Language as a mean for cultural exposure and communication

Abstract

The article provides an overview of recent foreign research on the influence of bilingualism on the socio-cognitive development of personality. Recently, they have not only destroyed the myth about the dangers of bilingual development of children, but also shown that it gives much more than just knowledge of two languages. Based on a comparative analysis, the advantages of children and adults who have been in a bilingual environment since birth are shown. These advantages lie in the presence of metalinguistic abilities, which allow, in particular, to increase the speed of learning; in better executive development than monolingual peers functions (executive control, attention, ability to plan actions, concentration, suppression of unimportant information), important not only for performing verbal tasks, but also for managing any activity. The influence of bilingualism on cognitive decentration, the ability to learn other languages, and the formation of a high degree of social sensitivity, related to both to verbal and non-verbal communication (interpretation of facial expressions, gestures, intonation) and expressed in the most adequate reaction to the speech and communicative behavior of others.