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儿童期更困难，也更不成功。这些与年龄相关的差异是否是由于生物学上的限制，比如青春期大脑可塑性的丧失？还是其他因素发挥了更重要的作用，例如已经建立的第一语言与第二语言竞争，或者儿童时期不同类型的学习（通过沉浸式学习）与成年期（课堂教学）？为什么有些学习晚的人比其他人更成功，这些差异是否反映在大脑中？当移民因为不再接触第一语言而“失去”第一语言时会发生什么？为了回答这些和类似的问题，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如何变化。这项研究有望在多个领域产生重要影响。语言学家、心理学家和神经科学家对第二语言习得的模型非常感兴趣，该模型解释了生物、心理测量、环境和语言因素如何调节大脑的巨大变化。此外，预期的经验数据也可以帮助教育政策的利益相关者在改善目前的语言教学和学习计划。这些问题与多语言移民国家特别相关，如加拿大，那里大部分人口的第一语言既不是英语也不是法语（例如，21.5蒙特利尔）。

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).