Observations of Japanese EFL Learner Brain Activity during Syntactic Processing by Optical Functional Brain Imaging : Beginning and Intermediate-Level Students

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  • 光脳機能イメージングを用いた日本人英語学習者による文法処理時の脳活動の観察 : 初～中級学習者を中心に
  • ヒカリ ノウ キノウ イメージング オ モチイタ ニホンジン エイゴ ガクシュウシャ ニ ヨル ブンポウ ショリジ ノ ノウ カツドウ ノ カンサツ : ハツ~チュウキュウ ガクシュウシャ オ チュウシン ニ

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In this study, we measure the Broca's-area brain activity patterns of Japanese beginning and intermediate-level EFL learners during syntactic processing using optical functional brain imaging. We compare our observation with a previous optical brain imaging study on second language acquisition, i.e., Oishi (2006). In her work, Oishi measures the brain activity of students at all-levels, focusing on the patterns found in Wernicke area and adjacent gyri during listening and reading comprehension. Oishi's results indicate that brain function in beginning-level students is activated very little, whereas in intermediate-level students it is over-activated, specifically when it is compared with that of advanced-level learners and native speakers. Our study, on the other hand, examines the brain activity patterns within Broca's area that are caused by sentence processing, including reflexive anaphors, such as himself/herself. From the images obtained from our experiment, it is demonstrated that there does not seem much activity in Broca's area, not only in the case of beginning-level students, but also in the case of intermediate-level students. Our study suggests the possibility that, as far as Japanese beginning and intermediate-level EFL learners are concerned, the kind of grammatical competence that can be detected by brain activities within Broca's area during processing of reflexive anaphors does not develop in parallel with the other types of linguistic competence that can be found in brain activities within Wernicke area and adjacent gyri.

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