The Cognitive Neuroscience of Second Language Acquisition
Summary:
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Second Language Acquisition is book composed of a collection of articles from a conference held at the Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in September 2005. The articles discuss the cognitive neuroscience and neuroanatomy of second language acquisition. They cover the effects of second language acquisition on childhood and aging, specifically the critical period for language acquisition. Other topics include issues between the process in which second language acquisition occurs and its end product. And lastly, it discusses the usage of a second language, in particular how multilingual speakers control their two languages.
The source’s summary of itself in the introduction matched my sense of the actual work done in throughout the work fairly well. There were terms and hypotheses that could not be thoroughly explained in the introduction, therefore they were omitted and expanded upon in the chapters. However, overall the chapters of the book followed the introduction topic by topic.
Source in relation to my research question:
Just as Wendy mentioned intermixing her Spanish and English as a child, Indefrey and Gullberg discuss the interaction of two languages and how “bilingual speakers manage to speak or comprehend one language at a time without more than the occasional interference of the other language.” (Indefrey and Gullberg 6) This leads to points made by Garcia, Kapa and Colombo that there are enhanced attentional and control abilities associated with early multilingualism, in example, being able to multitask two languages.
One aspect of Indefrey and Gullberg that the other sources do not touch upon is the critical period of language acquisition. It is accepted that as one gets older it is more difficult to acquire another language. The reason being is much debated. The critical period refers to the ideal time in which certain abilities, such as second language acquisition, can be acquired if appropriate measures are taken in that time period of that individual. This is important for my research in that it help answers the question, so what? Why is this important? It’s important because we need to know these windows in order to further the intellect of future generations, and better understand our brains.
Gullberg, Marianne, and Peter Indefrey. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Second Language Acquisition. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 1-8. Print.