Traces of a Lost Language

TYG — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:56:14 +0000

The language you were born into may remain embedded in your neural architecture long after you’ve disassociated with it. Not everyone will undergo this linguistic dissociation; some continue using their parents’ language, naturally adopting it as their own as they remain in an environment that empowers its use. Others, however, may organically distance themselves from its roots. This is not always a dramatic divorce, but one of subtle erosion following environmental or cultural shifts (such as immigrating to another country at a young age or entering a school system whose primary language differs from the original mother tongue). Yet, the roots echo in the neurological substrate.

Seeing the birth language’s impact

Barbeau et al. (2025) used diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the enduring effects of a birth language on the white matter of the brain. They found that international adoptees from China who grew up in a French-language environment in the first two years of their life still showed a neural architecture reflecting their Chinese birth language. This neural architecture persisted even though they did not speak nor use the birth language in the present day. These participants were categorized as monolingual French speakers, but the language regions of their brains showed white matter connections that were more similar to Mandarin-first-language (Mandarin L1) speakers than French-first-language speakers (French L1). This retention of specific white matter tract patterns may be due to the tonality of the birth language (Mandarin), rather than it simply being a different first language (Barbeau et al., 2025).

How early can a language impact one’s brain?

More research needs to be done to see whether different birth languages, not just tonal ones, yield similar artefacts in the neural architecture. The impact of a language may even begin to build inside the womb, before birth. Listening to a language as a fetus may influence the brain’s speech processing patterns immediately after birth (René et al., 2025), so the imprints of a pre-birth language may enhance or counter those of the birth language.

And after birth?

Disregarding the graphic picture this phrasing evokes, the impact of languages after birth continues to be a source of fascination as researchers ponder the pliability of the critical period of language learning and the boundless potential of learning languages across ages. Youth may confer easy cognitive flexibility, but research may uncover how aging cognitive networks could forge a similar flourish.

References

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08954-4

Barbeau, E. B., Pierce, L., Deschamps, S., Kousaie, S., Gilbert, A., Chen, J. K., Baum, S., & Klein, D. (2025). Early but discontinued exposure to a language exerts lasting effects on white matter architecture in the brain. Communications biology, 8(1), 1575. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08954-4

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08594-8

René, A., Caron-Desrochers, L., Tremblay, J. et al. Prenatal linguistic exposure shapes language brain responses at birth. Commun Biol 8, 1155 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08594-8

For more info on critical period of language learning and language learning as we age:

https://news.mit.edu/2018/cognitive-scientists-define-critical-period-learning-language-0501

https://theconversation.com/your-age-shouldnt-put-you-off-learning-a-new-language-what-the-research-says-263581

Stress in the L2

TYG — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 13:45:43 +0000

Speaking another language is both wonderful and stressful. The joy of opening new channels of communication and sharing ideas with different people is undeniable, but so is the stress of errors and fatigue grazing the language learning journey. Sometimes speakers experience anxiety as well, further complicating performance. One of the most commonly studied second language (L2) affects is language anxiety, which describes negativity and fear related to using a non-native language (MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012). Sometimes referred to as foreign language or L2 anxiety, this phenomenon is also found in L2 classrooms where teachers observe emotional blocks to language learning (Papi & Khajavy, 2023). Anecdotally, I can appreciate its relevance since speaking another language, especially as supposedly well-informed adults, forces a naivety and an unfamiliarity we’ve fought so long to forget.

Don’t sweat it… or do?

These dings of stress emerge in our sweat too, allowing researchers to examine our galvanic skin response as a proxy for physiological anxiety (Markiewicz et al., 2022). Using these skin responses, researchers have found that high response (or arousal) during an L2 conversation was related to L2 speakers’ negative perceptions of their own fluency and their partner’s engagement in the conversation (Lindberg et al., 2022).

The infamous stress hormone

Stress can also be measured through cortisol, a steroid hormone often used in research studies as a biomarker for psychological stress (Inder et al., 2012). Cortisol may be noninvasively assessed through saliva samples, making it an accessible method for research. Using this method, another group of researchers found that L2 speakers showed significantly larger increases in salivary cortisol compared to those speaking their first language (L1), despite not showing any differences in their heart rate nor their self-reported measures of stress or anxiety (Fischer et al., 2019).

Stressing the point

Stress may reduce our overall speech fluency in even our primary language (Buchanan et al., 2014) and L2 students’ anxiety may reduce their willingness to participate in class (Nyamekye et al., 2025). This may be due to stress depleting or redistributing cognitive resources (Shields et al., 2016), which may then stifle L2 performance. Yet, other research suggests that the depletion of cognitive resources may support language learning in adults (Smalle et al., 2021). This paradoxical finding may hint at the specific impacts of physiological, emotional stress separate from shifts in cognitive shares.

Perhaps, like with almost anything we do, it is the balance we find between stress and performance that serves us best, teetering away from edges and excess.

References

Buchanan, T. W., Laures-Gore, J. S., & Duff, M. C. (2014). Acute stress reduces speech fluency. Biological psychology, 97, 60–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.02.005

Fischer, S., Spoerri, C. M., Gmuer, A., Wingeier, M., Nater, U. M., Gaab, J., … Ditzen, B. (2019). Psychobiological impact of speaking a second language in healthy young men. Stress, 22(3), 403–407. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890.2019.1575805

Inder, W. J., Dimeski, G., & Russell, A. (2012). Measurement of salivary cortisol in 2012 – laboratory techniques and clinical indications. Clinical endocrinology, 77(5), 645–651. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2265.2012.04508.x

Lindberg, R., McDonough, K., & Trofimovich, P. (2023). Second language anxiety in conversation and its relationship with speakers’ perceptions of the interaction and their social networks. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 45(5), 1413–1426. doi:10.1017/S0272263122000523

MacIntyre, P., Gregersen, T. (2012). Affect: The Role of Language Anxiety and Other Emotions in Language Learning. In: Mercer, S., Ryan, S., Williams, M. (eds) Psychology for Language Learning. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137032829_8

Markiewicz, R., Markiewicz-Gospodarek, A., & Dobrowolska, B. (2022). Galvanic Skin Response Features in Psychiatry and Mental Disorders: A Narrative Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(20), 13428. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013428

Nyamekye, E., Mutawakil, AR. & Slippe, D.P. The predictive impact of linguistic anxiety and ‘fear of lecturers’ on students’ willingness to communicate in class. Discov Psychol 5, 88 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-025-00348-1

Papi M, Khajavy H. Second language anxiety: Construct, effects, and sources. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 2023;43:127-139. doi:10.1017/S0267190523000028

Shields, G. S., Sazma, M. A., & Yonelinas, A. P. (2016). The effects of acute stress on core executive functions: A meta-analysis and comparison with cortisol. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 68, 651–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.038

Smalle, E. H. M., Muylle, M., Duyck, W., & Szmalec, A. (2021). Less is more: Depleting cognitive resources enhances language learning abilities in adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(12), 2423–2434. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001058

For more info on the stress/arousal curve:
https://dictionary.apa.org/yerkes-dodson-law

second language – languagesciencey