Influence of Latent Synaesthesia on SLA

【Abstract】Synaesthesia and Second Language Acquisition （SLA）， two conceptions that are totally irrelevant in many peoples eyes. When learning a second language， we ordinary people acquire it mainly by apperception， and the words， syntactic patterns and grammatical rules that we memorize will always be forgotten. However， the nature seems more care of some lucky ones， who are born to be unforgotten to literal and historical stuff theyve read， some even have over computers calculation capability. The research group of synaesthesia led by psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen from Cambridge University find out that there is a synaesthete in every two thousand people. And all normal people have potential of synaesthesia to different degrees， while they cant bring it up to awareness level yet. This thesis aims to analyze influence of synaesthesia on SLA based on the stimulation and use of synaesthesia in normal peoples SLA process.

【Key words】Apperception； Synaesthesia； Latent Synaesthesia； Second Language Acquisition （SLA）； Influence

1. The origin of synaesthesia

Synaesthesia， a psychological term which is originated from Greece， means perceiving together. In 1880， the cousin of famous biologist Charles Robert Darwin， Francis Galton， an English scientist and explorer， described the first case of synaesthesia phenomenon in Nature. Since then， there are many explorations and researches on synaesthesia， which has experienced countless ups and downs in its analysis and excavation. Even today， neurologists from all over the world are still studying on this subtle phenomenon. The most common case is recognizing color through shape， smell， sound or flavor.

2. Influence of normal peoples latent synaesthesia stimulated on SLA

2.1 Functioning mode of synaesthesia in SLA process

People with synaesthesia show an enhanced memory relative to demographically matched controls. The most obvious explanation for this is that the 'extra' perceptual experiences lead to richer encoding and retrieval opportunities of stimuli which induce synaesthesia （typically verbal stimuli）.

While synaesthetes tend to have better visual memory than verbal， for example， they can see numbers with colors.

2.2 Influence of normal peoples latent synaesthesia stimulated on SLA

Normal peoples latent synaesthesia can be stimulated under the circumstance that one sensation loses temporarily.During that period， blindness activates the pathway linking hearing and spatial recognition which is closed in normal situations. That is why we become more sensitive to sounds as well as more easily to feel different kinds of auras when we close our eyes.

Likewise， L2 feeling ability is also enhanced greatly by stimulated synaesthesia， thus learners could acquire L2 swiftly through the powerful cooperation of several senses in co-occurrence of the same thing with different experiences blended as a whole in your mind， which instead impresses you better for saving L2 in your long memory and all L2-related information can be extracted through the pathway from V4 for use in a stereoscopic way.

3. Conclusion

As this article makes a multi-dimensional analysis of the connection and interaction between latent synaesthesia and SLA in normal peoples aspect， it designates to illustrate an original study of this marginal influence on SLA in its process. Latent synaesthesia is just like the state of animals hibernation for normal people in their brains. In SLA progress， this “hibernation” will be thawed and synaesthesia functions， which exerts a most strong influence on SLA. It not only brings high efficiency for acquiring L2 but also provides firsthand references to fabricating a new generation of bionic robots.

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作者简介：钟亮（1991.05-），汉族，男，江西抚州人，云南师范大学外国语学院14级学科教学（英语）硕士研究生，研究方向：英语语言文学、英语教育、二语习得、应用语言学。