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This is an amazing e-portfolio. I loved the fact that you introduced yourselves here and talked about your background. Excellent job putting all of this together. Well done!

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Jaque, Yago, Nayara, Cassiana, Dani and Claudia, congratulations on your e-portfolio. It is very organized and with extra information, AMAZING! You sure did a great job! <3

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Summary class lesson 16 -  April14th, 2021:

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Summary class lesson 16 -  April14th, 2021:

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Meu nome é Yago Campbell Cabral de Carvalho, tenho 28 anos e nasci no Rio de Janeiro, mas vivo em São Paulo há quase 10 anos. Trabalho como professor de português, inglês e francês há quase 8 anos. Desde criança sempre fui apaixonado por idiomas estrangeiros, mas quando ingressei na faculdade de letras também fui tocado pelos campos da literatura e linguística, então durante um período de minha vida fiquei bastante confuso sobre qual lado seguir, pois não estava mais satisfeito em ensinar língua estrangeira (regras gramaticais) no Ensino Regular e trabalhar com os métodos das escolas de idiomas. Há 3 anos, quando conheci a abordagem CLIL na prática, pecebi como era incrível ensinar inglês por meio de conteúdos integrados, então foi quando decidi que focaria a minha carreira na Educação Bilíngue. Atualmente trabalho em duas escolas bilíngues com Ensino Fundamental l e ll e Ensino Médio.

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OUR GROUP ...

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Meu nome é Cassiana Reis de Siqueira, mãe da Lara (9 anos) e da Lívia (7 anos) e sou professora de Inglês! Comecei lecionando para adolescentes, mas me apaixonei pela educação infantil! Acho incrível ver o grande progresso que os pequenos tem na aprendizagem de uma segunda língua!

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Meu nome é Claudia de Queiroz Lodi Teixeira.  Sou mãe da Carol (9 anos ) e da Luiza (5 anos ) , esposa e professora.  Sou de Campinas, SP. Fiz o High School no Texas pois meu pai foi transferido para a IBM Austin. Comecei a trabalhar lá e quando voltei ao Brasil queria ter meu dinheiro foi então que passei a dar aula particular. Meu primeiro aluno foi meu professor de matemática, eu ensinava Inglês e ele me ajudava com matemática. Entrei na faculdade de Turismo e continuei dando aula para pagar os custos da faculdade. Fiz estágio na Walt Disney World e foi então que causou meu encantamento com o inglês . Quando voltei continuei dando aula de inglês e brinco que fiz o caminho no contrafluxo. Tirei certificação de Cambrigde e depois comecei Pedagogia. E cá estou dando aula  há 23 anos.

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Aqui a Dani Melo Aguilar
Eu sou da Venezuela e ja more em Canada, Dubai e Brasil.
Em na minha casa tudos somos trilingües ❤️❤️ tenho uma filia maravilhosa ❤️
Tenho 11 anos trabalhando em educação e sou completamente apaixonada pela minha carrera.  Sento que atreves de nossa practicas podemos mandar o mundo e melhorá-lo

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Sou Jaqueline Pereira Voos Busnardo. Uma mistura de brasileira, alemã e italiana :)
Tenho 33 anos, sou casada a 5 anos e temos 2 filhos, Gabriel 3 anos e Beatriz, 1 mês.
Sou apaixonada pela educação desde pequena... trabalho hoje com educação infantil em uma escola internacional aqui de Curitiba-PR.

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Sou alguém que acredita que estamos sempre melhorando e por mais complicado que possa parecer existem sempre alternativas e caminhos para os nossos dilemas. Seja na sala de aula com os meus alunos ou no bar com os meus amigos: procuro o equilíbrio entre o falar e ouvir.

Sou um ser em construção, apaixonada por comunicação social e educação.  E é com a educação que vejo muitas possibilidades de transformação dos sistemas opressores. Adoro a frase do Paulo Freire que diz: "Enquanto eu luto, sou movido pela esperança; e se eu lutar com esperança, posso esperar"...             🌈✨

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Selma Moura

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Base Nacional Comum Curricular - Educação é a Base

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Read the Standards

Selma Moura

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Selma Moura

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Selma Moura

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RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms

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André Hedlund & Selma Moura

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Whilst I have many anxieties about moving to linear A-levels (see previous blog), I think this period of change is an ideal time for us to use evidence-based approaches to improve our practice. As our schemes of learning evolve, we can reshape the what and how of our curriculum.

There is a coherent canon of strategies emerging from cognitive science that provide a clear evidence-based approach to curriculum design. Not all pedagogical methods are equal, and there is an opportunity cost to relying on discovery methods with novices. The research evidence is helping us shine a light on how students learn. This knowledge of pupil learning can seep into our schemes of work, lesson plans and pedagogical discussions. Finally, the 'how' we learn is linking to the what and why we learn. Sweller's cognitive load theory helps us think about the relationship between learning and memory and provides clear examples of what might help and why.
What is the relationship between learning and memory?
My own PGCE was bereft of any mention of memory or the relationship between learning and memory. On reflection, it seems difficult to define learning at all without some mention of it.

David Didau, 'Learning is the long term retention of knowledge and skills and the ability to transfer between them.'

Kirschner, Sweller & Clark put it, "If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned."

Dan Willingham "memory is as thinking does ... whatever students think about is what they will remember. Memory is the residue of thought."

How can we adapt our teaching to improve long term memory and develop understanding? Recent ideas surrounding cognitive load theory may help us as we rethink our curriculum design and pedagogical preferences. Not all cognitive load is bad, however our ability to learn is impacted when the working memory is overburdened with intrinsic or extraneous cognitive load.
Cognitive Load Theory
Sweller's (1988) Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests that our working memory is only able to hold a limited amount of information (around 4 chunks) at any one time and that our teaching methods should avoid overloading our working memory to maximize learning.
Human cognitive architecture.
Building on the work of Baddelely & Hitch (1974) - CLT views human cognitive architecture as comprising a Working Memory (WM) and a Long Term Memory (LTM).

sourcehttp://psychologyhacked.com/approaches/cognitive/memory/working-memory-model/

Our WM is limited but has many different components that are responsible for directing attention and coordinating cognitive processes. It is like a mental post-it note, with a limited capacity to hold and use information for a short amount of time. It is fragile, unstable and easily distracted.

LTM on the other hand, has an endless capacity for storage and works with WM to retrieve information. Our LTM holds all of our schemas or pockets of information about the world and if we can make links in our explanations it reduces the cognitive load.

Picture:www.furtheredagogy.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/cognitive-load-theory

Neuroscience makes a clear distinction between the two. It holds that working memory is related to temporary activation of neurons in the brain. In contrast, long-term memory is thought to be related to physical changes to neurons and their connections. This can explain the short-term nature of working memory as well as its greater susceptibility to interruptions or physical shocks.

If the cognitive load overwhelms our processing ability we will struggle to complete an activity successfully. Learning is hampered when the working memory capacity is exceeded in a learning task. We need to help students transfer the knowledge to long term memory, which will reduce their cognitive load when asked to draw on this material. Although, if subject-knowledge is incomplete, the student will not be able to fall back on their long term memory which will lead to further cognitive overload, failure to follow instructions, incomplete recall and task abandonment.
What can we do to reduce cognitive load?
Activate existing schemas and prior knowledge before sharing information - this makes it easier to accommodate and assimilate new information.

Use verbal and visual information to present to students. Our working memory processes these types of information in different subsystems the Visual Spatial Sketchpad and the Phonological Loop so using both pathways will reduce the cognitive burden on working memory (the modality effect).
Types of cognitive load.
Sweller identifies three types of cognitive load:

Picture:www.furtheredagogy.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/cognitive-load-theory

Intrinsic Load - inherent difficulty of the subject matter being learnt. It seems as though there is a sweet spot between Bjork's desirable difficulties and Sweller's cognitive overload. If the task is too difficult it will overload the working memory and make it difficult to process the information. The intrinsic load can be decreased by instructional techniques such as 'simple to complex' explanations or part-whole explanations where individual elements are taught first before an integrated task.

Extraneous Load - How the subject matter is taught. "A load that is not necessary for learning" this is a bad type of cognitive load as it does not directly contribute to learning. This includes poor instructional techniques or any activities which distract from the learning task itself.

Harry Fletcher-Wood suggests we must be aware of cognitive load theory in the planing and preparation of our lessons. Extraneous cognitive load is a distraction caused by tasks which occupy working memory but do not contribute to the formation of long-term memories. This includes:

Splitting attention: asking students to refer to two sources of information simultaneously: we can avoid this by ensuring information, such as labels, is where it will be needed.

Redundancy: information which adds nothing detracts from learning: we can avoid this by removing irrelevant and distracting labels and text.

Expertise reversal: support which helps novices, like model answers, can hinder experts; we can monitor students' success closely and reduce support as students become more skilled.

Germane Load - This is the good type of cognitive load. This refers to the load imposed on working memory when it is processing and transferring to LTM. We should choose teaching methods that create germane cognitive load. We must redirect learners' attention from processes that are a distraction and not relevant to learning and direct them towards processes that are relevant to learning and new schema construction.

How to reduce Cognitive Load?

There seems to be two obvious ways to implement the ideas surrounding CLT. First, in the planning and sequencing of learning. Our schemes must break down subject content and consider moving from the simple to the complex. Dan Willingham tells us that stories are psychologically privileged as the mind thinks and remembers in stories. We must use this human mental architecture to benefit our students. What stories are we going to tell?

Second, the ideas of CLT will also influence in how we tell these stories.

Explicit Teaching / Direct Instruction.

"Decades of research clearly demonstrate that for novices, direct instruction is more effective and more efficient than partial guidance. So when teaching new content and skills to novices, teachers are more effective when they provide explicit guidance accompanied by practice and feedback"

Clark, Kirshner & Sweller, 2012 p.6

CLT suggests that when learning new material explicit or direct teaching methods are best as they reduce cognitive load. They should not 'discover' the learning for themselves. Teaching novices is most effective when new content and skills are explicitly taught alongside practice and feedback. One of the best blogs I have read on explicit teaching is by Ben Newmark 10 Principles for Great Explicit Teaching

Ben celebrates the welcome return of the sage on the stage approach and gives us a comprehensive run through of the essential ingredients needed for explicit teaching, with the rallying cry that we should all practice our explanations. Ben bravely films himself and asks for student feedback on the quality of the explanation. I am not sure I am that brave but I can see that time spent planning and refining how I am going to explain a concept can be more worthwhile than other PPA activities. We should all update our subject-specific knowledge, teach children to listen silently and not interrupt. Use storytelling techniques, rhetorical questions, cliff-hangers, metaphors and analogies. We should practice and rehearse delivering explanations. Ben argues we should see explanations as short theatrical performances which need refining and honing. We should use boardwork to structure learning, with clear neat illustrations, vary our tone, inflection and cadence. Repeat explanations and link back, teach from the front and ask for feedback. Here is an Oliver Cavligliol visual summary:
2. Worked Examples
My favourite example of this is a recent blog and youtube clip by John Tompsett on walking through a mock paper and talking through all the meta-cognitive thinking with a visualiser. John provides further examples in a later blog on the art of the paragraph, where live writing is used to help structure extended writing.

This technique will not surprise most teachers, as model answers and worked examples are a staple of most classrooms. For me, most lessons will involve essay plans, model answers and what sociology examiners like to call - a clear chain of reasoning. In the social sciences, the mark schemes do not require or provide a specific structure - so we have become good at developing our own structures and writing frames - PERC, PEEL, PERVERT, PEE.

I am attempting to use knowledge organisers more effectively to reduce cognitive load - with a clear structure using the assessment criteria of A01, A02 and A03. This gives students clear hooks to hang the learning on.
3. Expertise Reversal Effect.
Sweller suggests that we need to be aware of the differences between novices and experts. The models and worked examples that provide effective cognitive support for novices become a hinderance for experts. When a student has become an effective learner, the additional support is a distraction and now becomes redundant. We need to monitor our students closely and take away the scaffolding / stabilisers when it is apparent that they are no longer needed or that they are hindering further progress.

Both these previous points are clearly applied in the classroom when a teacher shows a model answer, then provides a writing frame to help students structure an answer which eventually becomes just a question as the students retain more knowledge and become more expert at the task.
4. The Redundancy Effect.
Students do not learn when their limited working memory is directed to unnecessary or redundant information. When learners are presented with redundant or additional information not directly relevant to learning or with the same information in different forms. Providing learners with additional information is not harmless it can be a cause of instructional failure. For example, A textbook that has both a diagram AND text with the same information. A powerpoint presentation in which the presenter reads the text presented on the screen. This inhibits learning as it overloads the working memory.
5. Split-Attention Effect
When learners are required to process two or more sources of information simultaneously in order to understand the material. When a diagram is used but it cannot be understood without reading the text at the same time. Learner is required to hold both bits of information at the same time. The learner is left to amalgamate both lots of information which can contribute to cognitive overload. If one of the sources adds nothing new, it should be eliminated or the information should be physically integrated following a dual coding approach which will reduce cognitive load.

This year I have been focusing on my board work and abandoning many of my powerpoint slides where possible. This 'retro' approach has helped me finesse my explanations and think about my use of dual coding - what words and images will help embed this concept. Whilst my art-work is not perfect, I feel it encourages the students to adopt a similar approach in their own notes and prevents split attention.
6. Modality effect.
It is possible to reduce extraneous load by using more than one mode of communication - evidence from working memory suggests that presenting information in both auditory and visual working memory can increase memory capacity. For example when using a diagram and text to explain a concept the text can be communicated in spoken form. Using both channels increases the capacity of working memory.

Oliver Caviglioli summarises the evidence for dual coding in his blog about the evidence surrounding visuals and learning. Visuals support attention and bring essential information to the fore. Visuals activate prior knowledge and help build mental models. Using both channels can absorb more information than usually possible avoiding cognitive overload.

Final thoughts.

There are a range of problems and challenges with linear A-levels. Two years in and I am still developing my thinking about how best to deliver. Nonetheless, this might also be an opportunity for us to re-shape and embed the lessons of evidence-based practice and to start creating the type of learning that we want to see in our classrooms. We need to stop pretending that all teaching methods are equal and start putting explicit teaching front and centre, in the same way that phonics has become a staple of the primary classroom. We need to spend less time marking and data tracking and more time developing our subject-specialism and refining our explanations. We need to not be shy about getting feedback on those explanations. We also need to know more about how memory works and what we can do to aid the transfer of knowledge and skills between different contexts.
Sources:
Caviliglioli, O. (2018) Six Ways visuals help learning.

Didau, D. (2016) When do novices become experts.
Clark, R, Kirschner, P & Sweller, J 2012, 'Putting students on the path to learning: The case for fully guided instruction', American Educator, Spring, pp. 6-11.
Fletcher-Wood, H. (2018) Planning Lessons Using Cognitive Load Theory.

Newman, B. (2017) Ten Principles for Great Explicit Teaching

Proffitt, Cath. (2018) Danger - Overload

Shibli, D, West R. (2018) Cognitive Load Theory and its application in the classroom. Impact: The Science of Learning. Chartered College of Teaching p.18-20.

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load during Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12, p.257-285.

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The problem of linear A-levels and how cognitive load theory may help us.

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Whilst I have many anxieties about moving to linear A-levels (see previous blog), I think this period of change is an ideal time for us to use evidence-based approaches to improve our practice. As our schemes of learning evolve, we can reshape the what and how of our curriculum.

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| Logan LaPlante | TEDxUniversityofNevada

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Hackschooling makes me happy | Logan LaPlante | TEDxUniversityofNevada

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The Most Powerful Way to Remember What You Study

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The Most Powerful Way to Remember What You Study

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André Hedlund

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The Most Powerful Way to Remember What You Study

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Documentos de identidade - Uma Introdução às teorias do currículo

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Documentos de identidade - Uma Introdução às teorias do currículo

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Autor: Tomaz Tadeu
Selma Moura

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Summary class lesson 4 - March 08th, 2021:

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Summary class lesson 4 - March 08th, 2021:

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COGNITION AND EMOTION
NEUROANATOMY

André Hedlund

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Candy Palma

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André Hedlund

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Our Thoughts Have No Official Language | EFL Magazine

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Our Thoughts Have No Official Language: "I have to stop thinking in my native language". This is one of the sentences most commonly heard by every language teacher (mainly in Brazil). And also something that needs to be adjusted so that the same language teachers do not fall into this trap.

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Candy Palma

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GROUP 3 - RAFFLESIA, THE WORLD'S LARGEST BLOOM - Google Jamboard

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The version of the browser you are using is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a supported browser. Dismiss

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/14rl8f7xTet3-cNtAtxlB9nTsKIu6ImyA/view?ts=60c64a09

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A borboleta de Austin - legendado (Austin's butter

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Council of the Great City School:  Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards

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Un video que fala sobre ajuda ao otros

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Gestão Escolar Democrática - Prof. Vitor Henrique Paro (Entrevista completa)

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RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms

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Gender-neutral pre-school: something for my kid? | Lotta Rajalin | TEDxTartu

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Lotta will share her ideas about gender neutrality and child rearing. Quote: "In our schools we avoid saying those stereotypical things like "What a nice skirt you got" or "What a though t-shirt"." The head of Stockholm's controversial „gender neutral" pre-school. She will discuss the benefits of „gender neutral" approach in pedagogy.

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ACTFL supports PK-12 schools and institutions of higher education in areas of assessment and articulation:

to develop and maintain high-quality language proficiency assessments

to train, certify and maintain highly reliable testers and raters

to conduct research on proficiency and performance outcomes

to collaborate with other language organizations and government agencies to support and promote research in the areas of high-quality language teaching and learning, including examining implications for teacher education.

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ACTFL supports PK-12 schools and institutions of higher education in areas of assessment and articulation: to develop and maintain high-quality language proficiency assessments to train, certify and maintain highly reliable testers and raters to conduct research on proficiency and performance outcomes to collaborate with other language organizations and government agencies to support and promote research in the areas of high-quality language teaching and learning, including examining implications for teacher education.

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Neba [Não é bem assim] | Vitor Henrique Paro

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Para se examinar didaticamente o que uma coisa é, pode-se começar por dizer o que ela não é. Esta seção pretende tomar certas crenças disseminadas no senso comum e na academia e refutá-las [...]

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Um novo olhar para o saber e aprendizado. 

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Um novo olhar para o saber e aprendizado. 

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Translanguaging -  Presentation ( Karina´s class )

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Translanguaging -  Presentation ( Karina´s class )

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Voice, choice, and ownership! Feeling of belonging!
🥰 Communication, intelligibility

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CLIL = Content and Language Integrated Learning

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CLIL = Content and Language Integrated Learning

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4 C’s FRAMEWORK: Communication - Cognition - Culture - Content . They are all intertwined and are important elements to be considered when delivering classes.

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Educação: O desafio é pensar fora da caixa e aceitar o novo!

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Educação: O desafio é pensar fora da caixa e aceitar o novo!

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1. What do you see? How do you “read” the text?
2. What is the purpose of the visual?
3. Whose viewpoint is / is not represented?
4. Do you agree with the author’s point? Why or why not?
5. How would you change the text to make it more understandable?
6. If it were in color, what colors do you think the author might have used?

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Start with why -- how great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek | TEDxPugetSound

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How your brain's executive function works -- and how to improve it | Sabine Doebel

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Brain´s reward system
inhibitory control
executive functions
self regulation

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The Marshmallow Test | Igniter Media | Church Video

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Another example ( CULTURA MAKER)

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Bilingualism Matters: Myths and Facts about Early Bilingual Development — Mileidis Gort

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Mixing languages is common with bilingual kids. Children who are learning more than one language at once are taking in double the vocabulary. Sometimes if they don’t have what they need in one language, they compensate by using the other

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Mixing languages is common with bilingual kids. Children who are learning more than one language at once are taking in double the vocabulary. Sometimes if they don’t have what they need in one language, they compensate by using the other

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Very cool information.

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In a cafe in south London, two construction workers are engaged in cheerful banter, tossing words back and forth. Their cutlery dances during more emphatic gesticulations and they occasionally break off into loud guffaws. They are discussing a woman, that much is clear, but the details are lost on me. It's a shame, because their conversation looks fun and interesting, especially to a nosy person like me. But I don't speak their language.

Out of curiosity, I interrupt them to ask what they are speaking. With friendly smiles, they both switch easily to English, explaining that they are South Africans and had been speaking Xhosa. In Johannesburg, where they are from, most people speak at least five languages, says one of them, Theo Morris. For example, Theo's mother's language is Sotho, his father's is Zulu, he learned Xhosa and Ndebele from his friends and neighbours, and English and Afrikaans at school. "I went to Germany before I came here, so I also speak German," he adds.

Was it easy to learn so many languages?

"Yes, it's normal," he laughs.

He's right. Around the world, more than half of people - estimates vary from 60 to 75 per cent - speak at least two languages. Many countries have more than one official national language - South Africa has 11. People are increasingly expected to speak, read and write at least one of a handful of "super" languages, such as English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish or Arabic, as well. So to be monolingual, as many native English speakers are, is to be in the minority, and perhaps to be missing out.

Multilingualism has been shown to have many social, psychological and lifestyle advantages. Moreover, researchers are finding a swathe of health benefits from speaking more than one language, including faster stroke recovery and delayed onset of dementia.

Could it be that the human brain evolved to be multilingual - that those who speak only one language are not exploiting their full potential? And in a world that is losing languages faster than ever - at the current rate of one a fortnight, half our languages will be extinct by the end of the century - what will happen if the current rich diversity of languages disappears and most of us end up speaking only one?

I am sitting in a laboratory, headphones on, looking at pictures of snowflakes on a computer. As each pair of snowflakes appears, I hear a description of one of them through the headphones. All I have to do is decide which snowflake is being described. The only catch is that the descriptions are in a completely invented language called Syntaflake.

It's part of an experiment by Panos Athanasopoulos, an ebullient Greek with a passion for languages. Professor of psycholinguistics and bilingual cognition at Lancaster University, he's at the forefront of a new wave of research into the bilingual mind. As you might expect, his lab is a Babel of different nationalities and languages - but no one here grew up speaking Syntaflake.

The task is profoundly strange and incredibly difficult. Usually, when interacting in a foreign language, there are clues to help you decipher the meaning. The speaker might point to the snowflake as they speak, use their hands to demonstrate shapes or their fingers to count out numbers, for example. Here I have no such clues and, it being a made-up language, I can't even rely on picking up similarities to languages I already know.

After a time, though, I begin to feel a pattern might be emerging with the syntax and sounds. I decide to be mathematical about it and get out pen and paper to plot any rules that emerge, determined not to "fail" the test.

The experience reminds me of a time I arrived in a rural town a few hours outside Beijing and was forced to make myself understood in a language I could neither speak nor read, among people for whom English was similarly alien. But even then, there had been clues... Now, without any accompanying human interaction, the rules governing the sounds I'm hearing remain elusive, and at the end of the session I have to admit defeat.

I join Athanasopoulos for a chat while my performance is being analysed by his team.

Glumly, I recount my difficulties at learning the language, despite my best efforts. But it appears that was where I went wrong: "The people who perform best on this task are the ones who don't care at all about the task and just want to get it over as soon as possible. Students and teaching staff who try to work it out and find a pattern always do worst," he says.

"It's impossible in the time given to decipher the rules of the language and make sense of what's being said to you. But your brain is primed to work it out subconsciously. That's why, if you don't think about it, you'll do okay in the test - children do the best."

The first words ever uttered may have been as far back as 250,000 years ago, once our ancestors stood up on two legs and freed the ribcage from weight-bearing tasks, allowing fine nerve control of breathing and pitch to develop. And when humans had got one language, it wouldn't have been long before we had many.

Language evolution can be compared to biological evolution, but whereas genetic change is driven by environmental pressures, languages change and develop through social pressures. Over time, different groups of early humans would have found themselves speaking different languages. Then, in order to communicate with other groups - for trade, travel and so on - it would have been necessary for some members of a family or band to speak other tongues.

We can get some sense of how prevalent multilingualism may have been from the few hunter-gatherer peoples who survive today. "If you look at modern hunter-gatherers, they are almost all multilingual," says Thomas Bak, a cognitive neurologist who studies the science of languages at the University of Edinburgh. "The rule is that one mustn't marry anyone in the same tribe or clan to have a child - it's taboo. So every single child's mum and dad speak a different language."

In Aboriginal Australia, where more than 130 indigenous languages are still spoken, multilingualism is part of the landscape. "You will be walking and talking with someone, and then you might cross a small river and suddenly your companion will switch to another language," says Bak. "People speak the language of the earth." This is true elsewhere, too. "Consider in Belgium: you take a train in Liège, the announcements are in French first. Then, pass through Loewen, where the announcements will be in Dutch first, and then in Brussels it reverts back to French first."

The connection with culture and geography is why Athanasopoulos invented a new language for the snowflake test. Part of his research lies in trying to tease out the language from the culture it is threaded within, he explains.

Being so bound up with identity, language is also deeply political. The emergence of European nation states and the growth of imperialism during the 19th century meant it was regarded as disloyal to speak anything other than the one national language. This perhaps contributed to the widely held opinion - particularly in Britain and the US - that bringing up children to be bilingual was harmful to their health and to society more generally.

There were warnings that bilingual children would be confused by two languages, have lower intelligence, low self-esteem, behave in deviant ways, develop a split personality and even become schizophrenic. It is a view that persisted until very recently, discouraging many immigrant parents from using their own mother tongue to speak to their children, for instance. This is in spite of a 1962 experiment, ignored for decades, which showed that bilingual children did better than monolinguals in both verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests.

However, research in the last decade by neurologists, psychologists and linguists, using the latest brain-imaging tools, is revealing a swathe of cognitive benefits for bilinguals. It's all to do with how our ever-flexible minds learn to multitask.
Split personality
Ask me in English what my favourite food is, and I will picture myself in London choosing from the options I enjoy there. But ask me in French, and I transport myself to Paris, where the options I'll choose from are different. So the same deeply personal question gets a different answer depending on the language in which you're asking me. This idea that you gain a new personality with every language you speak, that you act differently when speaking different languages, is a profound one.

Athanasopoulos and his colleagues have been studying the capacity for language to change people's perspectives. In one experiment, English and German speakers were shown videos of people moving, such as a woman walking towards her car or a man cycling to the supermarket. English speakers focus on the action and typically describe the scene as "a woman is walking" or "a man is cycling". German speakers, on the other hand, have a more holistic worldview and will include the goal of the action: they might say (in German) "a woman walks towards her car" or "a man cycles towards the supermarket".

Part of this is due to the grammatical toolkit available, Athanasopoulos explains. Unlike German, English has the -ing ending to describe actions that are ongoing. This makes English speakers much less likely than German speakers to assign a goal to an action when describing an ambiguous scene. When he tested English-German bilinguals, however, whether they were action- or goal-focused depended on which country they were tested in. If the bilinguals were tested in Germany, they were goal-focused; in England, they were action-focused, no matter which language was used, showing how intertwined culture and language can be in determining a person's worldview.

In the 1960s, one of the pioneers of psycholinguistics, Susan Ervin-Tripp, tested Japanese-English bilingual women, asking them to finish sentences in each language. She found that the women ended the sentences very differently depending on which language was used. For example, "When my wishes conflict with my family..." was completed in Japanese as "it is a time of great unhappiness"; in English, as "I do what I want". Another example was "Real friends should...", which was completed as "help each other" in Japanese and "be frank" in English.

From this, Ervin-Tripp concluded that human thought takes place within language mindsets, and that bilinguals have different mindsets for each language - an extraordinary idea but one that has been borne out in subsequent studies, and many bilinguals say they feel like a different person when they speak their other language.

These different mindsets are continually in conflict, however, as bilingual brains sort out which language to use.

In a revealing experiment with his English-German bilingual group, Athanasopoulos got them to recite strings of numbers out loud in either German or English. This effectively "blocked" the other language altogether, and when they were shown the videos of movement, the bilinguals' descriptions were more action- or goal-focused depending on which language had been blocked.

So, if they recited numbers in German, their responses to the videos were more typically German and goal-focused. When the number recitation was switched to the other language midway, their video responses also switched.

So what's going on? Are there really two separate minds in a bilingual brain? That's what the snowflake experiment was designed to find out. I'm a little nervous of what my fumbling performance will reveal about me, but Athanasopoulos assures me I'm similar to others who have been tested - and so far, we seem to be validating his theory.

In order to assess the effect that trying to understand the Syntaflake language had on my brain, I took another test before and after the snowflake task. In these so-called flanker tasks, patterns of arrows appeared on the screen and I had to press the left or right button according to the direction of the arrow in the centre. Sometimes the surrounding pattern of arrows was confusing, so by the end of the first session my shoulders had been hunched somewhere near my ears and I was exhausted from concentrating. It's not a task in which practice improves performance (most people actually do worse second time round), but when I did the same test again after completing the snowflake task, I was significantly better at it, just as Athanasopoulos has predicted.

"Learning the new language improved your performance second time around," he explains. Relieved as I am to fit into the normal range, it's a curious result. How can that be?

The flanker tasks were exercises in cognitive conflict resolution - if most of the arrows were pointing to the left, my immediate impulse was to push the left button, but this wasn't the correct response if the central arrow was pointing right. I had to block out my impulse and heed the rule instead. Another example of cognitive conflict is a test in which the names of colours are written in different colours ("blue" written in red, for example). The aim is to say which colour each word is written in, but this is tricky, because we read the word much quicker than we process the colour of the letters. It requires considerable mental effort to ignore the impulse just to say the word we can't help but read.

The part of the brain that manages this supreme effort is known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), part of the "executive system". Located on the frontal lobe, it is a toolbox of mental attention skills that enables us to concentrate on one task while blocking out competing information, and allows us to switch focus between different tasks without becoming confused. It is the executive system that tells us to go when we see a green light and stop for a red, and it is the same system that tells us to ignore the meaning of the word we read but concentrate on the colour of the letters.

The snowflake test prepared my ACC for the second flanker task, just as speaking more than one language seems to train the executive system more generally. A steady stream of studies over the past decade has shown that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in a range of cognitive and social tasks from verbal and nonverbal tests to how well they can read other people. Greater empathy is thought to be because bilinguals are better at blocking out their own feelings and beliefs in order to concentrate on the other person's.

"Bilinguals perform these tasks much better than monolinguals - they are faster and more accurate," says Athanasopoulos. And that suggests their executive systems are different from monolinguals'.
Mental muscles
In fact, says cognitive neuropsychologist Jubin Abutalebi, at the University of San Raffaele in Milan, it is possible to distinguish bilingual people from monolinguals simply by looking at scans of their brains. "Bilingual people have significantly more grey matter than monolinguals in their anterior cingulate cortex, and that is because they are using it so much more often," he says. The ACC is like a cognitive muscle, he adds: the more you use it, the stronger, bigger and more flexible it gets.

Bilinguals, it turns out, exercise their executive control all the time because their two languages are constantly competing for attention. Brain-imaging studies show that when a bilingual person is speaking in one language, their ACC is continually suppressing the urge to use words and grammar from their other language. Not only that, but their mind is always making a judgement about when and how to use the target language. For example, bilinguals rarely get confused between languages, but they may introduce the odd word or sentence of the other language if the person they are talking to also knows it.

"My mother tongue is Polish but my wife is Spanish so I also speak Spanish, and we live in Edinburgh so we also speak English," says Thomas Bak. "When I am talking to my wife in English, I will sometimes use Spanish words, but I never accidentally use Polish. And when I am speaking to my wife's mother in Spanish, I never accidentally introduce English words because she doesn't understand them. It's not something I have to think about, it's automatic, but my executive system is working very hard to inhibit the other languages."

For bilinguals, with their exceptionally buff executive control, the flanker test is just a conscious version of what their brains do subconsciously all day long - it's no wonder they are good at it.

A superior ability to concentrate, solve problems and focus, better mental flexibility and multitasking skills are, of course, valuable in everyday life. But perhaps the most exciting benefit of bilingualism occurs in ageing, when executive function typically declines: bilingualism seems to protect against dementia.

Psycholinguist Ellen Bialystok made the surprising discovery at York University in Toronto while she was comparing an ageing population of monolinguals and bilinguals.

"The bilinguals showed symptoms of Alzheimer's some four to five years after monolinguals with the same disease pathology," she says.

Being bilingual didn't prevent people from getting dementia, but it delayed its effects, so in two people whose brains showed similar amounts of disease progression, the bilingual would show symptoms an average of five years after the monolingual. Bialystok thinks this is because bilingualism rewires the brain and improves the executive system, boosting people's "cognitive reserve". It means that as parts of the brain succumb to damage, bilinguals can compensate more because they have extra grey matter and alternative neural pathways.

"Bilinguals use their frontal processors for tasks that monolinguals don't and so these processors become reinforced and better in the frontal lobe. And this is used to compensate during degeneration of the middle parts of the brain," Bialystok explains. However, it is no good simply to have learned a little French at school. The effect depends on how often you use your bilingual skill. "The more you use it, the better," she says, "but there's no breaking point, it's a continuum."

Bilingualism can also offer protection after brain injury. In a recent study of 600 stroke survivors in India, Bak discovered that cognitive recovery was twice as likely for bilinguals as for monolinguals.

Such results suggest bilingualism helps keep us mentally fit. It may even be an advantage that evolution has positively selected for in our brains - an idea supported by the ease with which we learn new languages and flip between them, and by the pervasiveness of bilingualism throughout world history. Just as we need to do physical exercise to maintain the health of bodies that evolved for a physically active hunter-gatherer lifestyle, perhaps we ought to start doing more cognitive exercises to maintain our mental health, especially if we only speak one language.

In recent years, there has been a backlash against the studies showing benefits from bilingualism. Some researchers tried and failed to replicate some of the results; others questioned the benefits of improved executive function in everyday life. Bak wrote a rejoinder to the published criticisms, and says there is now overwhelming evidence from psychological experiments backed by imaging studies that bilingual and monolingual brains function differently. He says the detractors have made errors in their experimental methods.

Bialystok agrees, adding that it is impossible to examine whether bilingualism improves a child's school exam results because there are so many confounding factors. But, she says, "given that at the very least it makes no difference - and no study has ever shown it harms performance - considering the very many social and cultural benefits to knowing another language, bilingualism should be encouraged". As for the financial benefits, one estimate puts the value of knowing a second language at up to $128,000 over 40 years.

The result of my test in Athanasopoulos's lab suggests that just 45 minutes of trying to understand another language can improve cognitive function. His study is not yet complete, but other research has shown that these benefits of learning a language can be achieved quickly. The problem is, they disappear again unless they are used - and I am unlikely to use the made-up snowflake language ever again! Learning a new language is not the only way to improve executive function - playing video games, learning a musical instrument, even certain card games can help - but because we use language all the time, it's probably the best executive-function exerciser there is. So how can this knowledge be applied in practice?

One option is to teach children in different languages. In many parts of the world, this is already being done: many Indian children, for example, will use a different language in school from their mother or village tongue. But in English-speaking nations, it is rare. Nevertheless, there is a growing movement towards so-called immersion schooling, in which children are taught in another language half the time. The state of Utah has been pioneering the idea, with many of its schools now offering immersion in Mandarin Chinese or Spanish.

"We use a half-day model, so the target language is used to teach in the morning, and then English is used in the afternoon - then this is swapped on other days as some learn better in the morning and some in the afternoon," explains Gregg Roberts, who works with the Utah Office of State Education and has championed immersion language teaching in the state. "We have found that the kids do as well and generally better than monolingual counterparts in all subjects. They are better at concentrating, focusing and have a lot more self-esteem. Anytime you understand another language, you understand your language and culture better. It is economically and socially beneficial. We need to get over our affliction with monolingualism."

The immersion approach is being trialled in the UK now, too. At Bohunt secondary school in Liphook, Hampshire, head teacher Neil Strowger has introduced Chinese-language immersion for a few lessons.

I sit in on an art class with 12-year-olds being taught by two teachers: one speaking English, the other Chinese. The children are engaged but quiet, concentrating on the task of learning multiple ideas. When they speak it is often in Chinese - and there is something rather surreal about watching young people in the UK discussing British graffiti artist Banksy in Mandarin. The children say they chose to learn in Chinese because they thought it would be "fun" and "interesting" and "useful" - a far cry from the dreary French lessons I endured at school.

The majority of the art class will take their Chinese GCSE exams several years early but Strowger tells me the programme has had many benefits in addition to their grades, including improving students' engagement and enjoyment, increasing their awareness of other cultures so that they are equipped as global citizens, widening their horizons, and improving their job prospects.

What about those of us who have left school? In order to maintain the benefits of bilingualism, you need to use your languages and that can be tricky, especially for older people who may not have many opportunities to practise. Perhaps we need language clubs, where people can meet to speak other languages. Bak has done a small pilot study with elderly people learning Gaelic in Scotland and seen significant benefits after just one week. Now he aims to carry out a much larger trial.

It is never too late to learn another tongue, and it can be very rewarding. Alex Rawlings is a British professional polyglot who speaks 15 languages: "Each language gives you a whole new lifestyle, a whole new shade of meaning," he says. "It's addictive!"

"People say it's too hard as an adult. But I would say it's much easier after the age of eight. It takes three years for a baby to learn a language, but just months for an adult."

As the recent research shows, that's a worthwhile investment of time. Being bilingual could keep our minds working longer and better into old age, which could have a massive impact on how we school our children and treat older people. In the meantime, it makes sense to talk, hablar, parler, sprechen, beszel, berbicara in as many languages as you can.

--
This article first appeared on Mosaic and is republished here under a Creative Commons licence. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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Most people in the world speak more than one language, suggesting the human brain evolved to work in multiple tongues. If so, are those of us who speak only one language missing out?

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Easy reading and awsome information !

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Introduction

Young children are natural language acquirers; they are self-motivated to pick up language without conscious learning, unlike adolescents and adults. They have the ability to imitate pronunciation and work out the rules for themselves. Any idea that learning to talk in English is difficult does not occur to them unless it's suggested by adults, who themselves probably learned English academically at a later age through grammar-based text books.

Read the notes below about young children learning English as another language. You can also download these notes as a booklet. Right-click on the link below to download the booklet to your computer. You may print this booklet.

The advantages of beginning early

Young children are still using their individual, innate language-learning strategies to acquire their home language and soon find they can also use these strategies to pick up English.

Young children have time to learn through play-like activities. They pick up language by taking part in an activity shared with an adult. They firstly make sense of the activity and then get meaning from the adult's shared language.

Young children have more time to fit English into the daily programme. School programmes tend to be informal and children's minds are not yet cluttered with facts to be stored and tested. They may have little or no homework and are less stressed by having to achieve set standards.

Children who have the opportunity to pick up a second language while they are still young appear to use the same innate language-learning strategies throughout life when learning other languages. Picking up third, fourth, or even more languages is easier than picking up a second.

Young children who acquire language rather than consciously learn it, as older children and adults have to, are more likely to have better pronunciation and feel for the language and culture. When monolingual children reach puberty and become more self-conscious, their ability to pick up language diminishes and they feel they have to consciously study English through grammar-based programmes. The age at which this change occurs depends greatly on the individual child's developmental levels as well as the expectations of their society.

Stages in picking up English

Spoken language comes naturally before reading and writing.

Silent period
When babies learn their home language, there is a 'silent period', when they look and listen and communicate through facial expression or gestures before they begin to speak. When young children learn English, there may be a similar 'silent period' when communication and understanding may take place before they actually speak any English words.

During this time parents should not force children to take part in spoken dialogue by making them repeat words. Spoken dialogues should be one-sided, the adult's talk providing useful opportunities for the child to pick up language. Where the adult uses parentese (an adjusted form of speech) to facilitate learning, the child may use many of the same strategies they used in learning their home language.

Beginning to talk
After some time, depending on the frequency of English sessions, each child (girls often more quickly than boys) begins to say single words ('cat', 'house') or ready-made short phrases ('What's that?', 'It's my book', 'I can't', 'That's a car', 'Time to go home') in dialogues or as unexpected statements. The child has memorised them, imitating the pronunciation exactly without realising that some may consist of more than one word. This stage continues for some time as they child picks up more language using it as a short cut to dialogue before they are ready to create their own phrases.

Building up English language
Gradually children build up phrases consisting of a single memorised word to which they add words from their vocabulary ('a dog', 'a brown dog', 'a brown and black dog') or a single memorised language to which they add their own input ('That's my chair', 'Time to play'). Depending on the frequency of exposure to English and the quality of experience, children gradually begin to create whole sentences.

Understanding

Understanding is always greater than speaking and young children's ability to comprehend should not be underestimated, as they are used to understanding their home language from a variety of context clues. Though they may not understand everything they hear in their home language, children grasp the gist - that is they understand a few important words and decipher the rest using different clues to interpret the meaning. With encouragement they soon transfer their 'gist' understanding skills to interpret meaning in English.

Frustration

After the initial novelty of English sessions, some young children become frustrated by their inability to express their thoughts in English. Others want to speak quickly in English as they can in their home language. Frustration can often be overcome by providing children with 'performance' pieces like 'I can count to 12 in English' or very simple rhymes, which consist of ready-made phrases.

Mistakes

Children should not be told they have made a mistake because any correction immediately demotivates. Mistakes may be part of the process of working out grammar rules of English or they may be a fault in pronunciation. 'I goed' soon becomes 'went' if the child hears the adult repeat back 'yes, you went'; or if the adult hears 'zee bus' and repeats 'the bus'. As in learning their home language, if children have an opportunity to hear the adult repeat the same piece of language correctly, they will self-correct in their own time.

Gender differences

Boys' brains develop differently from girls' and this affects how boys pick up language and use it. Sometimes mixed classes make little provision for boys, who may be overshadowed by girls' natural ability to use language. If young boys are to reach their potential, they need some different language experiences with girls and their achievements should not be compared with those of girls.

Language-learning environments

Young children find it more difficult to pick up English if they are not provided with the right type of experiences, accompanied by adult support using 'parentese' techniques.

Young children need to feel secure and know that there is some obvious reason for using English.

Activities need to be linked to some interesting everyday activities about which they already know, eg sharing an English picture book, saying a rhyme in English, having an 'English' snack.

Activities are accompanied by adult language giving a running commentary about what is going on and dialogues using adjusted parentese language.

English sessions are fun and interesting, concentrating on concepts children have already understood in their home language. In this way children are not learning two things, a new concept as well as new language, but merely learning the English to talk about something they already know.

Activities are backed up by specific objects, where possible, as this helps understanding and increases general interest.

Reading

Children who can already read in their home language generally want to find out how to read in English. They already know how to decode words in their home language to get meaning from text and, if not helped to decode in English, may transfer their home language-decoding techniques and end up reading English with the home language accent.

Before they can decode English, young children need to know the 26 alphabet letter names and sounds. As English has 26 letters but on average 44 sounds (in standard English), introducing the remaining sounds is better left until children have more experience in using language and reading,

Beginning reading in English goes easily if young children already know the language they are trying to read. Many children work out by themselves how to read in English if they have shared picture books with adults or learned rhymes, as they are likely to have memorised the language. Reading what they know by heart is an important step in learning to read as it gives children opportunities to work out how to decode simple words by themselves. Once children have built up a bank of words they can read, they feel confident and are then ready for a more structured approach.

Parental support

Children need to feel that they are making progress. They need continual encouragement as well as praise for good performance, as any success motivates. Parents are in an ideal position to motivate and so help their children learn, even if they have only basic English themselves and are learning alongside their young children.

By sharing, parents can not only bring their child's language and activities into family life, but can also influence their young children's attitudes to language learning and other cultures. It is now generally accepted that most lifelong attitudes are formed by the age of eight or nine.

Further reading:

If you are interested in finding out more about how children learn languages we suggest the following websites:

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How young children learn English as another language

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Young children are natural language acquirers; they are self-motivated to pick up language without conscious learning, unlike adolescents and adults. They have the ability to imitate pronunciation and work out the rules for themselves.

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How language shapes our brains... and our lives

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How language shapes our brains... and our lives

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Language and communication are as vital as food and water. We communicate to exchange information, build relationships, and create art. In this Spotlight feature, we look at how language manifests in the brain, and how it shapes our daily lives.

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In this feature, we will take a look at the importance of language to our brains and life experiences.

We are all born within a language, so to speak, and that typically becomes our mother tongue.

Along the way, we may pick up one or more extra languages, which bring with them the potential to unlock different cultures and experiences.

Language is a complex topic, interwoven with issues of identity, rhetoric, and art.

As author Jhumpa Lahiri notes meditatively in the novel The Lowlands, "Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece - just different elements of belonging and not-belonging."

But when did our ancestors first develop spoken language, what are the brain's "language centers," and how does multilingualism impact our mental processes?

We will look at these questions, and more, in this Spotlight feature about language and the brain.

When did spoken language first emerge as a tool of communication, and how is it different from the way in which other animals communicate?

As Prof. Mark Pagel, at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, in a "question and answer" feature for BMC Biology, human language is quite a unique phenomenon in the animal kingdom.
While other animals do have their own codes for communication - to indicate, for instance, the presence of danger, a willingness to mate, or the presence of food - such communications are typically "repetitive instrumental acts" that lack a formal structure of the kind that humans use when they utter sentences.
By contrast, Prof. Pagel adds, human language has two distinctive characteristics. These are:

that it is "compositional," meaning that it "allows speakers to express thoughts in sentences comprising subjects, verbs, and objects"

that it is "referential," meaning that "speakers use it to exchange specific information with each other about people or objects and their locations or actions"

As Homo sapiens, we have the necessary biological tools to utter the complex constructions that constitute language, the vocal apparatus, and a brain structure complex and well-developed enough to create a varied vocabulary and strict sets of rules on how to use it.
Though it remains unclear at what point the ancestors of modern humans first started to develop spoken language, we know that our Homo sapiens predecessors emerged around 150,000-200,000 years ago. So, Prof. Pagel explains, complex speech is likely at least as old as that.
It is also likely that possessing spoken language has helped our ancestors survive and thrive in the face of natural hardships.

Partly thanks to their ability to communicate complex ideas, Prof. Pagel says, "humans can adapt at the cultural level, acquiring the knowledge and producing the tools, shelters, clothing, and other artefacts necessary for survival in diverse habitats."

"Possessing language, humans have had a high-fidelity code for transmitting detailed information down the generations. Many [...] of the things we make use of in our everyday lives rely on specialized knowledge or skills to produce."

Prof. Mark Pagel

But where, exactly, is language located in the brain? Research has identified two primary "language centers," which are both located on the left side of the brain.
These are Broca's area, tasked with directing the processes that lead to speech utterance, and Wernicke's area, whose main role is to "decode" speech.
If a person experienced a brain injury resulting in damage to one of these areas, it would impair their ability to speak and comprehend what is said.

However, additional research shows that learning more languages - and learning them well - has its own effect on the brain, boosting the size and activity of certain brain areas separate from the traditional "language centers."
A study led by researchers from Lund University in Sweden found that committed language students experienced growth in the hippocampus, a brain region associated with learning and spatial navigation, as well as in parts of the cerebral cortex, or the outmost layer of the brain.
Moreover, a study previously covered by Medical News Today found evidence to suggest that the more languages we learn, especially during childhood, the easier our brains find it to process and retain new information.

It seems that language-learning boosts brain cells' potential to form new connections fast.

In fact, researchers have drawn many connections between bilingualism or multilingualism and the maintenance of brain health.

Being able to speak more than one language has protective effects on cognitive functioning.

Multiple studies, for instance, have found that bilingualism can protect the brain against Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

In one such study, scientists from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, India, worked with a group of people with Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, or frontotemporal dementia.

The team noticed that in those who spoke a second language, dementia - referring to all three of the types that this study targeted - onset was delayed by as long as 4.5 years.

"[These findings] suggest that bilingualism might have a stronger influence on dementia than any currently available drugs."

Study co-author Thomas Bak

Another study, the findings of which appeared last year in the journal Neuropsychologia, also shed some light on why bilingualism might protect against cognitive decline.

The authors explain that this is is likely because speaking two languages helps develop the medial temporal lobes of the brain, which play a key role in forming new memories, and it increases both cortical thickness and the density of gray matter, which is largely made of neurons.

Being bilingual has other benefits, too, such as training the brain to process information efficiently while expending only the necessary resources on the tasks at hand.

Also, researchers from the Université de Montréal in Canada have found that "bilinguals become experts at selecting relevant information and ignoring information that can distract from a task," senior study author Prof. Ana Inés Ansaldo notes.

However, does switching between different languages also alter our experience of the world that surrounds us?

Journalist Flora Lewis once wrote, in an opinion piece for The New York Times titled "The Language Gap," that:

"Language is the way people think as well as the way they talk, the summation of a point of view. Its use reveals unwitting attitudes. People who use more than one language frequently find themselves having somewhat different patterns of thought and reaction as they shift."

Research now shows that her assessment was absolutely correct - the language that we use does change not only the way we think and express ourselves, but also how we perceive and interact with the world.

A study that appeared in the journal Psychological Science, for instance, has describe how bilingual speakers of English and German tend to perceive and describe a context differently based on the language in which they are immersed at that moment.

When speaking in German, the participants had a tendency to describe an action in relation to a goal. For example, "That person is walking toward that building."

To the contrary, when speaking in English, they would typically only mention the action: "That person is walking."

'Languages are living things'

Lera Broditsky, an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego - who specializes in the relationship between language, the brain, and a person's perception of the world - has also been reporting similar findings.

In a TED talk she gave in 2017, which you can watch below, Broditsky illustrated her argument about just how greatly the language we use impacts our understanding of the world.

As an example, she uses the case of the Kuuk Thaayorre, an Australian tribe that uses cardinal directions to describe everything.

"And when I say 'everything,' I really mean 'everything,'" she emphasized in her talk. "You would say something like, 'Oh, there's an ant on your southwest leg,' or, 'Move your cup to the north northeast a little bit,'" she explains.

This also means that when asked in which direction the time flows, they saw it in relation to cardinal directions. Thus, unlike Americans or Europeans - who typically describe time as flowing from left to right, the direction in which we read and write - they perceived it as running from east to west.

"The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is. Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000. [There are] 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And we can create many more. Languages [...] are living things, things that we can hone and change to suit our needs."

Lera Broditsky

Language holds such power over our minds, decision-making processes, and lives, so Broditsky concludes by encouraging us to consider how we might use it to shape the way we think about ourselves and the world.

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5 key facts about language and the brain

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Language and communication are as vital as food and water. We communicate to exchange information, build relationships, and create art. In this Spotlight feature, we look at how language manifests in the brain, and how it shapes our daily lives. We are all born within a language, so to speak, and that typically becomes our mother tongue.

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An extra reading for those who are insterested in neuroscience x language acquisition ;)

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A method for kids with special needs that was used to learn foreign languages in a healthy kid..

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When my grandfather Glenn Doman established his first rehabilitation center in 1955, I don't think he had any idea that an entire method of treating children with special needs would be named after him. However, as a young physical therapist, he created a paradigm shift in the treatment of these children - one that is still in use by thousands of parents and families today. His impact was so great that parents, who adored his contribution to the field, named his discoveries and work "The Doman Method".

Many people ask, "What is the Doman Method?" The Doman Method is a system of home-based programs carried out by families to help children with special needs develop. There are various important elements about the Doman Method which make it different from many mainstream therapies for children with special needs:

1. It is home-based

Instead of requiring daily or weekly trips to a therapist, the Doman Method is carried out at home. Families come to Doman International to get the knowledge and tools they need to do the programs at home, then go home to carry out the program, with remote support from Doman International's staff. Many parents return every six months to have their children re-assessed by Doman International's team, and to have a therapeutic program designed for their child.

2. It is integrative

The Doman Method is no single activity or program, it is an integrative system of programs. It involves physical programs to develop mobility and manual competence, intellectual programs to enhance cognitive function and speech, and physiological program to address nutrition, respiration, sleep, and other important areas of the body's function. It is only when all three of these areas (physiological, physical and intellectual) are addressed that a child can move on a pathway toward wellness.

3. It is holistic

The Doman Method is about natural, safe treatments that can help a child grow in a holistic way. No strong medications with dangerous side effects are prescribed. "Do no harm" is a mantra for the Doman International team.

4. It is parent-empowering

One important philosophy of Glenn Doman's teachings, which Doman International carries on today, is that parents and families make the best team of therapists a child can have. Empowering parents with knowledge and tools to help their children puts them in the driver's seat for their child's recovery.

5. It sets high goals

The goal for every child is complete wellness. Glenn Doman set this incredibly difficult goal, because any less of a goal limits a child's potential. The Doman International team does not believe in self-limiting beliefs. We set the bar high to get the best possible results for each and every child.

6. It is intense

One of the most common attacks on the Doman Method is that it is intense - this is true. However, in the world of children with special needs, intensity is needed to help the child improve quickly and to achieve the best results. The intensity is designed to maximize the child's development and progress. However, parents can attend the course, The Doman Method: From Special Needs to Wellness" and decide to proceed at an intensity of their choosing - each family is different and there is no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone. Parents can come to learn, then proceed at a speed that is comfortable for them.

7. It's flexible

Doman International focuses on a single goal - achieving the best possible results for children. The Doman Method continues changing and evolving with time. As new, more successful treatments to help children are found, they are added to the method, and others are retired. The problem with the word "method" is that it indicates a lack of change. Perhaps the "Doman Evolution" would be a better choice of words!

8. It's historic...and brand new:

Glenn Doman began his work in 1955, but his children and grandchildren continue his work. Five members of his family continue to carry the Doman Method forward at Doman International.

As I wrote above, there is no way my grandfather would have known more than sixty years ago that he was going to start a movement that would carry on his name. Now, hundreds of thousands of families later, the Doman Method has left a lasting impact on humanity. As the Doman Method evolves and grows with the Doman International team, we can only wonder what it will be six decades from now.

When my grandfather Glenn Doman established his first rehabilitation center in 1955, I don't think he had any idea that an entire method of treating children with special needs would be named after him. However, as a young physical therapist, he created a paradigm shift in the treatment of these children - one that is still in use by thousands of parents and families today. His impact was so great that parents, who adored his contribution to the field, named his discoveries and work "The Doman Method".

Many people ask, "What is the Doman Method?" The Doman Method is a system of home-based programs carried out by families to help children with special needs develop. There are various important elements about the Doman Method which make it different from many mainstream therapies for children with special needs:

1. It is home-based

Instead of requiring daily or weekly trips to a therapist, the Doman Method is carried out at home. Families come to Doman International to get the knowledge and tools they need to do the programs at home, then go home to carry out the program, with remote support from Doman International's staff. Many parents return every six months to have their children re-assessed by Doman International's team, and to have a therapeutic program designed for their child.

2. It is integrative

The Doman Method is no single activity or program, it is an integrative system of programs. It involves physical programs to develop mobility and manual competence, intellectual programs to enhance cognitive function and speech, and physiological program to address nutrition, respiration, sleep, and other important areas of the body's function. It is only when all three of these areas (physiological, physical and intellectual) are addressed that a child can move on a pathway toward wellness.

3. It is holistic

The Doman Method is about natural, safe treatments that can help a child grow in a holistic way. No strong medications with dangerous side effects are prescribed. "Do no harm" is a mantra for the Doman International team.

4. It is parent-empowering

One important philosophy of Glenn Doman's teachings, which Doman International carries on today, is that parents and families make the best team of therapists a child can have. Empowering parents with knowledge and tools to help their children puts them in the driver's seat for their child's recovery.

5. It sets high goals

The goal for every child is complete wellness. Glenn Doman set this incredibly difficult goal, because any less of a goal limits a child's potential. The Doman International team does not believe in self-limiting beliefs. We set the bar high to get the best possible results for each and every child.

6. It is intense

One of the most common attacks on the Doman Method is that it is intense - this is true. However, in the world of children with special needs, intensity is needed to help the child improve quickly and to achieve the best results. The intensity is designed to maximize the child's development and progress. However, parents can attend the course, The Doman Method: From Special Needs to Wellness" and decide to proceed at an intensity of their choosing - each family is different and there is no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone. Parents can come to learn, then proceed at a speed that is comfortable for them.

7. It's flexible

Doman International focuses on a single goal - achieving the best possible results for children. The Doman Method continues changing and evolving with time. As new, more successful treatments to help children are found, they are added to the method, and others are retired. The problem with the word "method" is that it indicates a lack of change. Perhaps the "Doman Evolution" would be a better choice of words!

8. It's historic...and brand new:

Glenn Doman began his work in 1955, but his children and grandchildren continue his work. Five members of his family continue to carry the Doman Method forward at Doman International.

As I wrote above, there is no way my grandfather would have known more than sixty years ago that he was going to start a movement that would carry on his name. Now, hundreds of thousands of families later, the Doman Method has left a lasting impact on humanity. As the Doman Method evolves and grows with the Doman International team, we can only wonder what it will be six decades from now.

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8 Fundamentals of the Doman Method - Doman International

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When my grandfather Glenn Doman established his first rehabilitation center in 1955, I don't think he had any idea that an entire method of treating children with special needs would be named after him.

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In "Ensinando seu filho em línguas estrangeiras", Tharles Oliveira explains how Glenn Doman method was used in Bella. It is fascinating how children may learn systems of several languages in such a natural way.

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The Brazilian Polyglot I O Poliglota Brasileiro

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Conheça a poliglota Bella Devyatkina (parte 2) I método Glenn Doman I métodos de ensino de leitura

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Something that really caught my attention in one of the classes we've had is Bella's ability to speak so many languages. Researching further information, I found this polyglot Brazilian youtuber who explains facts about her routine with her mom that worth watching..

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The Brazilian Polyglot I O Poliglota Brasileiro

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A história da mini poliglota Bella Devyatkina (parte 1)

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Focused and Diffuse

Imagine your brain like a paintball machine

Barbara Oakley explains here how this analogy work:

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This Course Video Transcript

This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We'll learn about the how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates ("chunks") information. We'll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects. Using these approaches, no matter what your skill levels in topics you would like to master, you can change your thinking and change your life. If you're already an expert, this peep under the mental hood will give you ideas for: turbocharging successful learning, including counter-intuitive test-taking tips and insights that will help you make the best use of your time on homework and problem sets. If you're struggling, you'll see a structured treasure trove of practical techniques that walk you through what you need to do to get on track. If you've ever wanted to become better at anything, this course will help serve as your guide. This course can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or prior to, its companion course, Mindshift. (Learning How to Learn is more learning focused, and Mindshift is more career focused.) To join the fully translated Portuguese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprender To join the fully translated Spanish version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprendiendo-a-aprender To join the fully translated Chinese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ruhe-xuexi To join the fully translated French version of the course, visit : http://www.coursera.org/learn/apprendre-comment-apprendre

View Syllabus

Skills You'll Learn

Test Preparation, Learning To Learn, Pomodoro Technique, Meta Learning

Although living brains are very complex, this module uses metaphor and analogy to help simplify matters. You will discover several fundamentally different modes of thinking, and how you can use these modes to improve your learning. You will also be introduced to a tool for tackling procrastination, be given some practical information about memory, and discover surprisingly useful insights about learning and sleep. <br><br>(Please note that this module should only take about an hour--the extra time quoted relates to purely optional activities.)

Taught By

Dr. Terrence Sejnowski

Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies

What do you do when you just can't figure something out? For zombies, it's pretty simple. They can just keep bashing their brains against the wall. But living brains are a lot more complex. It turns out, though, that if you understand just a little bit of some of the basics about how your brain works, you can learn more easily and be less frustrated. Researchers have found that we have two fundamentally different modes of thinking. Here, I'll call them the Focused and the Diffuse modes. We're familiar with focusing. It's when you concentrate intently on something you're trying to learn or to understand. But we're not so familiar with diffuse thinking. Turns out that this more relaxed thinking style is related to a set of neural resting states. We're going to use an analogy of the game of pinball to help us understand these two thinking modes. Incidentally, both metaphor and analogy are really helpful when you're trying to learn something new. If you remember, a pinball game works by, you pull back on the plunger, release it, and a ball goes boinking out, bouncing around on the rubber bumpers, and that's how you get points. So, here's your brain, with the ears right here, and the eyes looking upwards. And we can lay that pinball machine right down inside it. So, there you go. There's the analogy for the focused mode. The blue bumper bumpers here are placed very close to one another. See this orange pattern here towards the top? It represents a familiar thought pattern. Maybe involving something simple like adding some numbers, or more advanced ideas like literary criticism or calculating electromagnetic flows. You think a thought, boom, it takes off, moves smoothly along. And then, as it's bouncing around on the bumpers, you're able to figure out the problem you're trying to solve, or. The concept you're trying to understand that's related to something you're rather familiar with. So look at how that thought moves smoothly around on the fuzzy underlying orange neural pathway. In some sense it's as if it's traveling along a familiar, nicely paved road. But what if the problem you're working on needs new ideas or approaches? Concepts you haven't thought of before. That's symbolized here by this neural pattern towards the bottom of the pinball machine area. But if you haven't thought that thought before, you don't even know how that pattern feels or where it is. So how are you going to develop that new thought in the first place? Not only do you not know where the pattern is or what the pattern looks like, but see all the rubber bumpers that are blocking your access whatever direction you do decide to move in? To get to this new thought pattern, you need a different way of thinking. And that's represented here, by the diffuse mode. Look at how widely spaced the rubber bumpers are. Thought takes off, look at how it moves widely, bounces around. It could travel a long way before being interrupted by hitting a bumper. In this diffuse mode of thinking, you can look at things broadly from a very different, big-picture perspective. You can make new neural connections traveling along new pathways. You can't focus in as tightly as you often need to, to finalize any kind of problem solving. Or understand the finest aspects of a concept. But you can at least get to the initial place you need to be in to home in on a solution. Now as far as neuroscientists know right now, you're either in the focused mode or the diffuse mode of thinking. It seems you can't be in both thinking modes at the same time. It's kind of like a coin. We can see either one side, or the other side of the coin. But not both sides at the same time. Being in one mode seems to limit your access to the other mode's way of thinking. In our next video we're going to see how some extraordinary people access their diffuse ways of thinking to do great things. Thanks for learning about learning, I'm Barbara Oakley. [BLANK_AUDIO]

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Introduction to the Focused and Diffuse Modes - What is Learning? | Coursera

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This Course Video Transcript This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We'll learn about the how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates ("chunks") information.

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https://www.instagram.com/belladevyatkina_official/?hl=en

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Show «The Incredible people». Bella Devyatkina. Polyglot

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Kids learn more naturally and effortlessly while adults are more sistematic . Kids are more concerned about how to use it . They are more maleabre. Adults are more concerned on why do you use it. Adults are hardwired.

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Language acquisition or Language Learning?

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Language acquisition or Language Learning?

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- Influência dos pais e professores;
- Estímulos desde criança...

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- Test your students BEFORE they know something, then test them again AFTER the class;
- Test PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of the students;
- Find out what the students know and build on ...

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Cognitive Load Theory, How Do I Apply It?

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Brain lobes

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Early years

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Human brains are very wrinkled. One of the reasons our brains have wrinkles it that it had to fit inside the skull.

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- Language is ALIVE, ENVOLVED, ADAPTED...
- Vigotsky said: Language is the TOOL of the TOOLS...
- Language is all over the brain!
- Language made us more sociable.

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Super cool information

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Why do we have to go to school, really?

Sir Ken Robinson likes to poke fun at schooling (and with reason), but there is a very good reason why we all MUST go to school - and It has everything to do with how 16 billion cortical neurons give us human capabilities, but not abilities. Watch Suzana Herculano-Houzel's recent talk at TEDxNashville to find out.

To unlock the Brain's mysteries, purée it

Science journalist Ferris Jabr visited the lab early in 2017 and wrote a piece for the New York Times Magazine on how turning brains into soup can actually be a great way to find out about what brains are made of.

It's here! (now in paperback)

Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies, use 25% of all the energy the body requires each day, and became enormous in hardly any time in evolution, leaving our cousins, the great apes, behind. So the human brain is special, right?

Wrong: according to the evidence uncovered by the author, humans have developed cognitive abilities that outstrip those of all other animals because we have a brain built in the image of other primate brains that managed to gather the largest number of neurons in the cerebral cortex due to a technological innovation that allowed a larger caloric intake in less time: cooking.

This book also explains how to turn brains into soup, transport brains through customs, do science with very little money...

Brain size varies by over 100,000 times - and that's across mammals alone. How does diversity in brain size come about in evolution? Are there any regularities across species, that is, characteristics that are shared by all mammalian brains, whatever their size or the species to which they belong? Conversely, are there characteristics that are particular to some mammalian groups, but not others? What are the rules that govern how brains are built?

At the Laboratory of Comparative Neuroanatomy we use quantitative morphological approaches to investigate the diversity of the nervous system across animals,its evolution and developmental origins.

Most of our studies apply the Isotropic Fractionator, a non-stereological method developed in the lab in 2005 that allows the fast, simple and reliable determination of numbers of neuronal and non-neuronal cells in any dissectable brain structure, and has been shown to be as reliable as stereology.

Here's Suzana Herculano-Houzel's talk at TEDGlobal 2013 about how the human brain is remarkable - but not special, compared to others:

A recent interview on TED Radio Hour aired on February 20th, 2015, can be found on NPR.org (skip directly to Suzana's interview here) or downloaded as a podcast here.

And here are some of our main findings so far:

Not all brains are created equal

Brain size can no longer be considered a proxy for numbers of neurons in the brain across species, contrary to what has been common practice so far under the assumption that different brains followed the same scaling rules (reviewed in Herculano-Houzel, 2011, 2011, 2012 and Herculano-Houzel et al., 2014). By comparing rodents, more rodents, primates, more primates, insectivores, afrotherians (including the elephant) and artiodactyls, we have been able to infer the ancestral neuronal scaling rules - that is, those that applied to the original mammals - and to deduce the changes that led to how the brain is put together in the different lineages, reviewed here. In contrast, the relationship between brain structure size and number of other cells (glial and endothelial cells) is shared across all orders and brain structures analyzed so far.

The human brain is not special

The human brain is remarkable, yes - but turns out not to be special, at least not in its number of neurons, compared to other primates, and also not in its size, as long as great apes are left out of the comparison (and great apes, by the way, also have just as many neurons as a generic primate of their brain size would have). The usual way to phrase that comparison is by stating that the human brain is larger than expected for its body size. The reasoning here is that if humans are smaller than great apes, then our brain should be smaller than theirs. But the argument can be turned around: If great apes are larger than humans, why don't THEY have larger brains than we do?

The metabolic cost of being human - and how cooking got us here

The human brain costs about 500 kCal per day, which is 20-25% of the energy consumed by the entire body. We have shown, however, that this seemingly extraordinary metabolic cost is actually just the expected amount of calories for the number of neurons in the human brain, given our finding that the metabolic cost of a brain is a simple linear function of its number of neurons, irrespective of brain size, at an average cost of 6 kCal per billion neurons per day.

The large metabolic cost of neurons shines new light on the humans vs. great apes paradox: We propose that great apes cannot afford a brain that is any bigger than it already is, due to a metabolic limitation imposed by their diet, which doesn't offer enough calories to support both a huge body and the huge number of neurons that a larger brain would have. This metabolic limitation must also have applied to our ancestors, who we propose that were also limited by their diet to having about the same number of neurons that modern great apes have. We suggest that the evolution of modern humans, with the very fast increase in brain size in less than 2 million years since Homo erectus, was made possible by the invention of cooking, which made more calories available in less time per day, thus allowing large brains to go from being a major liability to being a major asset, subject to strong positive selection in evolution.

Larger brains for larger bodies?

Larger species tend to have larger brains - though brain size increases at a smaller rate than body size, as power functions of exponents between 0.6 and 1.0 across species of different orders. It is usually assumed that the relationship is due to a requirement of larger bodies for more neurons to operate them. However, we have found that while larger primates do have more neurons in the spinal cord, the rate at which these neurons become more numerous is small, with an exponent of only 0.3. Likewise, the number of facial motor neurons increases very slowly with body size, with an exponent of only 0.2, across marsupials and primates alike. In the crocodile, which has continued growth through life, the increase in body mass is similarly accompanied by only a very small rate of increase in brain mass. These findings, together with the very small number of neurons found in the spinal cord and brainstem in comparison to the brain, suggest that while larger bodies do tend to require more neurons, the pressure for more neurons is very small and explains only a small part of the increase in brain mass or number of neurons across species. Hence our proposition that body mass is actually not that relevant and should not be used as a normalizing parameter in comparative studies.

Dogmas that are no more

Examining some of the most basic issues in neuroanatomy have allowed us to overthrow dogmas that have been repeated in textbooks and in the news far too often, with no experimental basis until then:
- The human brain does not have 100 billion neurons (which we believe was meant to be simply an estimate of order of magnitude, and not as an actual count), but an average of 86 billion neurons;
- there are not 10 times more glial cells than neurons in the human brain, but at most 1 glial cell to every neuron in the whole brain;
- The ratio of glial cells to neurons does not increase with brain size, but rather with decreasing neuronal density (and thus presumably with increasing average neuronal size);
- The percentage of neurons in the cerebral cortex that are connected through the white matter, which had been considered to be constant across species, actually decreases across primate species of increasing brain size (but does remain fairly stable across rodents of larger brain size);
- The number of neurons underneath a mm2 of cortical surface is not uniform across primate nor rodent species, nor across the surface of a single cortex, be it mouse or human;
- As a consequence, the number of neurons in the cortex of a species is not a simple function of its surface area, and the degree of gyrification is neither a function of number of neurons nor of surface area, within the human cerebral cortex or across species. Rather, we propose that cortical folding occurs as the expanding cortex settles into the most stable conformation, that is, the one of least effective free energy, depending simply on the combination of its total surface area and average thickness;
- This means that cortical folding can no longer be considered a means to allow larger numbers of neurons to fit in the cortex, nor the result of expanding numbers of neurons;
- Contrary to the former notion that neurogenesis is over by birth, so that all neurons found in adult cortex are already present at birth, we found that there actually is massive cortical neurogenesis in the rat after birth - and throughout the brain;
- Cortical expansion, which has been equated with "brain evolution", whereby the relative size of the cerebral cortex increases while the relative size of the cerebellum remains fairly constant, is not accompanied by an expansion of the relative number of cortical neurons. Rather, the cerebral cortex and cerebellum gain neurons coordinately across species, humans included, despite the faster increase in cerebral cortical size;
- Primates are not the only species to undergo a faster addition of neurons to the cerebral cortex and cerebellum than to the rest of brain; artiodactyls also show this pattern.

Totally unexpected findings

Once we had enough data on the numbers of neurons and other cells that compose different brains, unexpected findings started to turn out, against our expectations:
- What makes the cerebral cortex fold? It is not increasing numbers of neurons, but deformation that allows it to settle into the (folded) conformation of least effective free energy, depending simply on the combination of total surface area and cortical thickness. Even more unexpected: the variation in the degree of folding behaves in exactly the same way as crumpled sheets of paper. You can reproduce Figure 2 of our Science paper in your own home, with just a stack of office paper and a ruler!
- If larger brains across species of a same order have more neurons, do larger brains across individuals of a same species also have more neurons? As it turns out, not at all - which means that the evolution of species with larger brains cannot be explained simply as the result of selection for individuals that have more neurons and larger brains along a continuum.
- While there is a tremendous amount of variability in neuronal cell size across species and structures, it turns out that the neuronal mass fraction of any brain structure is always close to 2/3, while non-neuronal cells occupy the other 1/3 of the mass of the structure. That's right: this means that if any brain, any brain structure, were passed through a magic sieve that separated neurons to one side and all other cells to the other side, the pile of neurons would always have about 2x the mass of the pile of other cells. This seems to be one of the most basic features of the mammalian brain, and we propose that it results from the very conserved mechanism through which glial cells are added to the tissue.

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Suzana Herculano-Houzel - Laboratory of Comparative Neuroanatomy

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Sir Ken Robinson likes to poke fun at schooling (and with reason), but there is a very good reason why we all MUST go to school - and It has everything to do with how 16 billion cortical neurons give us human capabilities, but not abilities.