会双语可能会提高决策能力

会双语可能会提高决策能力

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2009-04-20 09:41:52    作者： 刘丰祎（译）     来源： 新东方 Bilingual babies are precocious decision-makers
会双语的婴儿在决策上表现超常

WHETHER to teach young children a second language is disputed among teachers, researchers and pushy parents. On the one hand, acquiring a new tongue is said to be far easier when young. On the other, teachers complain that children whose parents speak a language at home that is different from the one used in the classroom sometimes struggle in their lessons and are slower to reach linguistic milestones. Would 15-month-old Tarquin, they wonder, not be better off going to music classes?

A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences may help resolve this question by getting to the nub of what is going on in a bilingual child’s brain, how a second language affects the way he thinks, and thus in what circumstances being bilingual may be helpful. Agnes Kovacs and Jacques Mehler at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste say that some aspects of the cognitive development of infants raised in a bilingual household must be undergoing acceleration in order to manage which of the two languages they are dealing with.

The aspect of cognition in question is part of what is termed the brain’s “executive function”. This allows people to organise, plan, prioritise activity, shift their attention from one thing to another and suppress habitual responses. Bilingualism is common in Trieste which, though Italian, is almost surrounded by Slovenia. So Dr Kovacs and Dr Mehler looked at 40 “preverbal” seven-month-olds, half raised in monolingual and half in bilingual households, and compared their performances in a task that needs control of executive function.

First, the babies were trained to expect the appearance of a puppet on a screen after they had heard a set of meaningless words invented by the researchers. Then the words, and the location of the puppet, were changed. When this was done, the monoglot babies had difficulty overcoming their learnt response, even when the researchers gave them further clues that a switch had taken place. The bilingual babies, however, found it far easier to switch their attention—counteracting the previously learnt, but no longer useful response.

Monitoring languages and keeping them separate is part of the brain’s executive function, so these findings suggest that even before a child can speak, a bilingual environment may speed up that function’s development. Before rushing your offspring into Tongan for Toddlers, though, there are a few caveats. For one thing, these precocious cognitive benefits have been demonstrated so far only in “crib” bilinguals—those living in households where two languages are spoken routinely. The researchers speculate that it might be the fact of having to learn two languages in the same setting that requires greater use of executive function. So whether those benefits accrue to children who learn one language at home, and one at school, remains unclear.

老师、研究者以及“望子成龙”的父母亲们对是否需要对年幼的儿童教第二外语争论很大。一方面，据说在孩子很小的时候掌握一门外语会轻松的多。另一方面，老师们抱怨说，孩子们的父母亲在家里说的语言不同于这些孩子们在课堂上使用的语言的时候，这些孩子们有时候学习很吃力，同时在达到语言上的“里程碑”方面也要慢一些。他们在寻思，让15个月大的Tarquin去学音乐难道不是更好么?

刚刚发表在《美国科学院院刊》（Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences）上的一项研究可能会有助于解决这个问题，该项研究通过在如下三个方面进行的研究来解决上述问题：1）研究在会双语的儿童的大脑活动的本质；2）第二外语如何影响儿童的思考方式；3）在何种情况下会双语可能是有利的。来自意大利第里雅斯特国际高等研究学院(International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste）的Agnes Kovacs 和 Jacques Mehler说，那些在双语家庭中成长的婴儿，为了处理他们所接触到底是这两种语言中的哪一种，他们的某些认知发展必须加速。

问题中所涉及的认知方面就是所谓大脑的“执行功能”的一部分。这部分允许人们进行组织、计划、安排活动的优先顺序、把注意力从一件事情转移到另外一件事情以及压制一些习惯性的反应。会双语在第里雅斯特很普遍，虽然第里雅斯特属于意大利，但是它几乎被斯洛文尼亚(Slovenia)所完全包围。因此 Kovacs博士和Mehler博士研究了40名七个月大的“前语言期的”的婴儿，这些婴儿中一半在单语言家庭中成长，一半在双语言家庭中成长，Kovacs博士和Mehler博士比较了这些婴儿在完成一项任务中的表现，而这项任务需要执行功能的控制。
 
首先，研究者们让这些婴儿们听一些他们发明的一组毫无意义的词语，经过训练后，这些婴儿们就会期望在屏幕上看到一个木偶的出现。然后，研究者们改变这些词语以及木偶的地点。当这些改变完成后，即使研究者们进一步给他们暗示，提示他们已经有了改变，那些只会一种语言的婴儿在克服他们已经学过的反应的时候仍会有些困难。不过，那些会两种语言的婴儿很容易转换他们的注意力---抵消掉以前学过的但是再也没有用处的反应。
 
大脑“执行功能”的一部分工作就是监控语言以及把这些语言分隔开，因此这些研究表明，即使在儿童能说话之前，双语环境可能会加速“执行功能”的发展。不过，在急急忙忙把你的孩子送到 “婴儿汤加语学校”之前，有几个警告需要注意。第一，到目前为止，这些超常的认知益处仅仅只在“摇篮”双语者（译者注：指双语环境下的婴儿）中展示出来，在这些“摇篮”双语者生活的家庭中，两种语言经常被用到。研究者们推测，这可能是基于在同一环境中必须学会两种语言的事实要求更多地使用执行功能。所以，对于那些在家里学习一门语言，而在学校学习另外一门语言的孩子们来说，他们是否也能获得这些这些益处目前还不清楚。
 
Vocabulary:

Bilingual: 会说两种语言的
Precocious: （能力或行为）早熟的
Dispute: 争论
Pushy: 执意强求的
Acquire: 获得
Complain: 抱怨
Struggle: 奋斗；抗争
Linguistic: 语言的
Milestone: 里程碑
Nub: 要点；核心
Affect: 影响
Circumstance: 环境；条件
Aspect: 方面
Cognitive: 认知的
Acceleration: 加速
Prioritise: 划分优先顺序
Suppress: 压制；压抑
Preverbal: （幼儿）前语言期的
Monolingual: 只用一种语言的
Puppet: 木偶；傀儡
Monoglot: 使用一种语言的
Counteract: 抵消；抵抗
Caveat: 警告；告诫
Crib：摇篮；婴儿床
Routinely：例行常规地
Speculate：推测
Accrue：增加；积累

注释：

Tongan for Toddlers：Tonga是太平洋上的一个小岛国。Tongan的意思是“汤加语”。Tongan for Toddlers，“适合婴儿的汤加语”，在文中实际是借指学习另外一门语言，并非就指汤加语。（编辑：胡慧）
 
（英文原文来自The Economist 《经济学人》http://www.economist.com）