Researchers from Maastricht University, the University of Liverpool, and King's College London have discovered that a low dose of alcohol enhances bilingual speakers' performance in a second language. The study involved 50 native German speakers at Maastricht University who had recently learned Dutch. Participants were randomly assigned a low-dose alcohol drink—equivalent to just under half a liter (460 ml) of 5% beer for a 70 kg man—or a non-alcoholic control beverage before engaging in a short Dutch conversation with an experimenter.
The conversations were recorded and evaluated by two native Dutch speakers, blinded to the drink condition, for objective ratings of language proficiency. Participants also provided self-assessments of their Dutch skills.
Observers rated alcohol-consuming participants significantly higher on Dutch proficiency, particularly pronunciation, compared to the control group. Self-assessments, however, showed no difference.
