For centuries, adults may have relied on pedagogies that promote rote memory for the learning of foreign languages through word associations and grammar rules. This contrasts sharply with child language learning which unfolds in socially interactive contexts. In this paper, we advocate an approach to study the social brain of language by grounding second language learning in social interaction. Evidence has accumulated from research in child language, education, and cognitive science pointing to the efficacy and significance of social learning. Work from several recent L2 studies also suggests positive brain changes along with enhanced behavioral outcomes as a result of social learning. Here we provide a blueprint for the brain network underlying social L2 learning, enabling the integration of neurocognitive bases with social cognition of second language while combining theories of language and memory with practical implications for the learning and teaching of a new language in adulthood.

几个世纪以来，成年人可能一直依靠通过单词联想和语法规则来促进死记硬背的记忆法来学习外语。这与在社交互动环境中开展的儿童语言学习形成鲜明对比。在本文中，我们主张通过在社交互动中扎根第二语言学习来研究语言的社交大脑的方法。在儿童语言，教育和认知科学方面的研究已经积累了证据，指出了社会学习的功效和意义。最近几项L2研究的工作还表明，由于社交学习，大脑的积极变化以及行为结果的增强。在这里，我们为基础社交L2学习的大脑网络提供了一个蓝图，