60秒科学:Language Immersion Impedes Access To Native Tongu

Language Immersion¹ Impedes² Access To Native Tongue
A study in the journal Psychological Science finds that students learning a new language in a total immersion environment had reduced access to their original language. Steve Mirsky reports

Adults can have a tough time learning a new language. Some opt³ for language immersion, in which the person spends all their time reading, listening to and speaking the new language. Now research reveals that immersion students do indeed learn the new language faster than students studying the language in a classroom situation—but immersion comes with a price. The work appears in the journal Psychological Science.

Other recent studies of both bilingual people and those learning a new language have shown that both languages appear to be active simultaneously⁴ during reading, listening and speaking. Which means that bilingual people have to constantly solve a cognitive⁵ problem in order to use the right language at the right time.

En la investigacion, dos groups of American students learned Espanol. Veinte y cinco estudiantes took part en enfrascamiento absoluto de espanol en Espana. Pero un otro grupo studied solamente en la clase at their universidad en los Estados Unidos. Los estudiantes en Espana habla espanol mejor. Pero their English was no so bueno. Call it conservacion de conversacion.
 

1 immersion   

n.沉浸；专心

参考例句：

• The dirt on the bottom of the bath didn't encourage total immersion.浴缸底有污垢，不宜全身浸泡于其中。
• The wood had become swollen from prolonged immersion.因长时间浸泡，木头发胀了。

2 impedes   

阻碍，妨碍，阻止( impede的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• High packing density greatly impedes the cooling of the array. 高存贮密度很不利于阵列的散热。
• The inflexibility of the country's labor market seriously impedes its economic recovery. 该国劳工市场缺乏灵活性，这严重阻碍了它的经济恢复。

3 opt   

vi.选择，决定做某事

参考例句：

• They opt for more holiday instead of more pay.他们选择了延长假期而不是增加工资。
• Will individual schools be given the right to opt out of the local school authority?各个学校可能有权选择退出地方教育局吗？

4 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

5 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。