Right Hemisphere Involvement in Processing Later-Learned Languages in Multilinguals

The effect of age of second language acquisition on the representation and processing of second language words

“…In contrast, most of the Late High Proficient bilinguals learned their English before they came here; presumably, this was in a more formal school setting. Although Wuillemin and Richardson (1994) found no difference in their measure of language lateralization as a function of mode of second language learning (formal vs. informal), it seems likely that this factor could play a role in the organization of the language systems. In short, although we carefully matched our participant groups in important ways, our discussion of the results in terms of age of L2 acquisition must be considered in the context of these potentially important covarying factors.…”

“…We have emphasized the age of second language acquisition, as it seems to provide a parsimonious way to account for the otherwise conflicting semantic priming literature for bilinguals. And, as we noted in the Introduction, a number of studies that have examined the neural underpinnings of bilingual representations all suggest that different architectures are found in those who learned their second languages before age seven, versus later (e.g., Kim, Relkin, Lee, & Hirsch, 1997;Weber-Fox & Neville, 1999;Wuillemin & Richardson, 1994).…”

More belles infidèles—or why do so many bilingual studies speak with forked tongue?

“…In like manner, Wuillemin, Richardson, and Lynch (1994) claim to have demonstrated that languages learned at different ages are lateralized to differing extents. They cite Paradis (1977) in support of the stage of acquisition hypothesis, namely that a second language is less lateralized in the initial stages of acquisition.…”

“…For example, Wuillemin et al (1994) mention Galloway's (1983) conjecture that when a second language is formally learned, the left hemisphere is more likely to be involved in processing language than if it is informally acquired, but they fail to mention that Bergh (1986), in a controlled experiment of the same type as theirs, reported greater righthemisphere involvement as the students learning their second language in a formal environment became more proficient. Evans et al (2002) cite Vaid (1983) in support of the notion that second languages learned after the maturation of the nervous system might involve the right hemisphere to a greater extent than those acquired at an earlier age, but omit to mention that Vaid and Hall (1991), after further analysis, find this not to be the case.…”

“…They also cite Nguy, Allard, and Bryden (1980) in support of the influence of type of language on laterality, when these authors do not in fact address the issue of language laterality in second language acquisition at all; rather, they discuss differences in laterality between pictorial and non-pictorial Chinese characters read by native Chinese speakers. Bever (1977Bever ( , inaccurately cited as 1974 is also cited by Wuillemin et al (1994) in support of the stage hypothesis. Yet, this reference (probably taken uncritically from Vaid & Genesee, 1980) is not to a scientific paper describing an experiment with bilingual subjects but to an 18-line secondhand relation, by Lenneberg, of an ongoing pilot study (itself never published) on Spanish-speaking children from 6 to 7 years of age whose English is at the 3-to 6-year level.…”