Abstract:
This paper summarizes the educational implications of current research on cognitive neuroscience for foreign-language learning to provide an overview of myths and realities in this appealing area of research. Although the potential benefits of neuroscientific research into language acquisition are great, there are a number of popular myths that none of which are supported by scientific evidence. In this paper, three prominent examples of these myths are introduced and discussed how they are based on misinterpretation and misapplication from neuroscience research. The first pervasive example of such misconception is the prevalent belief of being the certain critical periods for learning a second language. It implies that the opportunity to acquire foreign languages is lost forever by missing these biological windows. In fact, however, extensive research shows that there are sensitive periods, but not critical periods, during which an individual can acquire certain aspects of language with greater ease than at other times. Another example of myths is a false conclusion implies that exposing children to a foreign language too early interrupts knowledge of their first language. The reality is that learning a second language not only improves language abilities in the first language, but also positively affects reading abilities and general literacy in school. Like the other myths, there is also a popular conception about ability to learn second language during sleep. It is demonstrated that previously acquired memories are consolidated and new association are learned during sleep, but learning a foreign language requires conscious effort and available data do not support this hypothesis that second language acquire during sleep. The main conclusion arising from this argument is that, while our understanding of the neural bases of language learning is continually evolving, our interpretation of the implications of these findings for foreign language teaching and learning should also continually evolve.
Machine summary:
"Therefore, there appears to be a sensitive period for learning phonology, with evidence that infants are initially able to recognize and distinguish phonemes across multiple languages, but after three to six months of age and exposure to the sounds of the languages spoken at home, children become more skilled at producing the sounds that appear in languages that they have heard (Worden, Hinton & Fischer, 2011).
Although children are generally considered to acquire fluency in languages easily and educators are highly aware that students are having great difficulty in learning second languages later in the school years, paradoxically, some educational systems hold that exposure to a foreign language education too early will impede progress in native language (De Jong, et al, 2009; Petitto, 2009).
Language learning not only entails consciously memorizing dozens of new words and their meaning, but also entails to develop a learning strategy and continuously restructure the newly acquired information in a fashion coherent with the preexisting knowledge base (Peigneux, Laureys, Delbeuck & Maquet, 2001).
Conclusion In a world where globalization and migration patterns have meant a dramatic increase in the number of non-native language learners who enter school each year and need to learn more than one language, bilingualism and multilingualism are becoming the expectation instead of the exception (Worden, Hinton & Fischer, 2011) and it is more a way of life than a problem to be solved (UNESCO, 2003)."