The first topic I wanted to explore is "the impact that culture has on the way we speak and think". I find it very interesting when people with different cultures have distinct approaches when they talk and reflect.

Sources

Chan, Esther Yim Mei. “Narrative Inquiry: A Dynamic Relationship between Culture, Language and Education.” ERIC, Jun. 2017, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2101/?id=EJ1146284.

Conteh, Jean & Yasuko Kawashima. “Diversity in family involvement in children’s learning in English primary schools: Culture, language and identity.” English Teaching: Practice and Critique, Sep. 2008, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2556/fulltext/EJ832212.pdf.

The second topic I also want to discuss is "bilinguals' cognitive advantages".

Sources

Andreou, Maria, et al. “Cognitive Mechanisms of Monolingual and Bilingual Children in Monoliterate Educational Settings: Evidence From Sentence Repetition.” Frontiers in Psychology, Jan. 2021, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2137/article/49624d47b6df48a4a2a81e0bae9345f7.

Grundy, John G., et al. “Neural correlates of cognitive processing in monolinguals and bilinguals.” ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 2017, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:3562/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=957082c9-e909-441d-835a-abc05ca05883%40redis.

The article "Bilingualism and the Brain: How Language Shapes Our Ability to Process Information" on ScienceDaily based on the data that Singapore Management University found was published on August 24, 2015. It was written to compare the negative perception that people had of bilingualism before the 1960s and the positive perception that people have of bilingualism nowadays. The article starts by stating that before the 1960s, people didn't have a good perception of bilingualism. Studies showed that monolingual children were up to three years ahead of bilingual children in both verbal and non-verbal intelligence. They eventually concluded that being bilingual led to a language handicap. However, in the last three decades, studies have proven that multilingualism seems to impact cognitive functions positively. Professor Yang says that speaking two languages has trained her to inhibit distractions and focus better. The source continues on with some benefits of being bilingual. At the end, it says that bilingualism can even be used in a clinical setting to help children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or patients with impaired cognitive function.

Through this article, I learned more about the belief people had about bilingualism before the 1960s thanks to their simple explanations. I did not know that some studies showed that monolinguals were up to three years ahead of bilingual children in verbal and non-verbal intelligence. Also, this source would be useful for my project because I wanted to compare the two different beliefs of before the 1960s and after the 1960s.

Works Cited

"Bilingualism and the Brain: How Language Shapes Our Ability to Process Information." ScienceDaily, 24 Aug. 2015, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150824114907.htm.

"MEG Test" is an article written based on a video where Dr. Burgess explains the experience and advantages of the MEG test. It has been published in 2022 on Cleveland Clinic's website. The article first answers the question "What is magnetoencephalography (MEG)?". The answer to that question is that MEG is the newest and most advanced method of recording and evaluating the brain activity while it is still active. This recording is able to pinpoint the location of malfunctioning neurons. Furthermore, this method is useful to evaluate the brain's spontaneous activity, for instance, neurologists use it to analyze the brain of a person who had epilepsy. It can also be used to check the brain's response to specific external stimuli, for example, sensory areas, vision, language, and other functions. Then, the article answers the question "How does MEG work?" by responding that since neurons interact with each other by generating tiny electrical voltages, it creates a magnetic field, which is can be recorded by using sensitive magnetic sensors. Inside the helmet hides more than 300 specialized sensors, providing a whole head coverage with high-resolution capabilities. Also, the article compares MEG with EEG. Like MEG, EEG records the electrophysiological effect of neuronal activity over time, but the article mentions that since MEG has a higher sensor count and simpler modeling physics, it has been concluded that MEG has a higher source resolution. Lastly, it mentions the benefits of MEG. The article mentions that the process is not harmful at all. It gives access to the brains' activity in a noninvasive way and also allows the combination of structural and functional information.

Through this article, I was able to discover more about MEG, which I only knew what it looked like since I saw an image of a child going through a MEG test last year. However, this time I got to know more about this method. I learned that it was also used for people who have epilepsy. Before, I only knew that EEG was useful for patients with epilepsy, but I never knew that MEG was also useful for them. Also, I was relieved to learn that this method doesn't affect patients' bodies negatively and that it is a totally safe procedure.

Works Cited

Burgess, Richard. "MEG Test." Cleveland Clinic, 2022, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/17218-meg-test.

The article "What Does the Recalling Sentences Subtest Tell Us?" is published on Bilinguistics' website in January 2019 by Ellen Kester. This source analyzes the meaning behind CELF-5 test results. One of the members of the SLP-Impact even says that the sentence repetition test is much more than just a memory test. Although, of course, memory is an important aspect of this evaluation. Someone with poor short-term memory will definitely perform badly, but there are also a lot of other reasons why some people perform poorly in this test too. We can even find some cases where people are able to repeat short sentences, but then fail to repeat longer sentences. That might also have something to do with some students' memory. In some cases, especially with multilingual students, they repeat sentences by changing the verb tense to an easier one, for instance, they would change the plus perfect subjunctive tense and replace it with the present tense, or another verb tense that they are more familiar with. We know that these people remember the sentences perfectly, it is just that their ability to use diverse verb tenses in English is not well developed yet. Then, the article concludes by stating that we can get great information on students' language skills by listening carefully to the way they make changes when they repeat sentences.

I was intrigued by the interpretation that CELF-5 tests results can give. Before, I thought that it was only a matter of memorization and it only measured people's memory, but knowing that the results tell us way more than that, makes me think greatly of this test. I think that it is a very useful test and that it can even help people improve their language skills. Since the results tell them about their weaknesses in their language skills, people can prevent themselves from making the same mistakes in the future by studying more on the aspects that they lack.

Works Cited

Kester, Ellen. "What Does the Recalling Sentences Subtest Tell Us?." Bilinguistics, Jan. 2019, https://bilinguistics.com/what-does-the-recalling-sentences-subtest-tell-us/.

I decided to dedicate this whole research to the question "What cognitive advantages do bilinguals possess?" because as a multi-lingual, I have always wondered if I was any different from my monolingual peers. I was also curious about whether being able to speak another language could make me "smarter", if my brain worked faster than monolinguals, anyhow, I had many more interrogations concerning the cognitive benefits of being multi-lingual. Then, I came upon a lot of different sources that discussed the topic of my project. From these sources, I learned that bilingualism was considered a language handicap before the 1960s. People did not wish their children would speak more than one language because they feared that their children would not match the level of verbal and non-verbal intelligence monolinguals were at. Also, I discovered some evaluation methods that I never heard of before, such as the sentence repetition test, the recalling sentences test, PPVT-3 , CELF and KBIT. It was through videos that I was able to visualize how each of these tests worked, and it also helped me understand the purpose of each of them. What I found interesting was that through the CELF-5 test, professionals were able to determine students' weaknesses when it comes to the different aspects of language. I initially thought that this test was only created to evaluate people's memory. This whole research also allowed me to find out more about magnetoencephalography. I already knew what the machine looked like because I saw an image of it before, however, I never really knew how it worked and what was the purpose of this big helmet. It was after reading an article on it that I learned that it was often used for people with epilepsy and that neurologists also use it to examine the brain's response to specific external stimuli. Aside from all the different methods I named earlier, I also learned a lot about the various benefits of being bilingual as a child and as an adult. The fact that it could help increase creativity, and that it could also help to develop a better memory is truly amazing, and I never knew about that before doing this project. As I am discussing the topic of "memory", I also discovered that bilingualism could help delay Alzheimer's and dementia for up to five years!

Lastly, I really enjoyed doing my research on this topic, I really learned a lot of things from it. At first, I was reluctant about doing my research on this subject because I feared that it would discourage me (as a multi-lingual) if I would find out that being bilingual brought more negative impact than positive impact. However, my qualms were all gone as I kept reading articles about those benefits. Thanks to this project, I can conclude that I am proud of being a multi-lingual!