Learning Together or Learning Alone: Investigating the Role of Social Interaction in Second ...

398 Pages·2015·5.98 MB·English

by  Laura Verga

Laura Verga: Learning Together or Learning Alone: Investigating the Role of
Social Interaction in Second Language Word Learning. Leipzig: Max Planck
Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 2015 (MPI Series in Human
Cognitive and Brain Sciences; 170)
Learning together or learning alone:
Investigating the role of social interaction in second language word learning
Impressum
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 2015
Diese Arbeit ist unter folgender Creative Commons-Lizenz lizenziert:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
Druck: Sächsisches Druck- und Verlagshaus Direct World, Dresden
Titelbild: © Laura Verga
ISBN 978-3-941504-55-4
Learning together or learning alone:
Investigating the role of social interaction in second
language word learning

Der Fakultät für Biowissenschaften, Pharmazie und Psychologie
der Universität Leipzig
eingereichte

D I S S E R T A T I O N

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades

doctor rerum naturalium
Dr. Rer. Nat.

vorgelegt von
Laura Verga, M.Sc.
geboren am 22 Februar 1985 in Busto Arsizio (Italien)

Leipzig, den 06.02.2015

Acknowledgments

“Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up  and  went  mad  now?”
Douglas Adams, from  “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

The  blank  page.  My  oh  my,  such  a  nightmare  for  every  writer  who  ever  
lived!  Lucky  for  me,  at  least  in  this  part  of  the  thesis  it  was  not  difficult  at  all  to  
start,  as  it  is  really  simple  to  know  who  to  thank  after  these  years.
First  and  foremost,  I  would  like  to  thank  my  supervisor,  Sonja  Kotz,  for  her  
constant  support  and  her  capacity  to  be  not  only  a  great  teacher  but  also  an  
amazingly   understanding   person.   For   letting   me   explore   my   interests   and  
support  my  intuitions  and  decisions,  for  being  always  available  not  only  for  
work-related  problems  but  also  for  everything  else.  I  really  learned  a  lot  in  these  
last  years  –  as  a  student  but  even  more  as  a  person  –  and  I  am  extremely  
grateful  for  this.
Second,  I  would  like  to  thank  the  EBRAMUS  group,  for  giving  me  the  
chance  of  pursuing  this  PhD  in  an  international  environment  and  for  all  the  
occasions  we  had  to  meet  and  discuss  our  work.  I  was  lucky  enough  to  meet  
wonderful  people  in  this  group,  so  my  thank  you  goes  to  all  the  supervisors  and  
students.  In  particular,  I  would  like  to  thank  Prof.  Emmanuel  Bigand,  with  
whom  I  enjoyed  a  very  useful  month  in  Dijon  as  my  secondment.  I  would  also  
like  to  thank  Philippe  Lalitte,  for  helping  me  out  to  produce  the  music  stimuli  
we  used  in  our  experiment.
Further,  I  would  like  to  thank  my  group  at  the  MPI.  The  beginning  in  a  new  
country  would  have  been  much  more  difficult  without  such  a  supporting  group,  
with  so  many  kind  people  who  happen  to  be  also  amazing  scientists.  Not  only  
the  constant  support  during  the  group  meetings  greatly  helped  me  to  advance  in
my   PhD,   but   also   the   fun   moments   we   shared   at   the   office   and   outside  
significantly   improved   my   German   experience.   My   thoughts   are   going  
especially  to  Kathrin,  Patri,  Michael,  Artyom  and  Ellen.
I  am  especially  grateful  I  did  my  PhD  at  the  MPI  for  all  its  facilities  and  
incredibly  prepared  technical  staff.  In  particular  I  would  like  to  thank  the  MRI  
MTAs,  Simone,  Mandy  and  Anke,  for  their  effort  to  understand  my  awful  
German  and  their  kindness  and  professionalism.  Further,  a  great  thank  you  to  
Ina  Koch,  Kerstin  Flake  and  Jan  Bergmann.
Of  course,  as  everyone  knows,  a  PhD  is  not  only  work,  but  through  work  
you  get  to  know  amazing  people  with  whom  to  share  the  highs  and  the  lows.  
For  being  such  a  great  safety  net  I  would  like  to  thank  the  friends  I  met  during  
these  years:  in  particular,  Laura  and  Iris.  A  very  heart-felted  thank  you  goes  of  
course  to  Anna,  Marieke,  Charles,  Floris,  Tatiana,  Irene,  Luca,  David,  Christian,  
Franzi  and  Ellie  (not  in  order  of  importance,  nor  alphabetical.  I  mixed  you  up  
randomly,  ah!  -  No,  seriously  though.  I  created  a  random  array  in  matlab).  It  
would  have  most  definitely  not  been  the  same  without  you  guys.  Also:  Anna,  
your  own  dissertation  was  a  great  inspiration  and  life-saving  example.
Last  but  not  least,  the  two  most  important  “thank  you”  of  all.  First,  to  my  
family,  for  always  supporting  me  without  questioning  during  these  years  and  
during  the  years  before.
Finally,  to  Riccardo,  without  whom  literally  none  of  this  would  have  been  
even  remotely  possible.
Table of contents

PREFACE ................................................................................................................................... 1
1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 7
1.1 HOW RELEVANT IS SOCIAL INTERACTION IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING? ................... 7
1.1.1 Human communication and the role of social interaction ................................ 8
1.1.2 Brain imaging in interacting individuals: Issues and solutions .................... 10
1.1.3 Language learning and social interaction in children....................................... 13
1.1.4 The role of sociality in second language learning ............................................... 15
1.1.5 Learning and social cognition in pathological populations ............................ 17
1.2 WORD LEARNING IN FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ........................................................... 20
1.2.1 Processes of word learning ............................................................................................. 21
1.2.2 Models of word learning .................................................................................................. 32
1.2.3 Is second language learning different from first language learning? ........ 48
2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................... 67
3 METHODS: AN INTERACTIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF WORD
LEARNING .............................................................................................................................. 73
3.1 SOCIAL PARADIGMS: ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING AN OBSERVER AND BEING
AN ACTOR ........................................................................................................................................... 74
3.2 WORD LEARNING PARADIGMS: THE HUMAN SIMULATION APPROACH ............................ 76
3.3 A NEW PARADIGM TO STUDY WORD LEARNING DURING SOCIAL INTERACTION .............. 78
3.3.1 Stimuli selection and balancing ................................................................................... 81
3.3.2 Checkerboards: Preparation and balancing........................................................... 85
3.4 BEHAVIORAL MEASURES .......................................................................................................... 86
3.5 NEUROIMAGING ......................................................................................................................... 87
3.5.1 Independent Component Analysis (ICA) ................................................................... 91
3.5.2 Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM)............................................................................... 91
4 STUDIES: SOCIAL INTERACTION IN SECOND LANGUAGE WORD LEARNING
................................................................................................................................................... 95
i
4.1 VALIDATION STUDY 1 ............................................................................................................... 99
4.2 VALIDATION STUDY 2 ............................................................................................................ 100
4.3 LEARNING TOGETHER OR LEARNING ALONE? SOCIAL INTERACTION IN ADULT WORD
LEARNING ........................................................................................................................................ 103
4.3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 104
4.3.2. Methods ................................................................................................................................ 109
4.3.3. Results ................................................................................................................................... 119
4.3.4. Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 127
4.4 PLAY ALONG: EFFECTS OF MUSIC AND SOCIAL INTERACTION ON WORD LEARNING .... 135
4.4.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 136
4.4.2. Methods ................................................................................................................................ 142
4.4.3. Results ................................................................................................................................... 149
4.4.4. Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 158
4.5 NEURAL CORRELATES OF SOCIAL WORD LEARNING ......................................................... 167
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 167
4.5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 168
4.5.2. Methods ................................................................................................................................ 175
4.5.3. Behavioral results ........................................................................................................... 191
4.5.4. fMRI results, Part I: Whole-brain GLM analysis ................................................ 196
4.5.5. fMRI results, Part III: ICA ............................................................................................. 205
4.5.6 fMRI results, Part IV: DCM ............................................................................................ 207
4.5.7 Discussion............................................................................................................................. 212
5 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................. 225
5.1 SUMMARY OF RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 228
5.2 IS SOCIAL INTERACTION INVOLVED IN ADULT WORD LEARNING? .................................. 231
5.2.1
 The
 other’s
 influence:
 Temporal coordination ................................................... 232
5.2.2 The social effect: An attentional spotlight ............................................................ 237
5.2.3 Interplay with the local context: Sentence context variability ................... 239
5.2.4 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 243
5.3 CAVEATS, OPEN QUESTIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS ................................................... 244
5.3.1 Role of visual contact and instructions .................................................................. 244
ii
5.3.2 Social interaction and memory ................................................................................. 247
5.4 CLINICAL APPLICATION: A THERAPEUTIC TOOL FOR WORD RE-LEARNING .................. 251
5.5 A PROPOSED MODEL FOR L2 ADULT WORD LEARNING .................................................... 254
5.5.1 You, me, and the gavagai: How a partner may help the learner ............... 255
5.5.2 The utilitarian learner ................................................................................................... 260
5.5.3 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 265
5.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS ......................................................................................................... 266
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 269
APPENDIX A: SOCIAL QUESTIONNAIRE .................................................................... 307
APPENDIX B: NON-SOCIAL QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................... 310
APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS ................................................................ 313
APPENDIX D: ADDITIONAL FMRI RESULTS ............................................................ 314
1. LEARNING EFFECTS ................................................................................................................... 314
2. OTHER RESULTS ........................................................................................................................ 322
3. NON-SIGNIFICANT CONTRASTS ............................................................................................... 329
APPENDIX E: TABLES ...................................................................................................... 330
APPENDIX F: ICA COMPONENTS ................................................................................. 344
1. COMPONENT 1: VISUO-SPATIAL ANALYSIS .......................................................................... 344
2. COMPONENT 3: COMPLEX VISUO-SPATIAL ENCODING ...................................................... 345
3. COMPONENT 6: “WHERE” - “WHEN” PATHWAY .................................................................. 346
4. COMPONENT 7: SEMANTIC RETRIEVAL / LANGUAGE ......................................................... 348
5. COMPONENT 8: MOTOR RESPONSE ....................................................................................... 349
6. COMPONENT 9: RIGHT ATTENTIONAL (FRONTO-PARIETAL)........................................... 350
7. COMPONENT 10: WORKING MEMORY .................................................................................. 352
8. COMPONENT 14: DEFAULT MODE NETWORK ..................................................................... 353
9. COMPONENT 20: SOCIAL COGNITION .................................................................................... 355
10. NOISE COMPONENTS (LOCALIZATION OF LOCAL MAXIMA) ............................................. 356
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................. 357
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ 360
iii