Electrophysiology of Non-Native Language Acquisition and Attrition

全球交通和通信的变化使会说两种或两种以上语言的能力变得更加重要。然而，学习第三语言(L3)可能会干扰学习者对以前获得的第二语言(L2)的熟练程度，这种现象被称为语言损耗。关于语言为什么过时、它们如何过时以及语言的哪些方面最容易受到磨损的根本问题仍然没有得到回答。这一建议旨在更好地理解在大学生的真实语言学习环境中，新语言(L3)的学习如何干扰学习者对以前获得的非母语(L2)的熟练程度。来自华盛顿大学的Lee Osterhout博士将进行三项实验，使用基于高密度脑电的大脑活动测量方法，纵向调查学习者在L3(意大利语)和L2(相似语言、西班牙语或不太相似的语言，如日语)处理句子的能力的变化。由于大脑活动测量对语言意义和语法方面的差异敏感，结果将提供对语言知识(对于第二语言和第三语言)获得或丢失的具体理解，以及一种语言的习得如何影响另一种语言的丧失。鉴于多种语言技能在现代相互关联的世界中的重要性，更好地理解语言磨损的原因将产生广泛的影响。该项目的调查结果可能导致改进和定制语言学习方面的教学方法，并保护以前获得的外语。该项目将产生一个具有广泛相关性的大型数据集。这个数据集有可能被用来研究对语言敏感的大脑反应的空间起源，测试基于高密度脑电的脑源成像的新的数学和计算工具，并解决大脑活动在毫秒级的时间尺度上和来自多个大脑区域的基本问题，即大脑活动如何在实验室外的学习和“遗忘”的结果下发生变化。

Global changes in transportation and communication have placed a premium on the ability to speak two or more languages. However, learning a third language (L3) can interfere with the learner's proficiency in a previously acquired second (L2) language, a phenomenon referred to as language attrition. Fundamental questions about why languages attrite, how they attrite, and what aspects of language are most susceptible to attrition remain unanswered. This proposal seeks to better understand how the learning of a new language (L3) can interfere with the learner's proficiency with a previously acquired non-native language (L2), in the context of real-world language learning among college students. Dr. Lee Osterhout, from the University of Washington, will perform three experiments using a high density EEG-based brain activity measure to longitudinally investigate changes in learners' ability to process sentences in their L3 (Italian) and in their L2 (a similar language, Spanish, or a less similar language, such as Japanese). Because the brain activity measure is differentially sensitive to aspects of linguistic meaning and grammar, the results will provide a specific understanding of what linguistic knowledge (for both the L2 and L3) has been gained or lost, and how the acquisition of one language influences the loss of another.Given the importance of multi-lingual skills in the modern, inter-connected world, a better understanding of the causes of language attrition will have broad impact. Findings from this project may lead to ways to improve and customize instructional pedagogy with respect to language learning, and to protect previously acquired foreign languages. This project will generate a large data set with broad relevance. Potentially, this data set could be used to study the spatial origins of language-sensitive brain responses, test new mathematical and computational tools for high-density EEG-based brain source imaging, and address the fundamental question of how brain activity, at the temporal scale of milliseconds and from multiple brain regions, changes as a result of learning and "unlearning" outside of the laboratory.