Being bilingual or multilingual confers many benefits, from cultural connections to academic opportunities. In addition, research shows that it fortifies the brain, boosting grey-matter volume and white-matter integrity in areas affecting executive function: humans’ ability to control their behavior.
The cognitive benefits of bilingualism are still being studied, fuelling a debate to be featured in the Annual Review of Linguistics January 2019 issue (volume 5). Meanwhile, contributor Mark Antoniou, psycholinguist at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, describes what IS known in this interview at Knowable Magazine. Worth a read!
Image: Results from a study measuring gray-matter volumes in bilingual or monolingual undergraduates, discussed by Mark Antoniou at Knowable Magazine, 29 November 2018.
