Language Recognition and Brain Science Lecture Series（8）The Neural Basis of Second Language Acquisition
Topic: The Neural Basis of Second Language Acquisition
Presenter: Guosheng Ding, Professor of State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University
Time: 2pm-4pm of December 4, 2019 (Wednesday)
Location: Room No.1125 of New Comprehensive Building
Organizer: Center for Cognitive Science of Language, BLCU
Brief Introduction to the Presenter:
Guosheng Ding is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the State Key Laboratory of "Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning" at Beijing Normal University. His main research areas are the brain mechanism of bilingual processing, language learning and brain plasticity. He has visited the University of New South Wales in Australia, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and San Diego State University in the United States. He won the Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the General Psychology and Experimental Psychology Committee of the Chinese Psychological Association, and the Outstanding Research Award of the Fourth International Conference on "Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRI) Research" of the USA National Institutes of Health. He is currently an editorial board member of the journal "Bilingualism: Language and Cognition"; an executive member of the Psycholinguistics Committee of the Chinese-English Comparative Studies Society; he has chaired several projects of National Natural Science Foundation and has published more than 60 academic papers in journals home and abroad such as Cerebral Cortex, Neuroimage, etc.
Lecture Abstract:
Does second language acquisition rely on specific neural basis compared to native language learning? Traditional bilingual studies suggest that L1 processing and L2 processing share the same neural basis, yet this view is challenged by recent research evidence. One of our meta-analytical studies shows that the inferior parietal lobules may play a special role in second language processing and learning. This brain region plays an important role steadily in different types of bilinguals. We also compared children with second language learning difficulties with normal children, and found that there were structural and functional abnormalities in the inferior parietal lobules (including the angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus) of the children with difficulty. These evidences suggest that the inferior parietal lobules may be a key brain region for second language acquisition.
