Neurolinguistics-Enlightened L2Acquisition

Numerous related studies have devoted to applying neurolinguistic theories into second language acquisition (SLA), while few of them are qualitative in origin. Besides, most of neurolinguistic researches concern English teaching and barely pay attention to English learning from the perspectives of language learners.This thesis sets its basis on existing literatures and focuses on the pedagogical implications of several main research domains:lateralization, mental lexicon and neurobiological appraisal system of Neurolinguistics.Related reviews and theories are put into a pedagogical experiment in Xi’an medical university. The experiment lasts for one semester and is composed of a sample group of100English learners. Through applying the pedagogical implications of lateralization, mental lexicon and neurobiological appraisal system, the experiment demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of neurolinguistics in English teaching via collected data through examination scores, progress in assignments and quizzes. A questionnaire surveying learners’evaluation of neurolinguistics-oriented English acquisition is used as a post-test to supplement the experiment, with25corresponding questions are designed. The two parts adding a whole verify the pedagogical implications of neurolinguistic studies on English acquisition. In the end, five pedagogical implications are reached to:(1) Lateralization studies should be adopted in organically combining two hemispheres, which means that English acquisition should activate the experiential right cerebral hemisphere and the analytical left cerebral hemisphere sequentially and holistically. Suggestopedia, gender-differentiated activities and bimodality theory can be applied in activating two hemispheres in English acquisition.(2) Mental lexicon studies can be put into practice by stressing following factors:the applying frequency of vocabulary, word orthography, inferring word meanings in contexts, building semantic relations, mediating L1interference on L2.To be specific, various contexts should be created to apply vocabulary; word quizzes should be given regularly for learners accessing and retrieving English words quickly; word meanings should be speculated through context; L2mental lexicon should be built by way of building semantic relations through synonym, antonym, hyponymy, prefix, suffix and root of English words; English words should be learnt through L2paraphrases and too much exposure to L1equivalents or translations should be avoided.(3) Neurobiological appraisal system requires that language input stimuli should be novel, familiar, and can be coped with; learners’self and social images should be kept at a high reverence;learning materials should be authentic and comprehensible. Moreover, learning goals should be made clear and learning tasks should be broken down into achievable steps. Throughout the thesis, the feasibility and efficiency of neurolinguistics are verified, however, due to condition limitations, there also remains some flaws in the layout of the experiment and questionnaire, which are listed in the conclusion part for offering some hints for future studies.