Bilingual language learning: An ERP study relating early brain responses to speech, language input, and later word production

García-Sierra, Adrián; Rivera‐Gaxiola, Maritza; Percaccio, Cherie R.; Conboy, Barbara T.; Romo, Harriett D.; Klarman, Lindsay; Ortiz, Sophia; Kuhl, Patricia K.

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2011.07.002

Cited by 230 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…For example, one study that used brain measures of phonetic discrimination (i.e., ERPs) found that Spanish-English DLL infants between 6- and 9-months of age did not show evidence of neural discrimination of Spanish or English contrasts that monolingual infants showed at that age. Evidence of neural discrimination of contrasts did not occur until 10- to 12-months of age in DLLs (Garcia-Sierra et al, 2011). It is thought that this U-shaped pattern may occur because children exposed to two languages require more time to accumulate sufficient data to discriminate the two sets of phonetic categories they must learn.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review

Hammer

Hoff

Uchikoshi

et al. 2014

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

321

198

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The number of children living in the United States who are learning two languages is increasing greatly. However, relatively little research has been conducted on the language and literacy development of dual language learners (DLLs), particularly during the early childhood years. To summarize the extant literature and guide future research, a critical analysis of the literature was conducted. A search of major databases for studies on young typically developing DLLs between 2000–2011 yielded 182 peer-reviewed articles. Findings about DLL children’s developmental trajectories in the various areas of language and literacy are presented. Much of these findings should be considered preliminary, because there were few areas where multiple studies were conducted. Conclusions were reached when sufficient evidence existed in a particular area. First, the research shows that DLLs have two separate language systems early in life. Second, differences in some areas of language development, such as vocabulary, appear to exist among DLLs depending on when they were first exposed to their second language. Third, DLLs’ language and literacy development may differ from that of monolinguals, although DLLs appear to catch up over time. Fourth, little is known about factors that influence DLLs’ development, although the amount of language exposure to and usage of DLLs’ two languages appears to play key roles. Methodological issues are addressed, and directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review

Hammer

Hoff

Uchikoshi

et al. 2014

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

321

198

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Four of these studies were conducted in United States with infants between 6 and 20 months, all being exposed to Spanish and English (Conboy & Mills, 2006; Conboy & Kuhl, 2011; Garcia-Sierra et al, 2011; Shafer, Yu, & Garrido-Nag, 2012). The remaining six studies were conducted in Japan (Japanese and English; Hidaka et al, 2012; Takahashi et al, 2011), United Kingdom (Welsh and English; Kuipers & Thierry, 2012), Canada (English in addition to French, Spanish, Chinese; Petitto et al, 2012), Germany (German and Turkish; Rinker, Alku, Brosch, & Kiefer, 2010) and Finland (Finnish and French; Shestakova, Huotilainen, Ceponiene, & Cheour, 2003).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A critical review

Barac

Bialystok

Castro

et al. 2014

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

368

193

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Dual language exposure and bilingualism are relatively common experiences for children. The present review set out to synthesize the existing research on cognitive development in bilingual children and to identify the gaps and the methodological concerns present in the existing research. A search of major data bases for research conducted with typically-developing, preschool-age dual language learners between 2000-2013 yielded 102 peer-reviewed articles. The existing evidence points to areas of cognitive development in bilingual children where findings are robust or inconclusive, and reveals variables that influence performance. The present review also identifies areas for future research and methodological limitations.

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“…One-baby learners showed a positive mismatch response (MMR) that our laboratory and others interpret as increased auditory attention to an acoustic stimulus, but not one associated with phonetic learning (Morr et al 2002). Our data show that positive MMR responses become a more negative with increased exposure to a phonetic contrast (García-Sierra et al 2011). Infants in the two-baby learning condition showed a negative MMR in response to the phonetic contrast, a response that resembles the negative MMR shown in phonetic tests on monolingual adults and infants (Näätänen et al 1997).…”

Section: For Details)mentioning

confidence: 44%

“…Bilingual learners acquire two languages, using the same principles, although our data suggest that the sensitive period for learning is extended (García-Sierra et al 2011). We are currently investigating the extended sensitive period in bilinguals: The neural system may remain "open" longer due to variability in overall language input or due to reduction in input per unit time for each of the native languages, thus extending the learning process (see Kuhl et al 2008, for discussion).…”

Section: The Timing Of Infant Learningmentioning

confidence: 93%

Early Language Learning and the Social Brain

Kuhl

2014

Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol

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Explaining how every typically developing child acquires language is one of the grand challenges of cognitive neuroscience. Historically, language learning provoked classic debates about the contributions of innately specialized as opposed to general learning mechanisms. Now, new data are being brought to bear from studies that employ magnetoencephalograph (MEG), electroencephalograph (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies on young children. These studies examine the patterns of association between brain and behavioral measures. The resulting data offer both expected results and surprises that are altering theory. As we uncover what it means to be human through the lens of young children, and their ability to speak, what we learn will not only inform theories of human development, but also lead to the discovery of neural biomarkers, early in life, that indicate risk for language impairment and allow early intervention for children with developmental disabilities involving language.The earliest phases of language acquisition invoke a special fascination because they allow us to examine humans' extraordinary abilities to acquire what is arguably our most unique skill-the ability to speak. Humans' capacity for language provoked classic debates on nature versus nurture by equally strong proponents of nativism (Chomsky 1959) and learning (Skinner 1957). Although we are far beyond those debates and now informed by a great deal of data about infants, their innate predispositions, and their incredible abilities to learn once exposed to natural language (Saffran et al. 2006;Kuhl 2010Kuhl , 2011, we are only beginning to posit the mechanisms in the brain and mind of a child that enable language acquisition (e.g., Kuhl et al. 2014).In this paper, I advance a new hypothesis-that in the earliest phases of language acquisition, infants combine a powerful set of domain-general computational skills with their equally extraordinary social skills to "crack" the speech code. Furthermore, I hypothesize that the social brain-in ways we have yet to understand-"gates" the computational mechanisms underlying learning in the domain of language. My goal here isto discuss recent results that advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the social influences on language learning in infants.The assertion that social factors gate language learning, I argue, explains not only how typically developing children acquire language, but also why children with autism exhibit twin deficits in social cognition and language, and why nonhuman animals with impressive computational abilities do not acquire language. Moreover, the gating hypothesis may explain why social factors play a far more significant role than previously realized in human learning beyond language and throughout our lifetimes (Meltzoff et al. 2009).Using methods of systems neuroscience tailored for use with very young children, we can now explore how the integration of information across specialized brain systems such as language ...

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Bilingual language learning: An ERP study relating early brain responses to speech, language input, and later word production

Cited by 230 publications

References 56 publications

The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review

The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review

The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A critical review

Early Language Learning and the Social Brain

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