Learn a language. Change your mind.
My hero in brain work, Dr. Oliver Sacks, shows us in his New York Times Opinion piece how learning can help us grow our brains, at any age.
This Year, Change Your Mind:
Don’t leave...
Brain Power: Repeating sounds
At the gym, I read the Can You Build a Better Brain? article in Newsweek about how to restructure our brains as we take on new things to learn. We need to repeat actions many times ...
Science of language learning
I just read the “Science Grows on Acquiring New Language” article in Education Week by Sarah D. Sparks highlighting research about how we learn foreign languages. Researchers think that the “critical period” to learn...
Rosetta Stone or a teacher? Foreign language learning technology
About a week ago, I received an email from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages asking the members if they felt that the ads for the Rosetta Stone foreign language learning...
Listening: the key element to foreign language learning
I am so glad to find another person, Corey Heller of Multilingual Living, who is loudly telling language learners and teachers that listening is the main element to foreign language learning.
If more people listened...
Foreign Language Courses, Brushing Up or Immersion
The New York Times reports in the article, Foreign Language Courses, Brushing Up or Immersion, that foreign language classes are in demand. People are looking for inexpensive ways to learn or brush up on languages while...
Even the Ivy League cheats students on foreign language education
A super expensive Ivy League education at Harvard may still deprive students of the knowledge they need to get ahead in this world.
According to the article, Colleges come up short on what students need to...
Foreign language education: keeping us from being stupid
I agree with Michael Hofmann, author, poet and translator who wrote in the British newspaper, The Guardian, about the importance of foreign language education.
I am glad the US is not following the UK...
Links between languages and music
I just got Aniruddh Patel's book, Music, Language, and the Brain because I am keenly interested in learning more about the relationship between music, language and our complex neurological system.
Patel is a neuroscientist and musician who...
Music therapy effects the brain
Here’s a great show in Portuguese about the healing effects of music. Musicoterapia e a energia que vem dos sons (Music therapy and the energy that comes from sounds) from Caminhos Alternativos from the Brazilian...
