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Article published In:
Language, Plasticity and Learning: Developmental Issues: Langage, Plasticité et Apprentissage : enjeux développementaux
Edited by Michèle Kail and Frédéric Isel
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 12:1] 2021
► pp. 82–109

Capturing the variation in language experience to understand language processing and learning

| University of California, Irvine
| University of California, Irvine
| University of California, Irvine

A goal of early research on language processing was to characterize what is universal about language. Much of the past research focused on native speakers because the native language has been considered as providing privileged truths about acquisition, comprehension, and production. Populations or circumstances that deviated from these idealized norms were of interest but not regarded as essential to our understanding of language. In the past two decades, there has been a marked change in our understanding of how variation in language experience may inform the central and enduring questions about language. There is now evidence for significant plasticity in language learning beyond early childhood, and variation in language experience has been shown to influence both language learning and processing. In this paper, we feature what we take to be the most exciting recent new discoveries suggesting that variation in language experience provides a lens into the linguistic, cognitive, and neural mechanisms that enable language processing.

Keywords: language variation, bilingualism, second language learning, language development, language processing
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The fate of the native language: A view from bilingualism
    • 2.1Native language change
    • 2.2From change to regulation
    • 2.3The consequences of regulating the native language
  • 3.Multiple sources of variation in L2 learning: Evidence from children and adults
  • 4.Multiple paths, one outcome: Individual differences in language processing and cognitive control engagement
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.20018.kro
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