Neurolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition

The following three papers were presented at the TESOL Research Committee's Fourth State of the Art Symposium, TESOL/Detroit, 1981. The purpose of the symposium was twofold: 1) to demystify our conceptions about the neurolinguistic literature, i.e., to provide a knowledge base about the field, and 2) to stimulate further research related to the issues addressed. Three research experts from within the ranks of TESOL were given a year to critically review the growing body of literature on neurolinguistics and its relation to second language learning and teaching. Their efforts were carefully orchestrated so that the three papers would provide a comprehensive and yet focused treatment of some of the major issues in this growing field. In this first paper, Seliger considers three broad issues: 1) the language functions performed by the right hemisphere after language has become centralized in the left hemisphere, 2) the linguistic role of the right hemisphere after lateralization, and 3) the role of right hemisphere functions in the language acquisition process as opposed to the language maintainance process. He claims that the right hemisphere has many functions which may play an important role in second language acquisition. He also notes that since the hemispheres interact at both the cortical and subcortical levels, it is best not to teach to one hemisphere exclusively. In the second paper, Genesee focuses on the growing body of literature dealing with neurolinguistic investigations of bilinguals. He begins with clinical studies of bilingual aphasia and reports that the two languages of the bilingual do not appear to be subserved by different neuropsychological substrates. He then examines the experimental studies of bilingualism dealing with the extent of right hemisphere involvement in second language processing. On the basis of this examination, he reports the following: 1) there may be greater right hemisphere involvement in language processing in bilinguals who acquire their second language late, 2) there may also be greater right hemisphere involvement in bilinguals who learn their second language in informal contexts, and 3) there is little evidence that either stage or level of second language proficiency plays an important

Cognition · Language acquisition · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Neurolinguistics · Psycholinguistics · Second-language acquisition · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Writing and Handwriting Education