Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6. The Neurological Correlates of Language Acquisition: Current Research Research and speculation on the neurological correlates of language acquisition have been growing at a rapid and accelerating rate, and it is increasingly difficult for the nonspecialist to adequately cover and evaluate current discoveries. This paper will attempt to review some of the current research in this area, that dealing with what is perhaps the most obvious neurological phenomenon relating to language, cerebral dominance, or lateralization, and attempt to update the reader on recent progress and suggest some interpretations of this research. Cerebral Dominance It is by now a well-established finding that for most people (practically all right-handers and most left-handers), the two sides of the cortex perform different functions. As Table 1 indicates, the left hemisphere Table 1. Functions of the two hemispheres ________________________________________________________ Left hemisphere Right hemisphere ________________________________________________________ Language Spatial relations Time-related functions "Gestalt" perception Part-to-whole judgments "Propositional" thought Music "Appositional" thought ________________________________________________________ is responsible for most linguistic performance in adults. Recent studies strongly suggest that the left brain is also involved in certain non- linguistic functions, specifically those related to the perception of time: for example, the left hemisphere is superior to the right in judging temporal order, or deciding which of two stimuli was presented first (see, for example, Carmon and Nachshon, 1971; Papcun, Krashen, Terbeek, Remington, and Harshman, 1974). The "other side of the 70
ain", the right hemisphere, appears to be responsible for spatial relations, socalled "gestalt" perception (exemplified by the ability to rapidly estimate the number of dots on a card after an extremely brief exposure, without actually counting each dot), and "part-to-whole" judgments (for example, matching arcs to circles). At least some aspects of musical perception may also be done by the right hemisphere (Milner, 1962). The eminent neurosurgeon, Joseph Bogen, in a fascinating series of papers (Bogen, 1969a, 1969b; Bogen and Bogen, 1969), has speculated that the two sides of the brain utilize two different cognitive modes, one "propositional" (analytic, digital) and one "appositional" (analogic, synthetic). Only the intactness of the corpus callosum, the fibres connecting the two hemispheres, allows us the illusion that we have just one mind. A variety of techniques have been used by researchers to ascertain "where things are" in the brain. At one time, researchers had to depend on "natural experiments", the unfortunate consequences of unilateral brain damage caused by tumor, strokes and man-made accidents (e.g. gunshot wounds). Correlations were made between the locus of a lesion and the type of impairment the patient suffered: for example, we know that in adults, aphasia is nearly always the result of injury to the left hemisphere (Russell, and Espir, 1961, report that 97 per cent of their 205 aphasics had left hemisphere damage). While researchers continue to rely on data from brain damage to a large extent, more recently laterality in normal subjects has been investigated using several harmless techniques. In dichotic listening, subjects are presented with competing, simultaneous auditory stimuli (e.g. the right ear hears "ba" while the left ear hears "ga"). A right-ear advantage in response accuracy is thought to reflect left hemisphere processing for the stimulus presented. In adults, dichotic presentation of verbal stimuli typically results in a right-ear advantage (Kimura, 1961), while certain non-verbal stimuli (environmental sounds, musical chords; see Curry, 1967; Gordon, 1970) yield a left-ear advantage. The right-ear advantage for verbal stimuli typically seen in normal subjects is generally quite small, but it is reliable, and, when groups of subjects are used, it is usually statistically significant. Other techniques include the use of EEG and AER (average evoked 71
Page 1 and 2:
Second Language Acquisition and Sec
Page 3 and 4:
Acknowledgments I would like to tha
Page 5 and 6:
Introduction This book is concerned
Page 7 and 8:
performance..." (p.35). Corder (196
Page 9 and 10:
when it does not get in the way of
Page 11 and 12:
language (some similarities to firs
Page 13 and 14:
In the second part of this chapter,
Page 15 and 16:
far more valuable then the exercise
Page 17 and 18:
Monitoring generally improves accur
Page 19 and 20:
overconcern with correctness, howev
Page 21 and 22:
language is spoken or may be expose
Page 23 and 24: 2. Attitude and Aptitude in Second
Page 25 and 26: 1973, p. 8). Carroll also suggests
Page 27 and 28: outines and patterns, and at a more
Page 29 and 30: Sentences, Paired Associates, and S
Page 31 and 32: stay-ins appeared to be integrative
Page 33 and 34: motivation played no role because o
Page 35 and 36: (1977), after interviewing teachers
Page 37 and 38: did not produce the same results. T
Page 39 and 40: a stage many people, but not all, r
Page 41 and 42: The Good Language Learner Revisited
Page 43 and 44: predict differences in student achi
Page 45 and 46: settle the issue of whether adults
Page 47 and 48: language had higher scores than stu
Page 49 and 50: Table 1. English proficiency and ye
Page 51 and 52: The "self-study" reinterpretation o
Page 53 and 54: series the evidence for learning is
Page 55 and 56: 4. The Domain of the Conscious Gram
Page 57 and 58: Ann Fathman, confirmed our earlier
Page 59 and 60: significant differences for any of
Page 61 and 62: Table 1. Studies analyzing grammati
Page 63 and 64: Table 3. Counterexamples to orderin
Page 65 and 66: Table 4 (cont.) ___________________
Page 67 and 68: ut *der Katze Ohr (The cat's ear).
Page 69 and 70: Research Findings 1. First language
Page 71 and 72: First-language-influenced errors he
Page 73: and (4) Ich weiss nicht, I know not
Page 77 and 78: second language acquisition in adul
Page 79 and 80: hemisphere is removed, and the pati
Page 81 and 82: Monitor, to exist, and the degree t
Page 83 and 84: advantage in the first language. En
Page 85 and 86: while English "orients its users to
Page 87 and 88: 7. On Routines and Patterns in Lang
Page 89 and 90: adulthood. A. Smith (1966) describe
Page 91 and 92: "That's a _______") which were char
Page 93 and 94: variation. Nelson, for example, dis
Page 95 and 96: which he had learned by imitation.
Page 97 and 98: and often incorporated them into hi
Page 99 and 100: what utterances mean by observing h
Page 101 and 102: Furthermore, she associated strings
Page 103 and 104: and patterns other than as discours
Page 105 and 106: similar difficulty orders for gramm
Page 107 and 108: understanding language that is "a l
Page 109 and 110: up to the intermediate level. As Wa
Page 111 and 112: practical only in a foreign languag
Page 113 and 114: is making some effort at making him
Page 115 and 116: It may be useful to distinguish thr
Page 117 and 118: the luxury of building up acquired
Page 119 and 120: marker /-s/, and the regular and ir
Page 121 and 122: to speak the language they were lea
Page 123 and 124: 9. The Theoretical and Practical Re
Page 125 and 126:
contact with. "Teacher-talk" is the
Page 127 and 128:
language in Los Angeles. S. K. also
Page 129 and 130:
Caretaker Speech and Language Acqui
Page 131 and 132:
speech is so well rooted in the "he
Page 133 and 134:
speech is: they are simpler than na
Page 135 and 136:
Freed (1980) reports that foreigner
Page 137 and 138:
e boredom. When they overshoot, the
Page 139 and 140:
class was conducted entirely in Fre
Page 141 and 142:
more expansions as well as repetiti
Page 143 and 144:
Broen, P. (1972) The Verbal Environ
Page 145 and 146:
Dulay, H. and M. Burt (1977) "Remar
Page 147 and 148:
Hakuta, K. and H. Cancino (1977) "T
Page 149 and 150:
Learning Aptitude. Rowley, Ma.: New
Page 151 and 152:
Academy of Aphasia. Victoria, Briti
Page 153 and 154:
Smith, A. (1966) "Speech and other
show all

Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?