Baylor Lariat – Sarah Jennings
“Language learning provides more than the practical benefit of being equipped to converse with more people. Language is inextricably connected to culture. In addition, research such as the 2004 study by psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee suggests bilingualism expands the brain’s normal way of thinking. “Bilingualism will change you in ways that you can’t really even contemplate, just leading a monolingual life. It changes the way you think; it changes the way you approach life,” said Dr. Paul E. Larson, director of the Baylor in Madrid Summer Study Abroad Program…In a world rapidly globalizing, having the ability to understand a stranger’s point of view is increasingly necessary, he said. “With monolinguals, you’re completely locked into one culture and one way of thinking,” Larson said, “The number one thing you pick up from living in another culture is that problems may have more than one solution.””(more)