Development of foreign language comprehension skill and its neural basis

• Project/Area Number: 23720192
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Chiba Institute of Science (2014); Tohoku University (2011-2013)
• Principal Investigator: YOKOYAMA Satoru 千葉科学大学, 薬学部, 准教授 (20451627)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
• Keywords: 脳機能画像法 / 心理言語学 / 神経言語学 / 外国語学習 / 英語学習 / 脳機能イメージング / 心理物理実験 / 文理解 / 外国語 / 英語 / 心理実験 / 習熟度 / 理解速度

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The current study examined whether there is a statistical relationship between foreign language processing speed and its proficiency level, and between foreign language processing speed and its brain activity. The psycho-physiological experiment showed that there is no clear relationship between foreign language processing speed and its proficiency level by using self-paced reading task, but the fMRI experiment showed that brain activation data can statistically predict foreign language processing speed.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] 大学における初年次英語教育の効果に関する多角的分析 (2015)
  • Author(s): 横山悟
  • Journal Title: 千葉科学大学紀要 Volume: 8
  • NAID: 120005622591
  • Open Access / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] Cross-linguistic influence of first language writing systems on brain responses to second language word reading in late bilinguals (2014)
  • Author(s): Satoru Yokoyama, Jungho Kim, Shinya Uchida, Tadao Miyamoto, Kei Yoshimoto, Ryuta Kawashima
  • Journal Title: Brain and Behavior Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 180-186
  • DOI: 10.1002/brb3.201
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Animacy or Case Marker Order?: Priority Information for Online Sentence Comprehension in a Head-Final Language (2014)
  • Author(s): Satoru Yokoyama mail, Kei Takahashi, Ryuta Kawashima
  • Journal Title: PLoS ONE Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Pages: e93109-e93109
  • DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093109
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Use of semantic information to interpret thematic information for real-time sentence comprehension in an SOV language (2013)
  • Author(s): Satoru Yokoyama, Kei Takahashi, Ryuta Kawashima
  • Journal Title: PloS One Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Pages: e56106-e56106
  • DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056106
  • Peer Reviewed