TED演讲：如何培养双语思维？

Naja Ferjan Ramirez是婴幼儿语言脑力开发的研究者，她在演讲中解释了为什么婴儿完全有同时学习两门语言的潜能，以及双语环境对于建立双语大脑思维的好处与影响，值得一看！

Naja Ferjan Ramirez

华盛顿大学语言学助理教授，双语脑科学研究员，研究重点是了解不同背景的幼儿在语言和大脑发育方面的差异程度和来源

TED视频TED演讲稿How many of you can speak two languages? Most of you can; we are in Europe after all.
你们中有多少人会说两种语言?大多数人都可以；我们毕竟是在欧洲。
Now let me ask you this: how many of you would say that you are completely fluent in two languages so that you could take a job or dream in either one of them? Not as many. Why is that? 问大家一个问题：你们当中有多少人会说你完全精通两门语言，可以通过其中任何一门语言找到工作或实现梦想? 不是很多。为什么?I think we can all agree that being fluent in two languages is a good thing. It creates additional job prospects, it allows us to talk to more people. It also has been linked to several cognitive and social advantages and it delays the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.我想我们都同意能流利地掌握两种语言是一件好事。它创造了更多的就业机会，让我们可以和更多的人交流。它还与一些认知和社会优势有关，并能延缓阿尔茨海默病的发病。
So why are we not all fluent bilinguals? Those of us who studied foreign languages in school probably remember how hard it was and how much we struggled. I’m certainly speaking from experience here. 那么，为什么我们不都是流利的双语者呢?我们这些在学校里学过外语的人可能还记得那有多艰难，我们有多挣扎。我讲的就是当时的经历。I started learning English when I was about 10 years old in school right here in Ljubljana, and about nine years later, when I went to study in the United States, I thought my English was pretty good. I was able to do my homework just fine. 我10岁的时候就开始学习英语了，那时我在卢布尔雅那上学，大约9年后，当我去美国学习时，我认为我的英语已经很好了。我能很好地完成我的家庭作业。But I also remember eating dinner with my college friends and not being able to follow their conversations. Or going on my first date in America and only understanding about half of what the guy was telling me.但是我记得，当和大学朋友们一起吃晚饭时，我没能跟上他们的谈话。我在美国的第一次约会，只听懂了对方一半的话。
Now I’m sure many of you have your own stories about foreign language learning. But there’s one thing that most of these stories have in common: foreign language learning is hard. 我相信你们很多人都有自己的外语学习经历。但这些故事有一个共同点:外语学习是困难的。It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and it seems that no matter how hard we try, we rarely achieve native-like fluency. Even in those cases, when we have been using our foreign language for years we still maintain that for an accident.需要花费大量的时间和精力，而且无论我们怎么努力，我们都很少能达到母语的流利程度。即使在这种情况下，当我们已经使用外语很多年了，我们仍然会出错。
Does it have to be this hard? I don’t think it does. What I’ll tell you today is that the human brain is fully capable of achieving native fluency in two languages at the same time, and that we don’t necessarily have to struggle to get there.真有这么难吗?我不这么认为。今天我要告诉你们的是，人类的大脑完全有能力同时流利地掌握两种语言，我们不必为达到这一目标而苦苦挣扎。
So what is it that we have to do to create bilingual minds? I think a very promising start is to study the brains of those who are really really good at language learning: babies. 那么，我们需要做些什么来培养双语思维呢?我认为一个很有希望的开始是研究那些非常擅长语言学习的人的大脑:婴儿。Babies are linguistic geniuses and all over the world babies learn their native languages naturally and spontaneously without anybody actually teaching them how to do this. 婴儿是语言天才，世界各地的婴儿能自然、自发地学习他们的母语，没有人教他们怎么做。But this gets even better. Those babies who have a chance to listen to and interact in two languages learn both and they can become native speakers of both. You and I can’t do that, and computers can’t do that either.更棒的是，有机会用两种语言听和交流的婴儿可以同时学习两种语言，并成为这两种语言的母语使用者。你我都做不到，电脑也做不到。
So why and how are babies so good at language learning? I’m a researcher at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, I-LABS for short. And I study the brain processing of language in babies between 0 and 3 years of age. I focus specifically on those babies who are learning two languages at the same time: bilingual babies.为什么婴儿如此擅长语言学习呢?我是华盛顿大学学习与脑科学研究所的研究员，简称I- labs。我研究0到3岁婴儿的大脑语言处理。我特别关注那些同时学习两种语言的双语婴儿。
The approach that we take to study the baby brain is called magnetoencephalography, MEG for short. We call it the ‘hair dryer from Mars’ but it’s important to understand that this machine is actually completely safe, non-invasive and completely silent. So pretty baby friendly. 我们研究婴儿大脑的方法叫做脑磁图，简称MEG。我们称它为“来自火星的吹风机”，但重要的是要了解这台机器实际上是完全安全的，非侵入性的，完全无声的。对婴儿十分友好。We use magnetoencephalography to study the baby brains and the MEG machine that we have at our Institute is actually one of the few in the world that’s configured specifically for babies. We also have a team of trained research assistants whose job is to keep the babies happy and entertained when we study their brains.我们用脑磁图来研究婴儿的大脑，我们研究所的脑磁图仪是世界上为数不多的专门为婴儿设计的机器之一。我们还有一个训练有素的研究助理团队，他们的工作是在我们研究婴儿的大脑时，让他们保持快乐和愉悦。
One question that we recently studied with MEG was: What goes on in the brains of those babies who grow up in households where two languages are spoken at the same time by native speakers? If we look at these babies’ brains before the babies even begin to talk. Are they different from those of babies who listened to a single language? Here’s how we tested this — these questions.我们最近使用脑磁图研究的一个问题是:在母语人士同时说两种语言的家庭中长大的婴儿，他们的大脑里发生了什么?如果我们在婴儿开始说话前观察他们的大脑，他们和那些只听一种语言的婴儿有什么不同吗? 我们是这样测试这些问题的。
We brought the babies into the lab, half of them were from bilingual families where one parent was a native speaker of Spanish and the other one was a native speaker of English. The other half of the babies were from families were both parents were native English speakers, so English was the only language spoken in the household. 我们把婴儿带进实验室，他们中的一半来自双语家庭，其中一个父母的母语是西班牙语，另一个父母的母语是英语。另一半婴儿的父母都以英语为母语，所以英语是家里唯一使用的语言。Then to prepare the babies for MEG, we used the special digitizing pen and a head. And what this procedure allows us to do is to track the shape of the baby’s head so that we can then continuously monitor the baby’s emotions when the head is in the MEG helmet. We then brought the babies into the MEG room where they sat on a special highchair, the head goes right into the MEG helmet and the parents sit right next to them when we look at their brains.我们使用了特殊的数码笔和头盔，准备给婴儿做脑磁图。带上头盔后，这个程序能让我们追踪婴儿头部的形状，这样我们就可以持续监控婴儿的情绪。然后我们把婴儿带进脑磁图室，他们坐在一张特制的高脚椅上，头部直接进入脑磁图头盔，当我们观察他们的大脑时，他们的父母就坐在他们旁边。
During the MEG studies, the babies typically listened to the sounds of language; in this case, the sounds came from Spanish and English. So let’s take a listen to see what that sounded like. 在脑磁图的研究中，婴儿通常会听到语言的声音;在这种情况下，声音来自西班牙语和英语。让我们来听一听。
[Sounds]  Some of these sounds are specific to English, some are specific to Spanish and some are common to both languages. All babies in these studies were exactly 11 months old. This is typically right around the time when babies begin to produce their first words but they’re not really speaking yet.[播放声音]  这些声音有些是英语特有的，有些是西班牙语特有的，有些是两种语言共有的。这些研究中的所有婴儿都正好11个月大。这通常是在婴儿说出第一个单词，但还没有真正开口说话的年龄。
So what did we find? What we found was that the brains of monolingual babies were specialized to process the sounds of English, their native language, and were not specialized to process the sounds of Spanish, the language to which these babies were not exposed.我们发现了什么?我们发现，单语婴儿的大脑会处理母语英语的声音，而不会处理西班牙语的声音，这些婴儿没有接触过西班牙语。
What about the brains of bilingual babies? Well, as it turns out, the brains of bilingual babies were specialized to process the sounds of both languages: Spanish and English.双语宝宝的大脑呢? 双语宝宝的大脑能处理两种语言的声音：西班牙语和英语。
So what does this mean and why am I so excited about this? What this means is that the baby brain specializes to process whatever language or languages are present in the environment. The brains of those babies who listened to one language specialized to process one language but the brains of those babies who listened to two languages specialized to process two.这意味着什么?为什么我对此如此兴奋?这意味着婴儿的大脑能够处理环境中出现的任何语言。听一种语言的婴儿的大脑能处理一种语言，而听两种语言的婴儿的大脑能处理两种语言。
There is one more finding in this study that I’d like to tell you about. There’s a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. It’s highlighted in green in this schematic that you can see. But it’s right here in the very front of your brain. 在这项研究中还有一个发现，我想告诉你们。大脑有一部分叫做前额叶皮层。在这张示意图中，你可以看到它是用绿色高亮显示的。它就在你大脑的最前面。And we use this part of the brain to direct our attention, to switch back and forth between doing different tasks and to think flexibly. I think we can all agree that these are extremely important tasks to do in the 21st century.我们用这部分大脑来引导我们的注意力，在不同的任务之间来回切换，灵活地思考。我想我们都同意，这些都是21世纪极为重要的任务。
We were curious to see how the two groups of babies compared in terms of their brain activity in these prefrontal areas. Interestingly, what we found was that the bilingual babies had stronger brain activity, stronger brain responses to language sounds, specifically in these prefrontal regions. 我们很好奇，想看看这两组婴儿前额叶皮层的大脑活动是否不同。有趣的是，我们发现会说两种语言的婴儿有更强的大脑活动，大脑对语言声音的反应更强，尤其是在这些前额叶区域。Now why would that be? One explanation is that the constant switching, back and forth between two different languages provides exercise for the brain, that it strengthens these brain networks that participate in attention switching. And that this provides a cognitive boost to the bilinguals.为什么会这样呢?一种解释是，在两种不同语言之间的不断切换为大脑提供了锻炼，它加强了参与注意力切换的大脑网络。这为双语者提供了认知上的提升。
Many other studies have actually shown that bilingual children but also bilingual adults have advantages when it comes to tasks that require cognitive flexibility. But what’s particularly intriguing here is that we see brain differences specifically in these areas that are related to flexible thinking at 11 months of age before these babies are even speaking.其他许多研究也表明，双语儿童和双语成年人在处理需要认知灵活性的任务时都有优势。但这里特别有趣的是，我们发现这些区域的大脑差异与11个月大的婴儿甚至还不会说话时的灵活思维有关。
So our studies have shown that the baby brain is fully capable of specializing in two languages at the same time. And that there are possibly some additional advantages that come along with this for free. 因此，我们的研究表明，婴儿的大脑完全有能力同时专注于两种语言。这可能会带来一些额外的好处。So given these findings you may be wondering: why are we not raising all babies to be bilingual? There has to be a disadvantage here that I’m not telling you about. Some people think so.鉴于这些发现，你可能会想:为什么我们不能把所有的婴儿都培养成双语呢?这里有一个缺点，我没告诉你， 有些人这样认为。
One common concern is that bilingualism slows language learning down, that it makes it slower. Research doesn’t actually support this. Instead, what studies have shown is that if we consider the patterns in bilingual learning, they’re actually very very similar to what we see in monolingual learning. 人们普遍担心的是，双语会减慢语言学习的速度，让学习变得更慢。研究并不支持这一点。相反，研究表明，如果我们考虑双语学习的模式，它们实际上非常非常类似于我们在单语学习中看到的模式。For example, bilingual babies start producing their first sounds as well as their first words at the same age as monolingual babies. We also know that if we give bilingual children credit for each word that they know across their two languages, their vocabularies are of the same size, if not bigger than those of monolingual babies.例如，双语宝宝和单语宝宝在相同的年龄开始发出他们的第一个声音和第一个单词。我们还知道，如果我们把双语儿童在两种语言中认识的每个单词都纳入记录，那么他们的词汇量即使不比单语婴儿的词汇量大，也是一样大的。
Another common concern is that bilingualism causes confusion. This concern arises from the fact that bilinguals sometimes combine their two languages in the same sentence or in the same situation. This is called code-switching or code mixing.另一个普遍的担忧是双语会引起混淆。双语者有时会把两种语言结合在同一个句子或同一个情境里。这被称为代码转换或代码混合。
So does code-switching or code-mixing indicate confusion? Science suggests that it does not. Most bilinguals code-switch and my family is not an exception. 那么，代码转换或代码混合是否意味着混乱呢?科学表明事实并非如此。大多数双语者都会转换语码，我的家人也不例外。In my family we actually speak three languages, and sometimes we hear sentences from our children that combine all three: Slovene, Spanish and English. Does this mean that our children are confused? I don’t think it does.在我家，我们实际上讲三种语言，有时我们从孩子那里听到的句子是把这三种语言结合在一起:斯洛文尼亚语、西班牙语和英语。这是否意味着我们的孩子会迷惑?我不这么认为。
So let me give you an example to demonstrate why this is the case. My four-year-old will sometimes say sentences like ‘Mom, is daddy [v tuš]? This means mom, is daddy in the shower? Now why does he say sentences like this? There are a few reasons.让我举个例子。我4岁的儿子有时会说出这样的句子：“妈妈,爸爸[v tuš]吗?” 意思是：妈妈，爸爸在洗澡吗?为什么他会说这样的句子?有几个原因。
The first one is that he can. Bilinguals, unlike monolinguals, have another language from which they can easily borrow words and they sometimes do this because they know words from one language sometimes better than they do in the other. So, for example, my son probably knows the word shower better in Slovene than he does in English. So he uses it because it’s easier.第一个是他可以。双语者，不像单语者，他们有另一种语言，他们可以很容易地从另一种语言中借用单词，有时他们这么做是因为他们对一种语言的单词的了解有时比另一种语言的要好。例如，洗澡这个词，比起英语，我儿子可能更熟悉斯洛文尼亚语中表达这个意思的词。他用它是因为它更简单。
The second reason he uses sentences like this is that he knows I will understand him. He rarely uses Slovene words in his preschool because he knows that his teachers and his friends will have no idea what he’s talking about. 他使用这样的句子的第二个原因是他知道我会理解他。他在学前班很少使用斯洛文尼亚语，因为他知道他的老师和朋友们根本不知道他在说什么。Bilingual children typically know very very well when they can and can’t mix their languages and studies have shown that even two-year-olds will adapt their language to match that of their conversational partner.双语儿童通常非常清楚自己何时能够、何时不能混合使用自己的语言，研究表明，即使是两岁大的孩子也会调整自己的语言，以适应他们的对话伙伴。
There’s one final point about code-mixing that I’d like to make. Even though it’s called mixing, it’s not just randomly mixing together words from different languages. It follows grammatical rules. 关于代码混合还有最后一点我想提一下。即使它被称为混合，它也不是把不同语言的单词随机混合在一起。它遵循语法规则。I rarely hear sentences such as, ‘Mom, is daddy [v tuš]? Now those of us who are fluent speakers of Slovene and English will know that I can say, ‘Daddy goes [v tuš]’ but ‘daddy is [v tuš]’ doesn’t work. It has to be [v tuš an]. This is because the verb ‘v’ indicates a state and in Slovene it requires a different case than the verb ‘go’ which indicates motion. This is complicated, right?我很少听到这样的句子,如“Mom, is daddy [v tuš]? “  和我们一样能熟练使用斯洛文尼亚语和英文的人会知道，我可以说,“Daddy goes [v tuš] 但‘daddy is [v tuš]’ 是行不通的。它必须是 [v tuš an]。这是因为动词“v”表示一种状态，而在斯洛文尼亚语中，动词“go”表示动作。这很复杂，对吧?
The point is this: code-mixing is not easy. It requires a lot of linguistic knowledge in both languages as well as then being able to figure out how to combine this knowledge in a meaningful way. 重点是:代码混合并不容易。它需要大量的两种语言的知识，以及能够找出如何以一种有意义的方式组合这些知识。So rather than indicating confusion, code-mixing is actually a sign of linguistic sophistication. It’s also perfectly normal and expected behavior that we see in bilingual children but also in bilingual adults who are fully fluent in both languages.因此，代码混合实际上是语言复杂性的一个标志，而不是表示混淆。这也是我们在双语儿童身上看到的完全正常和预期的行为，也存在于完全精通两种语言的成年人身上。
So bilingualism does not cause confusion, it also does not slow language-learning down. In fact, science suggests that there are many advantages. And the demand on bilingual education is actually increasing in the United States as well as worldwide.因此，双语不会造成困惑，也不会减慢语言学习的速度。事实上，科学表明这样做有很多好处。事实上，美国和世界各地对双语教育的需求都在增长。People are also beginning to realize that starting from an early age may be the best solution because we know that at birth the human brain is just as capable of learning two languages as it is to learn one.人们也开始意识到，从小就开始可能是最好的解决办法，因为我们知道，人类的大脑在出生时学习两种语言的能力和学习一种语言的能力是一样的。
So what should we do? How can we provide all babies with an opportunity to learn two languages from a very young age? In families like mine, the answer is straightforward because parents are native speakers of languages that are different from what the child hears outside of the home.我们应该怎么做呢?我们怎样才能让所有的婴儿在很小的时候就有机会学习两种语言呢?在像我这样的家庭里，答案很简单，因为父母的母语和孩子在外面听到的语言不同。
But what about everybody else? As a child language development specialist, I often hear from parents who are eager to provide their baby with an opportunity to learn another language but they’re not native speakers of that language and they can’t afford to hire a nanny who is a native speaker of that language.但是其他人呢?作为一名儿童语言发展专家，我经常听到一些父母希望给他们的孩子提供一个学习另一门语言的机会，但他们的母语不是那门语言，他们负担不起雇佣一个母语是那门语言的保姆。
Some parents think that their baby may be able to learn foreign language by watching television. Unfortunately this is not the case. Older children may be able to learn some foreign language words from electronic media, but babies learn languages through play, through frequent social interactions with live human beings who are fully competent and comfortable users of that target language.有些家长认为他们的孩子可以通过看电视来学习外语。不幸的是，事实并非如此。大一点的孩子可能能从电子媒体中学习一些外语单词，但婴儿是通过玩耍，与完全能熟练使用目标语言的人频繁的社交互动来学习语言的。
So really the question comes down to this: Can we create environments within public education through which all babies will be able to learn foreign languages from a very early age? If we start very very early, how much and what kind of language exposure is needed to create a truly bilingual mind? 所以真正的问题归结为:我们能否在公共教育中创造环境，让所有的婴儿都能在很小的时候学习外语?如果我们很早就开始学习，需要多大程度和什么样的语言接触才能形成真正的双语思维?From research we know that babies can learn foreign languages surprisingly quickly but at the same time we also know that the type of language they hear is critical in determining how much they will learn and how quickly they will learn.从研究中我们知道，婴儿学习外语的速度快得惊人，但与此同时，我们也知道，他们听到的语言类型对他们学习多少和多快起着至关重要的作用。
So can we make this work? We think that we can. From research we know that there are six principles, six ingredients if you will, that grow children’s language. We think that if we take the right science-based approach that combines these six ingredients, we can create educational programs through which all babies will be able to learn foreign languages through play in the context of public early education centers. 我们能做到吗?我认为我们可以。从研究中我们知道，培养儿童语言有六个原则，六个要素。我们认为，如果我们采取正确的科学方法，结合这六要素 ，我们就可以创建教育项目，通过在公共早教中心的环境中玩耍，所有的婴儿都能学习外语。We recently started to test this idea in one of the European capitals where the government is very excited to promote foreign language learning for all babies from birth. The results of these studies are extremely exciting and extremely promising. So stay tuned.我们最近开始在欧洲的一个首都测试这个想法，在那里政府非常兴奋地促进所有婴儿从出生开始学习外语。这些研究的结果是非常令人兴奋和非常有希望的。所以请继续关注。
We think that this approach has the potential to change the game for bilingual education. We’re hoping to scale it up so that it will one day allow all babies to reach their full potential and to start learning two languages from a very young age.我们认为这种方法有可能改变双语教育的游戏规则。我们希望扩大它的规模，这样有一天所有的婴儿都能充分发挥他们的潜力，从很小的时候就开始学习两种语言。
Thank you.谢谢
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