Changing environment, learning new language and new culture,being a wife and a mother, living far away from families and friends, I have come to share my views, thoughts, feelings, ideas on so many things that I cherish.

July 12, 2012

Speaking Languages and Memory (Research Article)

 Since I'm multilingual and raising multilingual kids, I always look for articles that have to do with speaking more than one language. The advantages of speaking more than one language abound. So if you are raising TCK's, bi/multilingual kids or if you are speaking more language yourself, here is the reason for you to speak more.


 Speaking Foreign Languages May Help Protect Your Memory

“It appears speaking more than two languages has a protective effect on memory in seniors who practice foreign languages over their lifetime or at the time of the study,” said study author Magali Perquin, PhD, with the Center for Health Studies from the Public Research Center for Health (“CRP-Santé”) in Luxembourg. Perquin is helping to lead the MemoVie study which involves a consortium of partners from different hospitals and institutions.

The study involved 230 men and women with an average age of 73 who had spoken or currently spoke two to seven languages. Of the participants, 44 reported cognitive problems; the rest of the group had no memory issues.

Researchers discovered that those people who spoke four or more languages were five times less likely to develop cognitive problems compared to those people who only spoke two languages.

People who spoke three languages were three times less likely to have cognitive problems compared to bilinguals. In addition, people who currently spoke more than two languages were also four times less likely to have cognitive impairment. The results accounted for the age and the education of the participants.

“Further studies are needed to try to confirm these findings and determine whether the protection is limited to thinking skills related to language or if it also extends beyond that and benefits other areas of cognition,” said Perquin.

The research was conducted in Luxembourg, where there is a dense population of people who speak more than two languages.

The MemoVie study was supported by The National Research Fund (FNR) from Luxembourg.

7 comments:

May said...

Me and one of my friend's talked about this topic today .. Thanks for bringing it up again. People really need to know.

Spanish Pinay said...

I definitely belive in this. as a multilingual myself, I try my best to teach my native language to my daughter as early as now :)

Thanks for an informative post.

Spanish Pinay

Unknown said...

Thanks for visiting .. :) Stopping by to say hello as well! :)

We speak two languages.. English and Spanish and we are starting to teach her both of our languages.. I definitely believe in this!
Thanks for sharing!


Angie

Shifan said...

I definitely believe in this.

DMS said...

What a fascinating post! I can see how being able to speak many languages would keep your brain acitive and help your memory. I only know two languages- but I would love to speak more!
~Jess

Unknown said...

I am new to the weekend blog hop.

Unknown said...

I am new to the weekend blog hop.

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