Right and Left Hemisphere and Language

I have been studying Chapter 5 of How the Brain Learns, by David Souza.  This has been a particularly exciting chapter for me because it touches on language learning.

A few main points to keep in mind:

• Although each hemisphere has specialized functions, both usually work together when learning.  It is impossible to educate only one hemisphere.
• There is no evidence that people are purely left or right brained.  The two hemispheres work together as an integrated whole.
• We should avoid using hemispheric preference to stereotype individuals.  The cause of hemispheric preference, for all practical purposes, is not relevant.  It is our response that really matters.
• Most K-12 schooling inadvertently favors left-hemisphere-preferred learners.

Then, on page 171 Souza writes: "Most of us can carry on a conversation (left-hemisphere activity) while driving a car (right-hemisphere and cerebellar activity.)" (yikes!  It is not because we can that we should.)

What follows is about language, specifically :

• The total number of phonemes in all the world's languages is around 90, which represents the maximum number of sounds that the human voice can create (Beatty, 2001.)
• Before they reach teh age of 12 months, many babies can learn words in one context and understand them in another (Schafer, 2005).  They begin to acquire new vocabulary words at the rate of about 8 to 10 a day.
• By the age of 3, over 90 percent of sentences uttered are grammatically correct.
• The more children are exposed to spoken language in the early years, the more quickly they can discriminate between phonemes and recognize word boundaries.  Just letting the toddler sit in front of a television does not seem to accomplish this goal, probably because a child's brain needs live human interaction to attach meaning to the words.  Television may actually impair a toddler's brain development.
• Proficiency in learning a second language depends not on how long nonnatives have been speaking the language, but on how early in life they began learning it.
• Scanning studies using fMRIs show that second language acquired in adulthood show some spatial separation in the brain from native languages.  However, when acquired in the preteen years, native and second languages are reprsented in the same frontal areas (Broca's area).  Hence, younger and older brains react to second language learning very differently.
• It should not be assumed that youngsters will become fluent solely by studying a second language a few hours a week in the primary grades.  Like learning any skill, continuous practice is needed for fluency.
• Is reading a natural ability?  Not really.
• There are no areas of the brain that specialize in reading.
• The degree to which children experience literacy at home determines whether they begin school not just able to learn to read, bur ready to learn to read.

 Practitioner's Corner - Teaching to the Whole Brain: General Guidelines

• Deal with concepts verbally AND visually.  When using video presentations, show the smallest segment with maximum meaning, then stop the tape and have students discuss what was shown.
• Design effective visual aids.  Avoid writing information in visual aids in a haphazard way whenever a parallel or hierarchical relationship amongs the elements is important for students to remember.
• Discuss concepts first, logically, and second, intuitively.
• Design activities and assessments for both hemispheres.  Give students options in testing.  Also, simulations, role-playing, designing computer programs, and building models.