irregular past tense verbs age of acquisition

Our study suggests AoA and proficiency both influence bilingual brain activation independently, an important replication given only two other neuroimaging studies have experimentally manipulated both variables within the same study. LAHPs showed increased activation in BA45 but not BA44, suggesting L2 is a controlled rather than automatic process in this group despite being highly proficient. Previous studies suggest this region is positively associated with high proficiency but this has not always been replicated. In the regularity × proficiency condition the left IFG was also a significantly activated region. In all regions showing significant differences, LAHPs showed greater activation relative to LALPs (regular and irregular conditions). Late high and late low proficiency (LALP) bilinguals were also contrasted in three conditions: (i) regular inflection (ii) irregular inflection and (iii) regularity × proficiency. EAHPs engaged this region selectively for regular but not irregular inflection while LAHPs activated it during both types of inflection. The left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG BA47) was one region that showed significant activation in condition (iii).

EAHP) bilinguals showed more extensive activation across multiple regions for both regular and irregular inflection. In line with previous findings, LAHP (vs. Early high proficiency bilinguals (EAHP) were contrasted with late high proficiency (LAHP) in three conditions: (i) regular inflection (ii) irregular inflection and (iii) regularity × AoA. Thirty five participants of varying proficiency and AoA were scanned using fMRI while performing an English (L2) past tense task all were formal L2 learners. Careful control of these variables is crucial for teasing apart their effects, yet almost all previous neuroimaging studies have studied one or the other in isolation. formally at school) is another complication that potentially contributes further to this lack of clarity. However, they are potential confounds of each other and their relative importance remains unclear. Second language (L2) proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) are important when examining L2 neural representation. 6School of Human and Life Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, United Kingdom.

5Division of Neurology, National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.

4Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Jurong Health Services, Singapore, Singapore.

3Functional Brain Imaging Lab, Department of Psychology, A*STAR-NUS Clinical Imaging Research Centre, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

2School of Sport, Health and Wellbeing, Plymouth Marjon University, Plymouth, United Kingdom.

1Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

Oh 1,2 * †, Steven Graham 3, Philina Ng 1, Ing Berne Yeh 4, Bernard P.

Irregular past tense verbs age of acquisition