Effect On the Brain

Infants are born into this world, not with a brain, but more of a jumble of neurons. Sure, it’s still technically a brain, but it does not know how it’s going to develop. It is what surrounds the infant that develops the brain. Immediately, an infant is listening. Specifically, they’re listening to what’s around them, and the sounds that are made in their mother tongue. At 12 months, most circuitry is in place for their native language. It is very difficult to stray from this circuitry once it’s in place. For English speakers, a language like Spanish or French is much easier to learn because they use the same sounds. One does not have to rewrite their circuitry for a similar language (Begley).

The human brain is the only brain on this planet that can process language as complex as we do. However, when you are a speaker of more than one language, things can get interesting. Different languages can focus on different hemispheres of the brain. For example, an English speaker uses the left hemisphere to house most language capabilities. If they wanted to learn Chinese, an issue is posed. Chinese speakers make heavy use of the right hemisphere of the brain to process tonal differences (an essential part of the language). An English speaker learning Chinese needs to strengthen that part of the brain to have a good grip on Chinese. Learning a second language strengthens the language areas of the brain, and sometimes makes new areas (Grosjean).