Bilingualism and Language Education to Improve the Cognitive Health of Older Persons

Abstract

This article explores whether lifelong bilingualism can be associated with delayed age-related cognitive decline, with cognitive (or brain) reserve as the mechanism that compensates by positively increasing the functional capacity of the brain for older persons. A structural review of recent psychoneurolinguistic studies shows that older bilinguals display several years of delay in dementia symptoms as compared to monolinguals, as well as that positive effects exist in bilingual brain networks, also related to other neurodegenerative disorders. The field is clearly missing an established methodology, nevertheless, lifelong bilingualism can be considered to induce cognitive reserve. Drawing from these implications, we hypothesize that successful ageing could be facilitated by the active use of multiple languages, and in this light, we discuss language education for older persons, the role of Third Age Universities, the implementation of crucial aspects in such courses, and the proper assessment of the effectiveness of language proficiency and cognition.

Keywords

• executive function
• bilingualism
• language education
• stroke
• older persons