biological basis of language learning

Sheryl F. Amaňo discussant

BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF

LANGUAGE LEARNING

“If you talk to a man in a language he understand, that goes to his head.If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”

-Nelson Mandela

LANGUAGE

The system of words or signs that people used to express thoughts and feelings to each other.

The Biological Base: Humans

Language in humans is clearly dependent on their society in which they could learn it with other people, other humans to speak to, to be motivated emotionally and to be intelligence.

Human beings who are physiologically and psychologically intact will acquire the language of those around them if they grow up among people who speak to them.

Conduction aphasia

- also called associative aphasia is an acquired language disorder and poor speech repetition. They are fully capable of understanding what they are hearing, but show significant difficulty repeating phrases

LANGUAGE AREAS IN THE BRAIN

BROCA’S AREA - is very near to that part of the motor strip which controls the tongue and lips.

- damage to Broca’s area will results in a typical aphasic syndrome called Broca’s aphasia in which the patient has good comprehension but much difficult with pronunciation and producing the little words of the language, such as articles and prepositions.

Hey bro, what’s your plan in

spending your weekened at home?

Boston college. Football. Saturday.

WERNICKE’S AREA- located in posterior left temporal lobe, near the auditory association areas of the brain.

- damage to Wernicke’s area produces an aphasia that is characterized by fluent speech with many neologisms (non-sense words) and poor comprehension.

One aphasic, when asked to name an ashtray, said “ That’s a book” When he was later asked to point to the book, however, he had no idea what the examiner meant.

ARCUATE FASCICULUS

- is a band of subcortical fiber that connects Wernicke’s area with BROCA’S area.

- If you ask someone to repeat what you say, the incoming message is processed in Wernicke’s area and then sent out over the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area, where it is programmed for production.

Patients with lesions in the arcuate fasciculus are unable to repeat; their disorder is called conduction aphasia.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. The onset of speech is regular2. Speech is suppressible3. Language cannot be taught to

other species4. Language everywhere have certain universals