Learning a language can be a fun and challenging activity with clear real world benefits such as greater ease of travel, job opportunities, and new friendships. However, not everyone feels that they will or even can learn to speak a language at a proficient level even if they spent significant time trying to master the language. Especially in a world that increasingly knows at least some English, some are questioning the value of spending time learning languages. However, in reality, there are many benefits to learning languages, even for people who feel that they are bad at learning languages.
In addition to the many benefits to a person’s career, social, and even love life, new research is showing even more fundamental benefits in the brain to continuing to learn languages throughout a person’s life. While true fluency at the level of someone who has been speaking a language for their whole life may not be feasible for every language student, this is not a reason to skip language learning as research shows there are many benefits even for those who don’t achieve a high level of proficiency in the language.
In addition to the benefits of knowing how to use a language at a basic level, recent research has shown that simply the act of studying a language is good for keeping the brain fresh, active, and protected for the future. (Meltzer et al.)
New Research on the Benefits of Language Learning
While much is known of the cognitive benefits of being bilingual, like staving off dementia and improving executive functioning in the brain, there is less research on just the benefits of learning languages without achieving a high proficiency level. This research study published in Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition sought to see whether benefits could be achieved by a short controlled study regimen even in older adults.
The researchers used two applications, Duolingo and BrainHQ. Duolingo is a common language learning application which uses a gamified approach to learn vocabulary and grammar. BrainHQ is a brain training application designed to improve the user’s executive functioning skills such as their ability to hold their attention and refocus on new things. Participants used their respective apps for 16 weeks but only for 30 minutes a day.
After their training, the participants were given various cognitive tests to evaluate several of their mental faculties such as their executive functioning. “The participants in our study showed significant cognitive improvements without becoming nearly fluent in Spanish, which suggests that you don’t have to be bilingual for your brain to benefit from working with another language.”
While participants using both apps saw improvements in their executive functioning abilities, only the BrainHQ group saw improvements in their processing speed. This is because BrainHQ has several timed elements to their application whereas Duolingo gives the user as much time as they need to answer questions. This just goes to show that the brain can be improved in whatever task it is challenged to complete on a regular basis.
Teacher Takeaways on Language Learning
Some students struggle significantly with language learning, especially students with learning difficulties, and some schools have taken the decision to give students language waivers where they are allowed to forgo language courses due to their lack of progress. While students, and even teachers, might get frustrated that they don’t see results quickly enough, this research should encourage teachers that even if students aren’t achieving a high proficiency in their target language, they are still garnering several other key benefits.
Teachers and school administrators should not be too quick to dismiss a language class’s benefit, even if a student isn’t gaining significant proficiency in the language. Students of foreign languages gain many of the same benefits of learning languages that bilingual people do in their ability to control their mental resources, keep focused, and refocus mindfully when needed. The fact that actual linguistic ability was not a prerequisite highlights how learning isn’t all about the final result.
Just because a student might score poorly on a test or perhaps even show a serious lack of understanding of the subject in a paper or presentation, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t learned anything or that they aren’t a better person for having been in the class. Learning is something that can certainly be directed and targeted on specific skills or knowledge bases, but there are benefits that students receive simply by showing up and doing the work.
Teachers have their students for well over 30 minutes each day and so these research results show that class time can be used to help students regularly improve. Teachers should always be trying new things and keeping class exciting, but this research does show that there is merit in regular consistent practice on a specific task. While it is eventually important for students to see the language in other contexts and use it themselves to truly gain any proficiency, having a regular session on Duolingo can be a consistent way for students to build up their fundamentals so that they are better prepared each day for the new exciting contexts they will use the language in during class that day and beyond.
Another interesting aspect of the research is that these results were found in older adults, a group that notoriously finds language learning difficult and frustrating. If older adults can see such benefits of learning languages from their consistent work, imagine the results young students can achieve with the additional plasticity that their brain has at their younger stage of development.
While it may be frustrating to not see improvement in students, teachers should take heart from this research showing that if they keep their students regularly studying, they absolutely can have an objective impact on their students abilities over time. Teachers have their students for well over the amount of time that the researchers had their participants. As long as students have some regular facets of their class that are revisited regularly, teachers can rest assured that their students will at least leave class better off than they arrived.
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References
Meltzer, Jed A. et al. “Improvement In Executive Function For Older Adults Through Smartphone Apps: A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Language Learning And Brain Training”. Aging, Neuropsychology, And Cognition, 2021, pp. 1-22. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/13825585.2021.1991262.
