经济学人下载:约翰逊语言专栏--多掌握一门外语带来的益处(1)

Books & arts
来源于《图书与艺术》版块

Johnson
约翰逊语言专栏

Double-take
掌握双语

It helps to speak more than one language—even if the benefits are unquantifiable
多掌握一门以上的语言是有帮助的——即使益处无法量化

Just a few generations ago, speaking two languages was supposed to be bad for you. Tests in America found that bilingual people had lower IQS, which seemed evidence enough. Later it became clear that those surveys were really measuring the material poverty of immigrants; members of such families were more likely to be undernourished and understimulated, not to mention the obvious fact that they often sat the tests in a language that was not their best.
就在几代人以前，多掌握一门外语还被认为是无益的。在美国，经测试发现，掌握两种语言的人智商较低，这似乎是有力的证据。后来才渐渐弄清楚这些调查实际旨在衡量移民的物质贫困；移民家庭的成员更有可能营养不良和缺乏鼓励，更不用说他们经常用自己不擅长的语言参加考试这一明显的事实。

How things have changed. In the past decade it has become almost common knowledge that bilingualism is good for you—witness articles such “Why Bilinguals are Smarter” and “The Amazing Benefits of Being Bilingual” by the New York Times and the BBC. Stacks of research papers have suggested that two-tongued people enjoy a variety of nonlinguistic advantages. Most notably, they have shown that bilinguals get dementia on average four years later than monolinguals, and that they have an edge in “executive control”—a basket of abilities that aid people doing complex tasks, including focusing attention, ignoring irrelevant information and updating working memory.
事情是如何变化的。在过去十年里，多掌握一门语言有益处，这已经是一种共识，比如《纽约时报》和英国广播公司的《为什么双语者更聪明》和《双语的惊人好处》等文章。大量的研究论文表明，会说两种语言的人享有各种非语言优势。最值得注意的是，他们发现双语者患上痴呆症的平均时间比单语者晚四年，他们在“执行控制”方面有优势，“执行控制”是一组帮助人们完成复杂任务的能力，包括集中注意力、忽略无关信息和更新工作记忆。

Why bilingualism would enhance these capabilities is unclear. Researchers hypothesise that having two languages means suppressing one when speaking the other, a kind of constant mental exercise that makes the brain healthier. This in particular is thought to be behind the finding of a later onset of dementia.
双语可以增强这些能力的原因还尚未可知。研究人员提出假设，掌握两种语言意味着在说另一种语言时压制其中一种语言，这是一种持续的脑力锻炼，能让大脑更健康。这尤其被认为是晚发性痴呆的背后原因。

But as intellectual pendulums do, this one has begun to swing again, against the “bilingual advantage”. Though many papers have identified such a bonus, many more have tried and failed to replicate those studies. Roberto Filippi of University College London and his col leagues have spent five years testing more than 600 people, from seven to 80 years old and including some who oscillate between two languages. They could find no statistically significant advantage in any age cohort.
但就像智力上的摇摆不定一样，这个论证“双语优势”的原因又开始摇摆不定。伦敦大学学院的罗伯特•菲利皮和其同事们用5年时间测试了600多名年龄在7岁到80岁之间的人，其中包括一些在两种语言之间转换使用的人。他们没有发现任何年龄组在统计学上有显著优势。