Abstract: Functional MRI was used to explore the role of language experience in shaping the neural substrates of phonological processing. Twelve Chinese children who had very limited exposure to second language (L2), i.e., English, were scanned while they were performing visually presented rhyme judgment tasks in their two languages. We found that the phonological processing of subjects’ native language and their newly obtained L2 elicited overlapping activation in the left inferior frontal region. More important, thought the L2 tasks were more difficult and thus caused more intensive activation in bilateral parietal lobule, the Broca’s area was less intensively activated in the L2 tasks. These results confirm and extend the view that the involvement of Broca’s area in phonological processing is gradually increased as a function of language experience.

Key words: fMRI, bilingual, phonology, language proficiency, language experience