Abstract
Music's effect on non-musical domains has been an area of intense research. Musical training has been shown to positively affect the processing of phonology, lexical tone, and syntax. While music also has positive effects in second language phonology acquisition, its effect on grammar acquisition is contested. This thesis aimed to study the under-researched topic of music and second language grammar acquisition using electroencephalography (EEG), thereby studying the electrical responses of the brain. Beginning level Spanish students were trained on a new grammatical principle prior to performing a grammaticality judgment task, and their behavioral and neural results were analyzed. Those students with a stronger musical aptitude did not perform better than the other students in the grammaticality judgement task, nor was there any difference in their neural responses to critical syntactic violations.
Degree
MA
College and Department
Humanities; Linguistics
Rights
https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Hunsaker, Deven Joseph, "The Effect of Musical Training on Second Language Grammar Acquisition" (2023). Theses and Dissertations. 9891.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/9891
Date Submitted
2023-04-25
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12729
Keywords
language acquisition, neuroimaging, music, ERP, N400, P600
Language
english