EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

How Bilinguals Process Unrelated Languages

2011/08/04

Studies have shown that bilingual individuals have brains that act as automatic translators when the languages are very different. While previous researched showed that related languages, such as European languages, co-exist in the brain, studies of bilingual Chinese and English speakers shows completely separate languages rely on translation into the native language. This translation, however, happens at speeds of less than a second.

To test whether speakers accessed their native language, volunteers were shown first one English word at a fraction of a second, so fast they could not consciously recognize it, then asked to recognize a second word. When the words had something in common in Chinese (for example, "thing" and "west" use the same radical in Chinese, but have no relation in English) students were able to process them more quickly.

To read the rest of the study, click here.

If you're looking for work, please register with EduCareer and check out our job board! You can also "like" us on facebook to get the latest jobs and updates delivered right to your facebook feed.

[Back]<<Job Hunting in Summer｜Ideas for Back to School>>[Next]