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Language lateralization in adult bilinguals*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Marjorie B. Wesche  and
Eta I. Schneiderman
Marjorie B. Wesche
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Eta I. Schneiderman
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
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Abstract

Recent experimental studies of bilinguals have provided evidence of less left lateralization (i.e. greater right hemisphere participation) for verbal tasks in the second language than in the first. Other clinical and experimental studies of adults suggest that the normal adult right hemisphere has certain residual language-related capacities and that it plays a role in the early stages of both child and adult language acquisition. These findings lead us to postulate a link between right hemisphere involvement in the early stages of first and second language acquisition.

Two studies were designed to investigate this issue. The subjects of the studies were adult French-English bilinguals, with one group dominant in English and a second in French. A single word dichotic listening paradigm was employed in both studies. Following Obler (1981), the hypotheses were 1) that the second language dichotic task would show less left lateralization (greater right hemisphere involvement) than the first and 2) that greater proficiency in the second language would correlate with a higher degree of left lateralization (less right hemisphere involvement) on the dichotic test in that language. The studies provide some support for these hypotheses and thus, indirectly, for a unified theory of first and second language acquisition.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , Spring 1982 , pp. 153 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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