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JAMES R. NORD

comprehending words. She could, however, repeat perfectly sentences that had just
been said to her. In addition, whe would complete certain phrases. For example, if she
heard "Rosesare red", she would say "Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet
and so are you."⁶⁵
How many of us have heard our students parroting back whole long phrases once we started it for them?How many times have we been startled to find they don't understand a word they have spoken, when it comes out of the mouth of a native speaker?
...The woman could not comprehend speech because the words did not arouse
associations in other portions of the cortex. She could repeat speech correctly because
the internal connections of the speech region were intact. Presumably well-learned
word sequences storedin Broca's area could be triggered by the beginning phrases.⁶⁶ Presumably, mimicry memory drills can build up and store well-learned word sequences in Broca's area, but there is serious question about their help in comprehending those same audio forms. Also, the learning of songs and singing may be excellent motivational device, but it should not be confused with the learning of the speech aspect of language learning. Music is controlled primarily in the right hemisphere and speech in the left. When brain damage is in the left hemisphere, as in this case, speech is affected but not singing.
...A song that had been written after her illness would be played to her and after a few
repetitionsshe would begin to sing as soon as the song started. If the song was stopped
after a few bars, she would continue singing the song through to the end, making no
errors in either words or melody.^{6 7}
She could still "learn" in her right brain. That is, she could still accurately perceive, and retain in memory, a musical structure. Then, according to feedback theory, she forms her vocal apparatusto create the sounds to match what she expects to hear.

This brain research just reviewed helps clarify some of the direct structural connections involved in simple listening and speaking. The general goal of most language acquisition is the ability to listen to continuous speech flow, not just to separate words or phrases; and, to speak spontaneously, not just to repeat words or phrases. It is also desirable to know more about the transfer function,i.e., the transfer of internal cognitive growth to overt language performances such as listening comprehension and spontaneous speech. It is at this higher level of abstraction and integration that Luria's research is helpful. Luria sees three levels of language development and sees them occurring at three separate levels of brain integration. He also indicates that the listening and speaking performances seem to be related to the same special area of the brain at each level of language function. For impressive speech, or simple comprehension, Luria indicates that, "The first condition essential for the decoding of narrative speech is retention of all the elements of the expression in the speech memory. ."⁶⁸He points out that damage to the left temporal cortex creates difficulty in this simple type of comprehension task, thus helping locate the major brain area involved.
The second essential condition for the understanding of narrative speech is the
simultaneous synthesis of its elements, and the ability not only to retain all the
elements of the narrative speech structure, but also to be able to "survey" it
simultaneously and to form it into a simultaneously perceived logical scheme. ⁶⁹ He points out that this condition is not necessary for understanding simple speech which does not incorporate complex grammatical relationships, but that it is "absolutely essential to the understanding of speecil constructions incorporating complex logical-grammatical relationships, expressed with the aid of prepositions, case endings, and word order. ⁷⁰