Accumulating evidence shows how language context shapes bilingual language use and its cognitive consequences. However, few studies have considered the impact of language context for monolinguals. Although monolinguals' language processing is assumed to be relatively stable and homogeneous, some research has shown novel learning through exposure alone. Monolinguals living in linguistically diverse contexts regularly overhear languages they do not understand, and may absorb information about those languages in ways that shape their language networks. The current study used behavioral and ERP measures to compare monolinguals living in a linguistically diverse environment and a unilingual environment in their ability to learn vowel harmony in Finnish. Monolinguals in both contexts demonstrated similar learning of studied words; however, their ERPs differed for generalization. Monolinguals in the diverse context revealed an anterior late positivity, whereas monolinguals in the unilingual context showed no effect. The results suggest that linguistic diversity promotes new language learning.

中文翻译：

---

只有英文吗？在不同语言环境中的单语者在语言学习方面具有优势


越来越多的证据表明语言环境如何影响双语的使用及其认知后果。然而，很少有研究考虑语言环境对单语者的影响。尽管单语者的语言处理被认为是相对稳定和同质的，但一些研究表明，仅通过接触就能获得新的学习效果。生活在不同语言环境中的单语者经常会无意中听到他们不理解的语言，并且可能会以塑造其语言网络的方式吸收有关这些语言的信息。当前的研究使用行为和 ERP 测量来比较生活在语言多样化环境和单语环境中的单语者学习芬兰语元音和谐的能力。在两种情况下，单语者都表现出相似的单词学习能力。然而，他们的 ERP 在泛化方面有所不同。不同环境中的单语者表现出前后期积极性，而单语环境中的单语者则没有表现出任何影响。结果表明，语言多样性促进新语言学习。