Explicit and implicit second language training differentially affect the achievement of native-like brain activation patterns (original) (raw)
Related papers
Native-like brain processing of syntax can be attained by university foreign language learners
Neuropsychologia, 2013
Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined the neurocognition of late-learned second language (L2) Spanish in two groups of typical university foreign-language learners (as compared to native (L1) speakers): one group with only one year of college classroom experience, and low-intermediate proficiency (L2 Low), and another group with over three years of college classroom experience as well as 1-2 semesters of immersion experience abroad, and advanced proficiency (L2 Advanced). Semantic violations elicited N400s in all three groups, whereas syntactic word-order violations elicited LAN/P600 responses in the L1 and L2 Advanced groups, but not the L2 Low group. Indeed, the LAN and P600 responses were statistically indistinguishable between the L1 and L2 Advanced groups. The results support and extend previous findings. Consistent with previous research, the results suggest that L2 semantic processing always depends on L1-like neurocognitive mechanisms, whereas L2 syntactic processing initially differs from L1, but can shift to native-like processes with sufficient proficiency or exposure, and perhaps with immersion experience in particular. The findings further demonstrate that substantial native-like brain processing of syntax can be achieved even by typical university foreignlanguage learners.
Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined the neurocognition of late-learned second language (L2) Spanish in two groups of typical university foreign-language learners (as compared to native (L1) speakers): one group with only one year of college classroom experience, and low-intermediate proficiency (L2 Low), and another group with over three years of college classroom experience as well as 1-2 semesters of immersion experience abroad, and advanced proficiency (L2 Advanced). Semantic violations elicited N400s in all three groups, whereas syntactic word-order violations elicited LAN/P600 responses in the L1 and L2 Advanced groups, but not the L2 Low group. Indeed, the LAN and P600 responses were statistically indistinguishable between the L1 and L2 Advanced groups. The results support and extend previous findings. Consistent with previous research, the results suggest that L2 semantic processing always depends on L1-like neurocognitive mechanisms, whereas L2 syntactic processing initially differs from L1, but can shift to native-like processes with sufficient proficiency or exposure, and perhaps with immersion experience in particular. The findings further demonstrate that substantial native-like brain processing of syntax can be achieved even by typical university foreignlanguage learners.
Second language processing shows increased native-like neural responses after months of no exposure
2012
Although learning a second language (L2) as an adult is notoriously difficult, research has shown that adults can indeed attain native language-like brain processing and high proficiency levels. However, it is important to then retain what has been attained, even in the absence of continued exposure to the L2-particularly since periods of minimal or no L2 exposure are common. This event-related potential (ERP) study of an artificial language tested performance and neural processing following a substantial period of no exposure. Adults learned to speak and comprehend the artificial language to high proficiency with either explicit, classroom-like, or implicit, immersion-like training, and then underwent several months of no exposure to the language. Surprisingly, proficiency did not decrease during this delay. Instead, it remained unchanged, and there was an increase in native-like neural processing of syntax, as evidenced by several ERP changesincluding earlier, more reliable, and more left-lateralized anterior negativities, and more robust P600s, in response to wordorder violations. Moreover, both the explicitly and implicitly trained groups showed increased native-like ERP patterns over the delay, indicating that such changes can hold independently of L2 training type. The results demonstrate that substantial periods with no L2 exposure are not necessarily detrimental. Rather, benefits may ensue from such periods of time even when there is no L2 exposure. Interestingly, both before and after the delay the implicitly trained group showed more native-like processing than the explicitly trained group, indicating that type of training also affects the attainment of nativelike processing in the brain. Overall, the findings may be largely explained by a combination of forgetting and consolidation in declarative and procedural memory, on which L2 grammar learning appears to depend. The study has a range of implications, and suggests a research program with potentially important consequences for second language acquisition and related fields.
PLoS ONE, 2012
This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neurocognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean-and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1-L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., ''grammaticalization'') are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning.
Native-like Event-related Potentials in Processing the Second Language Syntax: Late Bilinguals
Negah Institute for Social Research & Scientific Communication, 2021
The P600 brain wave reflects syntactic processes in response to different first language (L1) syntactic violations, syntactic repair, structural reanalysis, and specific semantic components. Unlike semantic processing, aspects of the second language (L2) syntactic processing differ from the L1, particularly at lower levels of proficiency. At higher L2 proficiency, syntactic violations are more likely to result in P600, similar to the L1 native speakers. Objectives: This study aims to assess the effect of proficiency on L2 syntactic processing in late bilinguals and determine whether L1-like cerebral activation patterns will result. Materials & Methods: In this descriptive quantitative research, the subjects were two groups of Persian-English bilinguals (L1=Persian, L2=English; n=10 high-proficient, n=10 low-proficient; gender=female who started learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) after the age of 15 through explicit instructions. Within the violation paradigm, Event-related Potentials (ERPs) were collected from the subjects in the neurocognitive lab of Shahid Beheshti University, Iran, in 2019-20. The experimental trials of the ERP task included violated English regular past tense verbs. ERP components were compared with those of the L1 (components closer to P600). Results: The t-value for P600 peak latency differed significantly only for the Incorrect past tense verb (ICV) condition and only in O2 (P=0.039463, t=2.2205, CI: 0.003112-0.11249, P<0.05) between the two groups (higher in the high proficient group). Conclusion: P600 for the high-proficient group demonstrated that L2 proficiency was a more determinant factor in L1-like cortical representation of L2 than the age of acquisition and or the type of context.
The P600 brain wave reflects syntactic processes in response to different first language (L1) syntactic violations, syntactic repair, structural reanalysis, and specific semantic components. Unlike semantic processing, aspects of the second language (L2) syntactic processing differ from the L1, particularly at lower levels of proficiency. At higher L2 proficiency, syntactic violations are more likely to result in P600, similar to the L1 native speakers. Objectives: This study aims to assess the effect of proficiency on L2 syntactic processing in late bilinguals and determine whether L1-like cerebral activation patterns will result. Materials & Methods: In this descriptive quantitative research, the subjects were two groups of Persian-English bilinguals (L1=Persian, L2=English; n=10 high-proficient, n=10 low-proficient; gender=female who started learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) after the age of 15 through explicit instructions. Within the violation paradigm, Event-related Potentials (ERPs) were collected from the subjects in the neurocognitive lab of Shahid Beheshti University, Iran, in 2019-20. The experimental trials of the ERP task included violated English regular past tense verbs. ERP components were compared with those of the L1 (components closer to P600). Results: The t-value for P600 peak latency differed significantly only for the Incorrect past tense verb (ICV) condition and only in O2 (P=0.039463, t=2.2205, CI: 0.003112-0.11249, P<0.05) between the two groups (higher in the high proficient group). Conclusion: P600 for the high-proficient group demonstrated that L2 proficiency was a more determinant factor in L1-like cortical representation of L2 than the age of acquisition and or the type of context.
Native-language N400 and P600 predict dissociable language-learning abilities in adults
A B S T R A C T Language learning aptitude during adulthood varies markedly across individuals. An individual's native-language ability has been associated with success in learning a new language as an adult. However, little is known about how native-language processing affects learning success and what neural markers of native-language processing, if any, are related to success in learning. We therefore related variation in electrophysiol-ogy during native-language processing to success in learning a novel artificial language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while native English speakers judged the acceptability of English sentences prior to learning an artificial language. There was a trend towards a double dissociation between native-language ERPs and their relationships to novel syntax and vocabulary learning. Individuals who exhibited a greater N400 effect when processing English semantics showed better future learning of the artificial language overall. The N400 effect was related to syntax learning via its specific relationship to vocabulary learning. In contrast, the P600 effect size when processing English syntax predicted future syntax learning but not vocabulary learning. These findings show that distinct neural signatures of native-language processing relate to dissociable abilities for learning novel semantic and syntactic information.
2017
It has been suggested that bilinguals learn additional languages 'better' than monolinguals. However, evidence is sparse, particularly for grammar. We examined behavioral and neural correlates of learning an additional (artificial) language in early Mandarin-English bilinguals, compared to English monolinguals. Following grammar instruction, participants practiced comprehension and production, and judged grammaticality at low and high proficiency while event-related potentials (ERPs) were acquired. Bilinguals and monolinguals did not differ on behavioral measures, but showed distinct ERP patterns. At low proficiency only bilinguals showed a P600, a common ERP correlate of syntactic processing in native speakers of languages. At high proficiency both groups showed P600s, though the monolinguals also evidenced an anterior positivity not typically found in native speakers of languages during syntactic processing. These findings suggest that, even without bilingual/monolingual behavioral differences, bilinguals show ERP patterns for an additional language that are more similar to those of native speakers of languages.
In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1). Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old) and 13 late (AoA = 18 years old) Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants' L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants' languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants' L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants' L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners' ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants' L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants' L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives' ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 2014
The present article provides a review of results from electrophysiological studies of the neurocognition of second language. After a brief introduction to eventrelated potentials (ERPs), the article explores four sets of findings from recent second language (L2) ERP research. First, longitudinal L2 ERP research has demonstrated that L2 neurocognitive processing changes qualitatively with time. Second, research has shown that L2 learners can evidence nativelike ERP effects for L2 grammatical features that are present in their first language (L1) as well as for features that are unique to their L2 but may have more difficulty processing features that are present in their L1 but that are instantiated differently in their L2. Third, emerging research has revealed that individual differences in ERPs can be accounted for by linguistic and nonlinguistic factors. Finally, recent empirical studies have shown that explicit and implicit training contexts can lead to nativelike ERP effects at high levels of proficiency, but that implicit contexts may lead to the development of a fuller nativelike processing signature, at least for syntactic processing.With continued interdisciplinary approaches and sophisticated research designs, L2 ERP research is only beginning to reach its potential and promises to uniquely inform central questions of second language acquisition.