L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Think of a good L2 speaker you know– What part of their speech is native and

what is non native?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Think of a good L2 speaker you know– What part of their speech is native and

what is non native?

– Vocabulary, grammar are good

– Phonology is bad

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Think of a good L2 speaker you know– What part of their speech is native and

what is non native?

– Vocabulary, grammar are good

– Phonology is bad

– So is critical period mainly phonology?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?– The brain changes

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?– The brain changes

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?– The brain changes

– Your L1 impedes your learning

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?– The brain changes

– Your L1 impedes your learning

– The innate language devise is only on for a few years

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?– The brain changes

– Your L1 impedes your learning

– The innate language devise is only on for a few years

– Children and adults learn differently

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Why is there a critical period?– The brain changes

– Your L1 impedes your learning

– The innate language devise is only on for a few years

– Children and adults learn differently

– What if adults has to spend as much time as kids figuring out the language? Time

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● How does L1 impede learning?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● How does L1 impede learning?– Highly ingrained habits

– Attending to L1 cues, distinctions

– Brain has strong L1 connections

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if you were forced to use a dvorak keyboard instead of a QWERTY?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if you were forced to use a dvorak keyboard instead of a QWERTY?

● What if you were forced to drive on opposite side of road?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if you were forced to use a dvorak keyboard instead of a QWERTY?

● What if you were forced to drive on opposite side of road?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if you were forced to use a dvorak keyboard instead of a QWERTY?

● What if you were forced to drive on opposite side of road?

● What if you had to classify all nouns into 7 categories?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if you were forced to use a dvorak keyboard instead of a QWERTY?

● What if you were forced to drive on opposite side of road?

● What if you had to classify all nouns into 7 categories?

● What if you had to start sentences with verbs?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if there were 5 ways to produce plurals.

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if there were 5 ways to produce plurals.

● What if your language was written without vowels?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● What if there were 5 ways to produce plurals.

● What if your language was written without vowels?

● What if you had to change the way you speak depending on the person's gender, age, social status, familiarity?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● How fluent will you get by interacting with people in the language 16 hours a day 7 days a week?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● How fluent will you get by interacting with people in the language 16 hours a day 7 days a week?

● How fluent will you get by using the language 5 hours a week?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Activation model– Adult brains are going to activate all kinds

of L1 stuff when hearing L2.

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Activation model– Adult brains are going to activate all kinds

of L1 stuff when hearing L2.

– Adults are going to use entrenched patterns that are not relevant to L2• word order

• phonotactics

• articulatory habits

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Transfer: applying L1 habits to L2

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Transfer: applying L1 habits to L2– Is it good or bad?

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Transfer: applying L1 habits to L2– Is it good or bad?

– It is good if language structures are the same• -s plural in English and Spanish

• Latin vocabulary in English and Romance languages

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Transfer: applying L1 habits to L2– Is it good or bad?

– It is good if language structures are the same• -s plural in English and Spanish

• Latin vocabulary in English and Romance languages

– It is bad when structures are different

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Can early exposure help later acquisition– Overhearers: heard language in childhood

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Can early exposure help later acquisition– Overhearers: heard language in childhood

– Learned childhood language as adults

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Can early exposure help later acquisition– Overhearers: heard language in childhood

– Learned childhood language as adults

– Had better pronunciation than non-overhearers

– No difference with non-overhearers on morphology

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Can early exposure help later acquisition– Overhearers

– Childhood speakers

– No early exposure

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Can early exposure help later acquisition– Overhearers

– Childhood speakers

– No early exposure• Childhood speakers could distinguish hard

Korean sounds better than overhearers and people with no early exposure

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Problems for adult learners– Feeling like a baby

– Unable to express self-identity

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Problems for adult learners– Feeling like a baby

– Unable to express self-identity

– Not fitting in socially

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Problems for adult learners– Feeling like a baby

– Unable to express self-identity

– Not fitting in socially

– Being illiterate again

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Problems for adult learners– Feeling like a baby

– Unable to express self-identity

– Not fitting in socially

– Being illiterate again

– Being too self-conscious to talk, get feedback, get involved in L2 culture

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● People may retain accent to retain cultural identity

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● People may retain accent to retain cultural identity

● Immigrants in Germany with good accents– watched more TV in German

– had more German friends

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● People may retain accent to retain cultural identity

● Immigrants in Germany with good accents– watched more TV in German

– had more German friends● Immigrants with bad accents adopted less

German culture

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Bad accent may be due to– less practice with Germans, not less

acculturation

L1 and L2 Acquisition

● Accent changing– When moving to different state

– What does family think of it?

– Video

Bilingualism

● How are two languages processed in the brain?

Bilingualism

● How are two languages processed in the brain?

● Is it good to raise children bilingual?● Are there benefits to being bilingual?

Bilingualism

● Experiment: Spanish / Catalan bilinguals– Shown two pictures, one in red and the

other in green.

– Asked to name picture in green and ignore red one

Bilingualism

● Distractor with cognate name (cup: tasa, tassa)

● Distractor with non-cognate name (net: red, xarxa)

Bilingualism

● Distractor with cognate name (cup: tasa, tassa)

● Distractor with non-cognate name (net: red, xarxa)

Bilingualism

● Distractors with cross language related names (armilla, ardilla)

● Distractors with unrelated names (pico, bec)

Bilingualism

● Distractors with cross language related names (armilla, ardilla)

● Distractors with unrelated names (pico, bec)

Bilingualism

● Moral of the story

– We can't help but “see” language

Bilingualism

● Moral of the story

– We can't help but “see” language

– Both languages are activated when one is being used.

Bilingualism

● Moral of the story

– We can't help but “see” language

– Both languages are activated when one is being used.

– But wait, what about verbal versus signed languages?

Bilingualism

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy-measures blood flow

Bilingualism

● Three groups

– ASL / English bilinguals

– ASL monolinguals

– English monolinguals

Bilingualism

● Experiment:

– Monolingual mode: name picture in one language

– Bilingual mode: name pictures alternating languages

Bilingualism

● Starred bars are significantly different

● Posterior temporal area is Wernike's area

● Why would sensory motor be more activated in bilingual mode?

Bilingualism

● So, words in both languages are activated, how about sentences?

Bilingualism

● So, words in both languages are activated, how about sentences?

– Lexical Decision task with sentences

– German / English bilinguals

Bilingualism

The tree was painted by the artist.

Primes

The tree was painted by the artist.

Bilingualism

Der Baum wurde von dem Künstler gemalt.(The tree was painted by the artist.)

Primes

The tree was painted by the girls.

Bilingualism

Der Baum wurde von dem Künstler gemalt.(The tree was painted by the artist.)

Primes

The moon was painted by the girls.

Bilingualism

The artist painted the tree.

Primes

Der Künstler malte den Baum.(The artist paints the tree)

Bilingualism

Are languages processed in different parts of the brain?Brain exposed patients shown pictures, and asked to say “this is a ___”

Spot on brain is electrically stimulated.

If stimulation impedes production it’s a language area

Are certain areas particular to one language?

Yes, but more are common to both languages.