The Bilingual Brain

开始时间: 04/22/2022 持续时间: Unknown

所在平台: CourseraArchive 课程类别: 生物与生命科学 大学或机构: University of Houston System 授课老师： Arturo E. Hernandez

课程主页: https://www.coursera.org/course/bibrain

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课程详情

How do two languages get processed in one brain? For over 100 years, researchers have asked this question in a variety of manners.  From this early literature, there emerged three basic principles that influence the neural bases of bilingualism: when a language is learned (age of acquisition), how well it is spoken (proficiency), and the control needed to switch or select a particular language (cognitive control).  Interestingly, age of acquisition, language proficiency, and cognitive control are not specific to learning two languages.  The topics appear both in the acquisition of a first language and of nonverbal skills such as music and sports. 

 

An introduction during the first week sets the stage for how the course will evolve in each of the subsequent weeks.  After that the course is structured across the three main topics, age of acquisition, proficiency and control.  For each of these topics, the first week of the course will introduce the nonverbal and single language literature in order to arrive at the key concepts for each fundamental principle.  The following week will then take the concepts derived from the non-bilingual literature and apply them to the acquisition of two languages.  The final week will involve a discussion of how each of the factors work together across time.  It will consider computer simulations of bilingualism as well as a novel conceptual model of bilingual brain representation.  This model proposes that bilingualism like other skills emerges from a set of different processing mechanisms that are layered over time.  The implications of this model for the understanding of language learning in both adults and children will be discussed.

课程大纲

Week 1 - Introduction
The first week serves as an introduction.  It presents the three separate strands that will serve to frame the course. These three issues are age of acquisition, language proficiency, and cognitive control. These issues are considered with regard to the neuropsychology literature by considering case studies of language loss in bilingual patients suffering from brain damage. There is also mention of the newer imaging methods that are used to further understand this question. This section concludes by offering a new way in which biological (i.e. brain) approaches serve to elucidate a number of questions in the cognitive literature (i.e. the mind). By merging these two approaches, the introduction sets up a framing of the main topics that will be considered in the rest of the course.
Keywords: neuropsychology, cognitive control, language proficiency, age of acquisition

Week 2 -  Age of Acquisition I
Jean Piaget, the pioneer of cognitive development, proposed that children’s cognitive development occurs in stages as children age. During the first few years of life, thought is centered around a more sensorimotor way of thinking. Slowly this changes as children age and become more focused on the broader patterns that make up the world. This section of the course extends Piaget’s view by looking at how learning changes across age. Specifically, we will consider how early learning is more sensorimotor in nature, with later learning involving more complex cognitive processing. Examples are given from both nonverbal domains as well as from language development in general.
Keywords: cognitive development, sensorimotor processing, language development

Week 3 -  Age of Acquisition II
This section of the course extends the nature of development to two languages. In domains that are close to the sensorimotor system, such as the processing of speech sounds, bilinguals show clear effects of age. Speech sounds in two languages can be learned well early in life, but this becomes much more difficult later in life. Similarly, there is clear evidence that learning grammar in a second language becomes more difficult at older ages. Interestingly, there does not appear to be as strong an age effect for word meaning. This suggests that more cognitive types of processing are not affected by age of learning in bilinguals. The similarities in the ability to use cognitive types of processing by late learners across a variety of domains is discussed.
Keywords:  speech sounds, grammar, bilinguals, development, monolinguals

Week 4 - Proficiency I
The nature of expertise has long been the topic of study outside of the bilingualism literature. This started with seminal work by Adriaan de Groot, who noted that master chess players were more efficient at making chess moves. It was further developed by K. Anders Ericsson, who found that expertise develops through practice as an individual receives feedback about his or her performance over time. The adjustments made eventually lead to automaticity and to the ability to do things in a less conscious manner. The automaticity of these processes is also revealed in the efficiency of neural circuits. As such, experts show much smaller localized regions of brain activity when performing in their particular domain of expertise.  The importance of the environment and practice can also been seen in the effect of proficiency on the development of a single language.
Keywords: expertise, automaticity, practice

Week 5 -  Proficiency II
The nature of efficiency is central for the bilingual literature. Pitres was the first to suggest that proficiency was important in bilingual aphasics. He observed that many patients showed preservation of the most familiar language at the time of insult. Proficiency is also a key concept in the bilingual literature. This can be seen in cases of language loss, in which a second language learned in childhood actually replaces the first language. It can also be seen in cases of language immersion, in which the first language comes to represent the weaker language. Finally, this section of the course will consider the distinction between basic language and academic language. It is in academic language that we see the effects of language proficiency. Whereas ability to produce speech sounds is driven by how early a language is learned, the deeper conceptual processing needed for academic language is closely linked with proficiency.
Keywords: familiarity, language loss, academic language

Week 6 - Control I
The first week in this section of the course considers the nature of cognitive control. The importance of switching can be seen in everyday activities. For example, when switching lanes a driver has to pay attention to the traffic in front, behind, and to the side. Most people will switch their attention across all three places, demonstrating flexibility. As such, switching need not contain any language. This section of the course considers switching and control with and without language. It ends by suggesting the importance of adjustments as an essential part of cognitive processing.
Keywords: switching, control, flexibility

Week 7 - Control II
The importance of adjustments is a key concept that emerges from the task shifting literature. Interestingly, it is also something that describes the nature of bilingual language experience. It is not unusual for a person to have to navigate different language scenarios on a daily basis. Recent work suggests that bilinguals show interesting benefits from navigating a dual-language reality. Interestingly, these benefits appear in control tasks even when they involve little use of language. There is also evidence that this enhanced control shows up as enhanced flexibility. This flexibility in processing can be seen in the learning of new foreign language vocabulary. In short, bilingualism may serve as the ultimate delayed gratification task. It requires people to put one thing off in order to do another. This modulation of attention may play a role in the development of cognitive control.
Keywords: control, flexibility, cognitive benefits

Week 8 - Conclusion
The final chapter summarizes and extends the points brought up across the entire course. In previous weeks, age of acquisition, proficiency, and control were covered as separate topics. However, these three factors show considerable interaction. Recent models of bilingualism also suggest an interesting interplay between both languages. The most fascinating aspect is that bilingual researchers have come to describe a language as being parasitic on another or as one language being dominant. The use of biological language suggests that future researchers will need to take both a neural and computational approach in order to further understand how two languages develop in one mind.
Keywords: age of acquisition, proficiency, control, interplay, computational approach

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