Hemispheric Asymmetry in Second Language Processing: A Dichotic Listening Study of Phonological and Emotional Auditory Stimuli
This study investigates hemispheric asymmetry in auditory language processing among 14 adult late L2 learners. Using dichotic listening tasks, I examined whether phonological versus emotional stimuli elicit distinct hemispheric activation patterns, predicting left-hemisphere dominance for phonologic...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis de maestría |
| Estado: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositorio: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/180193 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/180193 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Hemispheric specialization brain lateralization language acquisition second language learning (L2) Especialización hemisférica lateralización cerebral adquisición del lenguaje aprendizaje de segunda lengua (L2) |
| Sumario: | This study investigates hemispheric asymmetry in auditory language processing among 14 adult late L2 learners. Using dichotic listening tasks, I examined whether phonological versus emotional stimuli elicit distinct hemispheric activation patterns, predicting left-hemisphere dominance for phonological and right for emotional stimuli. This addresses critical gaps in post-critical period L2 neural plasticity with direct pedagogical implications. Participants completed syllable recognition and emotional prosody tasks. Results showed non-significant right-ear advantage for syllables (25.64% vs. 23.45%, p=0.2525) but unexpected left-hemisphere dominance for emotional prosody (right ear: 41.75% vs. left: 20.80%, p=0.0002). High prevalence of poorly defined laterality (71.43%) may explain these findings. In this sense, late L2 learners appear to employ compensatory left-hemisphere strategies for emotional content, prioritizing linguistic over affective features. These findings challenge traditional hemispheric specialization models, indicating unique neural reorganization in adult L2 processing and requiring differentiated teaching approaches in education. |
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