Are language and thought interdependent to the extent that only language makes intelligent thought possible?: And what role does learning a foreign language play in the development of the young mind?

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Anglistik/ Amerikanistik), course: English Language in Social and Cultural Context, language: English, abstract: Learning a foreign language does not seem to affect semantic representations in the first language. But does it change cognition in any way? We do know that the brain accommodates a foreign language purely anatomically up to the age of twelve and we know that this heightened flexibility in our neurological pathways allows for more flexible combining of core-knowledge systems, thus giving an advantage in other cognitive areas. What we do not know is if it actually changes our perception of the world.