Bilingualism: Interactions Between Languages

A majority of people in the world use more than one language in the course of their daily living, and it is estimated that most children today grow up with exposure to two or more languages. Although many people tend to think of a bilingual person as an individual who has balanced and perfect command of the two languages he or she speaks, this conceptualization actually describes a very small minority of bilinguals. Most bilinguals differ in their proficiency of the two languages and tend to use them in different contexts for different purposes. Research over the last two decades has revealed that the two languages of bilinguals mostly rely on shared neural substrates and cognitive resources, giving rise to a rich and complex network.