Multitasking? Some people can draw (in the air) a moon (semicircle) repeatedly with the left hand at the same time draw a sun (circle) with the right. Some people do it naturally and easily, some can train themselves, do it with difficulty and some others can never do it. Speaking two languages is similar I think.

Look up papers on Second Language acquisition. Recently, I read of a report that children, the younger the better, acquire multiple languages easily. It is difficult for adults; It is difficult to teach old dogs new tricks.

Narayanan

There are thousands of articles about multilingualism. I would start with the chapter on the subject in a Psychology of Language textbook, if you haven't already learned the basics. Depending on how much reading you've already done, you might want to read other parts on how the mind comprehends language for meaning.

This is because you will find that the major emphasis in research on how people who know more than one language starts off with the general premise that understanding any particular language is very similar regardless of which language. So the fundamental questions research on multilingualism is "what is different about knowing two or three languages compared to one?".

So if we have a person who only knows English, and another person who only knows Chinese, the general trend of research shows that both people have similar ways of understanding their one language, whether it is English or Chinese. The one language will be used to access the mind's memory for concepts to permit understanding of the language when listening or reading. When speaking or writing, your language will be used to form the structure that holds the information from your conceptual memory so that you can express it in a way that will others will understand.

Your questions lead directly to the major issue in research on multilingualism. If a person knows two languages, is one language dominant? This means that the dominant language is the language that has a direct connection to your conceptual memory. When you are using one of the other non-dominant languages, your mind would translate the non-dominant language into your dominant language, and you would use that translation to connect to your conceptual memory.

The alternative theory is that it is possible that there might be no dominant language. In this situation, a bilingual person would be able to directly connect to their conceptual memory with either language, and no translation step is needed.

The other major issues come from this question. So there is research investigating whether a person's age affects whether they will have a dominant language or whether they will have equal understanding of both languages. Similarly, the amount of time spent using a language is one related to age, but not the same. What type of language use you spend your time doing matters, as with any single language. Conversations are different than reading and both are different than writing. It could be possible that a person could have equally strong skills with two languages in conversations but has to mentally translate to read or write from one language into the other.

Even the question of whether knowing a language shapes thoughts in a unique way can fit into this framework. The question would be whether there are some concepts in memory that can only be linked to one language and not the other.

One important factor to keep in mind is that the basic position may not be as valid as historically considered. That is, there may be important differences between languages that affect memory and language comprehension, so that some things are perhaps easier or harder within a certain language or group of languages.

Historically, much of the research on language comprehension has involved European languages. More specifically, much of the research has involved European languages from the Germanic and Romance groups. This is because most of the professional scholars of language have been western Europeans or North Americans at universities in western Europe or North America. But in recent decades, the amount and quality of research conducted on major Asian languages has vastly increased. Researchers in China are studying Chinese. But there are also enough students and faculty who know Chinese in places like New York that research there can focus on Chinese as well.

Even with advances in research on Asian languages, especially those of east Asia, most of the languages in the world go without much research into them. The research that exists often is from anthropology rather than psychology, and that comes with important differences in terms of the ability to break down language into small units of time or content. Many of these languages also have very few speakers and are found in places that are difficult to get to, with heavy forests or mountains or desert environments and little connection to the world beyond the local area.

But the main question remains the same, what is the relationship between language and conceptual memory, and how is this relationship affected by knowing more than one language?

Hi

That was a very good answer James. Those knowing two languages, and using both of them alternately, has to switch grammar; this is really difficult isn't it. Has this been studied separately. And regarding Creoles. Why I am asking this is that my native Language (Malayalam) has even been termed as a Creole of Sanskrit (a PIE) language and Dravidian. In addition we seem to have been influenced by Latin (Please do go through my article uploaded in RG on r-t transformation in Latin and Malayalam). And we seem to be the only people (at least Indians) who regularly and automatically add Malaylam suffixes to English (and any other Language). How does this relate to Selina's question? Why is it not seen in other Langauges?

Narayanan

Think our brain functions like a storage & processing mechanism that can store & communicate (input-process-output) with others using specific chosen language. Think our brain also can understand and interpret different languages through numerous means, 2 of them include cross referencing and frequent practicing. 

Cross-referencing in my personal context refers to associating something (pronunciation, meaning, logics, experiences etc) that a learner has known or mastered to understand / learn the new language so that s/he can always cross-link / associate the 2 together e.g. the Japanese pronunciation "How much (pricing) is this item" is resembling to Cantonese (1 of Chinese dialects) "When is the young girl number 2 will get married?". Others include e.g. numeric 1-5 pronunciation in Japanese are quite resembling to numeric 1-5 pronunciation in Hokkien (1 of Chinese dialects), the meaning of "knife" in Malay language is similar to a type of knife in Chinese etc.

Frequent practicing / using a new language is crucial because language is like a body's muscle in which the more you use / exercise, the better it will be. After learning / knowing a new language but if we don't practice, it will be forgotten or getting rusty when we try to use it.

Think 1of the theories depicts how we learn other language(s) through practicing with others is Shared Mental Model Theory.  This theory describes overlapped knowledge structure residing within a person after his or her interaction / communication with others.  The shared mental models enable him or her to picture accurately the details and expectations of a task / event  which will further influence his or her coordination, actions and behavioral adaptations to meet the demands of the task / event as well as of other people (Cannon-Bowers, Salas & Converse, 1993).  The more we practice a new language with others, the more the shared mental models will increase.  Wishing you all the best in your research.

 Philadelphia, PA

Dear Cheung, 

Given the way you put your question, I'm inclined to look at it as a practical question in the first place. Given that you speak two languages, how can you avoid mixing them when you use them? One simple answer depends on an effect of immediate practice. If a bilingual wants to use a second language, and avoid intrusions from a first or dominant language, then it is a good idea to read some, say, for half an hour, before attempting conversation in the second language. That will tend to separate the competing linguistic responses in a given situation. 

Looking at the question in more theoretical terms, it is useful, I think, to distinguish how much of a second or third language someone has learned, Even among conversationally fluent speakers of a second or third language, the levels of acquisition can differ very significantly, so that "fluency" is not always a very helpful description. I'm inclined to distinguish levels of fluency and mastery in a somewhat practical or common-sense manner in terms of levels of education and educational specialization. 

At a basic level, one finds the facility to get around in every-day life, and for ordinary purposes. Many people acquire a second or third language at this level without any special education of training. They are simply exposed to the new language in ordinary circumstances and acquire a working mastery at this level. They can chat with the native speakers, get around town, and negotiate ordinary situations. 

Education in a second or third language is something a bit different. Imagine someone who has attended high school (secondary education) in a second language, or again, we can imagine someone who has taken various college or university degrees in a second or third language.  The intensity of practice with the language, and the range of subject matters addressed in the practice will certainly tend to produce a greater mastery of the language in question. 

But it often happens that someone has a higher degree, obtained in a first language, let us say a Ph.D. in one of the sciences, for example; and there may be some considerable accomplishment in a second or third language as well. But in such circumstances, one would not expect exactly the same facility in the second or third language, as is displayed in the mastery of language and subject-matter associated with the first language.  

This can happen the other way around, as well. Someone may have normal or (some level of) educated fluency in a first language, but has taken a higher degree in some specialized field, in a second or third language. Such a person may do better discussing the specialization in the second language than attempting the same discussion in the first or native language. 

I know people who I think of as having "graduate" level proficiency in a second language, simply from intensive work in a particular field of study or inquiry, but this is not matched by similar proficiency in other languages. To master the specialized language of some particular field, it may be practically necessary to actually work in that field --in that language. So, whether a person is adequately "fluent" in a given language may depend on exactly what they are trying to do. A change of accustomed pursuits using a particular language, on the other hand, may move beyond the particular competencies already acquired. 

H.G. Callaway

I know that this is going to make me sound like a bit of a jerk here. But answering a question about a topic that has been the subject of extensive systematic research over the course of decades with your personal viewpoint on the topic is not really helpful.

For example, there are organizations like the European Union that rely on translation to function. The European Union has adopted the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment system" (CEFR) to classify language ability into six categories. Other nations have adopted this system as well. The United States favors an alternative system, the "Interagency Language Roundtable scale" (ILR), to classify the skills of its personnel whose positions require the use of multiple languages.

Narayanan, you have some very specific questions about specific languages. These types of questions are best answered by people who know about those languages, and I am not one of them.

With regard to the general question about switching languages and how difficult that is, yes, there has been much research on this, and there are some general trends.

First, the difficulty generally depends on the relationship between the languages and the task you are doing.

In practical terms, double-simultaneous interpretation is extremely difficult. This is a situation where you have two people who don't speak each other's language, and an interpreter who speaks both. When Person A is speaking Language A, the interpreter translates it into Language B so Person B can understand it while Person A is speaking. When Person B is speaking Language B, the interpreter translates it into Language A so Person A can understand it while Person B is speaking. It takes much training and practice to be able to do this, and even then, doing it for more than a couple of hours can be exhausting.

On the other hand, self-paced practice of conversation using an instructional program is probably the easiest. Something like hearing a voice"Now we will practice ordering food in French. I will say 'Can I please have a menu?' twice in French. For the first time, just listen. The second time, try to say it while I say it."

Beyond the task, the languages matter. Generally the more differences there are between the languages, the more difficult it is to switch between them (and there is a similar effect on learning languages - a greater difference between languages makes learning more difficult). If you know English, learning German will be easier than learning Korean.

However, there are situations where it can be easier to work with languages that are less related than with languages that are closely related. Using two languages at the same time, such as listening to one and reading another, can be that type of situation. In this setting, languages that are closely related can produce more interference and make the tasks more difficult. Even when reading, a person usually accesses the sounds of the words being read. So listening to Dutch and reading in German, two closely related languages, can be more difficult than listening to French and reading in German. The similarity of the sounds of Dutch and German will interfere with each other making reading slower and comprehension of the spoken information worse. With less related languages, keeping the streams of information separate is aided by the differences in the sounds of the languages.

Obviously, there is a world of possibilities between the extremes here. But, as with many other tasks, time pressure is a major source of difficulty. And having to do the same task while using very different responses is also difficult.

And I'm obviously trying to give you a very condensed version of the basic processes involved in understanding how people use multiple languages. Consulting educational materials that are written at a level that fits your level of understanding would be the most helpful next step. In addition to giving you insight about your current questions, you will also find interesting information about questions you haven't thought of yet. And there will be thoughtful suggestions for what to read next.

Dear james

Again a very explanatory and informative answer.

As regards my point, as far as I could get info (from the Net and otherwise), this aspect has not been studied. Unfortunately, our Language seems to be the only one doing this too.

Narayanan

Google on Ton Dijkstra, he's a leading expert on the subject. 

The website of the World Atlas of Language Structures might be helpful. It has information about phonology, morphology, and syntax for many languages.

Here is the entry on Malayalam, it might have some content that relates to the questions you have, or just other interesting information about the language.

http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_mym

Ellen Bialystok has done a lot of research in this area, read her publications

Try reading this. 

Brain Mechanisms in Early Language Acquisition

Patricia K. Kuhl

The earlier one hears and learns a language the easier it is to learn a third or futher languages.  Using 1/2 or 3 languages on a daily basis allows one to speak almost fluently.

The attached bibliography might help  

A child is able to handle up to 5 languages at the age of 5. Just syart early.

http://www.ehu.eus/HEB/Itziar/More%20than%20one%20language%20in%20the%20brain.pdf

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/01/what-speaking-two-languages-does-to-the-brain/

Selina Cheung, Nice Topic.

Following.