Early neurophysiological indices of second language morphosyntax learning

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psycholinguistics
• Second Language Acquisition

Background:

• Second language (L2) acquisition success varies, with many learners struggling with grammar.
• Some individuals achieve native-like proficiency despite late L2 learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare behavioral and neurophysiological grammar processing in native (NS) and non-native English speakers (NNS).
• To investigate the neural basis of grammatical proficiency in L2 learners.

Main Methods:

• Utilized psycholinguistic tests for grammar proficiency assessment.
• Employed online language proficiency tests.
• Measured neurophysiological responses using syntactic mismatch negativity (sMMN) to agreement violations.

Main Results:

• Native speakers showed enhanced sMMN to subject-verb agreement violations.
• Highly proficient NNS exhibited similar enhanced sMMN responses.
• Less proficient NNS did not show this enhanced response.
• Cortical sources of sMMN in superior temporal areas correlated with L2 grammar proficiency.

Conclusions:

• Early neurophysiological markers of morpho-syntactic agreement processing are similar in NS and proficient NNS.
• Findings suggest shared brain mechanisms for native (L1) and L2 grammar processing.
• Grammatical proficiency in L2 learners is linked to specific neural activity patterns.