gets used to listen to a different language, the attention and comprehension of auditive stimuli increases.

The benefits include children: those who are bilingual tend do be better at multitasking, which means they are good at changing quickly from one task to another. And some studies suggest that bilingual kids tend to be smarter and less easily distracted.

And finally, it seems that you can have multiple personalities: one for each language that you speak, because each language contains an amount of words and expressions that cannot be translated, so when you adopt their use you are building a whole new "you", creating the opportunity to express yourself in a completely different way! As language and culture are deeply connected, you end up being multicultural which gives you a deeper awareness of the whole world around you!

a) How does bilingualism promote the cognitive reserve?

b) Do kids benefit with the knowledge of a second language? Why?

c) Do you think that there is a different "you" for each language you speak? Why?

3. Listen to the videos and classify the statements as true or false.

- Listen to the videos as many times as you need, and don’t worry if you cannot understand the totality of them. -

VIDEO 1: http://youtu.be/6TLEJN0xSyA

1. Older adults who speak only one language showed better mental skills than bilingual adults.
2. Dr. Brian Gold is the main author of the study.
3. The authors used blood tests to compare the three groups.
4. Bilingual subjects use their brain in a more efficient manner.
5. Bilingual seniors achieved better results than the other two groups.
6. This study confirms the results of a previous one.
7. Bilingual speakers with Alzheimer’s disease suffer less brain damage.

VIDEO 2: http://youtu.be/P5rvmczGANc

1. Humans perceive language in two different ways: the spoken word and the written word.
2. There are three main brain systems involved in language.
3. Wernicke’s area is responsable for the comprehension of speech and Broca’s area is responsible for the production of speech.
4. The arcuate fasciculus is unidireccional.
5. Perceiving written language involves an extra step.
6. Writing is the key to human intelligence.
7. People who speak multiple languages have better attention and cognition.
8. Speaking multiple langues might be the best way to combat the damage caused by the proccess of aging.

If you have any questions or want to have your answers corrected, send us an e-mail!

- Have fun communicating! -

Rita Grazina

Professora de Inglês e Espanhol de E-Learning For All