Brain signatures of nativeness in second language acquisition II

与许多其他形式的学习不同，语言习得在成年期似乎比在童年期要困难得多，也不那么成功。这些与年龄相关的差异是由于生物限制，比如青春期大脑可塑性的丧失吗？还是其他因素发挥了更重要的作用，比如已经确立的第一语言与第二语言的竞争，或者童年（通过浸入式内隐学习）与成年（课堂教学）的不同学习类型？为什么有些晚学习者比其他人更成功，这些差异是否反映在大脑中？当移民因为不再接触母语而“失去”母语时，会发生什么？为了回答这些问题和类似的问题，Steinhauer博士和他的学生使用复杂的电生理实时测量来确定当我们学习第二语言并变得更加熟练时，我们的大脑激活模式是如何变化的。这项研究有望在许多领域产生重要影响。一种解释生物、心理测量、环境和语言因素如何调节大脑剧烈变化的第二语言习得模型引起了语言学家、心理学家和神经科学家的高度兴趣。此外，预期的实证数据也可以帮助教育政策利益相关者改善当前的语言教学和学习计划。这些问题与加拿大等多语言移民国家特别相关，在加拿大，大部分人口的第一语言既不是英语也不是法语（例如，蒙特利尔的21.5%）。

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).