Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series Talk

Accounting for individual differences in second language acquisition can contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms involved in language acquisition and can have implications for language learning endeavors. Here, I consider the role of two, long-term, cognitive memory systems as individual differences in the acquisition of second language grammar. In doing so, I first describe the declarative and procedural memory systems and consider theories that address a role for declarative and procedural memory in second language acquisition. Next, I discuss behavioral and electrophysiological evidence in regard to predictions made by the theories. I also consider how the contributions of these long-term memory systems may interact with each other and with different learning conditions. Finally, I conclude with discussion of important directions and questions for future research on the role of declarative and procedural memory as individual differences in second language.

Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Series Workshop

This workshop aims to provide an overview of some key findings from neurolinguistic research that have implications for second language teaching. First, I will provide a brief overview of well-established findings regarding how first and second languages are processed and stored in the brain based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrophysiology. Then, I will present a summary of results related to what we know about the brain and second language development. Some of the findings are generally informative to how second languages are learned without specific implications for teaching, but others have more direct implications for teaching. A structured, interactive discussion will allow attendees to consider how this research may inform their own teaching.

Children of the Sea: Film Screening

Ayumu Watanabe’s “Children of the Sea” — the latest feature from Japan’s Studio 4°C, whose films include “Tekkonkinkreet,” “MFKZ,” and “Batman: Gotham Knight” — is adapted from Daisuke Igarashi’s lauded manga, which won the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival. When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her father works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. Like Ruka, the boys — who were raised by dugongs, a type of marine mammal — hear the same strange calls from the sea. Ruka’s dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they become caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish. “Children of the Sea” features a score by award-winning composer and longtime Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi, whose credits include “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.” Appropriate for ages 12 and older.

Film screening sponsored by East Asian Languages and Cultures

Ximei: Film Screening

Andy Cohen, who has served as a producer on an array of impressive documentaries — “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” “Hooligan Sparrow,” “Human Flow” — directs this documentary portrait with Gaylen Ross, director of "Dealer Among Dealers" and "Killing Kasztner." Ximei is a hugely inspiring activist on behalf of HIV-positive Chinese peasants in Henan Province. It’s estimated that more than 300,000 people in the province were infected with the virus — either when they gave blood (because of unsanitary conditions) or received transfusions (because of the tainted supply) — before corrective action was finally taken. Many of those affected gave blood as a means to supplement their meager incomes, with the government actively promoting the practice. That same government now offers little help, providing only substandard medications and difficult-to-access clinics and hospitals, and the HIV/AIDS patients — generally unable to work — lead marginalized existences in communities that often shun them. Ximei, who was infected after a transfusion following a horrific thresher accident when she was only 10, works locally, nationally, and internationally to raise awareness of the dire situation, and her efforts are constantly undermined or thwarted by officials. In addition to her tireless advocacy, she also serves as an empathetic listener as an array of fellow victims tell their own stories, which continue to unfold — often with grim results — over the course of the film.

Film screening sponsored by East Asian Languages and Cultures