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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. 54–81

Neuroplasticity of second language vocabulary acquisition

The role of linguistic experience in individual learning

| Université Paris Nanterre, CNRS, UMR Modèles, Dynamiques, Corpus

The present article reviews a series of selected functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies focusing on the neuroplasticity of second language vocabulary acquisition as a function of linguistic experience. A clear-cut picture emerging from the review is that brain changes induced by second language vocabulary acquisition are observed at both functional and structural levels. Importantly, second language experience is even able to shape brain structures in short-term training of a few weeks. The evidence that linguistic experience can sculpt the brain in late second language learners, and even solely after a short-term laboratory training, constitutes a strong argument against theoretical approaches postulating that environmental factors are relatively unimportant for language development. Rather, combined neuroimaging data lend support to the determining role of linguistic experience in linguistic knowledge emergence during second language acquisition, at least at the lexical level.

Keywords: bilingualism, vocabulary acquisition, linguistic experience, neuroplasticity, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Second language experience-dependent neuroplasticity
  • 3.Functional imaging data
    • Word level
  • 4.Structural imaging data
    • Long-term experiences with L2 and anatomical changes in the brain
      • Type of bilingualism
      • AoA and level of proficiency in the second language
      • Structural brain changes induced by short-term L2 learning or training in laboratory settings
      • The role of learning context: Immersion learning, virtual environment, and the traditional classroom
  • 5.Conclusions and perspectives
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.20023.ise
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