Posts

Abstract

  This research is focused on the bi/multilingual brain particularly during early stages, in children and it goes into detail on the various parts of the brain involved in the language comprehension and expression. There are many researches which prove that the adult bilingual brain is indeed different, in terms of structure and connectivity, compared to a monolingual one. However these studies do not answer the question of when the brain starts to change in bi/multilingual people and it also does not show the effect of two or more languages in a developing brain of a child. This research project is mainly focused on answering these questions and understanding if there is a structural difference between the developing monolingual and bi/multilingual brain.

Presentation Feedback

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I managed to present my project to a group of students and teachers and I also received some feedback for the presentation.  Overall I received some really good feedback on my communication and amount of content. I managed to explain the technical terms that I used in my presentation and I was able to deliver this presentation to a "non-specialist" audience effectively.  However from some of the feedback received, I may have benefited from more concise slides or more slides with the content divided. Overall I am satisfied with my presentation as I was able to give an overview on my topic and my findings and also explain how I managed my time and research to complete my project. This presentation also gave me the opportunity to improve my public speaking skills and answering questions on the spot. This experience made more comfortable and confident with speaking in front of a bigger crowd which I believe will help me later on at university and also at any future careers. 

Final Evaluation

  What were the main strengths and weaknesses of the project?     Strengths:  - Many scientific sources and evidence - Covered both science and part of social side of being bi/multilingual - Included primary research (surveys) Weaknesses: - Not enough evidence to prove some of the theories mentioned in this project   What new skills did you learn? What new technologies did you learn?     Skills developed : - Reading, analysing and summarising academic papers and research papers - Organising and developing primary research   Technology used : - Google Scholar - University websites ( e.g. Cambridge )   In doing the project, what did you learn about yourself and the way in which you learn?           I learn that when reading academic papers, I need to break down all the information in order to understand the key findings of that specific study. For example I learn that colour

Links to career and future

This blog post will be about how this EPQ project links to my future plan, studies and career. This EPQ increased my knowledge on the structure and connectivity of the brain and it also developed my understanding of the bi/multilingual brain.  In terms of studies, I believe this project taught me how to look for reliable, trusted sources for any secondary research I need to do. It also developed my skill of analysing different sources and their reliability. Also my university course is mainly focused on human biology therefore I believe this project helped me understand the brain more and this will be an advantage when I start neuroscience as a topic during my university studies.  In terms of future plans, I believe this project helped me get out of my comfort zone as, for my primary research I had to reach out to many parents and teenagers and answer their questions regarding these surveys. I believe this experience will help me in the future and in any of my future careers as it gave

Evaluation of secondary research sources

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I used this table below to mark my sources. Each box equals to 1 point. ( full mark is out of 25 )   (PDF) History of Multilingualism (researchgate.net) - chapter from the book “The Encyclopedia Of Applied Linguistics” 22/25  Choosing words: left hemisphere, right hemisphere, or both? Perspective on the lateralization of word retrieval - PMC (nih.gov)   - study 24/25 Left Brain vs. Right Brain: What’s the Difference? (healthline.com) - Overview of the brain and distinction of hemispheres 19/25 An Evaluation of the Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Hypothesis with Resting State Functional Connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging | PLOS ONE - study for how left and right hemispheres work 24/25 The_Handbook_of_the_Neuroscience_of_Multilingualis..._----_(Part_II_Neural_Representations_).pdf chapter of the Handbook of the Neuroscience 24/25 BrainandCognition.pdf - study with multilingual children in the book “Brain and cognition” 23/25 Bilingualism-and-childrens-use-of-paralinguistic-cues-to-int

Timeline for Dissertation

11-18/03 Week update Finished first draft for paragraphs on general structure of the brain, Broca's Area and Wernicke's Area and white matter 18-25/03 Week update Finished first draft for evolution of the brain and how babies first start to communicate Also started paragraph for  “Cortical Thickness in bilingual and monolingual children : Relationships to language use and language skill” 25-01/04 Week update Finished  “Cortical Thickness in bilingual and monolingual children : Relationships to language use and language skill” paragraph Finished paragraph for   study "Young children in different linguistic environments : A multimodal neuroimaging study of the inferior frontal gyrus" 01-08/04 Week update Finished " Bilingualism and children’s use of paralinguistic cues to interpret emotion in speech" paragraph Started Code Switching section 08-15/04 Week update Finished code switching section Finished "Multilingual Lexicon and what it tells us about Cogni

February update + March plan

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  I managed to finish all my tasks for last month however I decided not to go through my primary research for now ( explanation later on this post). I also wrote a first draft for the opening of my dissertation. For this month I plan to keep writing my dissertation and have a first draft of it before Easter.  One of the main reasons why I did not go through my primary research is because when I was planning my dissertation I realised that I had more than enough topics to discuss and this primary research wouldn't have added any more new information in my final dissertation. Although I planned the whole survey, I do not believe this was a waste as it gave me more practice in the primary research sector. Also from this month I mainly want to focus on my first draft for the dissertation and eventually my final dissertation.