Brain signatures of nativeness in second language acquisition II

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Unlike many other forms of learning, language acquisition seems much more difficult and less successful in adulthood than in childhood. Are these age-related differences due to biological constraints, such as the loss of brain plasticity in puberty? Or do other factors play a more important role, such as an already established first language that competes with the second one, or the different types of learning in childhood (implicit learning through immersion) versus adulthood (classroom instruction)? Why are some late learners much more successful than others, and are these differences reflected in the brain? What happens when immigrants 'lose' their first language because they are no longer exposed to it? In order to answer these and similar questions, Dr Steinhauer and his students use sophisticated electrophysiological real-time measures to determine how our brain activation patterns change when we learn, and become more proficient, in a second language. This research promises to have important implications in a variety of areas. A model of second language acquisition that explains how biological, psychometric, environmental and linguistic factors modulate the dramatic changes in the brain is of high interest to linguists, psychologists and neuroscientists. Moreover, the expected empirical data may also assist educational policy stakeholders in improving current language teaching and learning programs. These issues are of particular relevance to multi-lingual immigration countries such as Canada, where large parts of the population speak a first language that is neither English nor French (e.g., 21.5 % in Montreal).