The vocabulary of babies who are bilingual remains flexible as they grow up and boosts their speaking ability as toddlers, a university study has found.

一項(xiàng)大學(xué)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，接受雙語教育的寶寶在成長過程中可以靈活地掌握兩門語言的詞匯，而且學(xué)步時期的口語表達(dá)能力也能有所提高。
 

Babies and children have a great ability to learn a second language but that begins to fade as early as their first birthdays.

嬰兒和兒童在學(xué)習(xí)第二門語言方面能力很強(qiáng)，但早在他們過第一個生日的時候，這種能力就開始逐漸退化。

Now researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Learning &Brain Sciences are investigating the brain mechanisms that contribute to infants' prowessat learning languages, with the hope that the findings could boost bilingualism in adults, too.
目前，華盛頓大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)與腦科學(xué)研究所的研究人員們在對促進(jìn)嬰兒非凡的語言能力的大腦機(jī)制進(jìn)行研究，他們希望研究結(jié)果也可以推動成人的雙語教育。

In the research, the scientists report that the brains of babies raised in bilingual households show a longer period of being flexible to different languages, especially if they hear a lot of language at home.

在研究中，科學(xué)家們報告說，成長在雙語家庭中、特別是在家能聽到大量語言交流的寶寶的大腦表現(xiàn)出更長時間的對不同語言的靈敏度。
 

The researchers also show that the relative amount of each language - English and Spanish - babies were exposed to affected their vocabulary as toddlers.

研究者們還揭示說，在嬰兒時期接觸到的各種語言（英語或西班牙語）的數(shù)量，會影響到他們學(xué)步時期的詞匯量。

The study, published in Journal of Phonetics, is the first to measure brain activity throughout infancy and relate it to language exposure and speaking ability.

這項(xiàng)發(fā)表在《語音學(xué)期刊》上的研究第一次對嬰兒時期的大腦活動進(jìn)行測量，并將其與語言環(huán)境和口語能力聯(lián)系起來。

‘The bilingual brain is fascinating because it reflects humans' abilities for flexible thinking - bilingual babies learn that objects and events in the world have two names, and flexibly switch between these labels, giving the brain lots of good exercise,' said Patricia Kuhl, co-author of the study and co-director of the UW's Institute for Learning &Brain Sciences.

帕特麗夏 庫爾是該研究的合著者之一，也是華盛頓大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)與大腦科學(xué)研究所的副主任，她說：“雙語大腦很棒，因?yàn)樗�可以反映出人類靈活思維的能力。雙語寶寶們認(rèn)識到世界上的物體和事件都有兩個名稱，并能在不同的名稱之間靈活轉(zhuǎn)換，這給了大腦很多有益的鍛煉。”
 

Kuhl's previous studies show that between 8 and 10 months of age, monolingual babies become increasingly able to distinguish speech sounds of their native language, while at the same time their ability to distinguish sounds from a foreign language declines.

庫爾之前的研究顯示，只接觸一種語言的寶寶在8個月到10個月大的時候分辨母語語音方面能力會日益增強(qiáng)，但與此同時，分辨外語語音的能力卻減弱了。

For instance, between 8 and 10 months of age babies exposed to English become better at detecting the difference between 'r' and 'l' sounds, which are prevalentin the English language.

比方說，接觸英語的寶寶們在8個月至10個月大的時候會更容易分辨r和l兩個音的區(qū)別，而這兩個音在英語中很普遍。

This is the same age when Japanese babies, who are not exposed to as many 'r' and 'l' sounds, decline in their ability to detect them.

而同年齡的日本寶寶們沒有接觸到那么多的r和l，所以他們分辨出這兩個音的能力也在下降。