雙語讓兒童更有創造力

Bilingual children outperform children who only speak one language in problem-solving skills and creative thinking, according to research led at the University of Strathclyde.
斯特拉斯克萊德大學的一項研究表明，雙語兒童在解決問題的能力和創造性思維等方面，都比單語兒童要更優秀。

A study of primary school pupils who spoke English or Italian- half of whom also spoke Gaelic or Sardinian- found that the bilingual children were significantly more successful in the tasks set for them. The Gaelic-speaking children were, in turn, more successful than the Sardinian speakers.
對說英語或意大利語的小學生-其中有一半還會說蓋爾語或撒丁語——進行的研究表明，雙語兒童明顯比單語兒童更能成功地完成任務。而會說蓋爾語的兒童比會說撒丁語的兒童則要更加成功。

The differences were linked to the mental alertness required to switch between languages, which could develop skills useful in other types of thinking. The further advantage for Gaelic-speaking children may have been due to the formal teaching of the language and its extensive literature.
雙語兒童和單語兒童之間的差異主要是與在語言間轉換所需的思維敏捷性有關，這種思維敏捷性會促進養成一些對其他類型思維方式有用的技能。而會說蓋爾語的兒童更有優勢，這可能是因爲這種語言進行了正式講授並存在着大量的文獻。

In contrast, Sardinian is not widely taught in schools on the Italian island and has a largely oral tradition, which means there is currently no standardised form of the language.
與之對比，撒丁語在意大利小島撒丁島上並沒有在學校裏得到廣泛講授，大多是靠口頭傳授的，也就是說，現在這種語言還沒有進行標準化。

Dr Fraser Lauchlan, an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde's School of Psychological Sciences & Health, led the research. It was conducted with colleagues at the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, where he is a Visiting Professor.
弗雷澤·勞克倫博士是斯特拉斯克萊德大學心理科學與健康學院的名譽講師，他是該項研究的負責人。該研究是他在撒丁島卡利亞里大學做客座教授時和那裏的同事一起進行的。Dr Lauchlan said: "Bilingualism is now largely seen as being beneficial to children but there remains a view that it can be confusing, and so potentially detrimental to them.
勞克倫博士說："現在基本上都認爲雙語對孩子有益，但是仍有觀點認爲，雙語會讓孩子混亂，對他們有着潛在的不利影響。"

"Our study has found that it can have demonstrable benefits, not only in language but in arithmetic, problem solving and enabling children to think creatively. We also assessed the children's vocabulary, not so much for their knowledge of words as their understanding of them. Again, there was a marked difference in the level of detail and richness in description from the bilingual pupils.
"我們的研究發現，雙語有着顯而易見的好處，這不僅僅體現在語言上，它對算數、解決問題或創造性思考等方面都有益處。我們也對孩子們的詞彙進行了評估，對詞語理解的評估內容比對詞語瞭解的相關內容要多一些 。雙語兒童在描述的細節和豐富程度上，再一次體現出了顯著的差異。

"We also found they had an aptitude for selective attention- the ability to identify and focus on information which is important, while filtering out what is not- which could come from the ‘code-switching' of thinking in two different languages."
"我們發現他們有選擇性注意的傾向，他們有發現並關注重要信息而忽略不重要信息的能力，這可能來自兩種語言不同思維的‘代碼轉換'。"

In the study, a total of 121 children in Scotland and Sardinia- 62 of them bilingual- were set tasks in which they were asked to reproduce patterns of coloured blocks, to repeat orally a series of numbers, to give clear definitions of words and to resolve mentally a set of arithmetic problems. The tasks were all set in English or Italian and the children taking part were aged around nine.
在研究中，共有121名兒童，他們分別來自蘇格蘭島和撒丁島——其中62名是雙語兒童。給這些兒童佈置了一些任務，要求他們重現彩色方塊的圖案、口頭重複一串數字，對詞語給出清晰的解釋，並只通過思考來解決一系列算數問題。任務都是用英語或意大利語說明的，參與的兒童年齡在9歲左右。

During the research, Dr Lauchlan's post at the University of Cagliari was funded by the Sardinian Regional Government (Regione Autonoma della Sardegna). he study has been published in the International Journal of Bilingualism.
在該研究中， 勞克倫博士在卡利亞里大學的職位是由撒丁島地區政府贊助的。該研究已發表在 《國際雙語研究》上。