A number of studies have tied bilingualism to cognitive benefits, as knowing another language can cause people to think in a way that those who only speak one language do not understand.
A researcher from Penn State reports that those who are able to juggle multiple languages actually have an increase in brain function. Judith Kroll, who is a professor of psychology at Penn State, said that bilingual students are able to outperform unilingual individuals in mental tasks such as editing out information and only focusing on the important facts.
Kroll suggested that the previous notion that being bilingual can create confusion is actually wrong. Some individuals believe that knowing multiple languages could cause some individuals to become confused in what words they should be using, particularly for bilingual children.
"The received wisdom was that bilingualism created confusion, especially in children," Kroll told attendees at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington D.C. "The belief was that people who could speak two or more languages had difficulty using either. The bottom line is that bilingualism is good for you."
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