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Judith Kroll Reflection

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I really enjoyed listening to Judith Kroll’s virtual lecture on “Bilingual Minds and Brains Across the Lifespan”. I had known from other classes that being bilingual improved a person’s executive function and that young infants had the capability to differentiate between different languages, but much of the information Dr. Kroll provided was new and truly eye-opening. For me, the most interesting part of the lecture was how being bilingual protected against symptoms of Alzheimer’s for such a long period of time. When Dr. Kroll said that even at age 21 I have begun my cognitive decline that was a bit disheartening but when she said that being bilingual has a lot of cognitive advantages I was very intrigued. I have been learning Spanish since I was 13 and while I wouldn’t consider myself fluent, I would say I’m highly proficient. While spending a summer in Barcelona, I strove to speak as little English as possible and my Spanish skills increased dramatically. When I first decided to learn Spanish, I had no idea that I was giving myself the gift of greater executive function, or helping to avoid cognitive decline. I was simply filing a requirement for school and after learning the basics and truly …show more content…

There are different types of bilingualism and these different types come into play when looking at specific advantages. For example, some bilinguals have two languages that are similar in form while others have two languages with two very different forms. However, no matter the similarity of the two languages, bilinguals are constantly dealing with the competition of the two languages in their head during everyday tasks, something that monolinguals never have to deal with and therefore do not possess the same strength of cognitive control in that

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