Summary: language "locations" in the bilingual brain

[Bella Kotik]

>
>
>Dear collegues! Sorry for late reply, but I only recently joined the
>funknet
>and Israeli hollydays are pretty long...
>The topic of the discussion provocated by 'Nature" report is really
>interesting in several aspects.First, I agree with Liz Bates, that the
>tendency to simplification sometimes may change the whole thing: in the
>original paper they use term "representation" and you used "starage",
>which
>is not the same thing.To speak of storage is just to solve a
>pseudoproblem.
> As a pupil of Alexander Luria, I see the problem from Systemic Dinamic
>point of view.The language functions even in a monolingual subjects are
>result of cooperation of a system of concertedly working zones, each of
>them
>has a specific input in the whole.
>  It should be stressed, that acquisition of a new language is a result
>of
>cooperation of several factors, the nain are: age, way of asquisition
>(formal learning vs acquisition and hence dominant input modality),
>linguistic characteristics of L1 and L2(script, degree of sound-letter
>correspondence etc.), affective complex, individuality of the learner,
>proficiency, recency, usage. Each of the factors may influence the
>resulting
>pattern in every specific situation.
>  Thus, the absence of differences in Wernike area might be just result
>of
>task specificity: this zone is involved primarily in phonemic perception
>and
>be the task not a productive, but perceptive, the difference would be
>most
>pronounced here.
> We do not know much about language anamnesis of each subject, but the
>dynamic if changes in brain organisation in bilinguals is rather
>pronounced
>first five years as was evident from my investigation of the changes in
>laterality effects in foreign students(native speakers of French,
>Spanish
>and Vietnameese)  actively who acquired Russian (Kotik B. On the Role of
>the
>Right Hemisphere in the Speech of Bilinguals. in:A.Ardila and
>F.Ostrosky-Solis "The Right Hemisphere, Neurology and Neuropsychology",
>Gordon and Breach,New-York, 1984 pp.227-240.)
>  There are many more questions that might be askes about influence of
>Dinamic factors, such as vigilance and resource recruitment in L1 and
>L2,
>which might be responsible for a wider area active in L2.
>  Just an example of my own threelingual experience: when I am very
>tired I
>begin to experience different problems in understanding and producing in
>English and Hebrew, and even speaking Russian which is my mothertongue,
>but
>not understanding.
>   Thus not only age is an important factor in SLA.And I wish success to
>all
>who does research in the field.
>
>Sincerely
>dr.Bella Kotik-Friedgut
>The NSJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education,
>School of Education
>The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
>Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905,Israel
>tel. 972-2-5882177 (office), 972-2-6713964(home),
>Fax 972-2-5882174
>mskotik at pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
>
>