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Can a Second Language Help You in More Ways Than One?

  • Received: 09 February 2015 Accepted: 02 March 2015 Published: 12 March 2015
  • In response to the review article written by Paap et al. [1], we will examine the reasons why one would expect some behavioral and cognitive advantages of bilingualism. Then we will explain why such advantages may not be apparent in certain experiments. We will conclude that bilingualism is a skill that can entail neuroplastic changes, thus improving cognitive load processing abilities. However, the extent to which bilingualism may or may not lead to cognitive advantages or disadvantages relates to several factors. Finally, we argue that the optimal approach in studying the potential cognitive advantages of bilingualism is to link behavior to brain function, as a given behavior may be subserved by different neural mechanisms in bilingual and monolingual populations, reflecting distinct processing strategies.

    Citation: Ladan Ghazi Saidi, Ana Inés Ansaldo. Can a Second Language Help You in More Ways Than One?[J]. AIMS Neuroscience, 2015, 2(1): 52-57. doi: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2015.1.52

    Related Papers:

  • In response to the review article written by Paap et al. [1], we will examine the reasons why one would expect some behavioral and cognitive advantages of bilingualism. Then we will explain why such advantages may not be apparent in certain experiments. We will conclude that bilingualism is a skill that can entail neuroplastic changes, thus improving cognitive load processing abilities. However, the extent to which bilingualism may or may not lead to cognitive advantages or disadvantages relates to several factors. Finally, we argue that the optimal approach in studying the potential cognitive advantages of bilingualism is to link behavior to brain function, as a given behavior may be subserved by different neural mechanisms in bilingual and monolingual populations, reflecting distinct processing strategies.


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  • © 2015 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
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