"One brain, two languages--"One brain, two languages--educating our bilingual students educating our bilingual students

in the light of Neuroscience“in the light of Neuroscience“

Dr. Luz Mary RinconDr. Luz Mary Rincon

The human brainThe human brain

Cerebral CortexCerebral Cortex

Reception of spoken and Reception of spoken and written languagewritten language

Brain Brain HemispheresHemispheres

                                                                                      

     

Cerebral Cerebral HemispheresHemispheres

Right hemisphere

Left Hemisphere(dominance for language)

Broca’s area (Paul Broca)

Wernicke’s area (Carl Wernicke)

Frontal lobe, above the Sylvian fissure

Between the parietal and the temporal lobe, below the Sylvian fissure

Production of grammatically correct sentences;high level syntactic structures; native intonation

Understanding and comprehension of spoken language;comprehension and production of meaning

Connected by corpus collusumw

Right Right hemispherehemisphere

Processes• Creativity, patterns, spatial awareness and context; awareness of second language learning; dominance for

procession of intonation (Sheila Humstein)

Functions

• Connected to left side of the body • Processes information more diffusely and simultaneously • Responsible for relational and mathematical operations• Specializes in recognizing places, faces, objects, and

nonverbal skills—music, visual, functions, artistic ability• Responsible for emotional and social needs; the seat of

passion and dreams• Responsible for gestures, facial movements, and body

language• understanding and remembering things we do and see • putting bits of information together to make an entire

picture

Processes• Speech, analysis, time, sequence

Functions

• Responsible for language acquisition and ability to speak languages;

• Processes information in a linear and sequential manner • Responsible for verbal expression, language functions and

capacity to use language meaningfully;• Responsible for invariable and arithmetic operations;• Specializes in recognizing words and numbers;• Does logical and analytical thinking;• memory for spoken and written messages;

• detailed analysis of information.

Left Left hemispherehemisphere

AphasiasAphasias

Yes... ah... Monday... er... Dad and Peter H... (his own name), and Dad.... er...

hospital... and ah... Wednesday... Wednesday,

nine o'clock... and oh... Thursday... ten o'clock, ah

doctors... two... an' doctors... and er... teeth...

yah

I called my mother on the television and did not

understand the door. It was too breakfast, but they came from far to near. My mother is not too old for

me to be young

AphasiaAphasia

loss or impairment of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to brain damage

AphasiasAphasias

• Left frontal lobe lesion—Broca’s aphasia

• Left posterior lobe lesion— Wernicke’s aphasia

Yes... ah... Monday... er... Dad and Peter H... (his own name), and Dad.... er...

hospital... and ah... Wednesday... Wednesday,

nine o'clock... and oh... Thursday... ten o'clock, ah

doctors... two... an' doctors... and er... teeth...

yah

I called my mother on the television and did not

understand the door. It was too breakfast, but they came from far to near. My mother is not too old for

me to be young

Brain Brain LateralizationLateralization

• Specialization of the functions of each cortical hemisphere as the brain matures

• Krashen, 1973, lateralization is complete by age five;

• Lenneberg, 1967, around pubertyñ

• Scover, 1984), emergence of lateralization at birth, quite evident at five, and completed, only evident, at about puberty.

• Biologically determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire

Critical Age Critical Age HypothesisHypothesis

method used to visualize neurons;it measures changes in blood flow

in the brain

fMRI Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging

P value

probability of a false-positive result equal to or less than

Left Hemisphere: Left Hemisphere: BrocaBroca’s and Wernicke’s ’s and Wernicke’s

areasareas, central role in , central role in language functionslanguage functions

Spatial separation Spatial separation in Brocain Broca’s area in ’s area in

late bilingualslate bilinguals

Spatial separation Spatial separation in Brocain Broca’s area in ’s area in

late bilingualslate bilinguals

Spatial separation Spatial separation in Brocain Broca’s area in ’s area in

late bilingualslate bilinguals

Spatial separation Spatial separation in Brocain Broca’s area in ’s area in

late bilingualslate bilinguals

Activity of Activity of Wernicke’Wernicke’s area in s area in

early bilingualearly bilingual

Activity in Activity in BrodmanBrodman’s 44 in ’s 44 in late bilingualslate bilinguals

Activity in Activity in WernickeWernicke’s area in ’s area in

late bilingualslate bilinguals

Overlapping in Overlapping in activation of activation of

BrocaBroca’s area in ’s area in early bilingualsearly bilinguals

Overlapping in Overlapping in activation of activation of

BrocaBroca’s area in ’s area in early bilingualsearly bilinguals

Overlapping in Overlapping in activation of activation of

BrocaBroca’s area in ’s area in early bilingualsearly bilinguals

Overlapping in Overlapping in activation of activation of

BrocaBroca’s area in ’s area in early bilingualsearly bilinguals

First vs second First vs second languages and the languages and the role of Brocarole of Broca’s area’s area

Cognitive growth is an Cognitive growth is an essential synergy in essential synergy in human developmenthuman development

Higher level cognitive Higher level cognitive processesprocesses

Using critical thinking exercises extends Using critical thinking exercises extends the child’s ability to read, think, reason, the child’s ability to read, think, reason,

and process information in a more coherent and process information in a more coherent and clearand clear

wayway

The higher the level of thinking, the more The higher the level of thinking, the more abstract and complex the task isabstract and complex the task is

Cognitive skills encompass different Cognitive skills encompass different types of processes:types of processes:

• Classifying• Discriminating between real and

fantasy/make-believe, between fact and opinion

• Distinguishing abstract from concrete, true and false

• Summarizing, outlining

• Comparing and contrasting• Identifying structure, steps in a

process, parts of a story, relationships

• Identifying main ideas• Ordering objects (facts, ideas)• Estimating• Predicting, inferring