Researching the glottodidactic potential of selected techniques of working with language material using fMRI

This paper outlines selected results of a glottodidactic study conducted at the Bioimaging Research Center in Kajetany (Poland) using fMRI. The aim of the study was to compare, from the neurolinguistic point of view, selected language activities: retrieving a list of previously memorized words and phrases, retrieving previously memorized short texts, and creating a spontaneous oral statement in a foreign language (L2), in order to assess their potential impact on the development of communicative competence of L2-learners. The study is aimed at answering the following question: the processing of which kind of linguistic information, i.e. in the form of individual phrases or in the form of a text, is more similar to the act of spontaneous speech from the neurobiological perspective. It was assumed that the activity which is more similar to such speech act will probably be more conducive to the development of students' communication skills in the process of learning a foreign language. The results of the study demonstrate that work with a coherent text in foreign language learning and teaching can be more beneficial than working with lists of separate words or phrases.