We know
that learning a language can do amazing things in your brain; For example, it
can help you tune out distractions, multitask, and even delay the onset of
diseases like Alzheimer's. But what about creativity or playing an instrument?
There have always been great bilingual artists like Pablo Picasso or Frida
Kahlo who are recognized as great painters who captured art or musicians like
Camila Cabello and Shakira who, apart from dazzling us with their songs, can
speak other languages. Likewise, comparing the skills of the interviewees, we
have understood that acquiring another language has been facilitated through
music because this way they can memorize words, acquire phonetics and improve
listening comprehension. (Gonzalez, 2018)
There is
evidence of an improvement in cognitive abilities (Berland, 2014). However,
there is a positive effect on executive function, which allows "the
individual to quickly process information and retain it, regulate their
behavior, make better decisions, solve problems, set and adjust their minds to
different tasks" (Rampton, 2017). That is why, by improving executive
function, learning an instrument helps us to react more intelligently. (La Escala, 2019).
To reinforce the above, we found this research by Professor Aneta
Pavlenko, from the University of Oslo, which investigates whether singers and musicians
learn a language easier, it was published in Psychology Today magazine. It is
mentioned that paying more attention to sounds and rhythm gives an advantage,
since they detect the sound patterns of the second language, and they have
better pronunciation. Also, she suggests that there is a brain connection
between music and language, although neuropsychological studies have shown that
music and language are located in different parts of the brain, right
hemisphere and left hemisphere respectively. This connection is because
although they are located in different parts, both share very similar
processes, for example, rhythm, phrasing and interpretation, tonal memory, the
ability to imitate and improvise based on familiar sequences, etc. Anita Bowles
and her colleagues asked 160 native English speakers to learn a small lexicon
of Mandarin pseudo-words by listening to recordings, which was difficult as
they were similar in pronunciation but different in tone. From the results we
could see that months of private music lessons were a better predictor of the
accuracy of tonal word learning than general cognitive ability. The same was
true in other studies in which English-, French-, and Italian-speaking
musicians surpass non-English-speaking musicians in identifying Mandarin tones.
This doesn’t mean that if you're not good at music, you won't be good at
languages; there is only this "advantage" in musicians for the
identification of tones.
As we already mentioned, language acquisition helps us understand language
in a cognitive way. but when referring to second language acquisition, we can
say that “SLA mainly seeks to investigate the acquisition of a new language
beyond the mother tongue or first language, compromising not just the
progressive aspects of first language acquisition, but all the aspects of the
second language user’s language enclosed in other areas of linguistics and
psychology”. (Aljumah, 2020; Cook, 2002; Dornyei, 2013) In the interviews we
made, most of the interviewees seemed to acknowledge what language acquisition
means. Therefore, when asked to self-assess their level of language acquisition
on a scale of 0-10, an average of 8 was achieved.
The left hemisphere of the brain is known for being the dominant in
language acquisition as adults. However, studies have shown that when we are
infants, the one that dominates the language field is in fact the right
hemisphere of the brain. This was verified since, according to Genesee (2002),
when an infant presents injury in that hemisphere, their language abilities are
affected in their adulthood. We asked the questioner about their abilities and
since when they have been practicing it in order to perceive those who started
doing the skill at an early age. Four out of ten people that were interviewed
answered that they started doing said strength as teenagers, while the rest
explained that they started doing it at an early age —among 6 to 8 years old—.
Concluding and returning to our initial hypothesis, we are clear that
the theory of the creative and logical hemispheres is invalid, since it depends
on the abilities of each person. After the investigation and the answers
obtained in the survey, we confirm in a certain way with the chosen hypothesis.
Having a relationship with the arts makes us have more 'advantages' in
understanding one or more languages. It was interesting how a lot of people had
similarities when talking about their favorite subjects, being the most common
English and arts. Therefore, it was easier for them to learn a second language
since, as we mentioned, the right hemisphere plays an important role in
language skills at a young age, so being interested in a language and artistic
skill may have been an advantage for them to have a better language
acquisition.
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