The two papers below may help you follow the talk. The first is a recent overview of the roles of the declarative and procedural memory systems in language, with a focus on second language and bilingualism (Ullman, 2020). The second is a recent overview of the roles of the memory systems in developmental disorders of language, including developmental language disorders (DLD; aka specific language impairment), dyslexia, Tourette syndrome, and stuttering (Ullman, Earle, Walenski, and Janacsek, 2020). This paper also contains an in-depth exposition of the nature of the two memory systems and their contributions to multiple aspects of language. These and all other papers from the Brain and Language Laboratory can be found on the lab website: brainlang.georgetown.edu.

Ullman, M.T. (2020). The Declarative/Procedural Model: A Neurobiologically-Motivated Theory of First and Second Language. In B. VanPatten, G.D. Keating, and S. Wulff (Eds.), Theories in Second Language Acquisition, 3rd edition. Routledge. pp. 128-161. https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/zjvbe8jdxpqcxmpf1xl6w2nu309ltt0i

Ullman, M.T., Earle, F.S., Walenski, M., Janacsek, K. (2020). The neurocognition of developmental disorders of language. Annual Review of Psychology. 71, 389–417. https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/v86uoxph8nn62i6bvo3e6dwhlecvkeub

Increasing evidence suggests that language learning depends importantly on general-purpose learning circuits that pre-existed humans. In particular, research indicates that children learn native languages and adults learn additional languages in evolutionarily ancient circuits that are found in other vertebrates, and are used for a wide range of tasks. For example, birds rely on this circuitry to remember where they stored their hidden acorns, while rats use it to follow rule-governed grooming sequences. Converging evidence from psycholinguistic, neurological, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological studies suggests that humans also rely on these declarative and procedural learning systems for their lexical (word) and grammatical (rule-governed combination) abilities, in specific ways in both first and second language. Newer evidence also suggests that aspects of reading and math may be learned in these systems. Moreover, abnormalities in or compensation by these systems can help explain atypical language and other functions, for example in developmental language disorder and dyslexia. The research has implications not only for understanding the biology and evolution of language and how it is learned, but also for how language learning can be improved, both for people learning a second language and for those with developmental and other disorders.