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Chelsea Fenton
Dr. Abreu
FL 663
26 November 2013
Implications Paper
Chapter 10: Language Processing and the Human Brain
The human body is composed of numerous, complicated, and detailed organs that allow
us to function daily. Of all bodily organs, “the brain is the most complex organ of the body,
controlling motor and sensory activities and thought processes” (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams,
2014, p. 484). For centuries scientists have researched how the brain works controlling so many
parts of the body. Chapter 10 discusses the organization of the brain in relation to linguistic
performance and processing. Psycholinguistics is the specific study of this topic and how
linguistic competence allows for speech production and comprehension.
The brain is divided into two cerebral hemispheres. Each hemisphere controls functions
of the body in a contralateral way meaning the left side of the brain controls the right side of the
body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. For centuries, scientists
have theorized the organization of the brain. In the 1860s, Paul Broca, a French surgeon,
introduced the idea that, “language is localized in the left hemisphere of the brain” (Fromkin et
al., 2014, p. 463). His hypothesis resulted from studying patients that suffered injury to the left
frontal lobe of the brain who also suffered from language deficits. The scientific term for a
language disorder resulting from injury of the brain is called aphasia, which is the same word
used for the study of understanding the relation between the brain and language. Much of the
information we know today about the brain and language are the results of studies on those who
have suffered brain injury or damage.
We recall from previous chapters that a speaker’s mental dictionary of language is called
the lexicon. The brain is the storage area of our lexicon and we access the lexicon when we
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speak – to find words and rules of grammar - and understand speech from others. Beginning in
infancy, we begin to build our lexicon and learn grammar rules of speech. Exposure to language
really begins at the moment of birth and over a short amount of time children begin to acquire
language. The critical-age hypothesis states that, “language is biologically based and that the
ability to learn a native language develops within a fixed period, from birth to the middle
childhood” (Fromkin et al., 2014, p. 477). During this period children are not given explicit
instruction on language but are rather exposed to the language through input and begin to create
language of their own.
Of course, learning a second language is different from learning a first especially when
the second language is learned much later in life. As children learning a first language build their
lexicon from constant input of the language, why not relate this development to the foreign
language classroom as support of using the target language (TL) almost 100% during class
instruction. Students need constant input of the TL especially if they are only exposed to it for 50
or 90 minutes a day. Input helps to build vocabulary and teach grammar rules and pronunciation.
By increasing input in the TL, beginner students will develop the ability to segment words,
morphemes, syllables, and phonemes. Segmentation problems occur for new learners of a
foreign language. In the beginning, the TL sounds like a continuous speech of sounds. Over time
and exposure to the TL, students are able to recognize the speech sounds; for example, the
beginning and end of words. Input of the TL can be difficult for some teachers as students will
become frustrated and the teacher will revert to the native language for instruction
comprehension. All foreign language teachers know there is always that one student who
complains that the teacher is speaking “too much Spanish” or “too much French”! However,
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despite the difficulty on both ends, the TL input will benefit the students in acquiring listening
comprehension and pronunciation.
Input of a language is not useful unless there is comprehension. In a native language
comprehension occurs very fast and it “involves analysis at many levels” (Fromkin et al., 2014,
p. 446). There are numerous operations that occur within the brain for comprehension to occur.
These simultaneous operations are called “parallel processing” which include: “segmenting the
continuous speech signal into phonemes, morphemes, words, and phrases; looking up the words
and morphemes in the mental lexicon; finding the appropriate meanings of ambiguous
words;…interpreting the phrases and sentences;…and factoring in the pragmatic context to assist
with the other tasks” (Fromkin et al., 2014, p. 450). Psycholinguists propose two ways in which
listeners perceive and comprehend what is being said and what will be said with the above
processes in mind: top-down processing and bottom-up processing. Top-down processing
analyzes input by assuming that a large syntactic unit like a sentence is being said and the brain
begins to break down the sentence into smaller components like phrases, words, and morphemes.
(Fromkin et al., 2014, p. 583) Bottom-up processing is the opposite in that the smallest unit of a
sentence – morpheme – is strung together to form larger units like words and phrases until the
entire sentence is processed. During comprehension and processing, the brain uses both of these
operations depending on the situation and context to allow the listener to understand what is
being said.
These two processes of comprehension relate to two teaching strategies: top-down
approach and bottom-up approach. The top-down approach gives students the opportunity to be
immersed in the TL on a certain topic and gain knowledge of the language by analyzing and
breaking it down into smaller parts. An example of this would be including an authentic text, a
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newspaper or journal article, and asking the students to focus on a certain verb tense or phrase
construction. This allows the students to see the big picture of a topic in context with real world
use. The bottom-up approach begins with the components of language like grammars and rules
of speech and gradually builds them into full sentences. Both of these approaches should be used
in the foreign language classroom just as they are both used in our native language for
comprehension. In my opinion, the top-down approach should be used more than bottom-down
perhaps in a 70/30 ratio. Top-down exposes the students to everyday use of the language in its
entirety instead of tearing the language apart. Learning is more meaningful within context and
within a setting in which the students learn by inducing meaning on their own. I think that the
bottom-up approach can be incorporated when a certain verb tense or grammar structure is
difficult and the students are in need of explicit instruction. For the most successful learning in
the classroom, the teacher should be aware of how his/her students learn best and differentiate
teaching instruction methods to best fit the students needs.
By learning how the brain works in acquiring, creating, and processing language in a
native tongue, the methodology of teaching a second language can be more successful in the
classroom. The acquisition of language for children occurs over the course of several years and
continues to be perfected during a lifetime. Rome was not built in a day nor can a second
language be learned in a day.
References
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2014). Language processing and the human brain. In J.
M. Flaherty (Ed), An introduction to language (pp. 444-494). Boston, MA: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning.