Maria Vender

What happens in the brain when learning a second language? Can speaking more than one language provide cognitive benefits over a lifetime? What implications does an increase in bilingualism have for society? And what are the factors that can promote and support bilingualism in children and adults? This book – a translated and adapted version of Il Cervello Bilingue (2020) - answers these questions and more, providing the reader with a comprehensive yet concise guide on different topics related to bilingualism. Based on the results of the most recent studies conducted internationally, it discusses recent research findings, explains terminology, and elaborates on the current state of the field, with the aim of providing families and society with suggestions about how to encourage bilingualism. Written in an engaging and accessible style, it takes both academics and readers with no prior knowledge of the field on a journey into the bilingual brain.

What happens in the brain when learning a second language? Can speaking more than one language provide cognitive benefits over a lifetime? What implications does an increase in bilingualism have for society? And what are the factors that can promote and support bilingualism in children and adults? This book – a translated and adapted version of Il Cervello Bilingue (2020) - answers these questions and more, providing the reader with a comprehensive yet concise guide on different topics related to bilingualism. Based on the results of the most recent studies conducted internationally, it discusses recent research findings, explains terminology, and elaborates on the current state of the field, with the aim of providing families and society with suggestions about how to encourage bilingualism. Written in an engaging and accessible style, it takes both academics and readers with no prior knowledge of the field on a journey into the bilingual brain.

Beyond the well-known reading and spelling difficulties, dyslexic individuals exhibit marked phonological disorders, poor lexical retrieval and problems in the comprehension and production of grammatical structures that are particularly expensive in terms of processing costs. To account for these difficulties, the author presents an original hypothesis, proposing that dyslexia is related to a working memory inefficiency, affecting in particular the subject’s phonological skills and executive functions. The results of four experimental protocols, assessing dyslexic children’s working memory and their ability to interpret scalar implicatures, negative sentences and pronominal expressions, are presented and discussed in this volume. Consistent with the hypothesis outlined in this book, the results of the four studies show that dyslexics underperformed in comparison to age-matched controls and even to younger children in tasks requiring good phonological and processing abilities.