Washington, DC Adults fluent in English whose first language is Chinese retrieve their native language when reading in English, according to new research in the June 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. This study suggests that people who learn a second language in adolescence or later recall the sounds of words from their native language.
The scientists who conducted the study, Yan Jing Wu, PhD, and Guillaume Thierry, PhD, of Bangor University in the United Kingdom, said their work helps researchers understand how the brain manages symbols and sounds in different languages. Thierry explained that although most bilingual people believe they function solely in one language at any given time, these findings show that it is not necessarily the case.
"Bilingual individuals retrieve information from their native language even when it's not necessary, or, even more surprising, when it is counterproductive, since native language information does not help when reading or listening to second-language words," Thierry said.
To learn how two languages interact in a bilingual mind, the authors asked 90 volunteers 30 native Chinese speakers, 30 native English speakers, and 30 Chinese-English bilingual adults who learned English after age 12 to perform a reading and a listening test. The English-speaking volunteers had to decide whether pairs of English words had similar meanings, such as "doctor" and "nurse" or "teacher" and "rabbit." The authors recorded brain activity from electrodes placed on participants' scalps to monitor how their brains responded.
What the authors didn't tell volunteers was that some English words had the same sounds or similar spelling when translated into Chinese. The results showed the bilingual adults responded to words with related meaning as quickly as native English speakers. However, when English words translated into Chinese had similar sounds and were presented to the bilingual volunteers, a specific w
'/>"/>
| Contact: Kat Snodgrass ksnodgrass@sfn.org 202-962-4090 Society for Neuroscience Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Second plant pathway could improve nutrition, biofuel production
2. NTU and Lien Foundation launch second second wave of Environmental Endeavor
3. Measuring protein movements with nanosecond resolution
4. The AACR to host second cancer research conference in Jordan
5. A second hydrocarbon boom threatens the Peruvian Amazon
6. Pacific Biomarkers, Inc. Schedules Second Quarter Conference Call for Friday, February 12, 2010
7. Oral COTI-2 is effective in a second animal model of human pancreatic cancer
8. Secondhand smoke exposure in childhood increases lung cancer risk later in life
9. Exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke over a lifetime increased breast cancer risk later in life
10. A second skin
11. Study in Spain and Romania confirms radon as second leading cause of lung cancer
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |