Language,cognition, and second language grammaticality judgments

In first language research, there appear to be two predominant positions relating metalinguistic awareness to language development. One suggests that since metalinguistic awareness is related to primary language acquisition (comprehension and production), general cognitive processes perform a limited role in metalinguistic awareness. The other suggests that since metalinguistic awareness is more closely related to secondary language acquisition (reading and writing), a greater role is assumed by general cognitive processes. There have been some indirect attempts to study the role of language and cognition with respect to second language grammaticality judgments. There is growing evidence that metalinguistic awareness is a reliable indicator of developing second language competence. Furthermore, it has been shown that language aptitude is significantly related to metalinguistic awareness. The present study was designed to investigate the statistical relationship between second language grammaticality judgments and selected cognitive and linguistic variables. The variables studied were second language proficiency, second language classroom achievement, first language reading competence, language aptitude, nonverbal intelligence, field dependence-independence, and a written grammaticality judgment test tapping the ability to recognize, and correct, deviance. Subjects were college students in advanced English-as-a-second-language classes. Multivariate statistical techniques were used to determine the relative contribution of linguistic and cognitive variables to the individual variation demonstrated by the learners in their ability to detect deviance in English. The results showed that second language proficiency, second language achievement in the classroom, and language aptitude were significant predictors of the subjects' ability to make grammaticality judgments. First language reading competence was significantly related to subjects' ability to correct deviance. These observations are discussed in the light of: (1) the relationship among cognition, language, and metalinguistic awareness, and (2) the role of metalinguistic awareness in second language acquisition and second language learning.     

A Voice and So Much More: The Neglect and Representation of Language in Social Psychology

Linguistic diversity is an irreducible characteristic of the world we live in today, yet the study of language remains relatively neglected in mainstream and critical social psychologies alike. In order to argue for a renewed confrontation between language and critical social psychology, this study presents an overview of both the absence of language from mainstream, experimental social psychology and of the emergence, since the 1970s, of the social psychology of language as a distinctive subfield in the discipline. It is argued that although the social psychology of language made the subject perceptible as a speaking and above all accented subject, foregrounding language as an index of class, ethnicity and race, it achieved this perceptibility without challenging the basic ideological coordinates according to which experimental social psychology conceptualises the world and subjects in relation to language. For this reason, the social psychology of language, despite its important contributions, reproduces an essentially national and monolingual imagination of language related phenomena and linguistic subjectivities. The task for a critical social psychology of language, it is argued, is to 'demythologise' and 'disinvent' language and language ideologies in the discipline.     

RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE AS POETRY: HEIDEGGER's CHALLENGE

This paper examines how Heidegger's view that language is poetry might provide a helpful way of understanding the nature of religious language. Poetry, according to Heidegger, is language in its purest form, in that it both reveals Being, whilst also showing the difference between word and thing. In poetry, Heidegger suggests, we come closest to the essence of language itself and encounter its strangeness and impermeability, and its revelatory character. What would be the implications for viewing religious language in this way? Through examining Heidegger's view that poetry is the purest form of language, I suggest that it would also be possible to view religious language as poetry in this way, in that it also shows the transcendence of what cannot be brought to presence in language, except as concealed. Such a view of religious language does not regard it as a problematic type of language, deserving special treatment, but rather suggests that in religious language the inarticulable relationship between word and world is revealed.     

Language Development and Assessment in the Preschool Period

Most young children make significant progress in learning language during the first 4?years of life. Delays or differences in patterns of language acquisition are sensitive indicators of developmental problems. The dynamic, complex nature of language and the variability in the timing of its acquisition poses a number of challenges for the assessment of young children. This paper summarises the key developmental milestones of language development in the preschool years, providing a backdrop for understanding difficulties with language learning. Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are characterised illustrating the types of language difficulties they exhibit. Genetic evidence for language impairment suggests complex interactions among multiple genes of small effect. There are few consistent neurobiological abnormalities and currently there is no identified neurobiological signature for language difficulties. The assessment of young children??s language skills thus focuses on the evaluation of their performances in comparison to typically developing peers. Assessment of language abilities in preschool children should involve an evaluation of both expressive and receptive skills and should include an evaluation of more than one dimension of language. The use of a single measure of a language component, such as vocabulary, is considered inadequate for determining whether preschool children have typical language or language impairment. Available evidence supports the inclusion of measures of phonological short-term memory in the assessment of the language abilities of preschool children. Further study of genetic, neurobiological and early behavioural correlates of language impairments in preschool children is needed.     

The neural organization of language: evidence from sign language aphasia

To what extent is the neural organization of language dependent on factors specific to the modalities in which language is perceived and through which it is produced? That is, is the left-hemisphere dominance for language a function of a linguistic specialization or a function of some domain-general specialization(s), such as temporal processing or motor planning? Investigations of the neurobiology of signed language can help answer these questions. As with spoken languages, signed languages of the deaf display complex grammatical structure but are perceived and produced via radically different modalities. Thus, by mapping out the neurological similarities and differences between signed and spoken language, it is possible to identify modality-specific contributions to brain organization for language. Research to date has shown a significant degree of similarity in the neurobiology of signed and spoken languages, suggesting that the neural organization of language is largely modality-independent.     

学前儿童睡眠问题与语言障碍的关系

睡眠是个体身心健康发展的重要保障。学前期的睡眠问题可能会对儿童的行为、认知、语言和健康等诸多方面产生负面影响。研究表明, 睡眠呼吸障碍、夜间睡眠不足以及入睡困难等睡眠问题是学前儿童语言障碍的潜在威胁性因素。学者们提出了睡眠记忆巩固假说、警觉性假说和突触稳态假说来解释睡眠问题影响学前儿童语言发展的内在机制。这些研究结果为语言障碍的早期干预提供了一种新思路, 即通过行为干预、药物治疗、手术治疗和游戏干预等睡眠问题干预方式来提高学前儿童的语言能力。未来的研究可以进一步深入分析睡眠问题与语言障碍相关联的内在机制, 了解不同年龄段儿童睡眠问题与语言能力的关系, 以及探究融合教育背景下有效的游戏干预方式。     

Shyness as a risk factor for second language acquisition of immigrant preschoolers

The aim of this study was to examine whether shyness is a risk factor for second language acquisition in immigrant preschoolers. Results from studies on first language acquisition indicate that shy children show less favorable language development; however, it remains unclear how shyness affects second language acquisition. As second language skills are often acquired in interactions outside the family where shyness is more evident, we postulate that shyness has a strong negative effect on second language acquisition. This hypothesis was examined using standardized tests and parental ratings in a sample of 330 immigrant preschoolers cross-sectionally and with 130 immigrant preschoolers longitudinally. The analyses revealed lower second language competence as well as slower language development in shy immigrant children compared to their non-shy counterparts. The present study highlights that not only contextual but also personality factors need to be considered for a comprehensive understanding of second language acquisition in immigrant children.     

Do Bilinguals Automatically Activate Their Native Language When They Are Not Using It?

Most models of lexical access assume that bilingual speakers activate their two languages even when they are in a context in which only one language is used. A critical piece of evidence used to support this notion is the observation that a given word automatically activates its translation equivalent in the other language. Here, we argue that these findings are compatible with a different account, in which bilinguals “carry over” the structure of their native language to the non‐native language during learning, and where there is no activation of translation equivalents. To demonstrate this, we describe a model in which language learning involves mapping native language phonological relationships to the non‐native language, and we show how it can explain the results attributed to automatic activation of translation equivalents.     

三语者语义通达中的跨语言重复启动效应

采用跨语言重复启动的任务范式探讨三语者的语义通达机制。被试为在广州学习汉语的印度尼西亚留学生48名。自变量是学习条件(包括学过与未学过), 因变量是单词判断的反应时和正确率。实验1探讨三语者在视觉与听觉呈现的三语词汇语义通达任务中是否会借助于一语对等词, 结果发现一语词汇在两种任务条件下都能够发挥中介作用, 此结果表明了三语者与双语者语义通达机制的一致性; 实验2探讨三语者在视觉与听觉呈现的三语词汇语义通达任务中是否会借助于二语对等词, 结果发现二语词汇只能在视觉呈现任务条件下发挥中介作用, 此结果表明二语词汇在三语语义通达过程中的中介作用具有限制性。本研究结果表明三语者的语义通达机制与双语者既有一致性, 也有其限制性。     

Bilingual aphasia and language control: A follow-up fMRI and intrinsic connectivity study

In a world that is becoming more multilingual, bilingual aphasia is a clinical problem with a major clinical impact. However, at present we lack causal explanations of the many features of recovery patterns and there is no consensus about the language in which the patient should receive speech therapy. Further advance requires an understanding of the dynamics of recovery. In a novel longitudinal, single-case study, we combine fMRI and dynamic causal modeling to examine the effects of specific language treatment for picture naming on the representation and control of language areas during the course of recovery. Improved performance in the treated language was associated with increased activation in language areas. Consistent with theoretical expectations, causal modeling indicated increased connectedness of the control and language networks for the treated language. This functional approach holds great promise for investigating recovery patterns and the effects of specific language treatment in bilingual aphasic patients.     

语言线索对空间关系表征的影响及其机制

语言的获得会对空间认知产生深刻的影响。关于语言与空间认知,近些年来,不仅有大量的相关研究发现语言能力跟空间认知能力之间存在着密切的关联,还出现了实验研究,来试图直接揭示语言对空间关系表征的影响。研究发现,在一系列涉及不同空间关系的任务中,相较于非语言线索,语言线索提示的效果明显更好。在此基础上,从语言编码的特点和加工过程等方面进一步分析语言的作用机制,发现在空间表征中语言主要起到了选择和整合的作用,语言的作用过程是即时性的。建议未来研究在空间任务和语言表述形式上有更多的变式,从而更全面地来揭示语言的作用。     

Age of acquisition predicts rate of lexical evolution

The processes taking place during language acquisition are proposed to influence language evolution. However, evidence demonstrating the link between language learning and language evolution is, at best, indirect, constituting studies of laboratory-based artificial language learning studies or computational simulations of diachronic change. In the current study, a direct link between acquisition and evolution is established, showing that for two hundred fundamental vocabulary items, the age at which words are acquired is a predictor of the rate at which they have changed in studies of language evolution. Early-acquired words are more salient and easier to process than late-acquired words, and these early-acquired words are also more stably represented within the community’s language. Analysing the properties of these early-acquired words potentially provides insight into the origins of communication, highlighting features of words that have been ultra-conserved in language.     

心理理论和语言发展的关系

大量的研究表明心理理论和语言之间存在着密切的关系,但具体关系如何,一直存在争议。文章介绍了心理理论和语言关系的新近研究,着重阐述了目前关于二者关系的两种观点： （1）心理理论和语言发展之间不仅是早期揭示的一般相关关系,而是可能存在着因果关系——或以语言为因,或以心理理论为因;（2）心理理论和语言都受第三种因素影响,如执行功能和生长环境,但这些因素是究竟如何影响心理理论和语言发展的,还需深入探讨。文章最后对该领域今后的研究提出了新的见解和思路,包括对不同语言能力间的比较研究,对二者关系的跨文化研究和毕生取向研究等     

False belief and language comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children

The current research compared two accounts of the relation between language and false belief in children, namely that (a) language is generally related to false belief because both require secondary representation in a social-interactional context and that (b) specific language structures that explicitly code metarepresentation contribute uniquely to the language-false belief relation. In three studies, attempts were made to correlate Cantonese-speaking children's false belief with their general language comprehension and understanding of certain structures that explicitly express metarepresentational knowledge. Results showed that these structures failed to predict false belief after age, nonverbal intelligence, and general language comprehension were considered. In contrast, general language remained predictive of false belief after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, and language structures. The current findings are more consistent with a general language account than a language structure account.     

Language comprehension vs. language production: age effects on fMRI activation

Normal language acquisition is a process that unfolds with amazing speed primarily in the first years of life. However, the refinement of linguistic proficiency is an ongoing process, extending well into childhood and adolescence. An increase in lateralization and a more focussed productive language network have been suggested to be the neural correlates of this process. However, the processes underlying the refinement of language comprehension are less clear. Using a language comprehension (Beep Stories) and a language production (Vowel Identification) task in fMRI, we studied language representation and lateralization in 36 children, adolescents, and young adults (age 6-24 years). For the language comprehension network, we found a more focal activation with age in the bilateral superior temporal gyri. No significant increase of lateralization with age could be observed, so the neural basis of language comprehension as assessed with the Beep Stories task seems to be established in a bilateral network by late childhood. For the productive network, however, we could confirm an increase with age both in focus and lateralization. Only in the language comprehension task did verbal IQ correlate with lateralization, with higher verbal IQ being associated with more right-hemispheric involvement. In some subjects (24%), language comprehension and language production were lateralized to opposite hemispheres.     

Structure in language. Creating form in talk

In psycholinguistics, the systematic study of language production has begun to take a place beside the study of language comprehension as a means to the end of understanding human language use. Because a major and very visible component of speaking a language is knowing how to create forms to carry messages, efforts to explain language production must confront long-standing questions about the relationship between structure and function in psychological explanation. One traditionally appealing view of that relationship in the realm of language is that sentence structures are associated with or reducible to the general forces of cognition that drive interpretation and communication. This article surveys some of the challenges to this view that emerge from the study of speech errors, and sketches the progress that has been made in developing an alternative view, renewing the argument that syntactic structures are necessary elements in an explanation of language use.     

交流语言认知特征

交流是以语言为核心媒介的一种社会人际互动方式, 与个人语言认知过程不同, 交流互动性决定了交流语言认知过程的复杂性、灵活性。重点归纳和述评：交流语言内容特征、交流语言加工理论、交流语言与非语言因素的关系。未来对于交流语言认知特征的探讨应持一个相对开放的态度; 尝试采用多因素依次叠加的实验设计, 考虑交流实验情境的自然性, 以多种子加工过程为基础全面理解语言认知特征。     

The specificity of the neural response to speech at birth

In this work we ask whether at birth, the human brain responds uniquely to speech, or if similar activation also occurs to a non‐speech surrogate ‘language’. We compare neural activation in newborn infants to the language heard in utero (English), to an unfamiliar language (Spanish), and to a whistled surrogate language (Silbo Gomero) that, while used by humans to communicate, is not speech. Anterior temporal areas of the neonate cortex are activated in response to both familiar and unfamiliar spoken language, but these classic language areas are not activated to the whistled surrogate form. These results suggest that at the time human infants emerge from the womb, the neural preparation for language is specialized to speech.     

Look who's talking: speech style and social context in language input to infants are linked to concurrent and future speech development

Language input is necessary for language learning, yet little is known about whether, in natural environments, the speech style and social context of language input to children impacts language development. In the present study we investigated the relationship between language input and language development, examining both the style of parental speech, comparing ‘parentese’ speech to standard speech, and the social context in which speech is directed to children, comparing one‐on‐one (1:1) to group social interactions. Importantly, the language input variables were assessed at home using digital first‐person perspective recordings of the infants' auditory environment as they went about their daily lives (N =26, 11‐ and 14‐months‐old). We measured language development using (a) concurrent speech utterances, and (b) word production at 24 months. Parentese speech in 1:1 contexts is positively correlated with both concurrent speech and later word production. Mediation analyses further show that the effect of parentese speech‐1:1 on infants' later language is mediated by concurrent speech. Our results suggest that both the social context and the style of speech in language addressed to children are strongly linked to a child's future language development.