Chapter 5. Using Event-Related Potentials in language acquisition research

The purpose of the present study was to examine patterns of neural activity relevant to language processing in 20-month-old infants, and to determine whether or not changes in cerebral organization occur as a function of specific changes in language development. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded as children listened to a series of words whose meaning was understood by the child, words whose meaning the child did not understand, and backward words. The results showed that specific and different ERP components discriminated comprehended words from unknown and from backward words. Distinct lateral and anterior-posterior specializations were apparent in EW responsiveness to the different types of words. Moreover, the results suggested that increasing language abilities were associated with increasing cerebral specialization for language processing over the temporal and parietal regions of the left hemisphere.

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Electrophysiological Approaches to Understanding Second Language Acquisition: A Field Reaching its Potential

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s026719051400004x ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 15-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Kara Morgan-Short

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

First Language ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽

Electrophysiological Studies ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Implicit Training

The present article provides a review of results from electrophysiological studies of the neurocognition of second language. After a brief introduction to event-related potentials (ERPs), the article explores four sets of findings from recent second language (L2) ERP research. First, longitudinal L2 ERP research has demonstrated that L2 neurocognitive processing changes qualitatively with time. Second, research has shown that L2 learners can evidence nativelike ERP effects for L2 grammatical features that are present in their first language (L1) as well as for features that are unique to their L2 but may have more difficulty processing features that are present in their L1 but that are instantiated differently in their L2. Third, emerging research has revealed that individual differences in ERPs can be accounted for by linguistic and nonlinguistic factors. Finally, recent empirical studies have shown that explicit and implicit training contexts can lead to nativelike ERP effects at high levels of proficiency, but that implicit contexts may lead to the development of a fuller nativelike processing signature, at least for syntactic processing. With continued interdisciplinary approaches and sophisticated research designs, L2 ERP research is only beginning to reach its potential and promises to uniquely inform central questions of second language acquisition.

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Event related potentials at initial exposure in third language acquisition: Implications from an artificial mini-grammar study

Journal of Neurolinguistics ◽

10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100939 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 100939 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jorge González Alonso ◽

José Alemán Bañón ◽

Vincent DeLuca ◽

David Miller ◽

Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Initial Exposure ◽

Third Language ◽

Third Language Acquisition ◽

Related Potentials

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PUPILLOMETRY IN LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263117000195 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 529-549 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Jens Schmidtke

Keyword(s):

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Pupil Diameter ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Mental Task ◽

Linguistic Research ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The 1960S ◽

Processing Effort ◽

Online Methods

AbstractIt has been known since at least the 1960s that small changes in pupil diameter in response to a mental task are indicative of processing effort associated with this task. More recently, with the advent of modern eye-trackers, which also measure the pupil diameter, pupillometry has been “rediscovered” by language researchers and the method has since been used in many different subdisciplines of linguistics. This article gives a nonexhaustive overview about recent linguistic research with the purpose of introducing researchers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) to pupillometry. In addition, the article discusses things to consider when designing an experiment and how pupil data can be analyzed. The range of possibilities in which pupillometry can be used in experimental SLA research makes it a welcome addition to other online methods such as eye-tracking and event-related potentials.

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Review of doctoral research in second language acquisition in Wales (2003–2008)

Language Teaching ◽

10.1017/s0261444810000029 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 496-521

Author(s):

Tess Fitzpatrick

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Mixed Methods Research ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Doctoral Research ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Broad Subject ◽

Vocabulary Assessment

An objective selection protocol identified 25 Ph.D. theses from Welsh universities in the period 2003–2008 which are relevant to the field of second language acquisition. Most of these fall into three broad subject areas: language in school, acquisition and assessment of spoken language, and lexical issues. The last of these encompasses the majority of theses reviewed here, and includes studies of vocabulary assessment, collocation and association, and the organisation of the bilingual lexicon. Research methods vary greatly, from classroom observations and questionnaires to lexical decision tasks and ERP (event-related potentials) techniques, and the stronger Ph.D.s tend to use mixed-methods research design. One persistent theme is that confounding complexities emerge from even the most specific and precise experimental studies. The most valuable doctoral research here recognises that its role is to investigate, with academic rigour, well-defined aspects of those complexities, and to clearly state its position in a larger investigative context.

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Event-related potentials during literacy acquisition

Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology ◽

10.17759/jmfp.2020090202 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 21-33

Author(s):

A.B. Rebreikina ◽

E.V. Larionova ◽

O.V. Martynova

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Reading Acquisition ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Literacy Acquisition ◽

Reading Disorder ◽

Lexical Semantic ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Neural Underpinnings

Literacy is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that has been well studied in psychology and pedagogy. Neurophysiologists try to understand the mechanisms of writing and reading acquisition by analyzing different linguistic processes. In this paper, we review the data that were revealed by using the event-related potentials (ERPs) method in the light of spelling, lexical, semantic and syntactic aspects of literacy, as well as changes in the components of ERPs in children and adults during language acquisition and in dyslexia, the most studied reading disorder. The ERPs method can help to understand both the general, universal neural underpinnings of literacy development and the unique features of different languages.

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