They find the reason why it is easier to understand a language than to speak it

The left hemisphere “is the key to speaking, reading and listening in the mother tongue”.

A study conducted by the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) in San Sebastián (north) reveals that understanding a foreign language is easier than speaking it because the brain devotes more resources to oral and written comprehension than to speaking.

The research focuses on studying laterization changes in brain function while performing different language tasks such as reading, speaking or listening in the native language versus a foreign language that person was learning.

One of the “main findings” is the demonstration that the left hemisphere “is the key to speaking, reading and listening in the mother tongue”.

However, when an adult learns another language, “this condition stays in speech,” while for reading and listening comprehension, “resources are recruited from both hemispheres of the brain,” said BCBL researcher Kshipra Gurunandan. .

“This may explain why it is more difficult to learn to speak a new language than to understand it at a very high level. More brain resources are used for oral and written comprehension than for speech,” he said.

According to the study, in the early stages of foreign language learning, language systems activate the same brain region (left hemisphere), but as proficiency in the newly acquired language increases, changes in reading comprehension and reading are observed. learning. auditory, which do not occur in speech.

Research has revealed that language learning in adulthood is associated with the brain’s ability to transform in the field of language understanding, but not for production or speech.

“These results also help to better understand how language is organized in the brain and what the consequences of an accident, trauma or disease affecting a specific area of ​​the brain, as well as its possible recovery, may be on different language systems.” Gurunandan.

The study, published in the prestigious scientific journal The Journal of Neuroscience, lasted 7 years and involved 50 volunteers aged between 17 and 60.