The Benefits of Being Bilingual in STEM

There is a wide range of careers and sectors within STEM, but the skill set held by a successful scientist is fairly constant among them all. It may come as a surprise that many of these skills are also key skills of a linguist; however, this is not by chance. Psychologists have, for decades, acknowledged the links between bilingualism and improved learning and communication, and more recently the neuroscience behind these links has been uncovered.

One of science’s most influential thinkers once wrote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.” Albert Einstein was a key believer in the importance of creativity in the scientific process, and the sheer volume of his work is a testament to the validity of these beliefs. Science has always been interdisciplinary; you cannot view it (ironically) under a microscope. In order for great discoveries to be made, we must take pieces from all different areas and use a creative approach to find the string that connects them. Behaving similarly to the expected relationship between imagination and science, the regions of the brain involved with creative thinking are usually antagonistic. However, the ability to generate creative ideas is linked to the connectivity between these two regions, the default mode network (DMN) and the inferior prefrontal cortex (IPC), with highly creative individuals having significantly greater connectivity than less creative individuals. Moreover, for those that speak multiple languages, the strength of connectivity of the DMN with various regions of the IPC was greater than that of their monolingual counterparts. This suggests that the creativity of a scientist is likely to be significantly higher if they are able to speak multiple languages.

While fluency in a second or third language is incredibly beneficial, just the learning process can aid in developing the skills required for a career in STEM. Whether it’s reaching a diagnosis as a doctor or overcoming obstacles in designs of machines as an engineer, problem solving is, in my opinion, the most important ability you can have within science-related jobs. Being able to identify and solve issues to improve the outcomes of your projects is essential in advancing the field you are working in. The eureka moment when you reach a satisfying conclusion is theorised to be the result of a dopamine release into a brain formation called the nucleus accumbens (NA). This region is responsible for reward processing, motivation and goal-directed behaviour, all vital parts of a scientist’s search for knowledge. The dynamic restructuring model of neuroplasticity (DRM) suggests that with frequent use of a skill, the neural pathways created during the learning of the skill are grown and less efficient pathways are pruned. In language acquisition, this suggests that language learning, and hence the functional changes to the brain, are not linear but increase exponentially with increased experiences with the language. Applying the DRM to the NA, scientists found a positive correlation between the number of bilingual experiences and the volume of the region.

Through the lens of Skinner’s reinforcement theory of motivation, put simply, that rewards increase motivation, we can assume that increasing the volume of reward processing regions such as the NA would increase motivation to reach a goal or solve a problem.

When you reach this goal, the next challenge you will face is how you should go about sharing your ideas and theories. This is one reason that good communication skills are important in STEM subjects. Furthermore, how we talk about science can be vital in influencing the general public opinion on major political topics, something that has been made clear over recent years. Misinformation on topics including abortion and vaccination can be especially harmful, given the treatment of such issues as debates. Improving science education and providing communication of science to more people can help to reduce this bias towards incorrect ideas. Successful communication is not an innate behaviour but rather one that is developed over time, and it is apparent that being bilingual can increase the rate at which this development occurs.

In my own language learning experience, I have noticed that since becoming more comfortable speaking in Spanish, I am also more comfortable speaking in English. I notice subtle nuances in the word choices of others and myself when in conversation, and this has allowed me to adapt my language to better communicate my ideas. It is my view that this is down to the amount of time I’ve spent comparing English and Spanish grammar, finding links and places of contrast between the two and translating back and forth when reading Spanish books. Being someone who sees the world in quite a methodical manner, it was very easy for me to treat Spanish as a science. Memorising grammar tables and looking for logic in cognates was my natural approach; this has changed. With time vocab lists became redundant, replaced by literature and music, and my enjoyment of the subject increased proportionally to my fluency. The creative approach to language acquisition has reflected onto other aspects of my life, such as my ability to understand and explain complex ideas in science subjects, and I hope that this article inspires other scientists to consider taking up a new language.