Acquisition of the second language by patients with brain injury after prolonged coma
Monika Połczyńska
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
Eight patients with cranio-cerebral trauma after prolonged coma participated in a pilot study investigating their ability to learn a second language. A severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a dramatic decrease of consciousness and cerebral activity. If the state lasts more than 48 hours, it is considered a coma. Due to irreversible changes in the brain, chances of regaining premorbid physical and mental functions drastically diminish after 4 weeks of coma. Only a limited number of post-coma patients succeed in regaining full efficiency. The present study verifies weather it is possible for these patients, for whom it takes months, sometimes even years, of regular exercise to regain normal language functions in the native language, to learn a second language. The experiment has been conducted in the Department of Rehabilitation at the Bydgoszcz Academy of Medicine. It was carried out within Akademia Życia, classes for in- and outpatients, the aim of which is to re-adjust patients to everyday life in society after their discharge from hospital. All the subjects new English to some extent before the accident. There were 18 sessions lasting 1.5-2 hours within a period of 6 months. The subjects were examined twice- before and after the programme. The results of the research revealed that learning a second language (L2) is still possible. The subjects improved their performance in the following language components: lexicon, grammar and pronunciation. The acquisition process was delayed by post-traumatic aphasia which led to a lack of criticism of the patients’ own utterances, as well as dysfunction of the switch mechanism. The subjects also suffered from disorganization of memory and concentration. However, some patients achieved higher results than it had been expected. Relatively young age of the subjects (20.6 years) increased chances of learning their second language.