Connecting reading to pronunciation

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Fascinating study of the neurological correlates of literacy in children by Yeatman and colleagues at Stanford, summarized by Scientific American, "Brain connectivity predicts reading skills." The basic finding was that changes in the "white matter" connective tissues in the brain help explain individual differences in development of reading ability. Note how that happens:

" Differences in the growth of both tracts (the arcuate fasciculus, which conects the brain's language centres, and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, which links the language centres with the parts of the brain that process visual information) could predict the variations in reading ability. Strong readers started off with a weak signal in both tracts on the left side of the brain, which got stronger over the three years. Weaker readers exhibited the opposite pattern . . . Both processes are influenced by experience — underused nerve fibres are pruned, whereas others are myelinated — so they occur at different rates and times in different people."

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The researchers go on to propose that " . . . individual children might benefit from reading lessons that are tailored to their patterns of brain development." Research on the underpinnings of the process and pedagogy of L2 phonological system development seems to point to a common "thread," if you will: relative connectivity of language-related brain centers. By extension, L2 learners also "benefit" from a pedagogical system that involves multiple-modalities and multi-senses. Does your pronunciation method need a touch of pruning or myelination? It does . . . 

Putting a little more muscle in your (pronunciation) teaching

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Clip art: Clker

Every body builder knows that increasing muscle mass requires moving more iron or the equivalent. Turns out, the same principle applies in the brain when learning--in this case, language. In a study by Mårtensson and colleagues at Lund University (summarized by Science Daily) it was shown that in learning a language something analogous happens: certain areas increase more in size, depending on how efficiently the learner acquired the language:

"Students with greater growth (increase in mass) in the hippocampus and areas of the cerebral cortex related to language learning (superior temporal gyrus) had better language skills than the other students. In students who had to put more effort into their learning, greater growth was seen in an area of the motor region of the cerebral cortex (middle frontal gyrus)." (Bold face, mine.) 

In other words, some subjects, probably your average learners, relied upon more motor or tactile/kinaesthetic engagement in the process, whereas the "gifted" appeared able to learn in a more visual/auditory mode, where experiential, oral practice may not have been as critical to success. We all know someone like that, who seems to be able to either read or listen to new language material and almost as if by magic is able to use it immediately in speaking, understanding or writing. They simply have "superior temporal gyrus(es)!" Unfortunate "motor-mortals" like myself  depend more on our "middle frontal gyrus(es)". So much for the myth that learning a language better just requires more hard work. More haptic-integration for the rest of us may help, however . . .