Working in the third phase was definitely one of my favorite phases because of the prompt and direction we were heading when dealing with the research paper. Even though we were given two choices on how to write our research paper, I wanted to choose the first option since it was about writing and talking about any issues in English politics, so I felt like working on that first option would have given me a stepping stone to start this research essay. I still brainstormed on what I could write about for this paper for a day, but then I realized that there is one area of expertise that I can write this research paper about, and that was about speaking and learning a second language. I knew beforehand that learning or speaking a second language took effort and skill to accomplish and it came with challenges and so I wanted to talk about how learning a second language can be very beneficial when it comes to living in today’s generation. Even though english is my first language, I grew up learning spanish my entire life from my family and so I did not have to learn it in a classroom but rather through conversations and small lessons with my parents teaching me how to speak fluent spanish. I still want to improve my spanish and learn another third language so diving into this topic is a good opportunity to find research behind this topic I tried using .org and .edu sites to find research to back up my claim since those are sources I can rely on mostly without any third party editing and found sources that had scientific evidence listed in the websites text so I can look through the evidence myself and see if it fit with my idea. Besides my own project, the rest of the work in the third phase of our English course was all right, with the Yellow Wallpaper being the one story that I found weird and uninteresting when I realized it was just about a woman going mental and becoming obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her house. In conclusion, the phase three research paper was a good activity for me to do and it was an easy yet interesting phase of our course.
At least one person on the planet can speak at least one language in order to communicate with other people. Having the knowledge to understand such a complex system of communication is enough to be able to share and express your thoughts. One question you could ask yourself is, have you ever thought about learning a second/third language? With over 7,000 languages being spoken by the 7.9 billion people living on this planet, we have a huge network of languages and cultures that are open to many different kinds of people all over the world. Each different group of people have their own culturally unique traits revolving around their language and countries, so understanding the complexity of how a huge variety of different languages can influence and impact a person’s beliefs and their way of living. When it comes to the United States, many big cities are full of large diverse communities like New York and Chicago, where people from other countries migrate to these big cities to start a new life for themselves and their families. Immigrant families not only bring their presence to a new land of opportunity, they bring their background, cultures, knowledge and their language. Whether a child is born with learning only one language since birth, or a child is taught two languages while growing up from family and friends, our accessibility to discovering and learning new languages becomes bigger as time goes on. However, our question still stands to take into consideration when it comes to learning another language, especially for those who only speak one. The circumstances for learning another language may vary, such as learning spanish or french in school for a credit, learning a new language in order to work a better and easier job, or learning a new language just to try new things and explore the world around us. Taking the opportunity to learn second/third, or even practicing your own language to become more advanced, brings many benefits to one’s cognition and morality.
There are sources available online to help back up this claim with scientific evidence to support the idea. One source comes from the Whitby Private School blog website that talks about this topic and goes over a few points and benefits behind learning a second language. The author of the site, Luz Palmero, an upper school Spanish teacher at Whitby Private School, in their blog, “How learning a new language helps brain development”, claims that learning a new language can help improve brain function while keeping the brain sharp and increasing intelligence. Palmero supports her claim by showing evidence of studies done on students who knew other languages and compared the results to back up her claim. In their site, they quote “In a 2009 study, led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, seven-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. The study showed that the infants raised with two languages from birth displayed improved cognitive control abilities compared to their monolingual counterparts”. In the website’s text, you can find a link to a PNAS.org site that gives a bigger in-depth analysis of the research done that was brought up in the sources quote. Palmero’s purpose is to reveal how learning a new language can bring benefits to the human mind in order for people to open up to see there is no harm in opening to new languages. This can best be targeted for young adults who can be interested in learning a second language to become more open minded. Another source that is available to use comes from the online “Knowable Magazine” .org website. Ramin Skibba, a freelance journalist, in his magazine, “ How a second language can boost the brain”, claims that learning a second language not only offers better brain function, but it can help in managing attention in young adults and adults. Skibba reinforces his claim by revealing evidence of brain comparisons of bilingual and monolingual people and discusses the science behind it and how it is affected by learning language when it comes to plasticity and conditions. In the text, he writes “In addition to executive function, bilingual individuals and children show advantages in metalinguistic awareness. This is the ability to think about language as abstract units and associations. A good example is the letter H, which is associated with the sound “he” in English, with “n” as in “nickel” in Russian, and with the vowel sound “e” in Greek. There’s nothing special about H that makes it have to have a “he” sound; a bilingual person understands this more readily than a monolingual person does”. Skibba’s purpose is to reveal there are benefits of exposing a young adult or child to becoming bilingual to improve their skills in order to increase their brain executive function. Skibba introduces his claim by breaking down the science behind bilingual brain activity and examines the studies done for these researches, and makes it clear that although it is a possibility for people to improve their cognitive function through learning new languages, it is only through certain conditions and plasticity. We can make a connection between these two sources by comparing their stances and claims based on the evidence they both use to reinforce their topic, that learning a second language brings
Benefits to language learners. What we can make out of these two sources is that their shared main points are that there is an improved cognitive function when the brain is learning another language, helping in managing attention and focus, along with helping develop thinking skills. What these sources also point out is that it is especially helpful when it comes to younger children that are taught a second language, in school or at home, and also show improved function that can help them with their thinking skills. When it comes to the science of bilingualism, Ramin Skibba gives us an explanation behind the workings in our brains, with pictures to compare and contrast.
In this picture, provided by Oxford Academic.Com, we see two side by side pictures of the brains left and right hemisphere of a bilingual and of a monolingual person. The red ink we see on the brain is Gray Matter, which is the amount of cell bodies and dendrites someone has in their brain, and going through bilingual experiences can cause the gray matter to become more dense, causing more cell bodies and dendrites, which can lead to a healthy brain. These photos were taken from undergraduates, and it reveals that the Brain of a bilingual person has more gray matter than the brain of a monolingual person.
When it comes to the aspect of business, learning a second language can not only bring mental health benefits, but it can also add special perks when it comes to dealing with a business or a company. One source that goes further into depth of this topic comes from “Can a second language help your organization ?” , written by Simon and Simon International. They explain the details and benefits of learning a second language when it comes to benefiting your business and helping clients by connecting with them to a language they can understand better than english. In the article, it states “ Recent research has shown that over a third of UK companies find language skills highly desirable. 36% of the nation’s businesses recruit employees specifically for their language skills. And, importantly, this does not refer only to complete fluency in a second language. In fact, 74% of employers are more concerned with conversational ability than outright fluency”. The site lists more benefits to learning a second language in business such as gaining more clients, expanding organizations and improving their cultures, and improving international communication skills. One final source that can help reinforce the topic comes from bilingua.io with the title “ 6 Benefits of Learning a Foreign Language for Career Growth”, written by an author with the only given name Alicia. In this source, she goes on to explain what can be offered to the table when someone learns a new language in order to strengthen their chances of finding a job and career for whichever circumstances, whether it be being paid more, or wanting to become more involved in foreign cultures. In the article, it states “ Your ability to speak a foreign language will help you land a job and get preference over other monolingual candidates. Knowing a second language boosts your chances of landing jobs amongst a group of other candidates with similar abilities. A British Chambers of Commerce study conducted in 2013 discovered that more than 60% of companies are limited by language barriers in foreign trade”. She goes on to show a picture of a graph revealing the language bonuses offered by companies depending on which language you studied.
What we can synthesize from these two sources is that when it comes to learning a second language, there are also benefits when it comes to dealing with business and finding career opportunities. What we find in common in between these two sources is that learning a second language can help boost your chances of becoming selected for business opportunities, even if you and other groups share the same amount of skill, as long as your bilingual experience offers more than a monolingual worker.
With all the sources I have provided to back up my claim, they all provide different benefits to each aspect of this topic. Learning a second or even improving your own language to an advanced level brings cognitive improvement, strengthens your thinking skills and can help develop and increase intelligence, but can also be an eye opener for being involved in more diverse cultures and becoming more aware of the world around us, as well as bringing in more business for your company or organization and career opportunities if you seek more with financial success. Overall, learning a second language can be an ultimate goal you can create for yourself if you want to challenge your brain and become more connected with people around the world.
Cited Sources:
1.Skibba, R. (n.d.). How a Second language can boost the brain. Knowable Magazine | Annual Reviews. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2018/how-second-language-can-boost-brain
2. Palmero, L. (n.d.). How learning a new language helps brain development. Whitby School. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/learning-a-new-language-helps-brain-development
3. Alicia, A. (2017, November 14). 6 benefits of learning a foreign language for career growth. Bilingua. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://bilingua.io/benefits-learning-a-foreign-language-career 4. Team, S. and S. (2021, August 3). Can learning a Second language help your organisation? SIMON SIMON Can Learning a Second Language Help Your Organisation Comments. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.simonandsimon.co.uk/blog/second-language-for-business
