to my studs

To My Students...

Basics on How a Second Language is Learned

So, you are learning English. Well, what happens in your brain that allows this to happen? And what else, besides your brain, is involved? I hope to give a clear and brief description of what is involved in language learning.

The best research on first language learning believes that one can identify two different neural substrates (pathways) in the brain which subserve language. Basically stated, there is one substrate for learning rules and another for learning words. By words, we mean phrases, idiomatic expressions, sayings, proverbs, etc... By rules, we mean grammar rules such as adding an s to nouns to make them plural. This is just a model around which to conduct brain and language research, and thus one could see that the functions that these pathways serve are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, I am not saying that some idiomatic expressions could not be served by the rules pathway. In fact, it often seems that people respond automatically with rule-like idiomatic responses.

The pathway for grammar rules primarily invovles the frontal cortex and basal ganglia connections, and the word pathway primarily employs the temporal cortex. The grammar pathway makes greater use of the emotive part of the brain (the basal ganglia), and it is believed that this pathway is less sensitive or perhaps not available at all in learning a second language at ages beyond adolescence. Not having the emotive part of the brain available for second language learning to the extent it was in first language learning is the major difference in first and second language learning.

Therefore, the word pathway may be the only one available when you are learning your second language which does not primarily use the emotive brain. This does seem to make sense since in initially learning a second language, it may take years for one to develop emotional ties to words, and this may be because the frontal cortex/basal ganglia pathway is not available. With enough appropriate practice, the grammar rules one learns may become automatized which appears to mimic the workings of the rule pathway.

Another, commonly held belief about brain and language is that there are word associations. So, if I show you a picture of an apple you might think: delicious, orange or fruit. In cognitive psychology, these are called semantic neighbourhoods. In fact, during some types of brain surgery the patient lies awake as the surgeon stimulates the brain with an electricical probes which produces the person to speak specific words! Very incredible! So, some researchers believe that when a person has had a stroke where a small part of the cortex loses blood supply, then the person loses the words stored in that part of the brain - perhaps an entire neighborhood of words that were related to each other such as airplane, plane, jet, bi-wing, and B-52.

Sounds

'Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth?'
(Chris Tucker to Jackie Chan in Rush Hour)

So how did you learn those sounds you make for your native language? You were not just born with them. However, research suggests that infants map critical sounds in the first year of life before they can speak. For example, in English there are approximately 34 consonant sounds and 14 vowel sounds, and so an infant creates a typical b sound as well as other sounds, but has a fuzzy range for what she/he considers an acceptable b sound.

In addition, the infant's brain is assessing what sounds probably go together. So, in English, the b sound and the r sound can go together (i.e., bring, brick etc...) but the b and k sound cannot go together (i.e., there is no word like bking or bkick).

It seems after the age of 6 or so, a child has created a phonological filter through which he/she perceives sound. When something does not sound right, it is probably this filter that is telling you so. Of course, perceptual filters are not just limited to hearing. Seeing perhaps provides an even more dramatic filter; we all interpret what we see differently, and this gives rise to such expressions as 'seeing the world through rose colored glasses' and 'he is like a horse wearing blinders.'

So, the biggest drawback to learning a language after this sensitives periods of brain development (i.e., the first 6 years) is that your brain has created a native language which determines what sounds ought to go together. You may still be sensitive and able to assess what sounds go together in other languages as well. In fact, if your native language is closely related to English (i.e., German or Dutch), then you should have an advantage over other students whose language does not share similar sounds and groups of sounds as English.

I think it is obvious that spoken language existed long before written language, and perhaps sign language before either of them. However, most people believe that languages are just made up of rules, and to learn a language, one just needs to learn the rules. This simply is not the case. Today's grammar books are based on centuries-old (if you can believe it) Latin grammar books intended for teaching the elites in society Latin, and while written Latin may be very logical and rule-based, spoken language is not. How many people really care if they are using exact grammar, as long as you are communicating competently? Well, perhaps your language maven teacher, but if it is just him/her, isn't there something else involved in learning a language besides learning grammar?

Sources

Baker, M.C. (2001). Atoms of Language. New York : Basic Books.

Buchanan, L. & Westbury, C. (2001). Characterizing semantic space: Neighborhood effects in word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 8 (3), 531-544.

Chomsky, N. (1963). Syntactic Structures. Gravenhage : Mouton.

Damasio, A.R. (1994). Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Kuhl, P.K. (2000). A new view of language acquisition. Periodical of the National Academy of Sciences. 97 (22), 11850-11857.

National Academy of Sciences. (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods. Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press.

Pinker, S. (1999). Words and Rules. New York: Harper Collins.

Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate. New York: Harper Collins.

Sacks, O, W. (1989). Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf. Berkeley : University of California Press.

Schumann, J.H. (1999). A neurobiological basis for decision making in language pragmatics. Pragmatics and Cognition. 7(1), 283-311.

Schumann, J.H. (1997). The Neurobiology of Affect in Language. Boston: Blackwell.

Ullman, M.T. (2001). The neural basis of lexicon and grammar in first and second language: the declarative/procedural model. Bilingualism, 4 (1), 105-122.

Ullman, M.T. (2001). The declarative/procedural model of lexicon and grammar. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 30 (1), 37-69.

Back