2.  Is there one part of the brain that is
dedicated to language?
 What is the connection between memory
and language?
 Is there a difference between the
monolingual and the bilingual brain?
 When a language is “lost” where does it
go?

3. 1) The language brain.
2) Children and native language (L1)
acquisition.
3) Adults and second language (L2) learning.
4) What does it mean to be “bilingual”?

4.  Language involves many features – hearing, understanding,
speaking, reading – making it difficult to isolate the part of the
brain involved in language.
 Language can be described as having levels, each one with its own
neurological systems:
› Speech perception:
 Hearing and understanding sounds (phonology), words
(morphology), sentences (syntax).
› Speech production:
 Tongue, lips, vocal chords.

6.  The language parts of the brain are named
for two 19th century physicians, Paul Broca
and Carl Wernicke.
› Broca’s area is located in the left frontal lobe
and is considered responsible for articulated
language.
› Wernicke’s area is located in the left temporal
lobe and is considered accountable for
comprehension of sounds and words.

7. “january february march “the snow isn’t really tall
winter snow” but I went to eat
supper”
Patients with injury to
Broca’s area seem to Patients with injury to
have words but no Wernicke’s area seem
grammar. Speech is to have grammar but no
characterized by meaning. Speech is
disconnected content often rapid and
words, but ability to grammatical, but
recollect lists, series, nonsensical.
and songs.

8.  Short-term memory:
(working memory)
processes and stores
limited amount of
information for a few
seconds.
 Long-term memory:
› Implicit: knowledge that
cannot be retrieved
consciously – knowing
how.
› Explicit: knowledge that
can be consciously
retrieved – knowing what.

9.  Words may be stored and processed in explicit memory.
 Grammar may be stored and processed in implicit memory.

10.  Brain imaging technologies
suggest that when L2 is
“acquired” during the
sensitive period, L1 and L2
tend to be represented in
Libro Book
the same areas.
 Grammatical processing
seems to be sensitive to age
of acquisition.
 Semantic processing, seems
to be less sensitive to age
of acquisition.

11.  words are supported by explicit memory.
 syntax is supported by implicit memory.
 two languages of a bilingual person access
a common semantic system.
 adult L2 relies on explicit memory.
 increasing L2 proficiency changes brain
organization.

12.  Words may represent multiple kinds of
brain functioning:
› nouns act as attentional cues and seem to
activate the parts of the brain related to
sensory and associative processing
› verbs are associated with actions and
manipulation tasks and seem to activate the
motor areas of the brain.
(There is some indication that nouns may
have evolved in the brain before verbs.)

13.  Different features of language are
affected differently when a speaker is
removed from the language environment.
 Words seem to be more resistant to loss
than grammar.
 Concrete words (house, book) have richer
semantic representations and may be more
resistant to loss that abstract words.
› Her nose is her best feature.
› Flexibility is a good feature of this program.

14.  Do children have to be “taught” how to
speak?
 Do children generate creative utterances?
 How long does it take a child to become
“fluent” in her native language?
 What does it mean when a child says “I
seed the dog” or “Daddy eated his supper”
?

15. * Behaviorist
* Nativist
* Interactionist
* Cognitivist

16.  Environment shapes learning and
behavior.
 Children react to their surroundings.
 Children learn language from:
› Input
› Repetition
› Trial and error
› Error correction

17.  Children do not need any kind of formal
teaching to learn to speak.
 Children are born with a natural capacity
to learn language.
 The brain contains systems for
recognizing patterns of sound.

18. • Chomsky’s theory of the
LAD (Language Acquisition
Device) states that every
human is born with innate
principles of language.
• Children learn language
spontaneously and speak
creatively.
*The “poverty of the stimulus
theory” states that what
children hear is incomplete
and often ungrammatical,
and cannot account for the
creativity of their
utterances.

19.  There is a critical period for language
learning (supposedly up to 12 years of age)
 There is no agreement about how long this
sensitive period lasts.
 Genie – the American wild child – provided
evidence that language cannot be learned
after puberty.

20.  Children require interaction
with a care-giver to develop
language.
 Children follow the
attention of the care-giver
and learn to direct the
attention of the care-giver;
these activities involve
intention reading and
pattern finding skills.
 Communication is 3-way:
child, adult, object.
 Language structure emerges
from language use.

21.  Views language acquisition
within the context of the
child's broader intellectual
development. A child first
becomes aware of a  There is a consistent order of
concept, such as relative mastery of the most
size, and only afterward do common function
they acquire the words and morphemes in a language.
patterns to convey that
concept. Simple ideas are Example from English: first-- -
expressed earlier than more ing, then in and on, then the
complex ones even if they plural -s, last are the forms of
are grammatically more the verb to be. Seems to be
complicated-- Conditional conditioned by logical
mood is one of the last. complexity: plural is simple,
while forms of the verb to be
require sensitivity to both
number and tense.

22.  Does an adult learn a second language
the way a child learns a first language?
 If not, what happened to the LAD?
 Is there a critical period for L2
acquisition?
 Which is better … classroom learning or
immersion experience?

23.  What is the role of grammar instruction in
L2 acquisition?
 What is the role of interaction in L2
acquisition?
 What is the role of error correction in L2
acquisition?
 How do listening, speaking, reading, and
writing contribute to L2 acquisition?

24. Principles and Practice in
FIVE HYPOTHESES:
Second Language Acquisition
(1981)
1. acquisition / learning are two
different processes (spontaneous
vs. conscious)
2. natural order (grammar is
acquired in a predictable order
in a natural setting)
3. monitor (learning functions only
as an editor, or monitor)
4. input (comprehensible input is
essential for acquisition)
5. affective filter (acquisition occurs
when affective conditions are
optimal, i.e., low anxiety,
motivation, confidence, etc.
Stephen Krashen

25. I speak
Spanish
!
1. Grammatical competence: mastery of
linguistic code
2. Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge of
social and cultural rules
3. Discourse competence: ability to connect
sentences coherently
4. Strategic competence: ability to use verbal
and non-verbal communication strategies
Canale and Swain (1983)

26.  L1 competence
 general problem-solving systems
 general understanding about the nature
of human interaction
 intentional / purposeful motivation

27.  If you can understand a language, but not
speak it, are you bilingual?
 If you can speak a language, but cannot
write it, are you bilingual?
 If you can read a language, but cannot
speak or write it, are you bilingual?
 Who decides whether or not a person is
bilingual?

28. uno,
dos, tres
…
One, two, three …

29.  Balanced bilingual = mastery of two languages is roughly
equivalent
 Covert bilingual = someone who hides knowledge of another
language because of an attitudinal dispositon
 Dominant bilingual = greater proficiency in one of the two
languages
 Early bilingual = someone who acquired both languages in
childhood
 Late bilingual = someone who became bilingual later than
childhood
 Receptive bilingual = someone who understands but does not
read or write
 Secondary bilingual = someone whose second language had been
added to a first via instruction
 Incipient bilingual = someone at the early stages of bilingualism

30.  at home
 at school
 traveling
 when you’re in love
 in the work place

31. No one has the same level
or the same type of
proficiency in two
(or more) languages!

32.  In the 19th century people believed that
being bilingual was detrimental to
intellectual and spiritual growth.
 In the early 20th century some studies
indicated that bilingual children had
lower IQs than monolingual children.
 Today, some bilingual speakers may be
encouraged to suppress their minority
language in favor of the culturally
dominant language.

33.  creative thinking
 flexible thinking
 faster learning
 larger vocabulary
 greater sensitivity
in communication

34.  the alternating use of two
or more languages in a
El profe single conversation event.
es really Yeah … So, do
nice.
 a natural, observable
you want to go
occurrence among people
a tomar una
of all ages who speak more
pola now?
than one language.
 the norm for many
bilinguals.
 a mostly unconscious,
spontaneous language
phenomenon in bilingual
interactions.

35.  CS is rule-governed and may even be a type of
skilled language performance.
 One language in bilingual speech production is
more dominant and activated than the other; the
dominant one is called the matrix language and
the secondary one is the embedded language.
 The grammar of the matrix language governs the
structure of words (morphology) and the order of
words (syntax) in CS.

36.  CS can be an intentional strategy to
› convey power
› express anger
› be funny (Open the window para que las
moscas fly)
› create social distance OR intimacy

37.  Can you understand French?
 Can you speak English?
 Can you read? Write?
 Do you engage in word play with English?
 Do you code-switch?
BILINGUAL CONTINUUM
----x---------------------------------------x--
incipient balanced

38.  We explored theories about
› the language brain …
› first language acquisition …
› second language learning …
› bilingualism …
ARE YOU BILINGUAL?