Modern methods of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics in the second language acquisition

Abstract

The article is devoted to a review and discussion of modern scientific methods of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics. The observed interest of researchers in these areas of linguistics in recent decades continues to grow both in domestic and international science. As it is known, psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics belong to the complex sciences of the humanities cycle, constituting the core in the study of speech and human thought processes. Thus, psycholinguistics studies the process of production and perception of the sign system of language in the mind of a person, and neurolinguistics studies the cerebral mechanisms of speech activity and changes in speech processes that have arisen with local brain lesions. Psycho- and neurolinguistic theories often overlap, which contributes to the active use of the methods. This article presents an analytical review of modern methods of the analyzed areas of modern linguistic science used to obtain and process information in the process of the second language acquisition (L2). The authors discuss the methods used in the study of brain activity that provides speech production. The considered methods make it possible to study potentially qualitative changes in the brain signature to study the processes of understanding by examining specific indicators of eye movement and also help to analyze the features of the thinking process in native speakers of the first and second languages.

Key words: psycholinguistics; neurolinguistics; eye tracking; EEG; fMRI; event related potentials.