How reading shapes your brain
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello, welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Becca.
What changes occur in our brains when we learn to read?
And I'm Georgie.
Remember, you can find all this episode's vocabulary along with a transcript and worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. Now, Becca, do you read a lot?
Hmm, I don't read often. I just feel like I don't have the time, Georgie. How about yourself?
I would love to read more but I don't read very much at the moment. I read mostly before bed because I feel like it helps me relax and go to sleep.
Why is reading considered a complex brain process?
And today we're talking all about reading. We'll be hearing from some experts about how reading can change our brains and as usual we'll be learning some useful new words and phrases.
Let's start with a quiz question. The longest novel in the world is widely thought to be by French author Marcel Proust. A book which, when translated into English, means remembrance of things past. But how many words does the book contain? Is it A. 130,000 B.
How does reading in different languages affect brain structure?
1.3 million or C. 13 million?
Okay, the longest novel in the world. I still think 13 million words sounds too many. So I'm going to go with B, 1.3 million.
All right, we'll find out at the end of the programme. Now, we might think of reading as like speaking. We're born with the potential to do it, and then we learn. It's natural. If something is natural, it's something you were born with or that comes from nature.
But Marianne Wolfe, author of the book Reader Come Home, says that this isn't true.
We think of language as natural, and reading is written language, so it must be natural. But it isn't. It isn't natural at all.
Scientific studies suggest that when we're born, our brains already have the networks that allow our eyes to see and our vocal cords to produce sounds, but not with the pathways we need to read.
Let's hear more from psychologist and neuroscientist Rebecca Gottlieb, speaking to the BBC World Service.
What does scientific research say about the reading brain?
From an evolutionary timescale, our brain hasn't had enough time to develop a dedicated reading brain. And so to build a reading brain network, we co-op parts of the brain involved in vision and auditory processing and language and attention and affect. Reading is really a whole brain process. It involves activation in all four lobes of the cortex. The process of developing a reading brain alters everything from brain activity to brain structure and brain connectivity. The power of deep reading is really fundamental to our humanity. When we read deeply, we change our brains and we change who we are.
Rebecca says that our brains haven't evolved to include a dedicated reading brain. Dedicated here means designed and used for one particular purpose.
So, because we don't have a part of the brain designed specifically for reading, when we learn to read, we co-opt other parts of the brain. Co-opt here means to include someone or something, often against their will.
How does learning to read Chinese differ from reading English?
Right. Learning to read means using lots of different parts of the brain that are designed for other things, and this changes our brain structure compared to someone who hasn't learned to read.
And the language we read also shapes our brain. Chinese characters, for example, use symbols instead of letters of the alphabet to represent words and ideas.
Research suggests that learning to read these symbols activates different areas of the brain to reading an alphabet-based system.
Scientists studied a bilingual man who could read and speak Chinese and English. The man suffered a stroke which affected parts of his brain, including his ability to read Chinese.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:24
2
What changes occur in our brains when we learn to read?
1:24–1:51
3
Why is reading considered a complex brain process?
1:51–2:19
4
How does reading in different languages affect brain structure?
2:19–3:25
5
What does scientific research say about the reading brain?
3:25–4:34
6
How does learning to read Chinese differ from reading English?
4:34–5:47
7
What are the implications of reading on our identity?
5:47–6:44
8
What vocabulary can we learn from this episode about reading?
6:44–7:45