Jost Lea B, Eberhard-Moscicka Aleksandra K, Pleisch Georgette, Heusser Veronica, Brandeis Daniel, Zevin Jason D, Maurer Urs
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Neuropsychologia. 2015 Jun;72:94-104. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.04.029. Epub 2015 Apr 28.
Learning a foreign language in a natural immersion context with high exposure to the new language has been shown to change the way speech sounds of that language are processed at the neural level. It remains unclear, however, to what extent this is also the case for classroom-based foreign language learning, particularly in children. To this end, we presented a mismatch negativity (MMN) experiment during EEG recordings as part of a longitudinal developmental study: 38 monolingual (Swiss-) German speaking children (7.5 years) were tested shortly before they started to learn English at school and followed up one year later. Moreover, 22 (Swiss-) German adults were recorded. Instead of the originally found positive mismatch response in children, an MMN emerged when applying a high-pass filter of 3 Hz. The overlap of a slow-wave positivity with the MMN indicates that two concurrent mismatch processes were elicited in children. The children's MMN in response to the non-native speech contrast was smaller compared to the native speech contrast irrespective of foreign language learning, suggesting that no additional neural resources were committed to processing the foreign language speech sound after one year of classroom-based learning.
研究表明，在大量接触新语言的自然沉浸式环境中学习外语，会改变大脑在神经层面处理该语言语音的方式。然而，基于课堂的外语学习，尤其是儿童的课堂外语学习，在多大程度上也是如此，目前尚不清楚。为此，作为一项纵向发育研究的一部分，我们在脑电图记录过程中进行了一项失配负波（MMN）实验：38名说单一语言（瑞士）德语的儿童（7.5岁）在开始在学校学习英语前不久接受了测试，并在一年后进行了随访。此外，还记录了22名（瑞士）德国成年人的情况。在应用3Hz高通滤波器时，儿童并未出现最初发现的正向失配反应，而是出现了失配负波。慢波正性与失配负波的重叠表明，儿童引发了两个同时发生的失配过程。无论外语学习情况如何，与母语语音对比相比，儿童对非母语语音对比的失配负波较小，这表明经过一年的课堂学习后，没有额外的神经资源用于处理外语语音。
