Professor Ping Li from Penn State University was invited to present his recent work on May 9, 2014 at the annual symposium of Bilingual Cognition and Education Lab (www.bcelab.com). His talk, entitled “The Crosslinguistic Brain: Neurocognitive Studies of L1 and L2 Chinese” focused on the neural mechanisms underlying second language learning.

In his talk, Prof. Li firstly introduced that the neural mechanisms for first and second language representations in the bilingual brain are influenced by three key factors, i.e. age of second language acquisition (AoA), second language proficiency, and cognitive control ability. He introduced recent works on the neural changes associated with second language learning and how these changes are modulated by the three factors. For example, according to Prof. Li's works, how Chinese-English bilinguals processed nouns and verbs in their two languages are influenced by their AoA and second language proficiency. Prof. Li also introduced his recent publications on American’s learning Chinese vocabulary and artificial grammars. He pointed out that second language learning experience not only shapes the function of the brain, but only change the brain structure as his recent study with American learners of Spanish showed increased gray matter density after learning Spanish for only two weeks.

The talk lasted about one and a half hours. Prof. Li's talk provides a introduction of neurolinguistic view on the bilingual brain. His talk and research findings inspired the audience a lot.