Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

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The Role of the Right Hemisphere in Second Language Acquisition We turn now to a slightly different but related topic, one that has also stimulated a great deal of interest recently: the role of the right hemisphere in second language acquisition. The position we outlined for first language acquisition is consistent with the idea that the right hemisphere may play some role in early stages, and interestingly enough, it has been suggested that the right brain is somehow involved in normal second language acquisition in much the same way. Again, we briefly list some recent research results in this area, and attempt to supply an explanation. 1. Brain damage. In a recent survey of aphasia in "polyglot" subjects, Galloway (forthcoming) found a slightly higher incidence of aphasia due to right-sided lesions than in a presumable monolingual population (Table 2), consistent with the idea that the right hemisphere might be playing some role in second language acquisition or performance. Table 2. Frequency of aphasia in polyglots and monolinguals __________________________________________________________________________ Right-handers Left-handers polyglots monolinguals* polyglots monolinguals* __________________________________________________________________________ Right lesions 4 (14%) 2% 5 (71%) 32% Left lesions 25 (86%) 98% 2 (29%) 68% __________________________________________________________________________ * Estimated from aphasia literature (Galloway, forthcoming). 2. Dichotic listening and tachistoscopic exposure. Some dichotic listening studies and some tachistoscopic exposure studies (a visual analogue of dichotic listening: response superiority for items flashed to the right visual field is interpreted as reflecting left hemisphere processing) show little or no difference between first and second languages, typically showing left hemisphere processing for both (Hamers and Lambert, 1977; Barton, Goodglass, and Shai, 1965; Kershner and Jeng, 1972; Carroll, 1978). Other studies, however, do show the second language to be less left hemisphere lateralized or show right hemisphere processing. Obler, Albert, and Gordon (1975), in a study of Hebrew-English bilinguals, found a right-ear advantage for both Hebrew and English words, but observed a greater right-ear 78
advantage in the first language. English-dominant Americans acquiring Hebrew in Israel displayed a greater right-ear advantage for English words than for Hebrew, and Hebrew-dominant Israelis who learned some English in school showed a greater rightear advantage for Hebrew. Gaziel, Obler, Benton, and Albert (1977), in a tachistoscopic study of Israeli students studying English, found results quite consistent with those of Obler et al. (1975). As can be seen on Table 3, Table 3. Number of subjects showing visual field effect __________________________________________________________________ Seventh grade: Hebrew stimuli English stimuli LVFE 0 RVFE LVFE 0 RVFE 2 1 21 20 1 3 Ninth grade: Hebrew stimuli English stimuli LVFE 0 RVFE LVFE 0 RVFE 0 0 24 16 2 6 Eleventh grade: Hebrew stimuli English stimuli LVFE 0 RVFE LVFE 0 RVFE 2 1 21 6 5 13 __________________________________________________________________ LVFE = left visual field effect (suggests right hemisphere processing). RVFE = right visual field effect (suggests left hemisphere processing). 0 = no difference in visual field accuracy. From Gaziel, Obler, Benton, and Albert (1977). processing of Hebrew words was done by the left hemisphere by most subjects in all 3 years of school. With English, the second language, this was not the case: in grade 7, most subjects showed a left visual field advantage. The number of subjects behaving this way was less in grade 9, and less still in grade 11. Obler (1980) suggests that these data are most consistent with a stage hypothesis. The right hemisphere participates in second language acquisition in early stages. Obler's hypothesis is not at all inconsistent with the findings we have listed above. If the right hemisphere is involved only in initial stages of second language acquisition, we 79
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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
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1973, p. 8). Carroll also suggests
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outines and patterns, and at a more
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Sentences, Paired Associates, and S
Page 31 and 32: stay-ins appeared to be integrative
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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 and 76: ain", the right hemisphere, appears
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Page 79 and 80: hemisphere is removed, and the pati
Page 81: Monitor, to exist, and the degree t
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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
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Page 109 and 110: up to the intermediate level. As Wa
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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
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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
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Academy of Aphasia. Victoria, Briti
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Smith, A. (1966) "Speech and other
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