Advantages of Being Multilingual

Being multilingual has its advantages, such as ____ it easier to travel or enjoy movies without subtitles.

• making

• breaking

• taking

• faking

According to the critical period hypothesis, children ____ languages more easily due to the flexible nature of their developing brains.

• learn

• forget

• ignore

• struggle

Experts once viewed bilingualism as a disadvantage, ___ it hindered children’s development.

• believing

• believes

• believed

• believe

Gabriela’s brother might be ___ bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school while continuously talking in Spanish at home and with friends.

• coordinated

• isolated

• separated

• disjointed

Because all types of bilingual people can become fully ___ in a language regardless of accent or pronunciation the difference may not be apparent to a casual observer.

• proficient

• fluent

• competent

• adept

According to the critical period hypothesis, children can learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition.

• True

• False

Which of the following are advantages of being multilingual?

• Higher density of the gray matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapsis.

• More activity in certain regions when engaging a second language.

• It can also help delay the onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia by as much as five years.

• It was considered a handicap that slowed the child’s development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between the two languages.

• Switching between languages triggered more activity and potentially strengthened the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Multilingual individuals often have a better ability to ___ between different tasks, enhancing their cognitive flexibility.

• switch

• focus

• ignore

• delay

Research suggests that bilingualism can delay the onset of ___, providing a cognitive reserve in aging individuals.

• dementia

• fluency

• creativity

• anxiety

In a globalized world, being bilingual or multilingual is often seen as a ___ skill in the job market.

• valuable

• optional

• irrelevant

• common