In Immersion Foreign Language Learning, Adults Attain, Retain Native Speaker Brain Pattern

ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2012) — A first-of-its kind series of brain studies shows how an adult learning a foreign language can come to use the same brain mechanisms as a native speaker.

The research by researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and the University of Illinois at Chicago demonstrates that the kind of exposure you have to the language can determine whether you achieve native-language brain processing, and that learning under immersion conditions may be more effective in reaching this goal than typical classroom training.

What happens after you've reached high proficiency in a foreign language, if you're not regularly exposed to it? Do you lose the use of any native-language brain mechanisms that you've attained? Many learners do not always have ongoing exposure, which makes this is a critical question, Ullman says.

"To our surprise, the participants actually became more native like in their brain processing of grammar (after a lapse of 6 months)," Ullman says. The brain consolidates knowledge of the foreign language as time goes on, much like it does when a person learns to ride a bike or play a musical instrument.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120328172212.htm