Implications for English Education Based on an ERP Experiment

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to offer pedagogical implications for English education based on the results of an ERP (Event-related Brain Potential) experiment. The experiment was conducted at a laboratory at Y university and both high and low proficient university students participated in the experiment. ERPs were recorded from 17 students with high English proficiency and 14 students with low English proficiency as they read sentences that ended with the same words used literally and metaphorically. Their ERPs were compared with those of native speakers of English in Coulson's and Petten's (2002) study to understand how they differed and were similar. It was shown that ERPs from high proficient students were similar to those of native speakers but it was noticeable that ERPs from low proficient students were different from those of native speakers of English. Based on the results, some valuable implications were offered for English education: revisiting CPH (Critical Period Hypothesis), rejecting the use of terms, native and nonnative speakers of English, implementing multicultural and multilingual education, and focusing on strategies-based instruction.