This study has focused on how language learning has an impact on Long-Term Memory after learning a foreign language compared to those, who just know their native language. Learning a language has become an inevitable phenomenon for Homo-Sapiens. As humans, we learn the language from conception, by hearing. The actual learning process starts in infancy and continues throughout life. Language not only helps us communicate with each other but also helps us understand each other. Monkeys and Humans have the same brain, the only difference is our superiority: language learning capacity. ( Ali, Shehab,2019), [Figure 1]
In an investigation of the effect of early language exposure on the brain, researchers compared Spanish Catalan bilinguals (Aliouche, Hidaya, et al 2012) exposed to two languages throughout that development, and a group cohort matched Spanish monolinguals. [Figure 2] The bilingual group works left to have a larger Herschel’s gyri relative to monolinguals, an indication of a greater size of the auditory cortex. The researchers concluded that second language learning is a causal factor in the increased size of the auditory cortex. Our language learning capacity is felt in the Hippocampus region. The human brain has evolved over 100 years and ever since then [Figure 3], we have expanded our brain’s capacity. The above study exposes us to the cognitive benefits felt inside the hippocampus, cortex, and human brain itself. (Bach, Deborah, et al 2012) The cognitive benefits of learning a new language are undeniable. People who speak more than one language are with better memory, problem-solving and critical thinking. (Bach, Deborah, et al 2012) [Figure 4]. Just after that, a study conducted in 2012 measured structural changes in the prefrontal and temporal cortices, particularly looking at changes in grey matter density. Grey matter is comprised of the cell bodies of neurons, and this area is generally associated with intelligence, attention, memory, and language processing. This contrasts with the white matter, which comprises axon bundles carrying nerve impulses between neurons and predominantly serves to connect different regions of grey matter; it consequently determines the speed of information processing and memory recall. The study found that if a person learns something new, including a foreign language it increases the area of grey matter inside the prefrontal and temporal cortical. (Hurt, Avery,2021) Language could not exist without memory, in all its forms: working memory for sequential production and understanding, implicit memory for grammatical rules, semantic memory for knowledge, and episodic memory for communicating personal experience. (Lang, Susan S, 2009). While learning a new language, it is first encoded in the Sensory memory, with rehearsals it is passed to the Short-Term Memory and then to the Long-Term Memory, where the memory is permanently stored. Long Term Memory is stored in the Hippocampus region and the capacity of the Hippocampus is influenced by language and learning capacity, learning capacity can be increased by learning a new language, engaging in complex activities, and physical exercises which could increase both hippocampi. The language areas of the brain are the two out of four lobes-Frontal, Temporal, and Broca’s area, primary auditory area, and Wernicke’s area. The temporal lobe plays a greater role while acquiring memory in the brain as we learn and remember, and retrieve information faster which gets encoded by hearing than what we read. [brain of a bilingual, Figure 6]. This study has surveyed 50 language learners, who know more than one language, and some with know their Native language as the only language. The Independent variable in the study is the Questionnaires' whereas the responses of the subject were the Dependent variables throughout the research. The Questionnaires were filled with the consent of the subjects and a pre-rapport was built. Each Questionnaire was analyzed without personal bias and there is no assumption about labeling ‘good memory / bad memory’. The entire aim is to take a glance at how language learning improved the memory of the subjects and how significantly they felt improvement in their long-term memory. Working memory is defined as a dedicated, mental workspace for the storage, processing, and manipulation of information. One aspect of working memory includes the holding of information in a speech-based format, called the phonological loop (Krishnan,2021)