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ACROSS LANGUAGES, SPACE, AND TIME

A Review of the Role of Cross-Language Similarity in L2 (Morpho)Syntactic Processing as Revealed by fMRI and ERP Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Leida C. Tolentino  and
Natasha Tokowicz
Leida C. Tolentino
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Natasha Tokowicz*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
*
*Address correspondence to: Natasha Tokowicz, LRDC Room 634, 3939 O’Hara St., University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260-5169; e-mail: tokowicz@pitt.edu.
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Abstract

This review examines whether similarity between the first language (L1) and second language (L2) influences the (morpho)syntactic processing of the L2, using both neural location and temporal processing information. Results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) studies show that nonnative speakers can exhibit nativelike online L2 (morpho)syntactic processing behavior and neural patterns. These findings are contrary to predictions of the shallow structure hypothesis for syntactic processing (Clahsen & Felser, 2006a, 2006b). The data are in line with predictions of the (morpho)syntactic domain of the unified competition model of L2 acquisition (MacWhinney, 2005): Differences in L2 processing as compared to the L1 (or to native speakers of the L2) were generally associated with constructions that were crosslinguistically dissimilar or unique to the L2. The processing of crosslinguistically similar constructions generally produced no differences in brain activity between the L1 and L2. Overall, the available data suggest that cross-language similarity is an important factor that influences L2 (morpho)syntactic processing.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 91 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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