What happens in the brain when you learn a language?

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Reading time: 7 minutes

Whether you’re picking up Spanish for travel, Mandarin for business or French just for fun, you’re not only expanding your communication skills, you’re also giving your brain a powerful workout. But what actually happens inside your brain when you learn a language?

The brain’s language centers

Your brain is made up of many parts and two areas are significant for language:

  • : Located in the frontal lobe, this region helps you produce speech and form sentences.
  • : Found in the temporal lobe, this area helps you understand spoken and written language.

When you start learning a new language, these areas get busy. They work together to help you listen, speak, read and write in your new language (Friederici, 2011).

What happens in the brain when you learn a language?
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How learning a language changes your brain

Building new connections

Every time you learn a new word or grammar rule, your brain forms new connections between its cells, called neurons. This process is known as . The more you practice, the stronger these connections become. Think of it like building a path in a forest – the more you walk it, the clearer and easier it gets to follow (Kuhl, 2010).

Memory and practice

Learning a language involves two types of memory:

  • Short-term memory:Helps you remember new words or phrases for a few seconds or minutes
  • Long-term memory:Stores vocabulary and grammar rules for the future

Repetition is key. When you practice speaking, listening, reading and writing, your brain moves information from short-term to long-term memory. This is why regular practice is so important for language learners (Baddeley, 2003).

Listening and speaking

When you listen to a new language, your brain works hard to recognize sounds and patterns. At first, everything might sound fast or confusing. But with practice, your brain gets better at picking out familiar words and phrases. This process is called (Kuhl, 2004).

Speaking a new language is even more challenging. Your brain must remember words, put them in the right order and control your mouth and tongue to make the correct sounds. This takes time but gets easier with practice.

Reading and writing

Reading in a new language involves recognizing letters and words, understanding grammar and making sense of sentences. Your brain uses both language areas and visual processing centers to do this. Writing helps reinforce what you’ve learned and improves your memory (Dehaene et al., 2015).

What happens to your brain when you learn a language for a long time?

If you keep learning and using a language over months and years, your brain continues to change and adapt in remarkable ways. Long-term language learning doesn’t just make you more fluent: it can actually reshape your brain.

Structural changes:Research using brain scans shows that people who speak more than one language for a long time often have more gray matter in areas linked to language, memory, and attention (Mechelli et al., 2004). Gray matter is made up of brain cells that process information, so having more of it can make your brain work more efficiently.

Stronger connections:The pathways between different parts of your brain become stronger and faster. This means you can switch between languages more easily and understand complex ideas better (Luk et al., 2011).

Cognitive flexibility:Long-term language learners are often better at multitasking and problem-solving. Their brains get used to switching between different ways of thinking, which helps in many areas of life, not just language (Bialystok et al., 2012).

Lifelong benefits: The positive effects of long-term language learning can last into old age. Bilingual and multilingual people often show slower cognitive decline and are less likely to develop dementia (Craik et al., 2010).

Emotional and social growth:Using a language for a long time helps you connect with new cultures and people. This can boost your confidence, empathy and understanding of the world around you.

How long does your brain retain a new language?

One of the most common questions learners ask is: “If I stop using my new language, will I forget it?” The answer depends on several factors, but the good news is that your brain is built to remember languages for a surprisingly long time.

1. Long-term retention: Once a language is stored in your long-term memory, it can stay there for years, even decades. Many people find that even after years of not speaking a language, they can still understand or remember words and phrases when they hear them again (Bahrick, 1984).

2. The “Use it or lose it” principle: While your brain retains the basics, regular use helps keep your skills sharp. If you don’t practice, you might forget vocabulary or grammar, but relearning is usually much faster than starting from scratch. This is because the neural pathways you built are still there, just waiting to be reactivated (DeKeyser, 2007).

3. Age and retention: Children often retain languages learned early in life, even if they stop using them. Adults can also retain new languages, especially if they reach a high level of fluency or use the language regularly (Montrul, 2008).

4. Emotional connection: If you learned a language in a meaningful or emotional context – like living abroad or having close relationships, your brain is even more likely to retain it. Emotional experiences help strengthen memory (Schwabe et al., 2012).

5. Relearning: If you feel you’ve forgotten a language, not to worry. Relearning is much easier than learning for the first time. Your brain “remembers” the pathways and connections, so skills often come back quickly with a little practice.

Read our blog posts 'Being bilingual can help keep your brain in good condition' and 'Using language learning as a form of self-care for wellbeing'.

References

  • Baddeley, A. (2003).Working memory: Looking back and looking forward. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(10), 829-839. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1201
  • Bahrick, H. P. (1984).Semantic memory content in permastore: Fifty years of memory for Spanish learned in school. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.113.1.1
  • Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. (2012).Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(4), 240-250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001
  • Craik, F. I. M., Bialystok, E., & Freedman, M. (2010).Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology, 75(19), 1726-1729. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181fc2a1c
  • Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., Morais, J., & Kolinsky, R. (2015).Illiterate to literate: Behavioural and cerebral changes induced by reading acquisition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 234-244. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3924
  • DeKeyser, R. M. (2007).Practice in a second language: Perspectives from applied linguistics and cognitive psychology. Cambridge University Press.
  • Friederici, A. D. (2011).The brain basis of language processing: From structure to function. Physiological Reviews, 91(4), 1357-1392. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00006.2011
  • Kuhl, P. K. (2004).Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(11), 831-843. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1533
  • Kuhl, P. K. (2010).Brain mechanisms in early language acquisition. Neuron, 67(5), 713-727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.08.038
  • Luk, G., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Grady, C. L. (2011).Lifelong bilingualism maintains white matter integrity in older adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(46), 16808-16813. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4563-11.2011
  • Mechelli, A., Crinion, J. T., Noppeney, U., O'Doherty, J., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S. J., & Price, C. J. (2004).Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature, 431(7010), 757.https://doi.org/10.1038/431757a
  • Montrul, S. (2008).Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30(2), 253-281. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263108080323
  • Schwabe, L., Joëls, M., Roozendaal, B., Wolf, O. T., & Oitzl, M. S. (2012).Stress effects on memory: An update and integration. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 36(7), 1740-1749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.07.002

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    1. Use a family calendar

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