BILINGUAL BRAIN FACTS

DESBANCANDO MITOS DEL BILINGÜISMO

"Estar expuestos a dos lenguas desde pequeños no retrasa el aprendizaje"


En su conferencia de ayer en Club FARO, el profesor y psicólogo Albert Costa dejó claro que "estar expuesto a dos lenguas desde pequeñito no significa retraso en este aprendizaje" ni tampoco implica tener "un aprendizaje incompleto". Sobre las cunas bilingües, Albert Costa indicó que un requisito para aprender dos lenguas es darse cuenta de que hay dos códigos diferentes. Explicó que "sabemos que los bebés al nacimiento son capaces de distinguir lenguas que suenan muy diferentes, pero no las que son parecidas a nivel rítmico". Reconoció que esta conclusión le sorprende pero que se ha demostrado que otros animales como "las ratas también lo pueden hacer. Los bebés expuestos a las dos lenguas no se confunden, saben que es diferente".
 Sin embargo, cuando los dos idiomas a los que se expone a un bebé son parecidos, los niños tardan más en diferenciarlos. La edad que se calcula que empiezan a hacerlo es a los 4,5 meses. Albert Costa añadió que incluso se ha estudiado si los bebés son capaces de diferenciar lenguas observando el movimiento de los labios del interlocutor.

La conclusión es que los bebés de seis meses son capaces de distinguirlas tanto sean monolingües o bilingües. No obstante, a los ocho meses, los monolingües, ya no pueden y los bilingües, sí. En su charla, también indicó que "hay ciertas áreas del cerebro más implicadas en el procesamiento de una lengua que en otra" y que en caso de padecer una enfermedad degenerativa, el deterioro del dominio y control de los idiomas en un bilingüe avanza prácticamente a la par o al menos así lo han demostrado los estudios hasta ahora.
Más

OPENCLASS: Los padres agentes del cambio

En esta Openclass se define la labor de los padres dentro del proceso educativo de sus hijos y se dan claves para reforzar el inglés en casa.

LAS 8 COSAS QUE SUCEDEN EN TU CEREBRO CUANDO APRENDES OTRO IDIOMA

It supports the previous entrance. Click on the image

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

The many benefits of bilingualism

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We live in a world of great linguistic diversity. More than half of the world’s population grows up with more than one language. There are, on the other hand, language communities that are monolingual, typically some parts of the English-speaking world.

In this case, bilingualism or multilingualism can be seen as an extraordinary situation – a source of admiration and worry at the same time. But there are communities where bilingualism or multilingualism are the norm – for example in regions of Africa. A Cameroonian, for example, could speak Limbum and Sari, both indigenous languages, plus Ewondo, a lingua franca, plus English or French, the official languages, plus Camfranglais, a further lingua franca used between anglophone and francophone Cameroonians.

On a smaller scale, we all know families where bilingualism or multilingualism are the norm, because the parents speak different languages or because the family uses a language different from that of the community around them.

How difficult is it for a child to grow up in such an environment? And what are bilingual children capable of? Well, they are capable of quite a lot, even at a very youngage. They can understand and produce expressions in more than one language, they know who to address in which language, they are able to switch very fast from one language to the other.

BRITISH or AMERICAN ENGLISH

WHAT DO I HAVE TO TEACH?




David Crystal

TEACHING MEANS CONNECTION

How to enthuse the unenthusiastic pupil

By Jim Baker on Thursday, 30 April 2015 10:00 | Teaching & Learning

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A teacher could well have some great teaching strategies, but pupils need to be engaged. Veteran teacher Jim Baker discusses the methods that have worked for him over four decades.

To solve this problem of enthusing the unenthusiastic pupil we must first ask ‘Why is the pupil unenthusiastic? Two reasons for this lack of enthusiasm are:

1) Being preoccupied with ‘outside’ issues. 2) Not finding the teacher ‘entertaining’ - hence my reply “entertainer” when asked what I do.

There is not a lot we can do about 1) above, but there is about 2).

“Se puede dominar una lengua oralmente sin conocer su código escrito”

El enfoque metodológico CLIL es “una actitud positiva hacia un cambio metodológico en el que la distribución de los contenidos propicien una secuencia de actividades que den al alumno la capacidad para desarrollar un aprendizaje de por vida”

'CLIL is a positive attitude towards a new re-conceptualization of the curriculum in which a sequence of experiences provides Lifelong learning'

Entrevista

Artículo: Bilingüismo y metodología CLIL

Cognitive CLIL

CLIL The Cognitive: Not Only a New Way of Teaching…It’s a New Way of Thinking.


 Think about a television commercial that really grabbed your attention. Maybe you only saw it once, but it really made an impact and you just cannot forget it. How did the makers of the commercial do that? What techniques did they use? How did they grab your attention and create connections in your brain to be “branded” forever? The answer is simple: they activated the cognitive structure. The same techniques used to “hook “ us into buying products can also be used for teaching and retaining important information. The component that I believe holds CLIL together is the Cognitive component.
What exactly are we talking about when we say “Cognitive?” Many educators are a bit confused about this and understandably so. The cognitive in CLIL comes in many shapes and sizes. However, to simplify what it is, we can look at it this way. Anything done to engage students, activate prior knowledge, create multiple pathways to information in the brain and stimulate active learning, can be considered “the cognitive” in CLIL. I would like to focus particularly on the “multiple pathways” technique. When I use these words to explain cognitive activation, I mean to say that associations are being made in the brain and these “connections or pathways” help in retrieving information. When using the CLIL method, it is worth taking the time to be trained in the “art” of activation of prior knowledge and how to create neurological associations or connections between old and new information. The activation of the Cognitive begins before even starting the content unit at hand. This step is vital as all information to follow must connect and build upon it in a spiral form. The techniques are not difficult; however, it does require a certain degree of openness to new way of approaching teaching and time dedicated to putting the techniques to practice in order to see results.

Posted by The Cogent Construct

TEACHERS ARE THE KEY

Throughout the last month I had several conversations with lots of School Directors who showed me that the only way to create a teaching evolution is to arise a good attitude towards new times and to invest money in their formation.

For these reasons a positive teaching adaptation will be needed if we want to learn the latest trends and methodologies.

I consider our teaching processes like applications which need to be continuously updated.