How learning a Foreign Language can improve your Cognitive Skills.

You may have come across numerous articles on the net telling you about this topic. Stressing the fact that one should learn a foreign language, that it's good for your brain, you gain a skill for life so on and so forth. But seldom do they rarely talk about exactly what are Cognitive Skills.

We have gone through a step-by-step guide as to how anyone can learn a Foreign Language in our previous article. If you haven't checked it out yet, then make sure to give it a read later.

Click here if you want to know more about how to learn a Foreign Language.

Now coming back to the question that we will try to solve here. Why one should learn a Foreign Language? In what way does it improve my cognitive skills?

First things first, what exactly are Cognitive Skills?

Cognitive Skills are directly linked to how your brain processes information given to it. These are essentially core skills that your brain uses to read, learn, think, remember, reason, pay attention, come to a conclusion, etc.

These are quite frankly the most used and also the most important functions that your brain uses in your day-to-day life. For a growing child, learning by association, logical reasoning, paying attention, hearing, watching, and thinking are all cognitive skills that start developing at a very early stage of their lives.

Below is the list of Cognitive Skills or Functions and we will look at how Learning a foreign language affects each one in a positive way.

Attention:

When you learn any Foreign Language, the first things you learn are the words or the Vocabulary, since all of it is new it requires a more focused learning approach to fully comprehend their meaning. Of course, it becomes a bit easier when you have an Image associated with it. That is where Attention comes into the picture.

Attention can be categorized into three types

1. Sustained: Sustained Attention helps towards learning exactly that word along with the image that is presented to them. This makes it easy for them to learn.

2. Selective: As you start to master the language, Selective attention then takes over where even with other distractions you can still focus on the task at hand.

3. Divided: Finally, Divided attention is at the peak of the learning curve where the ability to multitask becomes quite apparent in your quest to learn a Foreign Language

Memory:

Memory is a core cognitive skill that helps to store known information in our brain for faster recall when the occasion calls for it. It is helpful to remember or retain information from the past. We tend to memorize a lot of information that is fed to us and language learning is no different.

Memory can be further divided into the following and we will look at how both are essential in learning a Foreign Language

1. Long-Term Memory: Usually these are difficult-to-understand terms or words that cannot be recalled immediately through Short-Term Memory. Usually, these are information that is retained from the past when the words or vocabulary were first learned or ingrained in our brain for the first time while learning the Foreign Language

2. Short-Term Memory or Working Memory: This memory is utilized when recalling terms while we are using it for eg writing the meaning of a word by seeing the image that words denote.

Logic and Reasoning

Logic and Reasoning are best utilized when we have come up with a solution to a problem or during brainstorming. It is human nature to come up with different ways to solve problems. Often it is required for you to arrive at a solution to actually stop and think outside the box. While learning a Foreign Language, you use logic while conversing.

Below is an example of how one can convey a message or say a sentence in one way but logic tells you that it's best to use the other sentence as it fits the tone of the conversation better.

The example given below is in French.

Let's say you are with a friend and have been walking with him/her for about 2 km in search of a restaurant.

You can say "I am tired" in the following way

Je suis fatigue.

This is a perfectly normal thing to say while conversing however it is quite formal. The tone required is Informal and not Formal

Instead, you can say

a. Je suis creve

b. Je suis claque

c. Je suis mort

Auditory Processing:

As the name suggests, Auditory Processing is how your brain perceives different sounds that you hear from your ear. The brain dissects and segments the sounds coming in so that you can comprehend and understand them better.

Best utilized again while listening to someone talk to you in a Foreign Language. In fact one of the most essential cognitive skills.

Visual Processing:

An ability to interpret images, pictures, or visuals is what we call Visual Processing. Like your brain perceives different sounds, it also perceives what your eyes can see.

The best way to understand is learning by association especially when we are just beginning to learn a Foreign Language. By having a mental map in our mind about the image and the word that it associates it becomes easy for us to recall the word when called up later thereby making it far easier to learn the language.

We at The Cultured Linguist have just the thing for you to learn by associating pictures with a word in a foreign language. They are called Flashcards.

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Bottomline:

When you are learning a Foreign Language, it becomes imperative for you to use your cognitive skills. In fact, these are used involuntarily by you while learning. A Foreign Language only elevates the Cognitive Skills, training you to handle and do other tasks better.

So what are you waiting for? Learn a Foreign Language today. Send us an email at theculturedlinguist@gmail.com or WhatsApp us at +917738763355.

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