It is estimated that half the people of the world can speak more than one language. In South India, a large percentage of the population is conversant in at least two languages. Thanks to a high rate of literacy, many of them can read and write in those languages too. We humans know a great deal about the languages of the world, and the scripts that they are written in. But we still have a lot to learn about how our brains read and comprehend languages.
The process of learning to read begins with getting acquainted with the letters of the alphabet and understanding how they produce sounds. As reading skills develop, children become increasingly adept at perceiving letter sounds and how these come together to form words. Eventually this becomes a subconscious action. Research has indicated that this progress is aided by the development of the visual word form area (VWFA) in the brain, which is formed in the part of the brain that is responsible for recognizing visual signals such as facial features and objects. With only a few months of education, this portion of the cortex is able to recognize the script that has been learned. When someone speaks multiple languages, patches of the VWFA are dedicated to recognising each language.
