Why do you study foreign languages ​​forever but not good?

Think you are not gifted to learn a foreign language? A new study by Northwestern University neuroscientists shows that this problem can be caused by your brain.

'Our research links the brain to the ability to learn a second adult language,' neurologist Patrick Wong, associate professor of communication and science at Northwestern and the lead author of This study, said.

Based on the size of Heschl's Gyrus (HG), a structure of the brain accounts for no more than 0.2% of the total brain mass, the researchers found that they could predict which learners would become it is more effective to learn 18 words of a language thought by researchers even before giving these ' artificial ' language study participants.

Associate Professor Wong and colleagues measured the size of HG, a finger-shaped brain structure in both the left and right brains of the brain using a method developed by two Virginia Penhune scientists and Robert Zatorre developed, the two scientists are renowned for their research on the processing of music and speech in humans and brain research.

This is the first study to consider the predicted value of a specific brain structure for language learning even before learning takes place. Specifically, the researchers measured the sizes of Heschl's Gyrus left and Heschl's Gyrus right of the participants studied through MRI magnetic resonance imaging machines, including the volume calculations of gray matter and substance. white.

(Photo: Softwaremag.com) Previous studies looked at the relationship between brain structure and the ability to identify individual voices of sound, rather than learning speech sounds in context. language. Other studies look at the link between existing language proficiency and brain structure.

Associate Professor Wong emphasized, 'meanwhile our research proves the link between biology and language, but we do not say that biology is the fate that determines learning a second language. ' Adults with smaller amounts of gray matter on the left HG do not need to lose hope that they can never learn another language.

'We are testing different learning methods for participants that we predict are less successful when learning a foreign language to see if the training model makes learning more successful,' Mr. Wong added.

According to Warrier, professor of communication science and disorder, scientists are surprised to discover that HG plays an important role in learning a second language. 'HG consists of the most important area of ​​the auditory region of the brain, which is thought to be related to the processing of the basic building blocks of sound - the height of the sound up or down, where the sound comes from. and how big is the sound - and itself not related to words. "

17 study participants aged between 18 and 26 were tested for their brain before taking part in language studies thought out by researchers. They were also previous participants in two related studies conducted by Associate Professor Wong and colleagues.

These three studies identified behavioral factors, neurophysiological and neuropsychological factors, which when combined together, would better predict the likelihood of success when learning a language. second language rather than just a single factor.

In behavioral research, Wong's group of associate professors discovered that learning music from a young age would contribute to more successful language learning.

In the study of neurophysiology, along with previous participants, Wong's team used functional MRI machines to observe which parts of the brain were activated when participants listened. different pitches. They found that language learners were more successful than those who showed activation in the auditory region of the brain (where the HG structure is located).

All participants are Native Americans and have no knowledge of tonal language in tonal languages, the meaning of the word depends on the high and low of the voice when it comes from. For example, in Chinese, the word ' mi ' emanates in a flat voice, meaning ' glancing ', raising your voice, meaning ' embarrassing ' and going down to your voice and then raising your voice meaning ' rice '. English, on the other hand, uses only the height to reflect intonation (like the voice used in the question)

In this study, 17 people participated in a sound room after being brain scanners. In this room, they are taught to learn six words a rhyme (pesh, dree, ner, vece, nuck and fute). These sounds are read by an American and then synthesized into 3 different pitches, creating 18 ' artificial ' words.

Participants were told these 18 ' fake ' words repeatedly and a black and white picture showing the meaning of each word. For example, from Pesh, with a pitch meaning ' glass ', another pitch means ' pencil ', and a third pitch means ' table '. Dree, depending on the pitch, means 'arm,' ' cow ,' or ' phone .'

For a group of 9 people who are expected to be more successful learners - with only two or three training periods or sometimes less - achieving an average accuracy of 97% in identifying fake words create. Those who are ' less successful ' achieve an average accuracy of 63% and sometimes require up to 18 training sessions to accurately identify these words.

'It is important that we study the brain in a new way to better understand the functions of the brain and thereby help us teach foreign languages ​​and possibly other skills. in a more efficient way, ' said Wong.

Wong's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Thanh Van