著者

辰巳 桂子 出口 弘 長尾 ひろみ 杉浦 元亮 ジョン ヒョンジョン 生田 奈穂 橋爪 寛 松縄 順子 川島 隆太

出版者

神戸女学院大学

雑誌

論集 (ISSN:03891658)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.55, no.1, pp.89-104, 2008-06

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One of human-being specific activities, interpreting (oral translation), has been adopted as a popular method to enhance second language acquisition lately. The question, however, how interpreting is executed in human brains, remains largely unknown. In this paper, we present our fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) experimental results to investigate how cerebral cortices are activated when subjects are engaged in interpreting exercises. Twenty-one healthy, right-handed university student subjects participated in this study. We directly compared English to Japanese consecutive interpreting (EJ) to Japanese to English consecutive interpreting (JE) using subtraction method, as well as with sentence reconstruction tasks in Japanese (JJ) and English (EE), and with resting condition (Rest, or baseline). The direct subtraction analysis between EJ and JE left only a limited area: left superior temporal gyrus remained. In JE minus EJ (masked by EJ-Rest: P<0.05image), right and left precentral gyri, left thalamus, left and right superior temporal gyri, and left middle temporal gyrus are left, suggesting that JE recruited more extensive regions in comparison with EJ, despite that all sources of sentence recorded and used as stimuli were constructed to be at the same level of difficulty, either directly taken from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) -authorized popular textbooks used in Japanese public junior high schools, or translation of such sources. The conditions EJ, EE, and JJ showed very similar patterns of cortical activation, indicating that the conditions recruited similar brain regions: left and right superior temporal gyri, mainly left middle temporal gyrus,, left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part and triangular part), left temporal lobe's lateral surface, and mainly left supplementary motor areas. EJ and JE commonly activated Inferior frontal gyri (opercular part and triangular part) and supplementary motor areas in both hemispheres. Kawashima (2004) reports that even a different-activity-related cortical activation serves as a preparatory activity for the individuals' following activity and enhances learning or delays development of dementia in older subjects. From the results, we infer that EE and JJ sentence reconstruction exercises that activated similar regions to those activated in consecutive interpreting might fit the purpose of consecutive interpreting training preparation.

著者

横山 悟 マナロ エマニュエル 田中 エリス伸枝 高橋 慶 橋爪 寛 ジョン ヒョンジョン 川島 隆太

出版者

一般社団法人電子情報通信学会

雑誌

電子情報通信学会技術研究報告. TL, 思考と言語 (ISSN:09135685)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.112, no.145, pp.13-17, 2012-07-14

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外国語の習熟度の一側面として、処理時間の速度という側面がある。本研究では、日本人英語学習者による英文理解の速度を計測し、その速度と英語の習熟度との関係性を探る。その目的のため、習熟度のバラつきがある日本人英語学習者群に対し、英語習熟度テストと英文のself-paced reading taskを課し、両者の関係性を探索的に探った。本論文では、その実験結果を報告する。