Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

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esponse). When verbal stimuli are used, subjects typically show a higher evoked response in the left hemisphere, indicating greater processing activity (Wood, Goff, and Day, 1971). In EEG studies, verbal stimulation results in depressed alpha wave activity in the left hemisphere (the presence of alpha waves indicates a resting or meditative state) (Morgan, McDonald, and MacDonald, 1971). The Development of Cerebral Dominance and Language Acquisition Much of the controversy on the issue of the neurology of language acquisition is concerned with the development of cerebral dominance in childhood and its relation to language acquisition, both in first and second languages. The history of this issue begins with Lenneberg (1967), who hypothesized that the development of cerebral dominance was complete by around puberty ("firmly established"). According to Lenneberg, the infant brain is not firmly lateralized; in case of damage to the left hemisphere, or in case of removal of the left hemisphere ("hemispherectomy"), the right hemisphere is able to assume the language function. Lenneberg presented evidence that suggested that this ability of the language function to "transfer" hemispheres lasts until puberty, a conclusion that appeared to be consistent with reports of better recovery from acquired aphasia in children under age 10 or so. After puberty, the right hemisphere did not appear to be able to assume the language function in case of injury to or removal of the left hemisphere and Lenneberg hypothesized that this was due to the fact that lateralization of language to the left hemisphere was now complete. The presence of some of the language function in the right hemisphere in children also might be responsible for their superior recovery from aphasia. Lenneberg (see also Scovel, 1969) also hypothesized that the end of the development of cerebral dominance coincided with the close of a "critical period" for language acquisition, noting that "foreign accents cannot be overcome easily after puberty" (p. 176) and that "automatic acquisition (of second languages) from mere exposure... seems to disappear after this age" (p. 176). Lenneberg therefore proposed a biological explanation for child-adult differences in language acquisition attainment, a very serious claim for those of us interested in 72
second language acquisition in adult and one which could imply lowered expectancies on the part of both teachers and students. Since 1967, however, there have been some encouraging research reports. While there seems to be no question that puberty is an important turning point in language acquisition (see, for example, Seliger, Krashen, and Ladefoged, 1975), it is not at all clear that the development of cerebral dominance is directly related. Second, alternative explanations are available to explain child-adult differences, explanations that are far more encouraging than the biological one. We will first briefly review the "state of research" over the last decade on the question of the development of cerebral dominance, and then review one of these alternative explanations. Simply, it is no longer clear that the development of cerebral dominance is complete at puberty. There are now arguments supporting the position that lateralization is "firmly established" much earlier, at least by age 5, and that the preconditions for lateralization may be present even at birth. Below, we briefly summarize the experimental and clinical literature that has appeared on this topic in the last few years. As we shall see, most of the reports support "early" lateralization. There are, however, some apparent inconsistencies that we discuss below. 1. Dichotic listening. Witelson (1977) has reviewed all known studies using dichotic listening with children and concludes that "... of 36 experiments, 30, or about 83 per cent, reported right-ear superiority for their youngest subgroups, and all found rightear superiority in at least older subgroups" (p. 230) (where "younger" indicates from about age 3 to about 7). Studies evaluating developmental trends usually report no increase in degree of lateralization over time (age), supporting the hypothesis that language lateralization is firmly established far earlier than puberty, A few studies, however, do in fact report an increasing right-ear advantage up to about puberty, consistent with Lenneberg's position. What is interesting about these studies (e.g. Satz, Bakker, Teunissen, Goebel, and Van der Vlugt, 1975) is that the stimuli used for dichotic presentation were slightly different from the stimuli used in studies that report no change in degree of lateralization with increasing age. In the "puberty" studies, the children were presented with two or three sets of digits at one time 73
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Second Language Acquisition and Sec
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Acknowledgments I would like to tha
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Introduction This book is concerned
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performance..." (p.35). Corder (196
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when it does not get in the way of
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language (some similarities to firs
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In the second part of this chapter,
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far more valuable then the exercise
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Monitoring generally improves accur
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overconcern with correctness, howev
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language is spoken or may be expose
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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 74: and (4) Ich weiss nicht, I know not
Page 75: ain", the right hemisphere, appears
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
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language in Los Angeles. S. K. also
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Caretaker Speech and Language Acqui
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speech is so well rooted in the "he
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speech is: they are simpler than na
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Freed (1980) reports that foreigner
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e boredom. When they overshoot, the
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class was conducted entirely in Fre
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more expansions as well as repetiti
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Broen, P. (1972) The Verbal Environ
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Dulay, H. and M. Burt (1977) "Remar
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Hakuta, K. and H. Cancino (1977) "T
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Learning Aptitude. Rowley, Ma.: New
Page 151 and 152:
Academy of Aphasia. Victoria, Briti
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Smith, A. (1966) "Speech and other
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Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

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