scholarly journals Sampling over Nonuniform Distributions: A Neural Efficiency Account of the Primacy Effect in Statistical Learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1484-1500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth A. Karuza ◽  
Ping Li ◽  
Daniel J. Weiss ◽  
Federica Bulgarelli ◽  
Benjamin D. Zinszer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Primacy Effect ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Learning Capacity ◽  
Multiple Structures ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Neural Efficiency ◽  
Behavioral Evidence

Successful knowledge acquisition requires a cognitive system that is both sensitive to statistical information and able to distinguish among multiple structures (i.e., to detect pattern shifts and form distinct representations). Extensive behavioral evidence has highlighted the importance of cues to structural change, demonstrating how, without them, learners fail to detect pattern shifts and are biased in favor of early experience. Here, we seek a neural account of the mechanism underpinning this primacy effect in learning. During fMRI scanning, adult participants were presented with two artificial languages: a familiar language (L1) on which they had been pretrained followed by a novel language (L2). The languages were composed of the same syllable inventory organized according to unique statistical structures. In the absence of cues to the transition between languages, posttest familiarity judgments revealed that learners on average more accurately segmented words from the familiar language compared with the novel one. Univariate activation and functional connectivity analyses showed that participants with the strongest learning of L1 had decreased recruitment of fronto-subcortical and posterior parietal regions, in addition to a dissociation between downstream regions and early auditory cortex. Participants with a strong new language learning capacity (i.e., higher L2 scores) showed the opposite trend. Thus, we suggest that a bias toward neural efficiency, particularly as manifested by decreased sampling from the environment, accounts for the primacy effect in learning. Potential implications of this hypothesis are discussed, including the possibility that “inefficient” learning systems may be more sensitive to structural changes in a dynamic environment.

scholarly journals Adults learning additional languages in their later years

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-124
Author(s):  
David Singleton ◽  
Dorota Záborská
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
The Self ◽  
Older Learners ◽  
Third Age ◽  
Learning Capacity ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Age Related

This article will explore the experience—challenges, benefits, and satisfactions— that awaits older adults who embark on the adventure of learning additional languages, either as ‘true’ or ‘false’ beginners, or in some cases as resilient lifelong (foreign language) learners (to be distinguished from polyglots). Drawing on the increasing number of studies focusing on third-age language learning, the article will address the self-doubt afflicting many third-age language learners and the difficulties claimed to be imposed on them by the effects of an age-related decline in language-learning capacity. It will go on to discuss the benefits that are said to accrue for older learners of languages other than their first. Finally, it will address and exemplify from our own data the intense enjoyment which many older adults derive from language learning.

The Language Learning Aptitudes of Jamaican Children at the Beginning of Secondary School

1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Dennis Craig ◽  
Sheila Carter
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Communication Style ◽  
Specific Factor ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Theory Of Language

Against the background of the creole-language situation in Jamaica, the present paper examines the need for a study of language aptitudes. Also examined are the relevance of S. B. Carroll's theory of language aptitudes in the Jamaican situation, and the implications that become evident out of a comparison of children's performance in language-aptitude and learning-potential tests. The findings suggest that performance in both types of test is strongly influenced by social-class factors. It is then further suggested that the communication style of creole-influenced speech is different from that required overtly or covertly in most types of test performance, and that this specific factor could be responsible for the results discussed.

The Use of Virtual Worlds in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

2019 ◽  
pp. 1949-1972
Author(s):  
Ellen Yeh ◽  
Guofang Wan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Learning Instruction ◽  
Language Teaching And Learning

This book chapter presents, a review of the literature from 2004-2014 regarding the various models of virtual worlds used in foreign language teaching and learning, the impact of virtual world learning environments and the implications of language teaching. The study being reported aims to address the following questions: (1) What are the models of virtual worlds used in language learning instruction in K-12 and higher education; (2) How do VWLEs impact language learning in terms of motivation, communicative competency, intercultural competency, collaborative competency, constructivist learning, and sociocultural competency; and (3) What are the implications of using VWLEs in foreign language teaching and learning? Results indicate that social context and task-based learning enhanced language learners' participation and motivations. Findings also indicate that consistent use of interactional strategies encouraged learners to engage in the tasks and stay motivated. The study suggested that a VWLE offers a motivating, engaging, and multi-dynamic environment for language learners.

The Use of Models as Written Corrective Feedback in English as a Foreign Language (EFL)Writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 110-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
María del Pilar García Mayo ◽  
Udane Loidi Labandibar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Writing Task

ABSTRACTThe language learning potential of writing has been an underresearched topic in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The present study investigates what Basque-Spanish EFL teenage learners (n = 60) notice when writing a composition in response to visual stimuli in a three-stage writing task including output, comparison, and delayed revision. The present study also explores how this noticing and feedback processing affects their subsequent revisions. The findings revealed that participants noticed mainly lexical problems, although they also paid attention to content features. Moreover, more proficient learners and guided learners noticed more features. A qualitative analysis of the results indicated that, overall, learners had a negative attitude toward writing and modeling, but those with more positive beliefs incorporated more items in subsequent revisions. A number of implications for research and pedagogy will be discussed.

scholarly journals A STUDY ON THE LEARNING BELIEFS OF CHINESE AS A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS OF BANKING UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luu Hon Vu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Learning Beliefs ◽  
Learning Capacity ◽  
Second Year

The research surveyed the learning beliefs of Chinese as a second foreign language for English majored students of Banking University Ho Chi Minh city. Based on the theory of beliefs in foreign language learning by Horwitz (1985), we conducted a questionnaire survey with 177 students. The questionnaire results indicate that: firstly, Chinese is relatively easy to learn; secondly, children have better language learning capacity than adults; third, focus on phonetics, vocabulary and culture, not grammar; fourth, learning Chinese is useful for yourself. Female students focus on phonetics more than male students. Second-year students focus on phonetics more than third-year students, but not more grammar like third-year students. Unlike students from the central region, students from the northern and southern regions said that they must come to China to learn Chinese. The belief that "Chinese language is easy to learn", the confident and proactive attitude of using Chinese language has a positive impact on students' learning results.

The Use of Virtual Worlds in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

2016 ◽  
pp. 145-167
Author(s):  
Ellen Yeh ◽  
Guofang Wan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Learning Instruction ◽  
Language Teaching And Learning

This book chapter presents, a review of the literature from 2004-2014 regarding the various models of virtual worlds used in foreign language teaching and learning, the impact of virtual world learning environments and the implications of language teaching. The study being reported aims to address the following questions: (1) What are the models of virtual worlds used in language learning instruction in K-12 and higher education; (2) How do VWLEs impact language learning in terms of motivation, communicative competency, intercultural competency, collaborative competency, constructivist learning, and sociocultural competency; and (3) What are the implications of using VWLEs in foreign language teaching and learning? Results indicate that social context and task-based learning enhanced language learners' participation and motivations. Findings also indicate that consistent use of interactional strategies encouraged learners to engage in the tasks and stay motivated. The study suggested that a VWLE offers a motivating, engaging, and multi-dynamic environment for language learners.

Practising Language Interaction via Social Networking Sites

2013 ◽  
pp. 40-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Orsini-Jones ◽  
Billy Brick ◽  
Laura Pibworth
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Learning Potential ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools

This chapter reports on the evaluation of language learning SNSs carried out by “expert students” who are training to become Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. While stressing the positive features available on these sites and novel ways in which they can enable personalised language learning, this study also focuses on some troublesome aspects that occur when learners engage with Web 2.0 tools. It discusses how initial motivation towards these tools can turn into frustration, mirroring the results of a previous autoethnographic study carried out on SNSs. It also illustrates how these global ubiquitous platforms pose a dilemma for language practitioners who work within institutional teaching settings. Teachers recognize the language learning potential of these tools, but are also worried by the ethical threat they can pose, which can normally be avoided, or at least moderated, within institutional proprietary and “less exciting” platforms.

Language attrition: A matter of brain plasticity?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-132
Author(s):  
Barbara Köpke
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
High Plasticity ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

Abstract While it has long been assumed that brain plasticity declines significantly with growing maturity, recent studies in adult subjects show grey and white matter changes due to language learning that suggest high adaptability of brain structures even within short time-scales. It is not known yet whether other language development phenomena, such as attrition, may also be linked to structural changes in the brain. In behavioral and neurocognitive research on language attrition and crosslinguistic influence, findings suggest high plasticity as language interaction patterns of bilingual speakers change constantly and from early stages of language acquisition onwards. In this paper we will speculate on possible links between brain plasticity and L1 attrition in adult bilinguals, with particular attention to a number of factors that are put forward in memory frameworks in order to explain forgetting: time elapsed, frequency of L1 use, and interference from L2. In order to better understand the time-scales involved in the plastic changes during bilingual development, we then discuss some recent studies of re-exposure to L1 in formerly attrited immigrants, and their implications with respect to brain plasticity.

Neural plasticity in speech acquisition and learning

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
YANG ZHANG ◽  
YUE WANG
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Speech Acquisition ◽  
Cortical Level ◽  
Phonetic Learning ◽  
Neural Efficiency ◽  
Brain Behavior

Neural plasticity in speech acquisition and learning is concerned with the timeline trajectory and the mechanisms of experience-driven changes in the neural circuits that support or disrupt linguistic function. In this selective review, we discuss the role of phonetic learning in language acquisition, the “critical period” of learning, the agents of neural plasticity, and the distinctiveness of linguistic systems in the brain. In particular, we argue for the necessity to look at brain–behavior connections using modern brain imaging techniques, seek explanations based on measures of neural sensitivity, neural efficiency, neural specificity and neural connectivity at the cortical level, and point out some key factors that may facilitate or limit second language learning. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical and practical issues for future studies and suggest ways to optimize language learning and treatment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document