A beer really does help your language skills

Drinking a small amount of alcohol can temporarily improve your spoken foreign language skills, according to a new study.

Good news for Britons in France who may feel a little tongue-tied if they have to speak French in a public setting. British and Dutch researchers have recently published the results of a study that shows that drinking - but very much in moderation - can improve conversational skills in a foreign language.

The study appears to back up earlier research into the effects of alcohol on pronunciation.

Researchers tested 50 native German speakers studying at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Those taking part spoke to a native Dutch speaker for two minutes. Half of them were then given a glass of water to drink, the other half a drink containing a certain amount of alcohol, calculated based on their weight and body type.

Scientists said the amount of alcohol was equivalent to a 'pint of beer' for a man of 70kg.

Those who had consumed the alcohol spoke 'better' Dutch than those who had drunk water, the study found. Pronunciation was said to be noticeably better among the group that had drunk alcohol.

But the results, published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, came with two warnings.

Researchers noted that the 50 German-speakers who took part in the study knew whether they were drinking water or alcohol-based drinks, so they could not confirm what caused the apparent improvement: whether, for example, the alcohol had a biological or psychological effect.

They also warned that, while small doses of alcohol seem to help spoken language skills, that improvement rapidly deteriorates if people continue to drink.