The ability of bilingual speakers to speak a second language improves after consuming a low dose of alcohol. This is the conclusion of a new study by Maastricht University, the University of Liverpool, and King's College London. The researchers tested the effects of a low dose of alcohol on the participants' self-assessed and observer-rated ability to speak Dutch. The participants were 50 native German speakers at Maastricht University who had recently learned to speak, read and write in Dutch. The participants were randomly given either a low-dose alcohol or a non-alcoholic control drink before having a conversation in Dutch for a few minutes with an experimenter. The exact dose of alcohol varied depending on the participants' body weight, but corresponded to just under half a liter (460 ml) of 5% beer for a 70 kg man.
The conversations were recorded and the foreign language skills of the participants were then assessed by two Dutch native speakers who did not know whether the participant had consumed alcohol or not (observer rating). The participants also assessed their own skills in the Dutch language during the conversation (self-assessment).
The researchers found that the participants who had consumed alcohol were rated significantly better by the observers for their knowledge of the Dutch language, especially in terms of pronunciation, than the participants who had not drunk alcohol. However, alcohol had no influence on the self-assessment of Dutch language skills.
