D: Hey Yaël, what are you up to? Is that a foreign language textbook?

Y: It’s a Latin textbook, Don, but I’m actually working on learning Italian.

D: So you bought the wrong book?

Y: Nope, I meant to get the Latin one. Researchers are saying that learning Latin roots might be a really helpful bridge for some English language learners between their native language and English—I’m hoping it could work the other way around too. We’ve known about the benefits of bilingualism for a while, and with that in mind, researchers wanted to think about ways to help English language learners succeed in English while also encouraging them to embrace their native language. They found that teaching Latin roots was a pretty effective way. In a study of eighty-four students, half attended a Latin roots session first and then an English vocabulary session, and the other half attended the sessions the other way around. The study found that the students who studied Latin first were better at analyzing the new, unfamiliar English words and inferring their meanings. Students who speak languages that also have Latin roots are at a particular advantage. For example, Spanish speakers know the word grada means step, which can help them remember the Latin root grad, which also means step. That can help them figure out the English word gradual, or step-by-step.

D: And the analyzing and inferring a meaning is probably a better way to remember a word than just trying to memorize it.

Y: All I can say is that this morning I learned that the Italian word for step is gradino, and I haven’t forgotten it yet.