Language not only shapes our culture, but it also shapes our brain, body and behaviour. New research suggests that being bilingual could increase your problem solving skills and delay cognitive decline as we get older. This two-part series looks into the science of learning languages. How does language change our brains? And why is it so much harder to learn a language as an adult rather than a child?
Mark Lythgoe

Working as a neuroscientist at University College London presenter Dr Mark Lythgoe (pictured) is very aware of the way language influences the brain. But despite this, he's a self-confessed linguaphobe. "Learning languages is my idea of an absolute nightmare," says Lythgoe. "I just don't feel like I have the right sort of brain to take it on."

During the series, Mark attempts to learn Spanish using a variety of conventional, and more unusual, techniques. Along the way he explores new research on the science behind learning language.

Programme 1

Why is learning a language so much harder for adults rather than children?

Mark travels to the baby lab at the University of Barcelona to meet psychologist Laura Bosch. She's shown that even by two months old, babies can differentiate Spanish from Catalan.

However, our ability to perceive the phonetic differences in foreign language declines with age. During our childhood, our brains tune in to different parts of speech - from phonetics, to grammar and then vocabulary. But does this ability end?

Linguists disagree as to whether there is a 'critical period' when our brains are geared to acquire language. Some like Elissa Newport claim that if you learn after puberty, you will never be as good as a native. But others such as Lydia White and Ernesto Macaro say that all adults need is as much motivation and immersion in their new language as we experience as children.

Unperturbed, Mark visits the Phonetics Lab at Oxford University, where John Coleman attempts to retrain him in the art of Spanish pronunciation.


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Programme 2

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