雙語的魔力：雙語讓兒童更有創(chuàng)造力

　　Bilingual children outperform children who only speak one language in problem-solving skills and creative thinking, according to research led at the University of Strathclyde。

　　斯特拉斯克萊德大學(xué)的一項(xiàng)研究表明，雙語兒童在解決問題的能力和創(chuàng)造性思維等方面，都比單語兒童要更優(yōu)秀。

　　A study of primary school pupils who spoke English or Italian- half of whom also spoke Gaelic or Sardinian- found that the bilingual children were significantly more successful in the tasks set for them. The Gaelic-speaking children were, in turn, more successful than the Sardinian speakers。

　　對(duì)說英語或意大利語的小學(xué)生-其中有一半還會(huì)說蓋爾語或撒丁語——進(jìn)行的研究表明，雙語兒童明顯比單語兒童更能成功地完成任務(wù)。而會(huì)說蓋爾語的兒童比會(huì)說撒丁語的兒童則要更加成功。

　　The differences were linked to the mental alertness required to switch between languages, which could develop skills useful in other types of thinking. The further advantage for Gaelic-speaking children may have been due to the formal teaching of the language and its extensive literature。

　　雙語兒童和單語兒童之間的差異主要是與在語言間轉(zhuǎn)換所需的思維敏捷性有關(guān)，這種思維敏捷性會(huì)促進(jìn)養(yǎng)成一些對(duì)其他類型思維方式有用的技能。而會(huì)說蓋爾語的兒童更有優(yōu)勢(shì)，這可能是因?yàn)檫@種語言進(jìn)行了正式講授并存在著大量的文獻(xiàn)。

　　In contrast, Sardinian is not widely taught in schools on the Italian island and has a largely oral tradition, which means there is currently no standardised form of the language。

　　與之對(duì)比，撒丁語在意大利小島撒丁島上并沒有在學(xué)校里得到廣泛講授，大多是靠口頭傳授的，也就是說，現(xiàn)在這種語言還沒有進(jìn)行標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化。

　　Dr Fraser Lauchlan, an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde’s School of Psychological Sciences & Health, led the research. It was conducted with colleagues at the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, where he is a Visiting Professor。

　　弗雷澤·勞克倫博士是斯特拉斯克萊德大學(xué)心理科學(xué)與​​健康學(xué)院的名譽(yù)講師，他是該項(xiàng)研究的負(fù)責(zé)人。該研究是他在撒丁島卡利亞里大學(xué)做客座教授時(shí)和那里的同事一起進(jìn)行的。

　　Dr Lauchlan said: “Bilingualism is now largely seen as being beneficial to children but there remains a view that it can be confusing, and so potentially detrimental to them。

　　勞克倫博士說：“現(xiàn)在基本上都認(rèn)為雙語對(duì)孩子有益，但是仍有觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，雙語會(huì)讓孩子混亂，對(duì)他們有著潛在的不利影響。”

　　“Our study has found that it can have demonstrable benefits, not only in language but in arithmetic, problem solving and enabling children to think creatively. We also assessed the children’s vocabulary, not so much for their knowledge of words as their understanding of them. Again, there was a marked difference in the level of detail and richness in description from the bilingual pupils。

　　“我們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，雙語有著顯而易見的好處，這不僅僅體現(xiàn)在語言上，它對(duì)算數(shù)、解決問題或創(chuàng)造性思考等方面都有益處。我們也對(duì)孩子們的詞匯進(jìn)行了評(píng)估，對(duì)詞語理解的評(píng)估內(nèi)容比對(duì)詞語了解的相關(guān)內(nèi)容要多一些 。雙語兒童在描述的細(xì)節(jié)和豐富程度上，再一次體現(xiàn)出了顯著的差異。

　　“We also found they had an aptitude for selective attention- the ability to identify and focus on information which is important, while filtering out what is not- which could come from the ‘code-switching’ of thinking in two different languages�！�

　　“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)他們有選擇性注意的傾向，他們有發(fā)現(xiàn)并關(guān)注重要信息而忽略不重要信息的能力，這可能來自兩種語言不同思維的‘代碼轉(zhuǎn)換’。”

　　In the study, a total of 121 children in Scotland and Sardinia- 62 of them bilingual- were set tasks in which they were asked to reproduce patterns of coloured blocks, to repeat orally a series of numbers, to give clear definitions of words and to resolve mentally a set of arithmetic problems. The tasks were all set in English or Italian and the children taking part were aged around nine。

　　在研究中，共有121名兒童，他們分別來自蘇格蘭島和撒丁島——其中62名是雙語兒童。給這些兒童布置了一些任務(wù)，要求他們重現(xiàn)彩色方塊的圖案、口頭重復(fù)一串?dāng)?shù)字，對(duì)詞語給出清晰的解釋，并只通過思考來解決一系列算數(shù)問題。任務(wù)都是用英語或意大利語說明的，參與的兒童年齡在9歲左右。

　　During the research, Dr Lauchlan’s post at the University of Cagliari was funded by the Sardinian Regional Government (Regione Autonoma della Sardegna). he study has been published in the International Journal of Bilingualism。

　　在該研究中， 勞克倫博士在卡利亞里大學(xué)的職位是由撒丁島地區(qū)政府贊助的。該研究已發(fā)表在 《國(guó)際雙語研究》上。