How does the human brain learn?
Our brain: the right and left halves – The brain of an adult weighs about 1.3 kg for women and 1.4 kg for men, which is only two percent of the average body weight. However, it consumes about one-fifth of the total energy required by the body. The energy requirements of the human brain thus represent an enormous luxury compared with other living beings. But it is only in this way that our brains enable us to respond extraordinarily flexibly to our environment, and to do and learn things that no animal would be capable of.
As you may know, the brain is divided into three distinct areas: the cerebellum, which is primarily responsible for instincts, the midbrain, which primarily controls our emotions, and finally the cerebrum with its two halves, the left and right hemispheres. The following article looks at the interaction of these two hemispheres of the brain and shows what tasks each of the two sides performs in learning language.
The left hemisphere
When processing language, our left brain hemisphere primarily handles the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical structures. With it, we think analytically, put sentences into logical contexts, and can recognize linguistic subtleties, such as conceptual differences in words. Thus, the left hemisphere primarily captures and processes the verbal aspects of language.
The right hemisphere
Our right hemisphere, on the other hand, is responsible for processing emotional and affective stimuli, perceiving gestures and facial expressions, interpreting speech holistically, and detecting speech melody (such as recognizing accent and intonation). In summary, therefore, it can be said that the right side is primarily responsible for processing the nonverbal aspects of speech.
About the alternating dominance of the two hemispheres of the brain
As you have just learned, both hemispheres of our brain perform different tasks in stimulus reception and processing. During our childhood, there is an alternating dominance of these two hemispheres of the brain. At the beginning of life, up to an age of about six months, the right hemisphere is dominant and the acquisition of language is primarily linked to non-verbal and speech rhythmic impressions.
In the so-called “babbling phase”, which lasts until the child is about 12 months old, the left hemisphere is dominant and the first word-like sounds are formed. Subsequently, up to the age of three to four years, the right hemisphere of the brain again takes over the main task of processing stimuli, and emotional and affective aspects become decisively more important for language acquisition.
Subsequently, the left hemisphere again becomes dominant for language learning and the child’s linguistic development takes place at breathtaking speed. From this age onwards, you can observe children rapidly expanding their vocabulary on a daily basis, while at the same time becoming more confident in their use of the language.
Language learning in adulthood
When you are newly learning a foreign language, a development takes place that is not entirely dissimilar to that of our early childhood. Especially in the beginning, your right brain hemisphere is significantly involved in learning. This can be easily explained: Since vocabulary and grammar are still completely foreign to you, you are much more dependent on nonverbal communicative aspects of the language.
On the basis of intonation, facial expressions and gestures, you try to pick up the meaning of sentences (of an interlocutor, TV presenter or radio announcer, etc.). At the same time, you pay much more attention to peculiarities and regularities in the foreign sounds and thus develop the first meaningful structures and elements.
The better you will master the foreign language and the more secure and larger your vocabulary and knowledge of grammatical structures will be, the more the dominance of your left brain hemisphere will increase in turn. The analytical-logical comprehension of sentence contexts and the comprehension of new words is made much easier.
