The Power of Language Learning on the Brain

Does learning another language change the way you think?

Two people writing sentences using have and has in English on a whiteboard.

The idea that the language you speak affects how you perceive the world is called linguistic relativity and is a controversial domain of research in linguistics. Take the colors that English refers to as blue and green for example. In Russian and Greek, the same set of colors English speakers describe as blue require two words, one referring to lighter shades of blue and another referring to darker shades of blue. On the other hand, languages like Japanese and iziZulu, use a single word (sometimes called grue terms, i.e. gr(een/bl)ue) for what we refer to in English as blue and green. Some studies connect such linguistic differences to differences in how speakers of those languages behave in tasks like categorizing objects, sorting colored objects, or orienting themselves geographically. Others argue that such differences can be attributed to other factors like cultural differences or increased abilities due to constant repetition of certain tasks which are not inherently tied to language. At least to some extent, there is evidence that what language you speak can affect your ability to do certain things and shapes how you see aspects of the world around you.

One aspect of linguistic relativity still being explored is if and how learning a second language influences how speakers view and categorize the world. Ongoing studies are trying to better understand how, and in many cases whether, learning a second language affects the use of one’s first language and how speakers processes language generally.

To explore this idea, Dr. Jeff Parker and Hannah Webber Locklear focused on grammatical gender in Spanish which is an arbitrary grammatical association of certain words with grammatical properties. They focused on three separate groups: monolingual English speakers, L2 Spanish speakers who learned Spanish outside the United States, and L2 Spanish speakers who learned Spanish in the United States. By studying both L2 Spanish speakers who learned Spanish abroad or in the United States, they could determine if learning Spanish affects how English speakers process language and whether the place one learns Spanish matters.

Each group was presented with the same set of stimuli, a group of objects that have different genders in Spanish. Speakers were told the objects were going to be characters in a children’s book and then were asked to choose which adjective they would use to describe the character. The adjectives presented were selected among adjectives used predominantly to describe males or females. Some adjectives that were used include male-associated aggressive, jolly, steady, stern and some female-associated adjectives include sensitive, dreamy, meek, dependent. The test was to see whether or not learning Spanish as a second language would make speakers more likely to choose male-associated adjectives for the nouns that are masculine in Spanish and female-associated adjectives for the nouns that are feminine in Spanish.

A girl sitting outside the temple writing in her journal.

There was a difference between the monolingual English speakers and the Spanish learners. Surprisingly, the monolingual English speakers were statistically more likely to choose adjectives that matched the gender of the noun in Spanish than those who had learned Spanish and there was no difference between the two Spanish groups. These results suggest that learning a second language can affect how you perceive objects in the world around you, but it was in the opposite way one might expect. This brings up new questions about linguistic relativity and second language learning, suggesting that the types, strength and replicability of evidence for linguistic relativity may depend on the task employed, the languages involved and design of the experiment.

The findings of this article leave lots of room for more studies and additional research on linguistic relativity among L2 speakers. This study highlights the fact that learning an additional language can affect how you think, especially for small tasks like categorizing objects. Like learning a new language, becoming proficient in things of the spirit can help us embrace our “double heritage¹” and fulfill the need to be “bilingual²” as scholars and disciples as President Kimball and President Reese have emphasized. Together, these two languages prepare individuals for “education for eternity” as our perceptions of the world around us shift to gain greater insight into how our great creator thinks.