http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8348 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:48:47 GMT 2013-05-22T19:48:47Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8679 Second Language Processing Shows Increased Native- Like Neural Responses after Months of No Exposure Morgan-Short, Kara; Finger, Ingrid; Grey, Sarah; Ullman, Michael T. Although learning a second language (L2) as an adult is notoriously difficult, research has shown that adults can indeed attain native language-like brain processing and high proficiency levels. However, it is important to then retain what has been attained, even in the absence of continued exposure to the L2-particularly since periods of minimal or no L2 exposure are common. This event-related potential (ERP) study of an artificial language tested performance and neural processing following a substantial period of no exposure. Adults learned to speak and comprehend the artificial language to high proficiency with either explicit, classroom-like, or implicit, immersion-like training, and then underwent several months of no exposure to the language. Surprisingly, proficiency did not decrease during this delay. Instead, it remained unchanged, and there was an increase in native-like neural processing of syntax, as evidenced by several ERP changes-including earlier, more reliable, and more left-lateralized anterior negativities, and more robust P600s, in response to word-order violations. Moreover, both the explicitly and implicitly trained groups showed increased native-like ERP patterns over the delay, indicating that such changes can hold independently of L2 training type. The results demonstrate that substantial periods with no L2 exposure are not necessarily detrimental. Rather, benefits may ensue from such periods of time even when there is no L2 exposure. Interestingly, both before and after the delay the implicitly trained group showed more native-like processing than the explicitly trained group, indicating that type of training also affects the attainment of native-like processing in the brain. Overall, the findings may be largely explained by a combination of forgetting and consolidation in declarative and procedural memory, on which L2 grammar learning appears to depend. The study has a range of implications, and suggests a research program with potentially important consequences for second language acquisition and related fields. © 2012 Morgan-Short et al. The original version is available through PLoS One at DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032974 Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8679 2012-03-28T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8591 Growing up and apart: Gender divergences in a Chicagoland elementary school Cameron, Richard A characteristic of children’s social orders is gender segregation. When children can choose, girls play more with girls and boys with boys. This begins around age three and peaks in later childhood. If children separate into same-gender groups, their interactions across the gender line will not be as frequent as those with members of the same sex. Following on Bloomfield’s assertion (1933:46) that “density of communication” results in the “most important differences of speech” within a community, I predict that differences will increasingly emerge between girls and boys. I test this using two sociolinguistic variables, (dh) and (ing), in the English spoken by children in an elementary school. The prediction is supported. Results contribute to research into language socialization and the acquisition of gendered linguistic expression. © 2010 by Cambridge University Press, Language Variation and Change DOI: 10.1017/S0954394510000074 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8591 2010-01-01T06:00:00Z