双语算是一种能力吗？Is Bilingualism a Superpower

　　09:39

　　What do you see when you look at this picture?

　　当你看这幅画时，你看到什么？

　　Hopefully it's either a duck or a rabbit.

　　希望你看到的不是鸭子就是兔子。

　　Most of us can see both, but not at the same time.

　　我们大多数人都能看到这两者，但不是同时。

　　We sort of switch back and forth.

　　我们会来回切换着看。

　　This is known as an ambiguous figure.

　　这就是所谓的“多义图形”。

　　You've probably seen lots of them.

　　你可能见过很多这种图。

　　And they're often used by psychologists and neuroscientists to study things like visual perception and cognition.

　　它们通常被心理学家和神经科学家用来研究视觉感知和认知等问题。

　　Recent studies have found that bilingual children, those that speak two languages fluently, are more adept at switching back and forth between such images than monolingual children.

　　最近的研究发现，能够流利说两种语言的双语儿童比单语儿童更能在这样的图像之间灵活切换。

　　For a long time, people thought that bilingualism was a handicap, that it stunted development and language acquisition.

　　很长一段时间以来，人们认为双语能力是一种缺陷，会阻碍发展和语言习得。

　　Maybe that's because no one really studied it until recently.

　　或许是因为直到最近没有人真正研究过它。

　　Over the last several decades, research and experiments have suggested that being bilingual significantly impacts brain function in ways that might surprise you.

　　在过去几十年的研究和实验中，有许多迹象表明，双语对大脑功能的显著影响可能会让你感到惊讶。

　　I'm Dr. Erica Brozovsky, and this is Otherwords.

　　我是 Erica Brozovsky 博士，这是《Otherwords》节目。

　　Do you want to try and put that on?

　　你想要试戴看看吗？

　　Dr. Maria Arredondo is a developmental psychologist who studies the cognitive impacts of bilingualism in young children.

　　Dr. Maria Arredondo是一位发展心理学家，研究双语教育对年幼儿童认知的影响。

　　I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

　　我是德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校人类发展与家庭科学系的助理教授。

　　And I am the director of the child's lab.

　　也是儿童实验室的主任。

　　We study how bilingual children and infants are acquiring their languages and what are the mechanisms that are supporting the acquisition of both languages.

　　我们研究双语儿童和婴儿如何习得语言，以及支持两种语言习得的机制是什么。

　　So what drew you to the field of bilingualism in general?

　　是什么吸引您进入研究双语的领域？

　　So I was born in Argentina, my first language is Spanish, and I moved to the United States when I was 12.

　　我出生在阿根廷，我的第一种语言是西班牙语，当我 12 岁时我移民到美国。

　　I acquire a language very quickly, in one or two years, but my siblings and my parents struggled a lot.

　　我学习语言非常快，只用了一到两年的时间，但是我的兄弟姐妹和父母在学新语言上却非常困难。

　　So I always became curious why some people are learning their languages very quickly and why are others seem to struggle in bilingual acquisition.

　　所以我一直很好奇，为什么有些人能够很快学会双语，而有些人似乎在双语习得方面会遇到困难。

　　There are two kinds of bilingualism, simultaneous and sequential.

　　双语有两种类型：同时型双语和顺序型双语。

　　Simultaneous bilinguals learn both languages at the same time in infancy while sequentials learn their dominant language first and a second later in life.

　　同时型双语者在婴儿期同时学习两种语言，而顺序型双语者则先学习他们的主要语言，然后在人生后期学习第二语言。

　　While a sequential bilingual may maintain a similar level of proficiency, there are fundamental differences in how these languages are acquired and used.

　　虽然顺序型双语者可能会维持相似的熟练程度，但这些语言在获得和使用方式上存在根本差异。

　　One of the most significant is phonetics.

　　其中最不一样的是语音学。

　　It's estimated that humans can make around 800 distinct verbal sounds, known as phonemes, like "ch" or "oo" or "ss."

　　人类可以制造约 800 种不同的语音声音，被称为音素，例如 ch、oo 或 ss。

　　Any individual language will only use a few dozen, and the ones you don't use, you can't really hear.

　　任何一种单一语言只会使用其中几十个，而你不会使用的声音其实是听不到的。

　　For instance, "r" and "l" may sound distinct to English speakers, but the Japanese only have one phoneme for both,

　　对于讲英语的人来说，“r”和“l”可能听起来是不同的，但日语中只有一个音素可代表两者，

　　and in French, there's a sound between "p" and "b" that English speakers can't discern.

　　而在法语中，有一种介于“p”和“b”之间的声音是讲英语的人无法分辨的。

　　But here's the amazing thing.

　　但神奇的地方来了，

　　Babies can hear all of these sounds.

　　婴儿可以听到所有这些声音。

　　So from very early on, infants can distinguish the different sounds in all the languages, but with time, they begin to specialize in the sounds for their own native language.

　　所以从很早期，婴儿就可以辨识各种语言中的不同音素，但随着时间的推移，他们开始专注于自己母语的音素。

　　Multiple studies suggest that infants under six months can perceive the whole spectrum of phonemes.

　　多项研究表明，六个月以下的婴儿可以感知整个音素谱。

　　As they develop, they focus only on those used by their native language and essentially lose the ability to hear the rest.

　　随着他们的发展，他们只专注在母语使用的音素，基本上失去了听到其他音素的能力。

　　It's called perceptual narrowing.

　　这称作“知觉窄化”。

　　As you can guess, bilingual children keep all the phonemes from both languages, but only if they learn both from infancy.

　　如你所想，双语儿童只有在从婴儿时期开始学习两种语言时，才能保留来自两种语言的所有音素。

　　Sequential bilinguals, those who learned a second language later in life, almost always retain a perceptible accent, no matter how proficient they are in all other aspects of a language.

　　那些在人生晚期学习第二语言的顺序型双语者，几乎都会保留察觉得到的口音，无论他们在该语言的其他方面有多熟练。

　　There's pretty much just that one narrow window to learn all the phonemes you'll use for the rest of your life.

　　基本上只有那个非常短暂的时期可以学习你一生中会使用的所有音素。

　　But if you're picturing all these phonemes sloshing around like a bowl of alphabet soup, it's actually a lot more organized than that.

　　但如果你认为这些音素像一碗字母汤一样乱七八糟，其实比那更有组织性。

　　So can children distinguish between the two languages?

　　儿童能区分两种语言吗？

　　Bilingual-raised children can distinguish between their two languages very early on, during the first year of life.

　　双语儿童在出生后的第一年就可以辨别他们的两种语言。

　　We know that they can do that as soon as they're born.

　　我们知道他们一出生就能做到。

　　There are studies showing that neonates, they can distinguish between the languages that their mom spoke while they were in utero.

　　有研究显示，新生儿可以在子宫内听到妈妈说话时，就能区分出两种语言。

　　As they're acquiring both languages, they are beginning to figure out on their own which sounds are for each language, but also what is the syntax for each of their languages.

　　对于正在学习两种语言的儿童来说，他们正在自行找出每种语言中的声音以及每种语言的句法结构。

　　The two languages are very clearly separated and delineated in a bilingual's mind, which makes sense since they have different sounds, rules, and rhythms.

　　双语者可以非常清楚地区分和划分这两种语言，因为它们有不同的声音、规则和节奏。

　　When they change from one language to another, even mid-sentence, it's like a mental switch is flipped.

　　当他们在一句话中从一种语言转换到另一种语言时，就好像脑中有个开关打开了。

　　One language is given full attention and the other one is turned off, so as not to cause confusion.

　　一种语言得到了充分的关注，而另一种语言则被关闭，以免引起混乱。

　　They're very aware of their code-switching.

　　他们很了解自身的“语码转换”。

　　So for instance, my niece, she will mix between both of their languages when she's speaking to me because she knows that I am bilingual and that I am capable of understanding when she is code-switching,

　　例如我的侄女，当她跟我说话时，她会混用她们两种语言，因为她知道我是双语者，我能够理解她何时再进行语码转换，

　　but she wouldn't do that to an English monolingual speaker.

　　但她不会对一个只讲英语的单语者这样做。

　　But how would an infant brain know that it's learning two different languages?

　　但婴儿的大脑怎么知道它正在学习两种不同的语言呢？

　　One possible answer is prosody, the patterns of rhythm in speech.

　　一个可能的答案是韵律，语音中的节奏模式。

　　For example, English is a stress-timed language, which means that the rhythm is based on the important words and all the unimportant words are just jammed in between the beats.

　　英语是一种强调重音节奏的语言，这表示节奏基于重要的词语，所有不重要的词语都会挤在重拍之间。

　　I'm gonna go the store, I'm gonna buy some snacks, and then I'll come home.

　　“我”要去“商店”，买一些“零食”，然后就“回家”。

　　Spanish, however, is a syllable-timed language where each syllable is given more equal timing.

　　西班牙语则是以音节为基础的节奏，每个音节的时间分配比较均等。

　　Voy a ir al supermercado, a comprar unos bocadillos, y ya vuelvo de regreso.

　　我要去商店，买一些零食，然后就回家了。

　　Prosody is also influenced by word order.

　　韵律也受到词序的影响。

　　English and Spanish are both subject-verb-object languages.

　　英语和西班牙语都是句构为“主词-谓语-宾语”的语言。

　　The dog ate his bone; el perro se comió su hueso.

　　这只狗吃了他的骨头。

　　SVO languages usually have articles like "the" before the noun, giving it an iambic sound pattern.

　　SVO 语言通常在名词前会有像“the”这样的冠词，使其具有抑扬格韵律。

　　The dog, el perro.

　　那只狗。

　　My mother, me madre.

　　我的母亲。

　　Subject-object-verb languages, like Japanese, place the article after the noun, which creates a somewhat more inverse sound pattern.

　　主语-谓语-宾语的语言，例如日语，会将冠词放置在名词之后，产生一种较为反转的音韵格律。

　　Kare ni.

　　给他...

　　Soko de.

　　在那里...

　　It's possible that even in the womb, a fetus may be able to pick up on these distinct patterns and start to sort linguistic information into separate mental containers.

　　在子宫里的胎儿甚至有可能能够辨识这些不同的模式，开始将语言信息分类到不同的大脑容器中。

　　How are the strategies that bilingual children use to learn language different from monolingual children?

　　双语儿童学习语言的策略和单语儿童有何不同？

　　We know that monolinguals, around 18 months, they use mutual exclusivity, which is a strategy in which they are mapping a novel word to a novel object.

　　我们知道，单语儿童在大约 18 个月左右时会使用“互斥性原则”来将新单词与新物体建立关联。

　　So for instance, if you present a child with two objects, one is a familiar object, one is an unfamiliar object,

　　例如，如果你向孩子展示两个物体，一个是熟悉的物体，另一个是陌生的物体，

　　and you provide a name that they've never heard before, then they're going to map that novel name to that new object.

　　并且提供一个他们从未听过的名字，那么他们会将这个新名字与这个新物体相对应。

　　But bilinguals, there's evidence showing that they're not relying on mutual exclusivity as much as monolinguals.

　　然而，有证据显示双语儿童不像单语儿童一样依赖互斥性原则。

　　And that's because they know that two labels are given to one object.

　　这是因为他们知道一个物体会有两个标签。

　　There are other strategies that bilinguals rely on when they're learning words, so we do know that they are looking at audio-visual cues, the mouth of the speaker.

　　当双语儿童学习单词时，他们还会依赖其他策略，比如观察视觉线索，注意讲话者的嘴型等。

　　The more that they look at the mouth, the higher their retention is when they are naming a new object.

　　他们越专注在讲话者的嘴型，当他们命名新物体时，他们的记忆就保持得越好。

　　As you can see, the mental demands on bilingual children are pretty heavy, and it does mean that some language milestones may show a delay when compared to a monolingual child,

　　正如你所看到的，双语儿童的心智负担相当沉重，这表示在某些语言发展的过程上可能会比单语儿童出现延迟，

　　which makes sense, considering that the developing brain of a bilingual child has double the workload.

　　这是有道理的，考虑到双语儿童正在发展的大脑需要承担两倍的工作量。

　　But, like a bodybuilder, that extra effort means extra muscle, neurologically speaking.

　　但是，从神经学的角度来看，就像健美选手一样，这种额外的努力意味着会训练出更多的肌肉。

　　In the brain, we see that bilinguals are showing different activity during executive function tasks.

　　在大脑中，我们看到双语者在执行功能任务时显示出不同的活动状态。

　　The mechanisms that we are relying on are attention and inhibition.

　　我们依赖的机制是注意和抑制。

　　So with attention, we are focusing on the language that's being in use right now, so I'm focusing on English and I'm inhibiting my Spanish.

　　对于注意力，我们专注于当前使用的语言，因此我专注于英语，并抑制我的西班牙语。

　　That's why bilingual children are better at tests involving ambiguous figures.

　　这就是为什么双语儿童在多义图形的测试上表现更好的原因。

　　It's easier and faster for them to turn off rabbit and turn on duck.

　　对他们来说，关闭兔子并开启鸭子更容易和更快速。

　　So the better your executive function abilities are, the better that your academic abilities seem to be during the school years.

　　所以你的执行能力越好，在学校学习期间你的学业能力似乎也会越好。

　　What's fascinating about this work is that it's showing that the brain is plastic and that experiences like bilingualism can alter how the brain is organized.

　　这项研究令人着迷的地方在于，它显示出大脑是具有可塑性的，而像双语主义这样的经验可以改变大脑的组织方式。

　　There is research showing that bilingualism is associated with a delay in Alzheimer's diagnosis.

　　有研究显示双语与延迟发展阿兹海默症有关。

　　With age, obviously, the brain begins to deteriorate, but bilinguals are showing that this is a much slower deterioration.

　　显然，随着年龄增长，大脑开始退化，但双语者表现出这种退化速度更慢的现象。

　　But what we still need to try to understand is how these changes in the brain are related to bilingual acquisition.

　　但我们仍需要尝试理解这些大脑变化跟双语习得有什么相关。

　　And that's where the field is heading now.

　　而这正是该领域现在努力的方向。

　　That's not even mentioning the social and cultural benefits of bilingualism that are harder to test in a lab.

　　这还不包括双语的社会和文化带来的好处，这些好处在实验室中比较难测试。

　　The more people you can communicate with, the more opportunities life can offer and the richer your experiences can be.

　　你能与之交流的人越多、人生中的机会越多，你的经验就会越丰富。

　　Unlike the cognitive advantages, these are available to simultaneous and sequential bilinguals, so it's never too late to benefit from learning a second language.

　　与认知方面的优势不同，这些都可用于同时型双语和顺序型双语，所以从学习第二语言中获益永远不会太晚。#双语#

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