Translation of Colloquialisms in the Arabic-into-English Subtitled Film, The Dupes

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Aladdin Al-Kharabsheh

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to investigate the difficulties and problems that subtitlers may encounter in subtitling colloquial expressions from Arabic into English. To achieve the main objectives of the study, some authentic examples have been obtained from the subtitled film The Dupes and  analyzed linguistically and translationally in order to identify the subtitling inaccuracies, to highlight the subtitling strategies used by the film's subtitler, and to draw other workable subtitling solutions for dealing with colloquialisms or slang language. Analysis isolates three major problems relevant to subtitling Arabic colloquial expressions into English: (1 some colloquialisms,  especially those reflecting religious overtones, have been missubtitled, (2 some colloquialisms have been totally dropped out from subtitling (i.e. zero-subtitling, (3 and in subtitling certain colloquialisms, a considerable subtitling loss has occurred. Finally, to resolve such recalcitrant problems and difficulties, the study, in its concluding part, suggests some other practical subtitling mechanisms, other than the ones that have been adopted by the film's subtitler.

34 CFR 303.403 - Prior notice; native language.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prior notice; native language. 303.403 Section 303.403... TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards General § 303.403 Prior notice; native language. (a... file a complaint and the timelines under those procedures. (c) Native language. (1) The notice must be...

Native-language N400 and P600 predict dissociable language-learning abilities in adults.

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Qi, Zhenghan; Beach, Sara D; Finn, Amy S; Minas, Jennifer; Goetz, Calvin; Chan, Brian; Gabrieli, John D E

2017-04-01

Language learning aptitude during adulthood varies markedly across individuals. An individual's native-language ability has been associated with success in learning a new language as an adult. However, little is known about how native-language processing affects learning success and what neural markers of native-language processing, if any, are related to success in learning. We therefore related variation in electrophysiology during native-language processing to success in learning a novel artificial language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while native English speakers judged the acceptability of English sentences prior to learning an artificial language. There was a trend towards a double dissociation between native-language ERPs and their relationships to novel syntax and vocabulary learning. Individuals who exhibited a greater N400 effect when processing English semantics showed better future learning of the artificial language overall. The N400 effect was related to syntax learning via its specific relationship to vocabulary learning. In contrast, the P600 effect size when processing English syntax predicted future syntax learning but not vocabulary learning. These findings show that distinct neural signatures of native-language processing relate to dissociable abilities for learning novel semantic and syntactic information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Subtitling of Indigenous Values in the Film Seediq Bale

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Tzu-yi Elaine Lee

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The movie Seediq Bale, directed by Wei Te-Sheng and produced by John Woo, is a Taiwanese historical drama epic film based on the Wushe Incident in 1930. The story depicts the Wushe Incident, which happened in central Taiwan while it was under Japanese rule. Mona Rudao, a then chief of Seediq indigenous village Mahebu, led warriors against Japanese authorities due to the long-term colonial oppression. In response, the Japanese mounted a relentless counter-attack, killing over three hundred Seediq people. Often compared by the media in Taiwan to the films Braveheart and The Last of the Mohicans, the film, released in 2011, is so far the most expensive production in Taiwan cinema history. Different language registers are present in the movie, including Mandarin, Japanese, and the Seediq language; this can be a great challenge for the translator when translating the subtitles into English. Nonetheless, it is believed that ideologies can be manifested in language use. So, the study attempts to disclose the translator¡¦s hidden indigenous ideologies in the English subtitles s/he provided. Moreover, as subtitling translation involves a multiplicity of verbal and non-verbal semiotic modes, those visual and audio elements could also contribute to the final product of subtitle translations. Hence, the study, in addition to the translator¡¦s indigenous ideologies and handling of ethnic issues in translation, also looks at how the translator worked with semiotic modes in designing the subtitles for the target context.

Native language as an ethnic symbol Serbs in Timisoara

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Pavlović Mirjana P.

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Based on the data gathered during original research in the Serbian community of Timisoara, in 2002. and 2003, this paper discusses one of the symbols of ethnic identity, namely, the native language. The methods used in the research include questionnaires, interviews, everyday conversation and the participant-observation technique. The analysis covers various aspects and levels of knowledge, as well as the usage of Serbian language; in addition it also includes the most important features that influence the language's persistence during many centuries, as well as noted changes in a multinational environment. Namely, the Serbs in Timisoara have preserved their native, Serbian language as a second language; then-native Serbian language is constantly under the heavy influence of the Romanian language which is the dominant and official language in the area. The analysis shows that the knowledge of Serbian is much higher among the Serbs who received education in their native language, as well as among the older generation while mixed marriages with Romanians contribute to its loss. Romanian language, on the other hand, gradually becomes more and more dominant even in the traditional spheres of life where native language was once in use among family members, minority organizations and in interactions among Mends of Serbian origin. Moreover, mixed marriages and education in the native language influence the persistence of the native language. In spite of many changes in all aspects and usages, Serbian language still remains the symbol of ethnic identity among the Serbs in Timisoara: the language marks the special unity among the Serbs in relation to the surrounding majority and other ethnic groups in the city of Timisoara, and functions as a connection with the tradition and culture of the homeland.

76 FR 3120 - Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program; Office of English Language...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-19

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program; Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students; Overview Information; Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program...

The Native Language in Teaching Kindergarten Mathematics

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Espada, Janet P.

2012-01-01

The use of the native language as a medium of instruction is believed to be the fastest and most natural route towards developing a strong foundation in mathematics literacy (Mimaropa, In D.O.No. 74, s.2009). This study examined the effect of using the native language in the teaching of kindergarten mathematics. A total of 34 five to six year old…

Non-native educators in English language teaching

CERN Document Server

Braine, George

2013-01-01

The place of native and non-native speakers in the role of English teachers has probably been an issue ever since English was taught internationally. Although ESL and EFL literature is awash, in fact dependent upon, the scrutiny of non-native learners, interest in non-native academics and teachers is fairly new. Until recently, the voices of non-native speakers articulating their own concerns have been even rarer. This book is a response to this notable vacuum in the ELT literature, providing a forum for language educators from diverse geographical origins and language backgrounds. In addition to presenting autobiographical narratives, these authors argue sociopolitical issues and discuss implications for teacher education, all relating to the theme of non-native educators in ETL. All of the authors are non-native speakers of English. Some are long established professionals, whereas others are more recent initiates to the field. All but one received part of the higher education in North America, and all excep...

Translation Methods Used In Writing Indonesian Subtitles Of “Kung Fu Panda Holiday”

OpenAIRE

NURMALLAH, HERDIANTI

2013-01-01

In Indonesia, western movies that are spoken in English make the need for Indonesian subtitles increase. To make subtitles in different language, translation has an important role. The translator must use appropriate methods to produce good translation. This study aims to find out the kinds of translation methods used in writing Indonesian subtitles of the movie “Kung Fu Panda Holiday” by using Newmark's theory (1988). This study uses descriptive qualitative approach with document analysis. T...

Native Language Spoken as a Risk Marker for Tooth Decay.

Science.gov (United States)

Carson, J; Walker, L A; Sanders, B J; Jones, J E; Weddell, J A; Tomlin, A M

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess dmft, the number of decayed, missing (due to caries), and/ or filled primary teeth, of English-speaking and non-English speaking patients of a hospital based pediatric dental clinic under the age of 72 months to determine if native language is a risk marker for tooth decay. Records from an outpatient dental clinic which met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Patient demographics and dmft score were recorded, and the patients were separated into three groups by the native language spoken by their parents: English, Spanish and all other languages. A total of 419 charts were assessed: 253 English-speaking, 126 Spanish-speaking, and 40 other native languages. After accounting for patient characteristics, dmft was significantly higher for the other language group than for the English-speaking (p0.05). Those patients under 72 months of age whose parents' native language is not English or Spanish, have the highest risk for increased dmft when compared to English and Spanish speaking patients. Providers should consider taking additional time to educate patients and their parents, in their native language, on the importance of routine dental care and oral hygiene.

The pros and cons of dubbing and subtitling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koolstra, C.M.; Peeters, A.L.; Spinhof, H.

2002-01-01

Dubbing and subtitling are the most prevalent methods used to make foreign-language television programmes available to a,domestic market: Each adaptation method has its advantages and disadvantages. This article provides an inventory of the pros and cons of both methods on the basis of three

Does verbatim sentence recall underestimate the language competence of near-native speakers?

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Judith eSchweppe

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Verbatim sentence recall is widely used to test the language competence of native and non-native speakers since it involves comprehension and production of connected speech. However, we assume that, to maintain surface information, sentence recall relies particularly on attentional resources, which differentially affects native and non-native speakers. Since even in near-natives language processing is less automatized than in native speakers, processing a sentence in a foreign language plus retaining its surface may result in a cognitive overload. We contrasted sentence recall performance of German native speakers with that of highly proficient non-natives. Non-natives recalled the sentences significantly poorer than the natives, but performed equally well on a cloze test. This implies that sentence recall underestimates the language competence of good non-native speakers in mixed groups with native speakers. The findings also suggest that theories of sentence recall need to consider both its linguistic and its attentional aspects.

Field and laboratory guide to freshwater cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms for Native American and Alaska Native communities

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Rosen, Barry H.; St. Amand, Ann

2015-09-14

Cyanobacteria can produce toxins and form harmful algal blooms. The Native American and Alaska Native communities that are dependent on subsistence fishing have an increased risk of exposure to these cyanotoxins. It is important to recognize the presence of an algal bloom in a waterbody and to distinguish a potentially toxic harmful algal bloom from a non-toxic bloom. This guide provides field images that show cyanobacteria blooms, some of which can be toxin producers, as well as other non-toxic algae blooms and floating plants that might be confused with algae. After recognition of a potential toxin-producing cyanobacterial bloom in the field, the type(s) of cyanobacteria present needs to be identified. Species identification, which requires microscopic examination, may help distinguish a toxin-producer from a non-toxin producer. This guide also provides microscopic images of the common cyanobacteria that are known to produce toxins, as well as images of algae that form blooms but do not produce toxins.

The Correlation between Early Second Language Learning and Native Language Skill Development

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Caccavale, Terry

2007-01-01

It has long been the assumption of many in the field of second language teaching that learning a second language helps to promote and enhance native language skill development, and that this correlation is direct and positive. Language professionals have assumed that learning a second language directly supports the development of better skills,…

The layers of subtitling

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Elena Di Giovanni

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The study of subtitling, although widely practiced over the past 20 years, has generally been confined to comparative studies focusing on the product of subtitle translation, with little or no consideration of the conditions of creation and reception. Focusing on the process of subtitle production, occasional studies have touched upon the cognitive processes accompanying it, but no study so far has related these processes, and the resulting products, to various degrees of translators’ competence. This is precisely what this essay does, focusing on the different layers of subtitle translation provided for two different films and in two different contexts. By analysing the first and second versions of subtitle translations, we shall reflect on the acquisition, and application, of different subtitling competences.

Student perceptions of native and non-native speaker language instructors: A comparison of ESL and Spanish

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Laura Callahan

2006-12-01

Full Text Available The question of the native vs. non-native speaker status of second and foreign language instructors has been investigated chiefly from the perspective of the teacher. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students have strong opinions on the relative qualities of instruction by native and non-native speakers. Most research focuses on students of English as a foreign or second language. This paper reports on data gathered through a questionnaire administered to 55 university students: 31 students of Spanish as FL and 24 students of English as SL. Qualitative results show what strengths students believe each type of instructor has, and quantitative results confirm that any gap students may perceive between the abilities of native and non-native instructors is not so wide as one might expect based on popular notions of the issue. ESL students showed a stronger preference for native-speaker instructors overall, and were at variance with the SFL students' ratings of native-speaker instructors' performance on a number of aspects. There was a significant correlation in both groups between having a family member who is a native speaker of the target language and student preference for and self-identification with a native speaker as instructor. (English text

"They Don't Speak Proper English": A New Look at the Dubbing and Subtitling Debate.

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Kilborn, Richard

1989-01-01

Compares dubbing and subtitling as alternative language conversion methods for audiovisual media. European television experiences are reviewed and the two methods are contrasted economically, technically, aesthetically, and in terms of audience response. The development of dubbing and subtitling traditions in various countries is also explored and…

Language Preservation: the Language of Science as a bridge to the Native American Community

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Alexander, C. J.; Martin, M.; Grant, G.

2009-12-01

Many Native American communities recognize that the retention of their language, and the need to make the language relevant to the technological age we live in, represents one of their largest and most urgent challenges. Almost 70 percent of Navajos speak their tribal language in the home, and 25 per cent do not know English very well. In contrast, only 30 percent of Native Americans as a whole speak their own tribal language in the home. For the Cherokee and the Chippewa, less than 10 percent speak the native language in the home. And for the Navajo, the number of first graders who solely speak English is almost four times higher than it was in 1970. The U.S. Rosetta Project is the NASA contribution to the International Rosetta Mission. The Rosetta stone is the inspiration for the mission’s name. As outlined by the European Space Agency, Rosetta is expected to provide the keys to the primordial solar system the way the original Rosetta Stone provided a key to ancient language. The concept of ancient language as a key provides a theme for this NASA project’s outreach to Native American communities anxious for ways to enhance and improve the numbers of native speakers. In this talk we will present a concept for building on native language as it relates to STEM concepts. In 2009, a student from the Dine Nation interpreted 28 NASA terms for his senior project at Chinle High School in Chinle, AZ. These terms included such words as space telescope, weather satellite, space suit, and the planets including Neptune and Uranus. This work represents a foundation for continued work between NASA and the Navajo Nation. Following approval by the tribal elders, the U.S. Rosetta project would host the newly translated Navajo words on a web-site, and provide translation into both Navajo and English. A clickable map would allow the user to move through all the words, see Native artwork related to the word, and hear audio translation. Extension to very remote teachers in the

Native-likeness in second language lexical categorization reflects individual language history and linguistic community norms.

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Zinszer, Benjamin D; Malt, Barbara C; Ameel, Eef; Li, Ping

2014-01-01

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS FACE A DUAL CHALLENGE IN VOCABULARY LEARNING: First, they must learn new names for the 100s of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999), and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. In the present study, Chinese learners of English with varying language histories and resident in two different language settings (Beijing, China and State College, PA, USA) named 67 photographs of common serving dishes (e.g., cups, plates, and bowls) in both Chinese and English. Participants' response patterns were quantified in terms of similarity to the responses of functionally monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English and showed the cross-language convergence previously observed in simultaneous bilinguals (Ameel et al., 2005). For English, bilinguals' names for each individual stimulus were also compared to the dominant name generated by the native speakers for the object. Using two statistical models, we disentangle the effects of several highly interactive variables from bilinguals' language histories and the naming norms of the native speaker community to predict inter-personal and inter-item variation in L2 (English) native-likeness. We find only a modest age of earliest exposure effect on L2 category native-likeness, but importantly, we find that classroom instruction in L2 negatively impacts L2 category native-likeness, even after significant immersion experience. We also identify a significant role of both L1 and L2 norms in bilinguals' L2 picture naming responses.

Native-Likeness in Second Language Lexical Categorization Reflects Individual Language History and Linguistic Community Norms

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Benjamin D Zinszer

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Second language learners face a dual challenge in vocabulary learning: First, they must learn new names for the hundreds of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999, and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. In the present study, Chinese learners of English with varying language histories and resident in two different language settings (Beijing, China and State College, PA, USA named 67 photographs of common serving dishes (e.g., cups, plates, and bowls in both Chinese and English. Participants’ response patterns were quantified in terms of similarity to the responses of functionally monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English and showed the cross-language convergence previously observed in simultaneous bilinguals (Ameel et al., 2005. For English, bilinguals’ names for each individual stimulus were also compared to the dominant name generated by the native speakers for the object. Using two statistical models, we disentangle the effects of several highly interactive variables from bilinguals' language histories and the naming norms of the native speaker community to predict inter-personal and inter-item variation in L2 (English native-likeness. We find only a modest age of earliest exposure effect on L2 category native-likeness, but importantly, we find that classroom instruction in L2 negatively impacts L2 category native-likeness, even after significant immersion experience. We also identify a significant role of both L1 and L2 norms in bilinguals’ L2 picture naming responses.

The effects of multisensory structured language instruction on native language and foreign language aptitude skills of at-risk high school foreign language learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Sparks, R; Ganschow, L; Pohlman, J; Skinner, S; Artzer, M

1992-12-01

Research findings suggest that most students who have foreign language learning problems have language-based difficulties and, in particular, phonological processing problems. Authors of the present study examined pre- and posttest scores on native language and foreign language aptitude tests of three groups of at-risk high school students enrolled in special, self-contained sections of first-year Spanish. Two groups were instructed using a multisensory structured language (MSL) approach. One of the groups was taught in both English and Spanish (MSL/ES), the other only in Spanish (MSL/S). The third group (NO-MSL) was instructed using more traditional second language teaching methodologies. Significant gains were made by the MSL-ES group on measures of native language phonology, vocabulary, and verbal memory and on a test of foreign language aptitude; the MSL/S group made significant gains on the test of foreign language aptitude. No significant gains on the native language or foreign language aptitude measures were made by the NO-MSL group. Implications for foreign language classroom instruction of at-risk students are discussed.

When the Native Is Also a Non-Native: "Retrodicting" the Complexity of Language Teacher Cognition

Science.gov (United States)

Aslan, Erhan

2015-01-01

The impact of native (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) identities on second or foreign language teachers' cognition and practices in the classroom has mainly been investigated in ESL/EFL contexts. Using complexity theory as a framework, this case study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by presenting a foreign language teacher in the…

Identity Construction of Native Chinese Language Teachers in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Chun

Abstract This study reports on a qualitative research that investigated how three native Chinese language teachers (NCLTs) constructed their teacher identity as they entered the initial teaching practice in Denmark. Drawing upon a framework that underlines the discursive nature of identity...... stages of their teacher identity construction showed the negotiation of past experiences, present perception, and future ideals in regard to Chinese language, pedagogy and context. Key words: Native Chinese language teachers, teacher identity, discourse analysis, narrative...

Medical education in a foreign language and history-taking in the native language in Lebanon – a nationwide survey

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Vanda Abi Raad

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background With the adoption of the English language in medical education, a gap in clinical communication may develop in countries where the native language is different from the language of medical education. This study investigates the association between medical education in a foreign language and students’ confidence in their history-taking skills in their native language. Methods This cross-sectional study consisted of a 17-question survey among medical students in clinical clerkships of Lebanese medical schools. The relationship between the language of medical education and confidence in conducting a medical history in Arabic (the native language was evaluated (n = 457. Results The majority (88.5% of students whose native language was Arabic were confident they could conduct a medical history in Arabic. Among participants enrolled in the first clinical year, high confidence in Arabic history-taking was independently associated with Arabic being the native language and with conducting medical history in Arabic either in the pre-clinical years or during extracurricular activities. Among students in their second clinical year, however, these factors were not associated with confidence levels. Conclusions Despite having their medical education in a foreign language, the majority of students in Lebanese medical schools are confident in conducting a medical history in their native language.

HELP OPTIONS AND MULTIMEDIA LISTENING: STUDENTS’ USE OF SUBTITLES AND THE TRANSCRIPT

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Maja Grgurović

2007-02-01

Full Text Available As multimedia language learning materials become prevalent in foreign and second language classrooms, their design is an important avenue of research in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL. Some argue that the design of the pedagogical materials should be informed by theory such as the interactionist SLA theory, which suggests that input modification can help comprehension, but does not provide specific guidance regarding choices designers should make when they attempt to implement theory-based features like modified input. This empirical study was designed to provide evidence about one such issue: whether subtitles or transcripts are more effective in providing modified input to learners. A multimedia listening activity containing a video of an academic lecture was designed to offer help in the form of target language subtitles (captions and lecture transcripts in cases of comprehension breakdowns. Eighteen intermediate ESL students enrolled in an academic listening class at a research university participated in the study. Two tests and questionnaires in addition to screen recordings were used to analyze students' performance on the activity and their use of help. The results indicate that participants interacted with the subtitles more frequently and for longer periods of time than with the transcript. Also, the study identified four patterns of learner interaction with the help options. Since, overall, the participants interacted with help less than half of the time they opened help pages, an important challenge in investigating help options lies in finding ways to promote the use of help.

Acquiring native-like intonation in Dutch and Spanish : Comparing the L1 and L2 of native speakers and second language learners

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Maastricht, L.J.; Swerts, M.G.J.; Krahmer, E.J.

2013-01-01

ACQUIRING NATIVE-LIKE INTONATION IN DUTCH AND SPANISH Comparing the L1 and L2 of native speakers and second language learners Introduction Learning more about the interaction between the native language (L1) and the target language (L2) has been the aim of many studies on second language acquisition

The effects of multisensory structured language instruction on native language and foreign language aptitude skills of at-risk high school foreign language learners: A replication and follow-up study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sparks, R L; Ganschow, L

1993-12-01

According to research findings, most students who experience foreign language learning problems are thought to have overt or subtle native language learning difficulties, primarily with phonological processing. A recent study by the authors showed that when a multisensory structured language approach to teaching Spanish was used with a group of at-risk high school students, the group's pre- and posttest scores on native language phonological processing, verbal memory and vocabulary, and foreign language aptitude measures significantly improved. In this replication and follow-up study, the authors compared pre- and posttest scores of a second group of students (Cohort 2) who received MSL instruction in Spanish on native language and foreign language aptitude measures. They also followed students from the first study (Cohort 1) over a second year of foreign language instruction. Findings showed that the second cohort made significant gains on three native language phonological measures and a test of foreign language aptitude. Follow-up testing on the first cohort showed that the group maintained its initial gains on all native language and foreign language aptitude measures. Implications for the authors' Linguistic Coding Deficit Hypothesis are discussed and linked with current reading research, in particular the concepts of the assumption of specificity and modularity.

The Functions Of Taboo Words And Their Translation In Subtitling: A Case Study In “The Help”

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Agus Darma Yoga Pratama

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Translating taboo words in subtitling especially translating them into Indonesian is quite difficult since most of the Indonesian people are not used to uttering taboo or offensive words publicly. In addition, watching movie is more of social activity compared to reading and that is why reading taboo expressions while watching might be embarrassing. This study tries to explore the functions of taboo words found in “The Help” movie and tries to find out how the translator translate the taboo words into the target language in order to produce the closest functions to the source language without ignoring the technical aspects of subtitling. This study also deals with the strategy used by the translator to translate the taboo words. The main theories applied here in are from Karamitroglou (1998, Ljung (2011, Toury (1995, and Gottlieb (1992. There are 70 taboo words found in the raw data and the functions of those taboo words are to express sympathy, surprise, disappointment, disbelief, fear, annoyance, metaphorical interpretation, reaction to mishap, to emphasize the associated item, function as adjectival intensifier, name-calling, anaphoric use of epithet, oath, curse, unfriendly suggestion, and four of the taboo words show non-swearing word or in dysphemism form. The strategies applied are omission (16, transfer (27, and euphemism (26. In terms of the technical aspect in subtitling, all of the subtitles in the target language are presented at the maximum of two lines at once. However, there are three lines of the subtitles which exceed the maximum numbers of characters being proposed. Since taboo word is not only used to offend someone, it is important for the translator to get the closest equivalence in the target language in order to maintain its function. The translator may choose whether he/she wants to follow the source language norms to produce adequate target text or follow the target language norms in order to produce acceptable

The impact of the home learning environment in native- vs. second-language acquisition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bleses, Dorthe; Højen, Anders; Dale, Philip S.

., 2007). However, little is known about the relative importance of the HLE for native- vs. second-language acquisition. This question was examined in 1,200 second-language and 8,000 native-language learners of Danish. The parents of the 3-5-year-old children completed a HLE questionnaire......The home literacy environment (HLE) has been shown to impact language and literacy skills in preschool-aged children via factors such as availability of books, frequency of reading and child age when parents began reading to the child (Burgess, Hecht, & Lonigan, 2002; Payne, Whitehurst, & Angell......, 1994). Many dual language learners (DLL) rely on interactions in the second language outside the home to acquire second-language proficiency, but the HLE also influences second-language development in DLL, whether the native language or the second language is the primary home language (Duursma et al...

SUBPAL: A Device for Reading Aloud Subtitles from Television and Cinema

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Simon; Bothe, Hans-Heinrich

2007-01-01

to participate in such social and cultural events, but if the material presented is in a non familiar language they are unable to understand it. The problem primarily arises from non English speaking countries where dubbing is not facilitated such as in Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands. A solution...... to this problem is SubPal, a text to speech device which can be connected to the television or to a video camera. The subtitle content in the presented video stream is read aloud through a multilingual speech synthesizer. Hence the solution is applicable for television and in the cinema, in several countries....... The solution comprises three major modules: The sampling of the analogue video signal into a binary image of the subtitles. The optical character recognition which converts the binary image of the subtitles into a characters that can be recognized by a computer. And finally a speech synthesizer that reads...

Non-native Chinese Foreign Language (CFL) Teachers: Identity and Discourse

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Chun

2014-01-01

Abstract Native Chinese foreign language (CFL) teacher identity is an emerging subject of research interest in the teacher education. Yet, limited study has been done on the construction of Non-native CFL teachers in their home culture. Guided by a concept of teacher identity-in-discourse, the pa......Abstract Native Chinese foreign language (CFL) teacher identity is an emerging subject of research interest in the teacher education. Yet, limited study has been done on the construction of Non-native CFL teachers in their home culture. Guided by a concept of teacher identity...... teachers face tensions and challenges in constructing their identities as CFL teachers, and the tensions and challenges that arose from Danish teaching culture could influence the Non-native CFL teachers' contributions to CFL teaching in their home cultures. The findings further show that in order to cope...

Native Language Self-Concept and Reading Self-Concept: Same or Different?

Science.gov (United States)

Arens, A. Katrin; Yeung, Alexander Seeshing; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2014-01-01

In assessing verbal academic self-concept with preadolescents, researchers have used scales for students' self-concepts in reading and in their native language interchangeably. The authors conducted 3 studies with German students to test whether reading and German (i.e., native language) self-concepts can be treated as the same or different…

RCRA corrective action for underground storage tanks -- Subtitle C for Subtitle I

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-08-01

The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to DOE and DOE contractor personnel responsible for planning and implementation of corrective measures addressing cleanup of releases of hazardous materials or regulated substances from underground storage tanks regulated under RCRA Subtitle C or Subtitle I

Towards a native toplevel for the OCaml language

OpenAIRE

Fischbach, Marcell; Meurer, Benedikt

2011-01-01

This paper presents the current state of our work on an interactive toplevel for the OCaml language based on the optimizing native code compiler and runtime. Our native toplevel is up to 100 times faster than the default OCaml toplevel, which is based on the byte code compiler and interpreter. It uses Just-In-Time techniques to compile toplevel phrases to native code at runtime, and currently works with various Unix-like systems running on x86 or x86-64 processors.

Native language change during early stages of second language learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Bice, Kinsey; Kroll, Judith F

2015-11-11

Research on proficient bilinguals has demonstrated that both languages are always active, even when only one is required. The coactivation of the two languages creates both competition and convergence, facilitating the processing of cognate words, but slowing lexical access when there is a requirement to engage control mechanisms to select the target language. Critically, these consequences are evident in the native language (L1) as well as in the second language (L2). The present study questioned whether L1 changes can be detected at early stages of L2 learning and how they are modulated by L2 proficiency. Native English speakers learning Spanish performed an English (L1) lexical decision task that included cognates while event-related potentials were recorded. They also performed verbal fluency, working memory, and inhibitory control tasks. A group of matched monolinguals performed the same tasks in English only. The results revealed that intermediate learners demonstrate a reduced N400 for cognates compared with noncognates in English (L1), and an emerging effect is visually present in beginning learners as well; however, no behavioral cognate effect was present for either group. In addition, slower reaction times in English (L1) are related to a larger cognate N400 magnitude in English (L1) and Spanish (L2), and to better inhibitory control for learners but not for monolinguals. The results suggest that contrary to the claim that L2 affects L1 only when L2 speakers are highly proficient, L2 learning begins to impact L1 early in the development of the L2 skill.

Native language predictors of foreign language proficiency and foreign language aptitude.

Science.gov (United States)

Sparks, Richard L; Patton, Jon; Ganschow, Leonore; Humbach, Nancy; Javorsky, James

2006-06-01

Fifty-four students were tested at specific time intervals over 10 years to determine best native language (NL) predictors of oral and written foreign language (FL) proficiency and FL aptitude. All participants completed two years of Spanish, French, or German. Each was administered measures of NL literacy, oral language, and cognitive ability in elementary school. A measure of FL aptitude was administered at the beginning of ninth grade and FL proficiency was evaluated at the end of the 10th grade. Among the variables, NL literacy measures were the best predictors of FL proficiency, and NL achievement and general (verbal) intelligence were strong predictors of FL aptitude. Results suggest that indices of NL literacy as early as first grade are related to FL proficiency and FL aptitude nine and 10 years later. Findings provide strong support for connections between L1 and L2 skills, and for speculation that "lower level" skills in phonological processing are important for written language development and oral proficiency in a FL.

Recycling Texts: Human evaluation of example-based machine translation subtitles for DVD

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Flanagan, Marian

2009-01-01

This project focuses on translation reusability in audiovisual contexts. Specifically, the project seeks to establish (1) whether target language subtitles produced by an Example-Based Machine Translation (EBMT) system are considered intelligible and acceptable by viewers of movies on DVD, and (2...

Examining Test Speededness by Native Language

Science.gov (United States)

Talento-Miller, Eileen; Guo, Fanmin; Han, Kyung T.

2013-01-01

When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of speededness for examinees. Past research on differential speededness has examined gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. When considering the needs of a global audience, research regarding different native language speakers is…

The Effect of Typographical Features of Subtitles on Nonnative English Viewers’ Retention and Recall of Lyrics in English Music Videos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farshid Tayari Ashtiani

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The goal of this study was to test the effect of typographical features of subtitles including size, color and position on nonnative English viewers’ retention and recall of lyrics in music videos. To do so, the researcher played a simple subtitled music video for the participants at the beginning of their classes, and administered a 31-blank cloze test from the lyrics at the end of the classes. In the second test, the control group went through the same procedure but experimental group watched the customized subtitled version of the music video. The results demonstrated no significant difference between the two groups in the first test but in the second, the scores remarkably increased in the experimental group and proved better retention and recall. This study has implications for English language teachers and material developers to benefit customized bimodal subtitles as a mnemonic tool for better comprehension, retention and recall of aural contents in videos via Computer Assisted Language Teaching approach.

The native-speaker fever in English language teaching (ELT: Pitting pedagogical competence against historical origin

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Anchimbe, Eric A.

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses English language teaching (ELT around the world, and argues that as a profession, it should emphasise pedagogical competence rather than native-speaker requirement in the recruitment of teachers in English as a foreign language (EFL and English as a second language (ESL contexts. It establishes that being a native speaker does not make one automatically a competent speaker or, of that matter, a competent teacher of the language. It observes that on many grounds, including physical, sociocultural, technological and economic changes in the world as well as the status of English as official and national language in many post-colonial regions, the distinction between native and non-native speakers is no longer valid.

Testing Audiovisual Comprehension Tasks with Questions Embedded in Videos as Subtitles: A Pilot Multimethod Study

Science.gov (United States)

Núñez, Juan Carlos Casañ

2017-01-01

Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing.…

Language of Science as a Bridge to Native American Educators and Students

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, C. J.; Angrum, A.; Martin, M.; Ali, N.; Kingfisher, J.; Treuer, A.; Grant, G.; Ciotti, J.

2010-12-01

In the Western tradition, words and vocabulary encapsulate much of how knowledge enters the public discourse, and is passed from one generation to the next. Much of Native American knowledge is passed along in an oral tradition. Chants and ceremonies contain context and long-baseline data on the environment (geology, climate, and astronomy) that may even surpasses the lifespan of a single individual. For Native American students and researchers, the concept of ‘modern research and science education’ may be wrapped up into the conundrum of assimilation and loss of cultural identification and traditional way of life. That conundrum is also associated with the lack of language and vocabulary with which to discuss 'modern research.' Native Americans emphasize the need to know themselves and their own culture when teaching their students. Many Native American communities recognize that the retention of their language - and need to make the language relevant to the technological age we live in, represents one of their largest and most urgent challenges. One strategy for making science education relevant to Native American learners is identifying appropriate terms that cross the cultural divide. More than just words and vocabulary, the thought processes and word/concept relationships can be quite different in the native cultures. The U.S. Rosetta Project has worked to identify words associated with Western 'STEM' concepts in three Native American communities: Navajo, Hawaiian, and Ojibwe. The U.S. Rosetta Project is NASA’s contribution to the International Rosetta Mission. The Rosetta stone, inspiration for the mission’s name, is expected to provide the keys to the primordial solar system the way the original Rosetta Stone provided a key to ancient language. Steps taken so far include identification and presentation of online astronomy, geology, and physical science vocabulary terms in the native language, identification of teachers and classrooms - often in

Languages of borderlands, borders of languages: Native and foreign language use in intergroup contact between Czechs and their neighbours

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Petrjánošová, M.; Leix, Alicja

2013-01-01

Roč. 23, č. 4 (2013), s. 658-679 ISSN 1210-3055 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-25656S Institutional support: RVO:68081740 Keywords : native language * foreign language * intergroup contact Subject RIV: AN - Psychology

Reading Subtitles and Taking Enotes While Learning Scientific Materials in a Multimedia Environment: Cognitive Load Perspectives on EFL Students

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, John J. H.; Lee, Yuan-Husan; Wang, Dai-Yi; Lin, Sunny S. J.

2016-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of providing subtitles and taking enotes on cognitive load and performance. A total of 73 English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) undergraduates learned brain anatomy and cognitive functions through multimedia programs. We used a 2 (subtitle/no) x 2 (taking enotes/no) factorial design to test the following:…

A Study of Recurrent and Convolutional Neural Networks in the Native Language Identification Task

KAUST Repository

Werfelmann, Robert

2018-05-24

Native Language Identification (NLI) is the task of predicting the native language of an author from their text written in a second language. The idea is to find writing habits that transfer from an author’s native language to their second language. Many approaches to this task have been studied, from simple word frequency analysis, to analyzing grammatical and spelling mistakes to find patterns and traits that are common between different authors of the same native language. This can be a very complex task, depending on the native language and the proficiency of the author’s second language. The most common approach that has seen very good results is based on the usage of n-gram features of words and characters. In this thesis, we attempt to extract lexical, grammatical, and semantic features from the sentences of non-native English essays using neural networks. The training and testing data was obtained from a large corpus of publicly available essays written by authors of several countries around the world. The neural network models consisted of Long Short-Term Memory and Convolutional networks using the sentences of each document as the input. Additional statistical features were generated from the text to complement the predictions of the neural networks, which were then used as feature inputs to a Support Vector Machine, making the final prediction. Results show that Long Short-Term Memory neural network can improve performance over a naive bag of words approach, but with a much smaller feature set. With more fine-tuning of neural network hyperparameters, these results will likely improve significantly.

Reading Dilemmas in a Foreign Language Reduces Both Deontological and Utilitarian Response Tendencies

Science.gov (United States)

Muda, Rafal; Niszczota, Pawel; Bialek, Michal; Conway, Paul

2018-01-01

Moral dilemmas entail deciding whether to cause harm to maximize overall outcomes, such as killing 1 person to save 5. Past work has demonstrated that people are more willing to accept causing such outcome-maximizing harm when they read dilemmas in a foreign language they speak rather than their native language. Presumably this effect is due to…

Pre-attentive sensitivity to vowel duration reveals native phonology and predicts learning of second-language sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Chládková, Kateřina; Escudero, Paola; Lipski, Silvia C

2013-09-01

In some languages (e.g. Czech), changes in vowel duration affect word meaning, while in others (e.g. Spanish) they do not. Yet for other languages (e.g. Dutch), the linguistic role of vowel duration remains unclear. To reveal whether Dutch represents vowel length in its phonology, we compared auditory pre-attentive duration processing in native and non-native vowels across Dutch, Czech, and Spanish. Dutch duration sensitivity patterned with Czech but was larger than Spanish in the native vowel, while it was smaller than Czech and Spanish in the non-native vowel. An interpretation of these findings suggests that in Dutch, duration is used phonemically but it might be relevant for the identity of certain native vowels only. Furthermore, the finding that Spanish listeners are more sensitive to duration in non-native than in native vowels indicates that a lack of duration differences in one's native language could be beneficial for second-language learning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The non- (existent) native signer: sign language research in a small deaf population

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Costello, B.; Fernández, J.; Landa, A.; Quadros, R.; Möller de Quadros,

2008-01-01

This paper examines the concept of a native language user and looks at the different definitions of native signer within the field of sign language research. A description of the deaf signing population in the Basque Country shows that the figure of 5-10% typically cited for deaf individuals born

Acquisition of speech rhythm in a second language by learners with rhythmically different native languages.

Science.gov (United States)

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

2015-08-01

The development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) acquisition was investigated. Speech rhythm was defined as durational variability that can be captured by the interval-based rhythm metrics. These metrics were used to examine the differences in durational variability between proficiency levels in L2 English spoken by French and German learners. The results reveal that durational variability increased as L2 acquisition progressed in both groups of learners. This indicates that speech rhythm in L2 English develops from more syllable-timed toward more stress-timed patterns irrespective of whether the native language of the learner is rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Although both groups showed similar development of speech rhythm in L2 acquisition, there were also differences: German learners achieved a degree of durational variability typical of the target language, while French learners exhibited lower variability than native British speakers, even at an advanced proficiency level.

Native language effects on spelling in English as a foreign language: a time-course study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dich, Nadya; Pedersen, Bo

2013-01-01

The study explores first language (L1) influences on the mechanisms of spelling in English as a foreign language (EFL). We hypothesized that the transparency of L1 orthography influences (a) the amount of hesitation associated with spelling irregular English words, and (b) the size of units EFL...... spellers operate. Participants were adult speakers of three languages differing by the degree of transparency, Danish, Russian, and Italian (n = 60), and a group of English native speakers (n = 20). We analyzed keystroke logs from typed spellings of 30 English words. The amount of hesitation (number...... of corrections and number of long within-word pauses), was equal across all participants groups, thus disconfirming our first hypothesis. Inter-key intervals between onsets and rhymes were longer than within-rhyme intervals, but only in Danes and native English speakers, and not in Russians and Italians. We...

Chinese-English subtitle translation from the Skopostheorie: A case study of the series of CCTV documentary “The Japanese Repatriation from the Huludao”

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Chen Dandan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available According to the theory of human action, Skopostheorie assigns the translation into the category of human communication activity with specific purposes. Therefore, subtitle translation, as one type of translation, also has its own purposes. The subtitle translation is characterized by instantaneity and popularity. Furthermore, the language of the subtitle translation must fulfill the high requirement in terms of logicality and artistic appeal. The translation in this paper, a work by the author, is an extract from the series of CCTV documentary “The Japanese Repatriation from the Huludao”. Based on the principle that the purpose rules, the author did a careful analysis on the receivers’ expectations, education background, and translation commissioner’s requirements, etc.. The author also studied the language characteristics and the general translation strategies in the subtitle translation. In conclusion, the author comes up with the suitable translation strategies for this particular translation practice: naturalization, adding and omitting, logic combing and structure re-organizing, and choosing between styles.

Phraseology and Frequency of Occurrence on the Web: Native Speakers' Perceptions of Google-Informed Second Language Writing

Science.gov (United States)

Geluso, Joe

2013-01-01

Usage-based theories of language learning suggest that native speakers of a language are acutely aware of formulaic language due in large part to frequency effects. Corpora and data-driven learning can offer useful insights into frequent patterns of naturally occurring language to second/foreign language learners who, unlike native speakers, are…

Native Language Integrated Queries with CppLINQ in C++

Science.gov (United States)

Vassilev, V.

2015-05-01

Programming language evolution brought to us the domain-specific languages (DSL). They proved to be very useful for expressing specific concepts, turning into a vital ingredient even for general-purpose frameworks. Supporting declarative DSLs (such as SQL) in imperative languages (such as C++) can happen in the manner of language integrated query (LINQ). We investigate approaches to integrate LINQ programming language, native to C++. We review its usability in the context of high energy physics. We present examples using CppLINQ for a few types data analysis workflows done by the end-users doing data analysis. We discuss evidences how this DSL technology can simplify massively parallel grid system such as PROOF.

Negotiating Sociolinguistic Borderlands--Native Youth Language Practices in Space, Time, and Place

Science.gov (United States)

McCarty, Teresa L.

2014-01-01

Drawing on the work of Philip Deloria (2004) and recent explorations of "American Indian languages in unexpected places" (Webster & Peterson, 2011a), this article challenges received expectations of Native American languages and language users as "rural" and physically distant and of "urban" Indigenous language…

34 CFR 668.153 - Administration of tests for students whose native language is not English or for persons with...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... language is not English or for persons with disabilities. 668.153 Section 668.153 Education Regulations of... native language is not English or for persons with disabilities. Except as provided in § 668.143— (a) Students whose native language is not English. For a student whose native language is not English and who...

"Real Language": Combining Intermediate Spanish Language Learners and ESOL/Native Speakers for Vernacular Language Acquisition

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Joe LaValle

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses the possibilities of combining Spanish language learners and English language learners in high school and post-secondary institutions for mutual benefit to learn authentic language. Academic or "classroom" Spanish is insufficient to empower students for today's workplace. The concept behind "Real Language" is illustrated by an example of an interdisciplinary activity to facilitate communicative interaction in genuine language and promote cultural understanding between intermediate Spanish students and ESOL/native speakers at the high school and post-secondary level. Students are asked to utilize their life skills in interactive, freestyle conversation without the intervention of an instructor. The learning space for language exchange is an out-of-class venue for a non-intimidating, more authentic setting. This simple qualitative study investigates the potential value of this sort of interdisciplinary activity. The intent is to evaluate attitudes of the participants in relation to confidence in their ability to use the target language, and their willingness to use it in social and professional environments and, in addition, to facilitate cultural understanding. The positive result of the project is validated by the voice of the student participants as they reflect on their experience in "Real Language". Could this concept facilitate evolving strategies for interdisciplinary contemporary foreign language learning?

Testing audiovisual comprehension tasks with questions embedded in videos as subtitles: a pilot multimethod study

OpenAIRE

Casañ Núñez, Juan Carlos

2017-01-01

[EN] Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing. Compared to viewings where the comprehension activity is available only on paper, this innovative methodology may provide some benefits. Among them, ...

LAUGHTER AFTER TEARS: SITTING FOR AMERICAN HUMORS IN INDONESIAN SOFAS (Subtitling Humors of a Tv Serial Friends

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Gusti Nyoman Ayu Sukerti

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The study reported in this paper aims to analyze the possible strategies used in the subtitling of the first five episodes (season 1 of Friends to render the episodes’ humorous dialogues. It examines the subtitler’s strategies in preserving both the semantic and humorous genes of laughter intended by the original humor. The analysis takes into account the internal and external structures of humors both in the target and source language. Choosing a subtitling strategy involves a decisionmaking process where the internal and external factors come into play and, therefore, rendering humors in a contextually bound medium, such as subtitling, does not necessarily work in the TL environment in a consistent manner. The inconsistency highlights the fact that humors, even those considered universal, are not digested in the same manner across cultures.

Gaze inspired subtitle position evaluation for MOOCs videos

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hongli; Yan, Mengzhen; Liu, Sijiang; Jiang, Bo

2017-06-01

Online educational resources, such as MOOCs, is becoming increasingly popular, especially in higher education field. One most important media type for MOOCs is course video. Besides traditional bottom-position subtitle accompany to the videos, in recent years, researchers try to develop more advanced algorithms to generate speaker-following style subtitles. However, the effectiveness of such subtitle is still unclear. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between subtitle position and the learning effect after watching the video on tablet devices. Inspired with image based human eye tracking technique, this work combines the objective gaze estimation statistics with subjective user study to achieve a convincing conclusion - speaker-following subtitles are more suitable for online educational videos.

The influence of language deprivation in early childhood on L2 processing: An ERP comparison of deaf native signers and deaf signers with a delayed language acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Skotara, Nils; Salden, Uta; Kügow, Monique; Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Röder, Brigitte

2012-05-03

To examine which language function depends on early experience, the present study compared deaf native signers, deaf non-native signers and hearing German native speakers while processing German sentences. The participants watched simple written sentences while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. At the end of each sentence they were asked to judge whether the sentence was correct or not. Two types of violations were introduced in the middle of the sentence: a semantically implausible noun or a violation of subject-verb number agreement. The results showed a similar ERP pattern after semantic violations (an N400 followed by a positivity) in all three groups. After syntactic violations, native German speakers and native signers of German sign language (DGS) with German as second language (L2) showed a left anterior negativity (LAN) followed by a P600, whereas no LAN but a negativity over the right hemisphere instead was found in deaf participants with a delayed onset of first language (L1) acquisition. The P600 of this group had a smaller amplitude and a different scalp distribution as compared to German native speakers. The results of the present study suggest that language deprivation in early childhood alters the cerebral organization of syntactic language processing mechanisms for L2. Semantic language processing instead was unaffected.

NATIVE LANGUAGE INFLUENCE IN LEARNERS'. ASSESSMENT OF ENGLISH FOCUS

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M. L. Garcia Lecumberri

2001-06-01

Full Text Available Accentual focus is a frequent linguistic device in English which may also be used in Spanish but less widely and less frequently. Given this disparity, it was expected that native language influence would manifest itself in FL leamers' focus assessrnents as cornpared to native English speakers. Other factors were also expected to account of listener perceptions, such as task type and linguistic competence. Two focus domains were used to test hypotheses: utterance initial and utterance medial focus. Focus identification was tested using two tasks which differed in their cognitive demands: multiple choice and open questions. Acceptability was estirnated by asking listeners to rate utterances on a five point scale. English NL listeners displayed better focus identification rates as cornpared to FL learners. This result may be understood both as an effect of native competence advantage and also as a reflection of native language influence. Both listener groups found utterance initial focus easier to identi@ and considered it to be more acceptable than medial focus. Both groups showed worse results in the open test, which is interpreted as a consequence of this task being more demanding on listeners' explicit knowledge. These trends were much more pronounced amongst FL leamers. It is suggested that the potential ambiguity of English medial focus is partly responsible for the bias against it. Additionally, Spanish listeners results show the their NL influence in this bias as well as in the good results for initial focus and acceptability estirnations.

Infants' Selectively Pay Attention to the Information They Receive from a Native Speaker of Their Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Marno, Hanna; Guellai, Bahia; Vidal, Yamil; Franzoi, Julia; Nespor, Marina; Mehler, Jacques

2016-01-01

From the first moments of their life, infants show a preference for their native language, as well as toward speakers with whom they share the same language. This preference appears to have broad consequences in various domains later on, supporting group affiliations and collaborative actions in children. Here, we propose that infants' preference for native speakers of their language also serves a further purpose, specifically allowing them to efficiently acquire culture specific knowledge via social learning. By selectively attending to informants who are native speakers of their language and who probably also share the same cultural background with the infant, young learners can maximize the possibility to acquire cultural knowledge. To test whether infants would preferably attend the information they receive from a speaker of their native language, we familiarized 12-month-old infants with a native and a foreign speaker, and then presented them with movies where each of the speakers silently gazed toward unfamiliar objects. At test, infants' looking behavior to the two objects alone was measured. Results revealed that infants preferred to look longer at the object presented by the native speaker. Strikingly, the effect was replicated also with 5-month-old infants, indicating an early development of such preference. These findings provide evidence that young infants pay more attention to the information presented by a person with whom they share the same language. This selectivity can serve as a basis for efficient social learning by influencing how infants' allocate attention between potential sources of information in their environment.

Effects of Captions and Subtitles on the Listening Process: Insights from EFL Learners' Listening Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Hosogoshi, Kyoko

2016-01-01

Captions and subtitles as a form of scaffolding for audiovisual materials has gained much attention in second or foreign language (L2) learning in recent years and various studies report their positive effects on learners' listening comprehension. However, few attempts have been made to investigate how textual information specifically affects the…

Attenuation in the dubbing and subtitling of The Green Mile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lidia Rodríguez

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper is part of the doctoral thesis entitled “Critique of translation for film dubbing and subtitling from the perspective of discourse analysis. A study applied to "The Green Mile”, written by Ph.D. student Gabriela Saturnina Alanís Uresti, directed by Ph.D. Lidia Rodríguez. It is a qualitative and descriptive study where we contrasted The Green Mile - a 1999 Hollywood film, original in American English - with its translated versions: dubbed and subtitled into Spanish of Mexico. We start from the presupposition that in film translation, some references such as the ones related to sexual behaviors and offensive language are attenuated in order to be strategically polite. Specifically, we analyzed two mechanisms of attenuation: lexical selection whereby a euphemism is used, and discursive modalization. These mechanisms constitute strategies of linguistic, pragmatic and semiotic nature as they appear in original (OV, dubbed (DV and subtitled (SV versions; both in acoustic and visual channels. Therefore, we examine these occurrences on verbal, para-verbal, and non-verbal codes. The theoretical basis includes studies of attenuation, politeness, euphemisms, and linguistic taboos. This paper is based on methodological proposals by Gutiérrez (2008, Nájar (2009, Brown y Levinson (1987, Goffman (1967, Leech (1983, Fraser (1980 Haverkate (1994, Bravo (2001, Albelda (2010, (2005, Albelda y Briz (2010, Briz (2002a; 2002b, Allan y Burridge (2006, Chamizo (2008, Foucault (1987, Seiciuc (2010, Dubois (1969, Dubois et al (1973, and Rodríguez (2004.

Reflections on Revitalizing and Reinforcing Native Languages and Cultures

Science.gov (United States)

Real Bird, Lanny

2017-01-01

The purpose of this essay is to introduce nativist expression, historic practices, and perceptions in describing an important approach to exercising language revitalization based on traditional fundamentals and operational ownership in Native organizations of these reflections. Information is presented to enhance the understanding of how Native…

Adaptive Communication: Languages with More Non-Native Speakers Tend to Have Fewer Word Forms.

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Christian Bentz

Full Text Available Explaining the diversity of languages across the world is one of the central aims of typological, historical, and evolutionary linguistics. We consider the effect of language contact-the number of non-native speakers a language has-on the way languages change and evolve. By analysing hundreds of languages within and across language families, regions, and text types, we show that languages with greater levels of contact typically employ fewer word forms to encode the same information content (a property we refer to as lexical diversity. Based on three types of statistical analyses, we demonstrate that this variance can in part be explained by the impact of non-native speakers on information encoding strategies. Finally, we argue that languages are information encoding systems shaped by the varying needs of their speakers. Language evolution and change should be modeled as the co-evolution of multiple intertwined adaptive systems: On one hand, the structure of human societies and human learning capabilities, and on the other, the structure of language.

Adaptive Communication: Languages with More Non-Native Speakers Tend to Have Fewer Word Forms

Science.gov (United States)

Bentz, Christian; Verkerk, Annemarie; Kiela, Douwe; Hill, Felix; Buttery, Paula

2015-01-01

Explaining the diversity of languages across the world is one of the central aims of typological, historical, and evolutionary linguistics. We consider the effect of language contact-the number of non-native speakers a language has-on the way languages change and evolve. By analysing hundreds of languages within and across language families, regions, and text types, we show that languages with greater levels of contact typically employ fewer word forms to encode the same information content (a property we refer to as lexical diversity). Based on three types of statistical analyses, we demonstrate that this variance can in part be explained by the impact of non-native speakers on information encoding strategies. Finally, we argue that languages are information encoding systems shaped by the varying needs of their speakers. Language evolution and change should be modeled as the co-evolution of multiple intertwined adaptive systems: On one hand, the structure of human societies and human learning capabilities, and on the other, the structure of language. PMID:26083380

THE ROLE OF NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER TEACHERS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

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Lutfi Ashar Mauludin

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Native-English Speaker Teachers (NESTs and Non-Native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, for English Language Learners (ELLs, NNESTs have more advantages in helping students to acquire English skills. At least there are three factors that can only be performed by NNESTs in English Language Learning. The factors are knowledge of the subject, effective communication, and understanding students‘ difficulties/needs. The NNESTs can effectively provide the clear explanation of knowledge of the language because they are supported by the same background and culture. NNESTs also can communicate with the students with all levels effectively. The use of L1 is effective to help students building their knowledge. Finally, NNESTs can provide the objectives and materials that are suitable with the needs of the students.

Linguistic contributions to speech-on-speech masking for native and non-native listeners: Language familiarity and semantic content

Science.gov (United States)

Brouwer, Susanne; Van Engen, Kristin J.; Calandruccio, Lauren; Bradlow, Ann R.

2012-01-01

This study examined whether speech-on-speech masking is sensitive to variation in the degree of similarity between the target and the masker speech. Three experiments investigated whether speech-in-speech recognition varies across different background speech languages (English vs Dutch) for both English and Dutch targets, as well as across variation in the semantic content of the background speech (meaningful vs semantically anomalous sentences), and across variation in listener status vis-à-vis the target and masker languages (native, non-native, or unfamiliar). The results showed that the more similar the target speech is to the masker speech (e.g., same vs different language, same vs different levels of semantic content), the greater the interference on speech recognition accuracy. Moreover, the listener’s knowledge of the target and the background language modulate the size of the release from masking. These factors had an especially strong effect on masking effectiveness in highly unfavorable listening conditions. Overall this research provided evidence that that the degree of target-masker similarity plays a significant role in speech-in-speech recognition. The results also give insight into how listeners assign their resources differently depending on whether they are listening to their first or second language. PMID:22352516

A Study of Applied Strategies in Translating Idiomatic Expressions in Two Movie Subtitles: Bring It On & Mean Girls

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmood Hashemian

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Idiomatic expressions are considered as a part of everyday language. In other words, they are the essence of each language and one of the most problematic parts to cope with, especially in the process of interlingual translation. Furthermore, there is sometimes no one-to-one equivalent for the idioms of the source language (SL in the target language (TL. This study aimed at investigating the applied strategies in the translation of idiomatic expressions in 2 American subtitled movies, namely Mean Girls (2004 and Bring It On! (2009, through using Baker’s (1992 proposed procedures in translating idiomatic expressions in translation studies. To this aim, the idiomatic expressions were extracted from the original versions of the movies and compared with the subtitled translations in Persian. Analysis of the relevant data indicated that the chi-square results were not significant at χ2 (3, N = 2 = 1.188, p = 0, considering p ˂ 0.05. Therefore, Baker’s (1992 strategies were not distributed equally between these two movies. Moreover, the “omission” strategy with the frequency of 40 was the topmost used strategy in these movies.

Using Audiovisual TV Interviews to Create Visible Authors that Reduce the Learning Gap between Native and Non-Native Language Speakers

Science.gov (United States)

Inglese, Terry; Mayer, Richard E.; Rigotti, Francesca

2007-01-01

Can archives of audiovisual TV interviews be used to make authors more visible to students, and thereby reduce the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers in college classes? We examined students in a college course who learned about one scholar's ideas through watching an audiovisual TV interview (i.e., visible author format)…

Recently learned foreign abstract and concrete nouns are represented in distinct cortical networks similar to the native language.

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Katja M; Macedonia, Manuela; von Kriegstein, Katharina

2017-09-01

In the native language, abstract and concrete nouns are represented in distinct areas of the cerebral cortex. Currently, it is unknown whether this is also the case for abstract and concrete nouns of a foreign language. Here, we taught adult native speakers of German 45 abstract and 45 concrete nouns of a foreign language. After learning the nouns for 5 days, participants performed a vocabulary translation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Translating abstract nouns in contrast to concrete nouns elicited responses in regions that are also responsive to abstract nouns in the native language: the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left middle and superior temporal gyri. Concrete nouns elicited larger responses in the angular gyri bilaterally and the left parahippocampal gyrus than abstract nouns. The cluster in the left angular gyrus showed psychophysiological interaction (PPI) with the left lingual gyrus. The left parahippocampal gyrus showed PPI with the posterior cingulate cortex. Similar regions have been previously found for concrete nouns in the native language. The results reveal similarities in the cortical representation of foreign language nouns with the representation of native language nouns that already occur after 5 days of vocabulary learning. Furthermore, we showed that verbal and enriched learning methods were equally suitable to teach foreign abstract and concrete nouns. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4398-4412, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How much does language proficiency by non-native listeners influence speech audiometric tests in noise?

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Warzybok, Anna; Brand, Thomas; Wagener, Kirsten C; Kollmeier, Birger

2015-01-01

The current study investigates the extent to which the linguistic complexity of three commonly employed speech recognition tests and second language proficiency influence speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) in noise in non-native listeners. SRTs were measured for non-natives and natives using three German speech recognition tests: the digit triplet test (DTT), the Oldenburg sentence test (OLSA), and the Göttingen sentence test (GÖSA). Sixty-four non-native and eight native listeners participated. Non-natives can show native-like SRTs in noise only for the linguistically easy speech material (DTT). Furthermore, the limitation of phonemic-acoustical cues in digit triplets affects speech recognition to the same extent in non-natives and natives. For more complex and less familiar speech materials, non-natives, ranging from basic to advanced proficiency in German, require on average 3-dB better signal-to-noise ratio for the OLSA and 6-dB for the GÖSA to obtain 50% speech recognition compared to native listeners. In clinical audiology, SRT measurements with a closed-set speech test (i.e. DTT for screening or OLSA test for clinical purposes) should be used with non-native listeners rather than open-set speech tests (such as the GÖSA or HINT), especially if a closed-set version in the patient's own native language is available.

Using example-based machine translation to translate DVD subtitles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Flanagan, Marian

between Swedish and Danish and Swedish and Norwegian subtitles, with the company already reporting a successful return on their investment. The hybrid EBMT/SMT system used in the current research, on the other hand, remains within the confines of academic research, and the real potential of the system...... allotted to produce the subtitles have both decreased. Therefore, this market is recognised as a potential real-world application of MT. Recent publications have introduced Corpus-Based MT approaches to translate subtitles. An SMT system has been implemented in a Swedish subtitling company to translate...

A Summary Evaluation of the Top-Five Brazilian Psychology Journals by Native English-Language Scholars

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Chris Fradkin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available AbstractIn the current century, English is the language for the research and dissemination of scientific findings. But for many scholars, English is a foreign language. This is especially true among the emerging and developing nations (EDNs, such as the BRICS nations, encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The present study conducted a survey examining the translational integrity and overall impression of translated summary materials (abstracts and titles from the five highest ranking (SCImago Journal Rank Brazilian journals in the field of psychology. Analysis proceeded with two models. In the first model, translated summary materials from 12 randomly-selected articles from four of the five journals were evaluated by a panel of three native English-language scholars. Findings indicated an inverse relationship between the overall impression of the materials and their: abstract errors, r(34 = -0.61, p < .001; and total errors, r(34 = -0.62, p < .001; suggesting a direct relationship between the translational integrity of these EDN materials and the overall impression they leave with native English-language scholars. A second model added 3 additional articles from the fifth journal (English-language only to the materials described. The findings from this second model suggested that for EDN journals, an investment in language resources may substantially improve the impression they leave with native English-language scholars, and thus promote wider dissemination of their findings.

Memory for non-native language: the role of lexical processing in the retention of surface form.

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Sampaio, Cristina; Konopka, Agnieszka E

2013-01-01

Research on memory for native language (L1) has consistently shown that retention of surface form is inferior to that of gist (e.g., Sachs, 1967). This paper investigates whether the same pattern is found in memory for non-native language (L2). We apply a model of bilingual word processing to more complex linguistic structures and predict that memory for L2 sentences ought to contain more surface information than L1 sentences. Native and non-native speakers of English were tested on a set of sentence pairs with different surface forms but the same meaning (e.g., "The bullet hit/struck the bull's eye"). Memory for these sentences was assessed with a cued recall procedure. Responses showed that native and non-native speakers did not differ in the accuracy of gist-based recall but that non-native speakers outperformed native speakers in the retention of surface form. The results suggest that L2 processing involves more intensive encoding of lexical level information than L1 processing.

Non-Native Speakers of the Language of Instruction: Self-Perceptions of Teaching Ability

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Samuel, Carolyn

2017-01-01

Given the linguistically diverse instructor and student populations at Canadian universities, mutually comprehensible oral language may not be a given. Indeed, both instructors who are non-native speakers of the language of instruction (NNSLIs) and students have acknowledged oral communication challenges. Little is known, though, about how the…

Immigrant-Native Substitutability: The Role of Language Ability

OpenAIRE

Ethan G. Lewis

2011-01-01

Wage evidence suggests that immigrant workers are imperfectly substitutable for native-born workers with similar education and experience. Using U.S. Censuses and recent American Community Survey data, I ask to what extent differences in language skills drive this. I find they are important. I estimate that the response of immigrants' relative wages to immigration is concentrated among immigrants with poor English skills. Similarly, immigrants who arrive at young ages, as adults, both have st...

Cross-linguistic influence in multilingual language acquisition: The role of L1 and non-native languages in English and Catalan oral production

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Mireia Ortega

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Most research in third language acquisition has focused on the effects that factors such as language distance, second language (L2 status, proficiency or recency have on the choice of the source language (L1 in cross-linguistic influence (CLI. This paper presents a study of these factors, and of the influence that the L1 (Spanish has on L2 (English and L3 (Catalan oral production. Lexical and syntactic transfer are analysed in the production of Catalan and English of two multilingual speakers with similar knowledge of non-native languages. They were interviewed twice in an informal environment. The results show that the L1 is the main source of transfer, both in L2 and L3 production, but its influence decreases as proficiency in the target language increases. Language distance also plays an important role in CLI, especially if proficiency in the source language is high and if there has been recent exposure to it. The findings also suggest that while syntactic transfer is exclusively L1-based, lexical transfer can occur from a non-native language.

NATIVE VS NON-NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS

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Masrizal Masrizal

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Although the majority of English language teachers worldwide are non-native English speakers (NNS, no research was conducted on these teachers until recently. A pioneer research by Peter Medgyes in 1994 took quite a long time until the other researchers found their interests in this issue. There is a widespread stereotype that a native speaker (NS is by nature the best person to teach his/her foreign language. In regard to this assumption, we then see a very limited room and opportunities for a non native teacher to teach language that is not his/hers. The aim of this article is to analyze the differences among these teachers in order to prove that non-native teachers have equal advantages that should be taken into account. The writer expects that the result of this short article could be a valuable input to the area of teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia.

Non-Native & Native English Teachers

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İrfan Tosuncuoglu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In many countries the primary (mother tongue language is not English but there is a great demand for English language teachers all over the world. The demand in this field is try to be filled largely by non-native English speaking teachers who have learned English in the country or abroad, or from another non native English peaking teachers. In some countries, particularly those where English speaking is a a sign of status, the students prefer to learn English from a native English speaker. The perception is that a non-native English speaking teacher is a less authentic teacher than a native English speaker and their instruction is not satifactory in some ways. This paper will try to examine the literature to explore whether there is a difference in instructional effectiveness between NNESTs and native English teachers.

A Comparative Study of Vygotsky's Perspectives on Child Language Development with Nativism and Behaviorism

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Dastpak, Mehdi; Behjat, Fatemeh; Taghinezhad, Ali

2017-01-01

This study aimed at investigating the similarities and differences between Vygotsky's perspectives on child language development with nativism and behaviorism. Proposing the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, Vygotsky emphasized the role of collaborative interaction, scaffolding, and guided participation in language learning. Nativists, on…

Eye gaze during comprehension of American Sign Language by native and beginning signers.

Science.gov (United States)

Emmorey, Karen; Thompson, Robin; Colvin, Rachael

2009-01-01

An eye-tracking experiment investigated where deaf native signers (N = 9) and hearing beginning signers (N = 10) look while comprehending a short narrative and a spatial description in American Sign Language produced live by a fluent signer. Both groups fixated primarily on the signer's face (more than 80% of the time) but differed with respect to fixation location. Beginning signers fixated on or near the signer's mouth, perhaps to better perceive English mouthing, whereas native signers tended to fixate on or near the eyes. Beginning signers shifted gaze away from the signer's face more frequently than native signers, but the pattern of gaze shifts was similar for both groups. When a shift in gaze occurred, the sign narrator was almost always looking at his or her hands and was most often producing a classifier construction. We conclude that joint visual attention and attention to mouthing (for beginning signers), rather than linguistic complexity or processing load, affect gaze fixation patterns during sign language comprehension.

Evidential subtypes and tense systems in Brazilian Native Languages

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Marize Mattos Dall’Aglio HATTNHER

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to illustrate the possibility of interaction between Functional Discourse Grammar and typological studies by examining the relationship between evidentiality and tense in a sample of native languages of Brazil. More specifically, it shows that the nature of the mental process involved in the construction of evidential meaning determines its combination with different dimensions of past, present and future.

La formacion de profesores de lengua materna (Native Language Teachers' Education).

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez Chacon, Concepcion Elena

1980-01-01

Discusses the goals of native language instruction advocating a broadening of horizons, away from traditional grammar and literature teaching, and towards culturally based communication skills. Sociocultural awareness is stressed as the fundamental component of a teacher's background and the basis for mastering the relevant aspects of…

The Translation of Films: Sub-Titling versus Dubbing

Science.gov (United States)

Voge, Hans

1977-01-01

A study of film translation. Well-documented opinions are given on the advantages and disadvantages of both dubbing and sub-titling. One of the tentative conclusions is that sub-titling is to be preferred because it preserves the original dialogue and allows the audience verying degrees of comprehension. A bibliography is provided. (AMH)

English Language Schooling, Linguistic Realities, and the Native Speaker of English in Hong Kong

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen Edwards, Jette G.

2018-01-01

The study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students' English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants' English and Cantonese language use at…

Neural systems of second language reading are shaped by native language.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Li Hai; Spinks, John A; Feng, Ching-Mei; Siok, Wai Ting; Perfetti, Charles A; Xiong, Jinhu; Fox, Peter T; Gao, Jia-Hong

2003-03-01

Reading in a second language (L2) is a complex task that entails an interaction between L2 and the native language (L1). To study the underlying mechanisms, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to visualize Chinese-English bilinguals' brain activity in phonological processing of logographic Chinese and alphabetic English, two written languages with a sharp contrast in phonology and orthography. In Experiment 1, we found that phonological processing of Chinese characters recruits a neural system involving left middle frontal and posterior parietal gyri, cortical regions that are known to contribute to spatial information representation, spatial working memory, and coordination of cognitive resources as a central executive system. We assume that the peak activation of this system is relevant to the unique feature of Chinese that a logographic character has a square configuration that maps onto a monosyllabic unit of speech. Equally important, when our bilingual subjects performed a phonological task on English words, this neural system was most active, whereas brain areas mediating English monolinguals' fine-grained phonemic analysis, as demonstrated by Experiment 2, were only weakly activated. This suggests that our bilingual subjects were applying their L1 system to L2 reading and that the lack of letter-to-sound conversion rules in Chinese led Chinese readers to being less capable of processing English by recourse to an analytic reading system on which English monolinguals rely. Our brain imaging findings lend strongest support to the idea that language experience tunes the cortex. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The role of native-language phonology in the auditory word identification and visual word recognition of Russian-English bilinguals.

Science.gov (United States)

Shafiro, Valeriy; Kharkhurin, Anatoliy V

2009-03-01

Does native language phonology influence visual word processing in a second language? This question was investigated in two experiments with two groups of Russian-English bilinguals, differing in their English experience, and a monolingual English control group. Experiment 1 tested visual word recognition following semantic categorization of words containing four phonological vowel contrasts (/i/-/u/,/I/-/A/,/i/-/I/,/epsilon/-/ae/). Experiment 2 assessed auditory identification accuracy of words containing these four contrasts. Both bilingual groups demonstrated reduced accuracy in auditory identification of two English vowel contrasts absent in their native phonology (/i/-/I/,epsilon/-/ae/). For late- bilinguals, auditory identification difficulty was accompanied by poor visual word recognition for one difficult contrast (/i/-/I/). Bilinguals' visual word recognition moderately correlated with their auditory identification of difficult contrasts. These results indicate that native language phonology can play a role in visual processing of second language words. However, this effect may be considerably constrained by orthographic systems of specific languages.

A Fuzzy Logic-Based Video Subtitle and Caption Coloring System

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Mohsen Davoudi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available An approach has been proposed for automatic adaptive subtitle coloring using fuzzy logic-based algorithm. This system changes the color of the video subtitle/caption to “pleasant” color according to color harmony and the visual perception of the image background colors. In the fuzzy analyzer unit, using RGB histograms of background image, the R, G, and B values for the color of the subtitle/caption are computed using fixed fuzzy IF-THEN rules fully driven from the color harmony theories to satisfy complementary color and subtitle-background color harmony conditions. A real-time hardware structure has been proposed for implementation of the front-end processing unit as well as the fuzzy analyzer unit.

Formation Energies of Native Point Defects in Strained-Layer Superlattices (Postprint)

Science.gov (United States)

2017-06-05

potential; bulk materials; total energy calculations; entropy; strained- layer superlattice (SLS) 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF...AFRL-RX-WP-JA-2017-0217 FORMATION ENERGIES OF NATIVE POINT DEFECTS IN STRAINED- LAYER SUPERLATTICES (POSTPRINT) Zhi-Gang Yu...2016 Interim 11 September 2013 – 5 November 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE FORMATION ENERGIES OF NATIVE POINT DEFECTS IN STRAINED- LAYER SUPERLATTICES

Native Language as a Core Value which creates the Cross-Cultural Identity

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JERZY NIKITOROWICZ

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Th e thesis which is undertaken in this article applies to a native language (the language of the family and home as the leading (primary value of creating a crosscultural identity. To justify this argument, the author refers to his own research and literature in this area. Th ere are many references to the theory of cultural relativism by Sapir-Whorf and the theory of core values by Jerzy Smolicz. Th e author demonstrates, notices, and highlights that the personal and group identity, analysed in terms of evolutionary (processual, based on the values which are recognised and respected in the family, are shaping and developing cross-cultural identity. Th e more we recognize, respect and accept your native (family and home identity, the more we are likely to make an eff ort to get to know the Other and his culture.

Translating DVD Subtitles English-German, English-Japanese, Using Example-based Machine Translation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Armstrong, Stephen; Caffrey, Colm; Flanagan, Marian

2006-01-01

Due to limited budgets and an ever-diminishing time-frame for the production of subtitles for movies released in cinema and DVD, there is a compelling case for a technology-based translation solution for subtitles. In this paper we describe how an Example-Based Machine Translation (EBMT) approach...... to the translation of English DVD subtitles into German and Japanese can aid the subtitler. Our research focuses on an EBMT tool that produces fully automated translations, which in turn can be edited if required. To our knowledge this is the first time that any EBMT approach has been used with DVD subtitle...

Reading Function and Content Words in Subtitled Videos

Science.gov (United States)

Szarkowska, Agnieszka; Łogińska, Maria

2016-01-01

In this study, we examined how function and content words are read in intra- and interlingual subtitles. We monitored eye movements of a group of 39 deaf, 27 hard of hearing, and 56 hearing Polish participants while they viewed English and Polish videos with Polish subtitles. We found that function words and short content words received less visual attention than longer content words, which was reflected in shorter dwell time, lower number of fixations, shorter first fixation duration, and lower subject hit count. Deaf participants dwelled significantly longer on function words than other participants, which may be an indication of their difficulty in processing this type of words. The findings are discussed in the context of classical reading research and applied research on subtitling. PMID:26681268

A Norm-Based Analysis of Swearing Rendition in Professional Dubbing and Non-Professional Subtitling from English into Persian

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Saeed Ameri

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This study takes a norm-based approach to analyzing the dubbing and non-professional subtitling of English swearing into Persian in an American movie. The article revolves around three main theoretical frameworks, i.e., Wajnryb (2005, Toury (1995, 2012a, 2012b, and Chesterman (1997. After analyzing the strategies in rendering the original swearing into Persian, the researchers achieved a model of four basic strategies: (a direct translation with strong force, (b direct translation with weak force, (c deletion, and (d foreignization. On the whole, the results of this research showed that both dubbed and non-professional subtitled versions were target language-oriented with deleting the original swearing as the most frequent strategy. But, the vulgarity and the degree of offensiveness of swearing in the original version were to some extent euphemized in the dubbed version. On the other hand, the non-professional subtitled version, in comparison with the dubbed version, employed more direct translation of the original swearing with strong force. The article then proceeded to delve into why these strategies were employed by the dubbed and non-professional subtitled producers, and why there were remarkable differences between the two versions. The findings provided useful information within descriptive translation studies nevertheless, they cannot be generalized since the study was limited by a relatively small corpus and utilized a non-probability sampling procedure.

Inaccuracy in Indonesian Subtitles of The King’s Speech Movie (2010

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Dessy Burliani

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Movie subtitles is a product of translations, so the rules of translations must be followed. The research explored how translation mistakes in Indonesian subtitles of “The King’s Speech” Movie (2010 and distort the meaning of the original utterances. The data were the dialogues in English and their Indonesian translations. Qualitative method was applied in this research. The analysis was done by comparing the meaning of the original utterances and their Indonesian subtitles. It is found that the types of mistakes that mostly occurred in the Indonesian subtitles of the movie were ambiguity and omission mistakes. To avoid these mistakes, the context of the original utterance must be considered. In general, it can be concluded that accuracy in subtitling should be taken into account.

Electrophysiological correlates of second-language syntactic processes are related to native and second language distance regardless of age of acquisition

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Begoña eDíaz

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1. Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old and thirteen late (AoA = 18 years old Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants’ L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants’ languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants’ L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants’ L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners’ ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants’ L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants’ L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives’ ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency.

Astronomy and Geology Vocabulary, I.e. "NASA Words" in Native American Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Angrum, A.; Alexander, C. J.; Martin, M.

2014-12-01

The US Rosetta Project has developed a program in Native American communities in which contemporary STEM vocabulary is taught alongside the same vocabulary in Navajo. NASA images and science are used and described in the native language, alongside both lay English, and scientific English. Additionally, science curriculum (geology/chemistry/botany/physics) elements drawn from the reservation environment, including geomorphology, geochemistry, soil physics, are included and discussed in the native language as much as possible — with their analogs in other planetary environments (such as Mars). The program began with a student defining 30 Navajo words to describe what he called 'NASA' words, such as: cell phone, astronaut, space suit, computer, and planets not visible to the naked eye. The use of NASA material and imagery have a positive impact on the accessibility of the overall STEM material but community involvement, and buy-in, is criti! cal to the success of the program. The US Rosetta Project modified its goals, and curriculum, to accommodate the programmatic desires of teachers in the district, and the capabilities of the medicine men that agreed to participate. In this presentation we will report on lessons learned, as well as metrics and successes associated with our most recent Summer Science Academy [2014].

A sword-day, a red day:a comparative study on community-generated subtitling

OpenAIRE

Nivala, H. (Henri)

2016-01-01

Abstract The study compares the Finnish DVD-subtitles of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with the community-generated subtitles by the divxfinland.org community. The aim is to broaden the view of ‘amateur’ subtitling by contrasting it with the commissioned subtitles and explicating on their problems and accomplishments. The most notable i...

SUBTLEX-ESP: Spanish Word Frequencies Based on Film Subtitles

Science.gov (United States)

Cuetos, Fernando; Glez-Nosti, Maria; Barbon, Analia; Brysbaert, Marc

2011-01-01

Recent studies have shown that word frequency estimates obtained from films and television subtitles are better to predict performance in word recognition experiments than the traditional word frequency estimates based on books and newspapers. In this study, we present a subtitle-based word frequency list for Spanish, one of the most widely spoken…

Are lexical tones musical? Native language's influence on neural response to pitch in different domains.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ao; Peter, Varghese; Wijnen, Frank; Schnack, Hugo; Burnham, Denis

2018-04-21

Language experience shapes musical and speech pitch processing. We investigated whether speaking a lexical tone language natively modulates neural processing of pitch in language and music as well as their correlation. We tested tone language (Mandarin Chinese), and non-tone language (Dutch) listeners in a passive oddball paradigm measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) for (i) Chinese lexical tones and (ii) three-note musical melodies with similar pitch contours. For lexical tones, Chinese listeners showed a later MMN peak than the non-tone language listeners, whereas for MMN amplitude there were no significant differences between groups. Dutch participants also showed a late discriminative negativity (LDN). In the music condition two MMNs, corresponding to the two notes that differed between the standard and the deviant were found for both groups, and an LDN were found for both the Dutch and the Chinese listeners. The music MMNs were significantly right lateralized. Importantly, significant correlations were found between the lexical tone and the music MMNs for the Dutch but not the Chinese participants. The results suggest that speaking a tone language natively does not necessarily enhance neural responses to pitch either in language or in music, but that it does change the nature of neural pitch processing: non-tone language speakers appear to perceive lexical tones as musical, whereas for tone language speakers, lexical tones and music may activate different neural networks. Neural resources seem to be assigned differently for the lexical tones and for musical melodies, presumably depending on the presence or absence of long-term phonological memory traces. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of written text on comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language.

Science.gov (United States)

Diao, Yali; Chandler, Paul; Sweller, John

2007-01-01

Based on cognitive load theory, this study investigated the effect of simultaneous written presentations on comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language. Learners' language comprehension was compared while they used 3 instructional formats: listening with auditory materials only, listening with a full, written script, and listening with simultaneous subtitled text. Listening with the presence of a script and subtitles led to better understanding of the scripted and subtitled passage but poorer performance on a subsequent auditory passage than listening with the auditory materials only. These findings indicated that where the intention was learning to listen, the use of a full script or subtitles had detrimental effects on the construction and automation of listening comprehension schemas.

Influence of Native Language Vocabulary and Topic Knowledge on Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning in Health Care Providers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcia Foresee Drumhiller

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Adults attending short, language for specific purpose courses may have expertise not utilized in general foreign language courses. The present study investigates two factors that may influence the acquisition of medical Spanish vocabulary in such persons: native English vocabulary size and topic knowledge. Forty-four health care workers attended 12 hr of medical Spanish instruction. Prior to instruction, the Nelson–Denny Vocabulary Test, a Medical Spanish vocabulary test, and an English Medical Terminology Test (an indicator of topic knowledge were administered. The Medical Spanish Vocabulary Test was readministered at posttest. Individually, both English medical terminology knowledge and English vocabulary size were significant predictors of medical Spanish vocabulary acquisition, but English medical terminology knowledge explained most of the variance in medical Spanish vocabulary acquisition. The results are discussed in terms of the impact of expert memory organization on the ability to learn new labels in a second language. A curricular shift toward content-centered vocabulary in language for specific purpose courses may be advantageous for some groups of foreign language learners.

Language acquisition for deaf children: Reducing the harms of zero tolerance to the use of alternative approaches

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Humphries Tom

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Children acquire language without instruction as long as they are regularly and meaningfully engaged with an accessible human language. Today, 80% of children born deaf in the developed world are implanted with cochlear devices that allow some of them access to sound in their early years, which helps them to develop speech. However, because of brain plasticity changes during early childhood, children who have not acquired a first language in the early years might never be completely fluent in any language. If they miss this critical period for exposure to a natural language, their subsequent development of the cognitive activities that rely on a solid first language might be underdeveloped, such as literacy, memory organization, and number manipulation. An alternative to speech-exclusive approaches to language acquisition exists in the use of sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL, where acquiring a sign language is subject to the same time constraints of spoken language development. Unfortunately, so far, these alternatives are caught up in an "either - or" dilemma, leading to a highly polarized conflict about which system families should choose for their children, with little tolerance for alternatives by either side of the debate and widespread misinformation about the evidence and implications for or against either approach. The success rate with cochlear implants is highly variable. This issue is still debated, and as far as we know, there are no reliable predictors for success with implants. Yet families are often advised not to expose their child to sign language. Here absolute positions based on ideology create pressures for parents that might jeopardize the real developmental needs of deaf children. What we do know is that cochlear implants do not offer accessible language to many deaf children. By the time it is clear that the deaf child is not acquiring spoken language with cochlear devices, it might already be

A Mouse with a Roof? Effects of Phonological Neighbors on Processing of Words in Sentences in a Non-Native Language

Science.gov (United States)

Ruschemeyer, Shirley-Ann; Nojack, Agnes; Limbach, Maxi

2008-01-01

The architecture of the language processing system for speakers of more than one language remains an intriguing topic of research. A common finding is that speakers of multiple languages are slower at responding to language stimuli in their non-native language (L2) than monolingual speakers. This may simply reflect participants' unfamiliarity with…

Iconic Native Culture Cues Inhibit Second Language Production in a Non-immigrant Population: Evidence from Bengali-English Bilinguals.

Science.gov (United States)

Roychoudhuri, Kesaban S; Prasad, Seema G; Mishra, Ramesh K

2016-01-01

We examined if iconic pictures belonging to one's native culture interfere with second language production in bilinguals in an object naming task. Bengali-English bilinguals named pictures in both L1 and L2 against iconic cultural images representing Bengali culture or neutral images. Participants named in both "Blocked" and "Mixed" language conditions. In both conditions, participants were significantly slower in naming in English when the background was an iconic Bengali culture picture than a neutral image. These data suggest that native language culture cues lead to activation of the L1 lexicon that competed against L2 words creating an interference. These results provide further support to earlier observations where such culture related interference has been observed in bilingual language production. We discuss the results in the context of cultural influence on the psycholinguistic processes in bilingual object naming.

Speaking out about physical harms from tobacco use: response to graphic warning labels among American Indian/Alaska Native communities

OpenAIRE

Patterson Silver Wolf, David A; Tovar, Molly; Thompson, Kellie; Ishcomer, Jamie; Kreuter, Matthew W; Caburnay, Charlene; Boyum, Sonia

2016-01-01

Objective This study is the first to explore the impact of graphic cigarette labels with physical harm images on members of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. The aim of this article is to investigate how AI/AN respond to particular graphic warning labels. Methods The parent study recruited smokers, at-risk smokers and non-smokers from three different age groups (youths aged 13?17?years, young adults aged 18?24?years and adults aged 25+ years) and five population subgroups wit...

Lexical exposure to native language dialects can improve non-native phonetic discrimination.

Science.gov (United States)

Olmstead, Annie J; Viswanathan, Navin

2018-04-01

Nonnative phonetic learning is an area of great interest for language researchers, learners, and educators alike. In two studies, we examined whether nonnative phonetic discrimination of Hindi dental and retroflex stops can be improved by exposure to lexical items bearing the critical nonnative stops. We extend the lexical retuning paradigm of Norris, McQueen, and Cutler (Cognitive Psychology, 47, 204-238, 2003) by having naive American English (AE)-speaking participants perform a pretest-training-posttest procedure. They performed an AXB discrimination task with the Hindi retroflex and dental stops before and after transcribing naturally produced words from an Indian English speaker that either contained these tokens or not. Only those participants who heard words with the critical nonnative phones improved in their posttest discrimination. This finding suggests that exposure to nonnative phones in native lexical contexts supports learning of difficult nonnative phonetic discrimination.

Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories.

Science.gov (United States)

Woolfe, Tyron; Herman, Rosalind; Roy, Penny; Woll, Bencie

2010-03-01

There is a dearth of assessments of sign language development in young deaf children. This study gathered age-related scores from a sample of deaf native signing children using an adapted version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI (Fenson et al., 1994). Parental reports on children's receptive and expressive signing were collected longitudinally on 29 deaf native British Sign Language (BSL) users, aged 8-36 months, yielding 146 datasets. A smooth upward growth curve was obtained for early vocabulary development and percentile scores were derived. In the main, receptive scores were in advance of expressive scores. No gender bias was observed. Correlational analysis identified factors associated with vocabulary development, including parental education and mothers' training in BSL. Individual children's profiles showed a range of development and some evidence of a growth spurt. Clinical and research issues relating to the measure are discussed. The study has developed a valid, reliable measure of vocabulary development in BSL. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between vocabulary acquisition in native and non-native signers.

THE IMPACT OF TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES AND SUBTITLING RULES TO THE EQUIVALENCE OF MEANING OF CULINARY TERMS IN THE FRESH WITH ANNA OLSON SEASON 1 SUBTITLE

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Hetty Hartati Novita

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The emergence of cable TV in Indonesia has made this author interested in focusing on the topic of culinary terms translation in the subtitle of Fresh with Anna Olson Season 1 program broadcasted on Asian Food Channel station. In this paper, this author analyzes the translation techniques suggested by Molina and Albir used by the translators to create the more accurate, natural, and communicative subtitle even though there are subtitling rules to follow. The result is, most of the translated terms have equivalence in meaning between the ST and the TT, while the ones which are not equivalent are due to the application of two particular techniques, Discursive Creation and Adaptation.

Nurse going native: Language and identity in letters from Africa and the British West Indies.

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Howell, Jessica M

2016-03-01

Colonial nurses were ideal agents of colonial medicine's supposed beneficence: while practising and teaching "hygiene", they also reinforced racial and cultural separation. In some cases, however, the nurses took their role as healers and teachers of local populations much more seriously than was authorized implicitly by their employer. This article analyses the circulation of original life writing materials between one nurse, CC, and the Colonial Nursing Association, in order to chart the considerable anxiety around the concept of nurses' cross-cultural and cross-racial sympathy during the interwar period. I draw upon colonial language studies and women's travel writing analysis in order to demonstrate that many of these concerns centred on issues of language and communication. By speaking local languages, it was feared that colonial nurses' loyalty would shift from their employer towards their indigenous patients. This essay places the concept of "going native" within the contexts of nineteenth-century empire literature, racial anthropology and ethnology, in order to suggest that concerns about nurses "going native" were influenced by discourses of degeneration and acclimatization.

Mother-Tongue Diversity in the Foreign Language Classroom: Perspectives on the Experiences of Non-Native Speakers of English Studying Foreign Languages in an English-Medium University

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Bruen, Jennifer; Kelly, Niamh

2017-01-01

This paper considers the position of university language students whose mother tongue is other than the medium of instruction. Specifically, it investigates the attitudes and experiences of non-native English speakers studying either German or Japanese as foreign languages at an English-medium university. The findings indicate that the non-native…

A study of the effects of English language proficiency and scientific reasoning skills on the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners and native English language-speaking students participating in grade 10 science classes

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Hector Neftali, Sr.

2000-11-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of English language proficiency and levels of scientific reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. The researcher studied a group of high school Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students participating in Grade 10 science classes. The language proficiency of the students was to be measured through the use of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) instrument. A Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning developed by Lawson (1978) was administered in either English or Spanish to the group of Hispanic English language learners and in English to the group of native English language-speaking students in order to determine their levels of scientific reasoning skills. The students' acquisition of science content knowledge was measured through the use of statewide-standardized science test developed by the State's Department of Education. This study suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners in the study. The results of the study also suggest that with regards to scientific reasoning skills, students that showed high levels or reflective reasoning skills for the most part performed better on the statewide-standardized science test than students with intuitive or transitional reasoning skills. This assertion was supported by the studies conducted by Lawson and his colleagues, which showed that high levels of reasoning or reflective reasoning skills are prerequisite for most high school science courses. The findings in this study imply that high order English language proficiency combined with high levels of reasoning skills enhances students' abilities to learn science content subject matter. This

THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE USE AND LANGUAGE ATTITUDE ON THE MAINTENANCE OF COMMUNITY LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY MIGRANT STUDENTS

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Leni Amalia Suek

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The maintenance of community languages of migrant students is heavily determined by language use and language attitudes. The superiority of a dominant language over a community language contributes to attitudes of migrant students toward their native languages. When they perceive their native languages as unimportant language, they will reduce the frequency of using that language even though at home domain. Solutions provided for a problem of maintaining community languages should be related to language use and attitudes of community languages, which are developed mostly in two important domains, school and family. Hence, the valorization of community language should be promoted not only in family but also school domains. Several programs such as community language school and community language program can be used for migrant students to practice and use their native languages. Since educational resources such as class session, teachers and government support are limited; family plays significant roles to stimulate positive attitudes toward community language and also to develop the use of native languages.

Native and Non-native English Teachers' Perceptions of their Professional Identity: Convergent or Divergent?

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Zia Tajeddin

2016-10-01

Full Text Available There is still a preference for native speaker teachers in the language teaching profession, which is supposed to influence the self-perceptions of native and nonnative teachers. However, the status of English as a globalized language is changing the legitimacy of native/nonnative teacher dichotomy. This study sought to investigate native and nonnative English-speaking teachers’ perceptions about native and nonnative teachers’ status and the advantages and disadvantages of being a native or nonnative teacher. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. A total of 200 native and nonnative teachers of English from the UK and the US, i.e. the inner circle, and Turkey and Iran, the expanding circle, participated in this study. A significant majority of nonnative teachers believed that native speaker teachers have better speaking proficiency, better pronunciation, and greater self-confidence. The findings also showed nonnative teachers’ lack of self-confidence and awareness of their role and status compared with native-speaker teachers, which could be the result of existing inequities between native and nonnative English-speaking teachers in ELT. The findings also revealed that native teachers disagreed more strongly with the concept of native teachers’ superiority over nonnative teachers. Native teachers argued that nonnative teachers have a good understanding of teaching methodology whereas native teachers are more competent in correct language. It can be concluded that teacher education programs in the expanding-circle countries should include materials for teachers to raise their awareness of their own professional status and role and to remove their misconception about native speaker fallacy.

Native Americans with Diabetes

Science.gov (United States)

... Read the MMWR Science Clips Native Americans with Diabetes Better diabetes care can decrease kidney failure Language: ... between 1996 and 2013. Problem Kidney failure from diabetes was highest among Native Americans. Native Americans are ...

EXPLICITATION AND ADDITION TECHNIQUES IN AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION: A MULTIMODAL APPROACH OF ENGLISHINDONESIAN SUBTITLES

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Ichwan Suyudi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In audiovisual translation, the multimodality of the audiovisual text is both a challenge and a resource for subtitlers. This paper illustrates how multi-modes provide information that helps subtitlers to gain a better understanding of meaning-making practices that will influence them to make a decision-making in translating a certain verbal text. Subtitlers may explicit, add, and condense the texts based on the multi-modes as seen on the visual frames. Subtitlers have to consider the distribution and integration of the meanings of multi-modes in order to create comprehensive equivalence between the source and target texts. Excerpts of visual frames in this paper are taken from English films Forrest Gump (drama, 1996, and James Bond (thriller, 2010.

Practical Functional Approach to Quality Assessment in Subtitling: Pocahontas II – Case Study

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Alaa Eddin Hussain

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The present research work deals with subtitling errors encountered by simulators and proof-readers. The resultant work is of significant contribution to problem decision makings in the field of quality assessment of audiovisual translation (AVT. The outcome of this paper is the result of accumulated working experience in this domain. The relevant errors are related to syntax, spelling, style, length of sentences, lack of clarity, and gender-related issues. These errors though made by one subtitler who has translated the animation feature film Pocahontas II released in 2012, are still typical and therefore a thorough investigation has been done and a set of linguistic rules has been suggested as a guideline for the audiovisual industry. These rules are to be added to the technical and software requirements sent by subtitling companies (such as the number of characters per line, the font, the reading speed per minute, and punctuation. This set of rules helps monitor the quality of the subtitled target text (TT.     Keywords: audiovisual translation, subtitling, quality assessment, practical functional approach, Arabic-English simulation

Subtitling for deaf children: Granting accessibility to audiovisual programmes in an educational way

OpenAIRE

Zarate, S.

2014-01-01

This thesis is a contribution towards the subtitling practice of audiovisual programmes for deaf children. It starts by offering an overview of relevant research on Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing (SDH), conducted both in the UK and abroad. A descriptive and comprehensive study on how children’s programmes broadcast in British television are subtitled for deaf children constitutes the starting point of the project. In an attempt to gain an understanding on how deaf children re...

Decoding speech perception by native and non-native speakers using single-trial electrophysiological data.

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Alex Brandmeyer

Full Text Available Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs are systems that use real-time analysis of neuroimaging data to determine the mental state of their user for purposes such as providing neurofeedback. Here, we investigate the feasibility of a BCI based on speech perception. Multivariate pattern classification methods were applied to single-trial EEG data collected during speech perception by native and non-native speakers. Two principal questions were asked: 1 Can differences in the perceived categories of pairs of phonemes be decoded at the single-trial level? 2 Can these same categorical differences be decoded across participants, within or between native-language groups? Results indicated that classification performance progressively increased with respect to the categorical status (within, boundary or across of the stimulus contrast, and was also influenced by the native language of individual participants. Classifier performance showed strong relationships with traditional event-related potential measures and behavioral responses. The results of the cross-participant analysis indicated an overall increase in average classifier performance when trained on data from all participants (native and non-native. A second cross-participant classifier trained only on data from native speakers led to an overall improvement in performance for native speakers, but a reduction in performance for non-native speakers. We also found that the native language of a given participant could be decoded on the basis of EEG data with accuracy above 80%. These results indicate that electrophysiological responses underlying speech perception can be decoded at the single-trial level, and that decoding performance systematically reflects graded changes in the responses related to the phonological status of the stimuli. This approach could be used in extensions of the BCI paradigm to support perceptual learning during second language acquisition.

Subtitle Synchronization across Multiple Screens and Devices

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Aitor Rodriguez-Alsina

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Ambient Intelligence is a new paradigm in which environments are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. This is having an increasing importance in multimedia applications, which frequently rely on sensors to provide useful information to the user. In this context, multimedia applications must adapt and personalize both content and interfaces in order to reach acceptable levels of context-specific quality of service for the user, and enable the content to be available anywhere and at any time. The next step is to make content available to everybody in order to overcome the existing access barriers to content for users with specific needs, or else to adapt to different platforms, hence making content fully usable and accessible. Appropriate access to video content, for instance, is not always possible due to the technical limitations of traditional video packaging, transmission and presentation. This restricts the flexibility of subtitles and audio-descriptions to be adapted to different devices, contexts and users. New Web standards built around HTML5 enable more featured applications with better adaptation and personalization facilities, and thus would seem more suitable for accessible AmI environments. This work presents a video subtitling system that enables the customization, adaptation and synchronization of subtitles across different devices and multiple screens. The benefits of HTML5 applications for building the solution are analyzed along with their current platform support. Moreover, examples of the use of the application in three different cases are presented. Finally, the user experience of the solution is evaluated.

Attenuation in the dubbing and subtitling of The Green Mile

OpenAIRE

Lidia Rodríguez; Gabriela S. Alanís Uresti

2015-01-01

This paper is part of the doctoral thesis entitled “Critique of translation for film dubbing and subtitling from the perspective of discourse analysis. A study applied to "The Green Mile”, written by Ph.D. student Gabriela Saturnina Alanís Uresti, directed by Ph.D. Lidia Rodríguez. It is a qualitative and descriptive study where we contrasted The Green Mile - a 1999 Hollywood film, original in American English - with its translated versions: dubbed and subtitled into Spanish of Mexico. We sta...

Reanalysis and semantic persistence in native and non-native garden-path recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacob, Gunnar; Felser, Claudia

2016-01-01

We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring study investigating how native and non-native speakers of English process temporarily ambiguous sentences such as While the gentleman was eating the burgers were still being reheated in the microwave, in which an initially plausible direct-object analysis is first ruled out by a syntactic disambiguation (were) and also later on by semantic information (being reheated). Both participant groups showed garden-path effects at the syntactic disambiguation, with native speakers showing significantly stronger effects of ambiguity than non-native speakers in later eye-movement measures but equally strong effects in first-pass reading times. Ambiguity effects at the semantic disambiguation and in participants' end-of-trial responses revealed that for both participant groups, the incorrect direct-object analysis was frequently maintained beyond the syntactic disambiguation. The non-native group showed weaker reanalysis effects at the syntactic disambiguation and was more likely to misinterpret the experimental sentences than the native group. Our results suggest that native language (L1) and non-native language (L2) parsing are similar with regard to sensitivity to syntactic and semantic error signals, but different with regard to processes of reanalysis.

Fundamental Movement Skills of Children Living in England: The Role of Ethnicity and Native English Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Eyre, Emma L J; Walker, Leanne Jaye; Duncan, Michael J

2018-02-01

The development of fundamental movement skills (FMS) has been associated with children's general health, and, while there is evidence to suggest that age, gender, physical activity, and socioeconomic status relate to FMS, the relationship of ethnicity and language barriers to FMS competence has been underexplored. These factors may be of particular interest for South Asian (SA) children who have lower physical activity and increased risk of metabolic disease. This cross-sectional study examined ethnic and language differences in FMS among 218 ethnically diverse five-year-old children (61 White ethnic background, 91 SA, 29 Black ethnic background, and 37 other), some with English as a native language ( n = 90) and some with English as an additional language ( n = 75), all recruited from within central England. Each child was assessed performing five locomotor skills (run, gallop, hop, leap, and jump) and six object skills (catch, kick, bounce, strike, underarm roll, and overarm throw) on the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 . A 2 (gender) × 4 (ethnicity) factor analysis of covariance assessed differences in the locomotor and object composite scores and total FMS score, while controlling for body mass index. A two-factor analysis of covariance assessed native language differences in their impact on FMS. We found ethnic and gender differences in FMS ( p skills ( p  .05). The findings of low FMS competency in SA children and girls, irrespective of body mass index, suggest that developmentally appropriate interventions targeting SA children and girls are needed in early years. We discuss some unclear factors related to these differences.

The introspective may achieve more: Enhancing existing Geoscientific models with native-language emulated structural reflection

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Xinye; Shen, Chaopeng

2018-01-01

Geoscientific models manage myriad and increasingly complex data structures as trans-disciplinary models are integrated. They often incur significant redundancy with cross-cutting tasks. Reflection, the ability of a program to inspect and modify its structure and behavior at runtime, is known as a powerful tool to improve code reusability, abstraction, and separation of concerns. Reflection is rarely adopted in high-performance Geoscientific models, especially with Fortran, where it was previously deemed implausible. Practical constraints of language and legacy often limit us to feather-weight, native-language solutions. We demonstrate the usefulness of a structural-reflection-emulating, dynamically-linked metaObjects, gd. We show real-world examples including data structure self-assembly, effortless input/output (IO) and upgrade to parallel I/O, recursive actions and batch operations. We share gd and a derived module that reproduces MATLAB-like structure in Fortran and C++. We suggest that both a gd representation and a Fortran-native representation are maintained to access the data, each for separate purposes. Embracing emulated reflection allows generically-written codes that are highly re-usable across projects.

Exploring Native and Non-Native Intuitions of Word Frequency.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitt, Norbert; Dunham, Bruce

1999-01-01

Asked native and nonnative speakers to give judgments of frequency for near synonyms in second-language lexical sets and compared those responses to modern corpus word counts. Native speakers were able to discern the core word in lexical sets either 77% or 85%, and nonnative speakers at 71% or 79%. (Author/VWL)

SUBTLEX- AL: Albanian word frequencies based on film subtitles

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Dr.Sc. Rrezarta Avdyli

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Recently several studies have shown that word frequency estimation based on subtitle files explains better the variance in word recognition performance than traditional words frequency estimates did. The present study aims to show this frequency estimate in Albanian from more than 2M words coming from film subtitles. Our results show high correlation between the RT from a LD study (120 stimuli and the SUBTLEX- AL, as well as, high correlation between this and the unique existing frequency list of a hundred more frequent Albanian words. These findings suggest that SUBTLEX-AL it is good frequency estimation, furthermore, this is the first database of frequency estimation in Albanian larger than 100 words.

Adapting comics to storyboard language

OpenAIRE

Manhães Ricardo; Milton Luiz Horn Vieira; Carolina Cesar Coral

2017-01-01

This article analyzes the practical differences between the language of comics and the storyboard, in adapting a format to the other. The result of this adjustment will be applied in an animation. Graphics solutions used in each of these languages, the expression of their contents, were compared descriptively. Features such as the horizontal format, the vignette, audio, kinetic figures, visual metaphors and subtitles, when placed side by side, highlight the differences and similarities betwee...

Teaching Film with Blinders On: The Importance of Knowing the Language.

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Blakely, Richard

1984-01-01

Suggests the use of foreign films as a teaching aid for foreign language study. However, a thorough knowledge of the film's oral language (or languages) and culture is essential as a first step toward a clear understanding of the film's visual aesthetic. A dependence on subtitles or dubbing is discouraged, due to frequent errors and…

Components and context: exploring sources of reading difficulties for language minority learners and native English speakers in urban schools.

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Kieffer, Michael J; Vukovic, Rose K

2012-01-01

Drawing on the cognitive and ecological domains within the componential model of reading, this longitudinal study explores heterogeneity in the sources of reading difficulties for language minority learners and native English speakers in urban schools. Students (N = 150) were followed from first through third grade and assessed annually on standardized English language and reading measures. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relative contributions of code-related and linguistic comprehension skills in first and second grade to third grade reading comprehension. Linguistic comprehension and the interaction between linguistic comprehension and code-related skills each explained substantial variation in reading comprehension. Among students with low reading comprehension, more than 80% demonstrated weaknesses in linguistic comprehension alone, whereas approximately 15% demonstrated weaknesses in both linguistic comprehension and code-related skills. Results were remarkably similar for the language minority learners and native English speakers, suggesting the importance of their shared socioeconomic backgrounds and schooling contexts.

Can Non-Interactive Language Input Benefit Young Second-Language Learners?

Science.gov (United States)

Au, Terry Kit-fong; Chan, Winnie Wailan; Cheng, Liao; Siegel, Linda S.; Tso, Ricky Van Yip

2015-01-01

To fully acquire a language, especially its phonology, children need linguistic input from native speakers early on. When interaction with native speakers is not always possible--e.g. for children learning a second language that is not the societal language--audios are commonly used as an affordable substitute. But does such non-interactive input…

Relative Weighting of Semantic and Syntactic Cues in Native and Non-Native Listeners' Recognition of English Sentences.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Lu-Feng; Koenig, Laura L

2016-01-01

Non-native listeners do not recognize English sentences as effectively as native listeners, especially in noise. It is not entirely clear to what extent such group differences arise from differences in relative weight of semantic versus syntactic cues. This study quantified the use and weighting of these contextual cues via Boothroyd and Nittrouer's j and k factors. The j represents the probability of recognizing sentences with or without context, whereas the k represents the degree to which context improves recognition performance. Four groups of 13 normal-hearing young adult listeners participated. One group consisted of native English monolingual (EMN) listeners, whereas the other three consisted of non-native listeners contrasting in their language dominance and first language: English-dominant Russian-English, Russian-dominant Russian-English, and Spanish-dominant Spanish-English bilinguals. All listeners were presented three sets of four-word sentences: high-predictability sentences included both semantic and syntactic cues, low-predictability sentences included syntactic cues only, and zero-predictability sentences included neither semantic nor syntactic cues. Sentences were presented at 65 dB SPL binaurally in the presence of speech-spectrum noise at +3 dB SNR. Listeners orally repeated each sentence and recognition was calculated for individual words as well as the sentence as a whole. Comparable j values across groups for high-predictability, low-predictability, and zero-predictability sentences suggested that all listeners, native and non-native, utilized contextual cues to recognize English sentences. Analysis of the k factor indicated that non-native listeners took advantage of syntax as effectively as EMN listeners. However, only English-dominant bilinguals utilized semantics to the same extent as EMN listeners; semantics did not provide a significant benefit for the two non-English-dominant groups. When combined, semantics and syntax benefitted EMN

Metacognitive and language-specific knowledge in native and foreign language reading comprehension: an emprical study among Dutch students in grades 6, 8 and 10

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schoonen, R.; Hulstijn, J.; Bossers, B.

1998-01-01

This article gives the results of a study among 685 students in grades 6, 8 and 10 in the Netherlands to whom we administered grade-appropriate measures of reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge in their native language (NL), Dutch, as well as, in grades 8 and 10, in English as a foreign

Come on and take a free ride : Contributing to public goods in native and foreign language settings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Urbig, Diemo; Terjesen, Siri; Procher, Vivien; Muehlfeld, Katrin; Van Witteloostuijn, Arjen

2016-01-01

Business schools around the world must prepare their students for two realities: operating in an English-speaking business world and working in teams. As yet, there is limited understanding of how operating in a native or a foreign language impacts students' propensity to free ride in group

Come on and take a free ride : Contributing to public goods in native and foreign language settings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Urbig, D.; Terjesen, S.; Procher, V.; Muhlfeld, K.S.; van Witteloostuijn, A.

Business schools around the world must prepare their students for two realities: operating in an English-speaking business world and working in teams. As yet, there is limited understanding of how operating in a native or a foreign language impacts students' propensity to free ride in group

Differences in the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies among Native and Non-Native Readers.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheorey, R.; Mokhtari, K.

2001-01-01

Examines the differences in the reported use of reading strategies of native and non-native English speakers when reading academic materials. Participants were native English speaking and English-as-a-Second-Language college students who completed a survey of reading strategies aimed at discerning the strategies readers report using when coping…

49 CFR Appendix to Subtitle A - United States Railway Association-Employee Responsibilities and Conduct

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... accident insurance plan or other employee welfare or benefit plan that is maintained by a business or... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false United States Railway Association-Employee... Subtitle A, App. Appendix to Subtitle A—United States Railway Association—Employee Responsibilities and...

Cross-language and second language speech perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bohn, Ocke-Schwen

2017-01-01

in cross-language and second language speech perception research: The mapping issue (the perceptual relationship of sounds of the native and the nonnative language in the mind of the native listener and the L2 learner), the perceptual and learning difficulty/ease issue (how this relationship may or may...... not cause perceptual and learning difficulty), and the plasticity issue (whether and how experience with the nonnative language affects the perceptual organization of speech sounds in the mind of L2 learners). One important general conclusion from this research is that perceptual learning is possible at all...

Signed Language Working Memory Capacity of Signed Language Interpreters and Deaf Signers

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jihong; Napier, Jemina

2013-01-01

This study investigated the effects of hearing status and age of signed language acquisition on signed language working memory capacity. Professional Auslan (Australian sign language)/English interpreters (hearing native signers and hearing nonnative signers) and deaf Auslan signers (deaf native signers and deaf nonnative signers) completed an…

Native Speakers as Teachers in Turkey: Non-Native Pre-Service English Teachers' Reactions to a Nation-Wide Project

Science.gov (United States)

Coskun, Abdullah

2013-01-01

Although English is now a recognized international language and the concept of native speaker is becoming more doubtful every day, the empowerment of the native speakers of English as language teaching professionals is still continuing (McKay, 2002), especially in Asian countries like China and Japan. One of the latest examples showing the…

Discriminating native from non-native speech using fusion of visual cues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Georgakis, Christos; Petridis, Stavros; Pantic, Maja

2014-01-01

The task of classifying accent, as belonging to a native language speaker or a foreign language speaker, has been so far addressed by means of the audio modality only. However, features extracted from the visual modality have been successfully used to extend or substitute audio-only approaches

Discrimination Between Native and Non-Native Speech Using Visual Features Only

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Georgakis, Christos; Petridis, Stavros; Pantic, Maja

2016-01-01

Accent is a soft biometric trait that can be inferred from pronunciation and articulation patterns characterizing the speaking style of an individual. Past research has addressed the task of classifying accent, as belonging to a native language speaker or a foreign language speaker, by means of the

Interferenz von Muttersprache und Zweitsprache auf eine dritte Sprache beim freien Sprechen -- ein Vergleich (Interference by the Native Language and a Second Language on a Third Language in Free Conversation -- A Comparison)

Science.gov (United States)

Stedje, Astrid

1976-01-01

Tests given at the German Institute of the University of Stockholm to 32 Finnish students studying German revealed that both their native language and their Swedish interfered with their learning German, in about equal degree overall. The mother tongue, Finnish, caused more interference errors in pronunciation. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Effects of subtitles, complexity, and language proficiency on learning from online education videos

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zee, van der T.; Admiraal, W.F.; Paas, F.; Saab, N.; Giesbers, B.

2017-01-01

Open online education has become increasingly popular. In Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) videos are generally the most used method of teaching. While most MOOCs are offered in English, the global availability of these courses has attracted many non-native English speakers. To ensure not only

Family Literacy and Second Language Literacy Research: Focus on Language Minority Children

OpenAIRE

Yılıdırım, Özgür

2013-01-01

Problem Statement: Countries like the U. S. A. or Canada have citizens from various ethnic backgrounds. Although English is the dominant language in many parts of these countries, immigrants generally prefer speaking their native language when they are in their homes. Whatever the reason for using native language at home is, when we consider the children in these families, we can say that being exposed to different languages at home and at school may be a problem for their language developmen...

Invasive non-native species' provision of refugia for endangered native species.

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Chiba, Satoshi

2010-08-01

The influence of non-native species on native ecosystems is not predicted easily when interspecific interactions are complex. Species removal can result in unexpected and undesired changes to other ecosystem components. I examined whether invasive non-native species may both harm and provide refugia for endangered native species. The invasive non-native plant Casuarina stricta has damaged the native flora and caused decline of the snail fauna on the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. On Anijima in 2006 and 2009, I examined endemic land snails in the genus Ogasawarana. I compared the density of live specimens and frequency of predation scars (from black rats [Rattus rattus]) on empty shells in native vegetation and Casuarina forests. The density of land snails was greater in native vegetation than in Casuarina forests in 2006. Nevertheless, radical declines in the density of land snails occurred in native vegetation since 2006 in association with increasing predation by black rats. In contrast, abundance of Ogasawarana did not decline in the Casuarina forest, where shells with predation scars from rats were rare. As a result, the density of snails was greater in the Casuarina forest than in native vegetation. Removal of Casuarina was associated with an increased proportion of shells with predation scars from rats and a decrease in the density of Ogasawarana. The thick and dense litter of Casuarina appears to provide refugia for native land snails by protecting them from predation by rats; thus, eradication of rats should precede eradication of Casuarina. Adaptive strategies, particularly those that consider the removal order of non-native species, are crucial to minimizing the unintended effects of eradication on native species. In addition, my results suggested that in some cases a given non-native species can be used to mitigate the impacts of other non-native species on native species.

Comprehending non-native speakers: theory and evidence for adjustment in manner of processing.

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Lev-Ari, Shiri

2014-01-01

Non-native speakers have lower linguistic competence than native speakers, which renders their language less reliable in conveying their intentions. We suggest that expectations of lower competence lead listeners to adapt their manner of processing when they listen to non-native speakers. We propose that listeners use cognitive resources to adjust by increasing their reliance on top-down processes and extracting less information from the language of the non-native speaker. An eye-tracking study supports our proposal by showing that when following instructions by a non-native speaker, listeners make more contextually-induced interpretations. Those with relatively high working memory also increase their reliance on context to anticipate the speaker's upcoming reference, and are less likely to notice lexical errors in the non-native speech, indicating that they take less information from the speaker's language. These results contribute to our understanding of the flexibility in language processing and have implications for interactions between native and non-native speakers.

Listen to the Natives

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Prensky, Marc

2006-01-01

"Digital natives" refer to today's students because they are native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet. Those who were not born into the digital world are referred to as digital immigrants. Educators, considered digital immigrants, have slid into the 21st century--and into the digital…

Developing Language in Digital Natives

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Badia, Ingrid C.

2011-01-01

The Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) program in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) provides an opportunity for all students in an elementary school to learn a world language at an early age with a focus on developing students' communicative competence. Technology plays a major role in helping students develop communicative…

The Native Speaker, Identity, and the Authenticity Hierarchy.

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Myhill, John E.

2003-01-01

Discusses an ideology of native language and identity, which holds that native language is seen as a central element of individual identity. Argues that although this ideology can be very valuable in certain circumstances, it can also create an atmosphere of suspicion toward members of certain ethnicities who choose not to use their ancestral…

A global organism detection and monitoring system for non-native species

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Graham, J.; Newman, G.; Jarnevich, C.; Shory, R.; Stohlgren, T.J.

2007-01-01

Harmful invasive non-native species are a significant threat to native species and ecosystems, and the costs associated with non-native species in the United States is estimated at over $120 Billion/year. While some local or regional databases exist for some taxonomic groups, there are no effective geographic databases designed to detect and monitor all species of non-native plants, animals, and pathogens. We developed a web-based solution called the Global Organism Detection and Monitoring (GODM) system to provide real-time data from a broad spectrum of users on the distribution and abundance of non-native species, including attributes of their habitats for predictive spatial modeling of current and potential distributions. The four major subsystems of GODM provide dynamic links between the organism data, web pages, spatial data, and modeling capabilities. The core survey database tables for recording invasive species survey data are organized into three categories: "Where, Who & When, and What." Organisms are identified with Taxonomic Serial Numbers from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. To allow users to immediately see a map of their data combined with other user's data, a custom geographic information system (GIS) Internet solution was required. The GIS solution provides an unprecedented level of flexibility in database access, allowing users to display maps of invasive species distributions or abundances based on various criteria including taxonomic classification (i.e., phylum or division, order, class, family, genus, species, subspecies, and variety), a specific project, a range of dates, and a range of attributes (percent cover, age, height, sex, weight). This is a significant paradigm shift from "map servers" to true Internet-based GIS solutions. The remainder of the system was created with a mix of commercial products, open source software, and custom software. Custom GIS libraries were created where required for processing large datasets

Hierarchical levels of representation in language prediction: The influence of first language acquisition in highly proficient bilinguals.

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Molinaro, Nicola; Giannelli, Francesco; Caffarra, Sendy; Martin, Clara

2017-07-01

Language comprehension is largely supported by predictive mechanisms that account for the ease and speed with which communication unfolds. Both native and proficient non-native speakers can efficiently handle contextual cues to generate reliable linguistic expectations. However, the link between the variability of the linguistic background of the speaker and the hierarchical format of the representations predicted is still not clear. We here investigate whether native language exposure to typologically highly diverse languages (Spanish and Basque) affects the way early balanced bilingual speakers carry out language predictions. During Spanish sentence comprehension, participants developed predictions of words the form of which (noun ending) could be either diagnostic of grammatical gender values (transparent) or totally ambiguous (opaque). We measured electrophysiological prediction effects time-locked both to the target word and to its determiner, with the former being expected or unexpected. Event-related (N200-N400) and oscillatory activity in the low beta-band (15-17Hz) frequency channel showed that both Spanish and Basque natives optimally carry out lexical predictions independently of word transparency. Crucially, in contrast to Spanish natives, Basque natives displayed visual word form predictions for transparent words, in consistency with the relevance that noun endings (post-nominal suffixes) play in their native language. We conclude that early language exposure largely shapes prediction mechanisms, so that bilinguals reading in their second language rely on the distributional regularities that are highly relevant in their first language. More importantly, we show that individual linguistic experience hierarchically modulates the format of the predicted representation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Role of the Native Language in the Use of the English Nongeneric Definite Article by L2 Learners: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison

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Chrabaszcz, Anna; Jiang, Nan

2014-01-01

The study uses an elicited imitation (EI) task to examine the effect of the native language on the use of the English nongeneric definite article by highly proficient first-language (L1) Spanish and Russian speakers and to test the hierarchy of article difficulty first proposed by Liu and Gleason (2002). Our findings suggest that there is a clear…

Components and Context: Exploring Sources of Reading Difficulties for Language Minority Learners and Native English Speakers in Urban Schools

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Kieffer, Michael J.; Vukovic, Rose K.

2012-01-01

Drawing on the cognitive and ecological domains within the componential model of reading, this longitudinal study explores heterogeneity in the sources of reading difficulties for language minority learners and native English speakers in urban schools. Students (N = 150) were followed from first through third grade and assessed annually on…

77 FR 38179 - Subtitle C, Regulations Relating to Education

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2012-06-27

... NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LITERACY 34 CFR Ch. XI, Part 1100 NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITY 34 CFR Ch. XII, Part 1200 Subtitle C, Regulations Relating to Education CFR Correction In Title 34 of the Code of...-- Regulations Relating to Education'' is added above chapter XI--National Institute for Literacy. In title 34...

Ideological Manipulation of Controversial Information: The Unusual Case of the Chinese-subtitled Version of House of Cards

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Dingkun Wang

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In recent years, owing to the spread of cultural and economic globalisation, Western values and ideologies have become increasingly accessible via media products to the general public in the People’s Republic of China (Mainland China, or China. Although translation enables the exchange of socio-cultural values and ideas across different languages and cultures, it is susceptible to manipulation in terms of political and ideological control. This paper examines interventions by Chinese authorities in the online distribution of foreign audio-visual products. Such interventions are undertaken to secure broadcasting and distribution rights of the government which also encompass more conventional media from other countries, such as television, in promoting mainstream ideological values and political agendas.  Censorship institutions supervise the selection of specific media products to be imported and translated for the Chinese market not only to ensure ease of comprehension but also for political correctness, with a view to avoid any clashes of cultures and ideologies. In the last decade, Chinese audiences have the rise of new media facilitating the wide-spread online viewing of foreign TV and thereby changing the dynamic of access and dissemination of foreign entertainment media in China. We argue that censorship institutions in China opt to adopt alternative strategies, or in many cases more relaxed criteria, in appraising foreign audiovisual products, in order to cater the demands of the new generation of Chinese audiences in those officially supervised media rather than suppressing their needs outright. We will dwell into the Chinese-subtitled version of the second season of the American political drama House of Cards (Netflix 2014, as released by Sohu, the largest online franchise in China. We consider the outcome of subtitling "honest" in terms of the exposure of sensitive information and controversial cultural and political allusions to the

Learning to read words in a new language shapes the neural organization of the prior languages.

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Mei, Leilei; Xue, Gui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Chen, Chuansheng; Zhang, Mingxia; He, Qinghua; Wei, Miao; Dong, Qi

2014-12-01

Learning a new language entails interactions with one׳s prior language(s). Much research has shown how native language affects the cognitive and neural mechanisms of a new language, but little is known about whether and how learning a new language shapes the neural mechanisms of prior language(s). In two experiments in the current study, we used an artificial language training paradigm in combination with an fMRI to examine (1) the effects of different linguistic components (phonology and semantics) of a new language on the neural process of prior languages (i.e., native and second languages), and (2) whether such effects were modulated by the proficiency level in the new language. Results of Experiment 1 showed that when the training in a new language involved semantics (as opposed to only visual forms and phonology), neural activity during word reading in the native language (Chinese) was reduced in several reading-related regions, including the left pars opercularis, pars triangularis, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and inferior occipital gyrus. Results of Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and further found that semantic training also affected neural activity during word reading in the subjects׳ second language (English). Furthermore, we found that the effects of the new language were modulated by the subjects׳ proficiency level in the new language. These results provide critical imaging evidence for the influence of learning to read words in a new language on word reading in native and second languages. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An MEG Investigation of Neural Biomarkers and Language in Nonverbal Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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2014-09-01

1.Lord C, Risi S, Pickles A. Trajectory of language development in autistic spectrum disorders . In: Rice M, Warren S, eds. Developmental Language...Nonverbal Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Kristina McFadden CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION: University of...SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER An MEG Investigation of Neural Biomarkers and Language in Nonverbal Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders 5b

Conference Review - Languages & The Media, 6th International Conference & Exhibition on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media, October 25-27, 2006, Berlin

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Ellen Christoffersen

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The participants of the conference, which had as its theme “Free Access – Priceless Rights?”, were professionals involved in subtitling, voice-over or translation, language industry specialists, distributors of audiovisual media products, producers of media programmes, broadcasters, researchers and representatives of viewer organisations.

Conference Review - Languages & The Media, 6th International Conference & Exhibition on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media, October 25-27, 2006, Berlin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ellen Christoffersen

2007-03-01

Full Text Available The participants of the conference, which had as its theme “Free Access – Priceless Rights?”, were professionals involved in subtitling, voice-over or translation, language industry specialists, distributors of audiovisual media products, producers of media programmes, broadcasters, researchers and representatives of viewer organisations.

Defining "Native Speaker" in Multilingual Settings: English as a Native Language in Asia

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Hansen Edwards, Jette G.

2017-01-01

The current study examines how and why speakers of English from multilingual contexts in Asia are identifying as native speakers of English. Eighteen participants from different contexts in Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, and The Philippines, who self-identified as native speakers of English participated in hour-long interviews…

Writing through Two Languages: First Language Expertise in a Language Minority Classroom

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Kibler, Amanda

2010-01-01

Language minority students' writing is often measured solely in terms of its distance from native speaker norms, yet doing so may ignore the process through which these texts are realized and the role that the first language plays in their creation. This study analyzes oral interactions among adolescent second language writers during an extended…

Listening Natively across Perceptual Domains?

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Langus, Alan; Seyed-Allaei, Shima; Uysal, Ertugrul; Pirmoradian, Sahar; Marino, Caterina; Asaadi, Sina; Eren, Ömer; Toro, Juan M.; Peña, Marcela; Bion, Ricardo A. H.; Nespor, Marina

2016-01-01

Our native tongue influences the way we perceive other languages. But does it also determine the way we perceive nonlinguistic sounds? The authors investigated how speakers of Italian, Turkish, and Persian group sequences of syllables, tones, or visual shapes alternating in either frequency or duration. We found strong native listening effects…

The Native Comic Book Project: native youth making comics and healthy decisions.

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Montgomery, Michelle; Manuelito, Brenda; Nass, Carrie; Chock, Tami; Buchwald, Dedra

2012-04-01

American Indians and Alaska Natives have traditionally used stories and drawings to positively influence the well-being of their communities. The objective of this study was to describe the development of a curriculum that trains Native youth leaders to plan, write, and design original comic books to enhance healthy decision making. Project staff developed the Native Comic Book Project by adapting Dr. Michael Bitz's Comic Book Project to incorporate Native comic book art, Native storytelling, and decision-making skills. After conducting five train-the-trainer sessions for Native youth, staff were invited by youth participants to implement the full curriculum as a pilot test at one tribal community site in the Pacific Northwest. Implementation was accompanied by surveys and weekly participant observations and was followed by an interactive meeting to assess youth engagement, determine project acceptability, and solicit suggestions for curriculum changes. Six youths aged 12 to 15 (average age = 14) participated in the Native Comic Book Project. Youth participants stated that they liked the project and gained knowledge of the harmful effects of commercial tobacco use but wanted better integration of comic book creation, decision making, and Native storytelling themes. Previous health-related comic book projects did not recruit youth as active producers of content. This curriculum shows promise as a culturally appropriate intervention to help Native youth adopt healthy decision-making skills and healthy behaviors by creating their own comic books.

The language of mathematics: investigating the ways language counts for children's mathematical development.

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Vukovic, Rose K; Lesaux, Nonie K

2013-06-01

This longitudinal study examined how language ability relates to mathematical development in a linguistically and ethnically diverse sample of children from 6 to 9 years of age. Study participants were 75 native English speakers and 92 language minority learners followed from first to fourth grades. Autoregression in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework was used to evaluate the relation between children's language ability and gains in different domains of mathematical cognition (i.e., arithmetic, data analysis/probability, algebra, and geometry). The results showed that language ability predicts gains in data analysis/probability and geometry, but not in arithmetic or algebra, after controlling for visual-spatial working memory, reading ability, and sex. The effect of language on gains in mathematical cognition did not differ between language minority learners and native English speakers. These findings suggest that language influences how children make meaning of mathematics but is not involved in complex arithmetical procedures whether presented with Arabic symbols as in arithmetic or with abstract symbols as in algebraic reasoning. The findings further indicate that early language experiences are important for later mathematical development regardless of language background, denoting the need for intensive and targeted language opportunities for language minority and native English learners to develop mathematical concepts and representations. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Recognizing Chinese characters in digital ink from non-native language writers using hierarchical models

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Bai, Hao; Zhang, Xi-wen

2017-06-01

While Chinese is learned as a second language, its characters are taught step by step from their strokes to components, radicals to components, and their complex relations. Chinese Characters in digital ink from non-native language writers are deformed seriously, thus the global recognition approaches are poorer. So a progressive approach from bottom to top is presented based on hierarchical models. Hierarchical information includes strokes and hierarchical components. Each Chinese character is modeled as a hierarchical tree. Strokes in one Chinese characters in digital ink are classified with Hidden Markov Models and concatenated to the stroke symbol sequence. And then the structure of components in one ink character is extracted. According to the extraction result and the stroke symbol sequence, candidate characters are traversed and scored. Finally, the recognition candidate results are listed by descending. The method of this paper is validated by testing 19815 copies of the handwriting Chinese characters written by foreign students.

Automatically Detecting Authors’ Native Language

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-01

exploring stylistic idiosyncrasies in the author’s writing [15]. Kop- pel used the data from International Corpus of Learner English version 1, which is... stylistic feature sets such as function words, letter n-grams, and er- rors and idiosyncrasies [15]. 1. Function words: 400 specific function words were...language on the choice of written second language words. Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of Computation Language Acquisition, pp. 9–16

The emotional impact of being myself: Emotions and foreign-language processing.

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Ivaz, Lela; Costa, Albert; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni

2016-03-01

Native languages are acquired in emotionally rich contexts, whereas foreign languages are typically acquired in emotionally neutral academic environments. As a consequence of this difference, it has been suggested that bilinguals' emotional reactivity in foreign-language contexts is reduced as compared with native language contexts. In the current study, we investigated whether this emotional distance associated with foreign languages could modulate automatic responses to self-related linguistic stimuli. Self-related stimuli enhance performance by boosting memory, speed, and accuracy as compared with stimuli unrelated to the self (the so-called self-bias effect). We explored whether this effect depends on the language context by comparing self-biases in a native and a foreign language. Two experiments were conducted with native Spanish speakers with a high level of English proficiency in which they were asked to complete a perceptual matching task during which they associated simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, and triangles) with the labels "you," "friend," and "other" either in their native or foreign language. Results showed a robust asymmetry in the self-bias in the native- and foreign-language contexts: A larger self-bias was found in the native than in the foreign language. An additional control experiment demonstrated that the same materials administered to a group of native English speakers yielded robust self-bias effects that were comparable in magnitude to the ones obtained with the Spanish speakers when tested in their native language (but not in their foreign language). We suggest that the emotional distance evoked by the foreign-language contexts caused these differential effects across language contexts. These results demonstrate that the foreign-language effects are pervasive enough to affect automatic stages of emotional processing. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

(En)countering native-speakerism global perspectives

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Holliday, Adrian; Swan, Anne

2015-01-01

The book addresses the issue of native-speakerism, an ideology based on the assumption that 'native speakers' of English have a special claim to the language itself, through critical qualitative studies of the lived experiences of practising teachers and students in a range of scenarios.

Surrounded by Beauty: Arts of Native America.

Science.gov (United States)

2002

Native American languages have no equivalent for the word "art." Yet the objects Native Americans have used and still use suggest that they are a highly spiritual people who create objects of extraordinary beauty. In Native American thought, there is no distinction between what is beautiful or functional, and what is sacred or secular.…

Reading Comprehension Level and Development in Native and Language Minority Adolescent Low Achievers: Roles of Linguistic and Metacognitive Knowledge and Fluency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dr E.J. van Schooten; Dr. A.J.S. van Gelderen; M. Trapman; J. Hulstijn

2016-01-01

In a longitudinal design, we measured 50 low-achieving adolescents’ reading comprehension development from Grades 7 to 9. There were 24 native Dutch and 26 language minority students. In addition, we assessed the roles of (a) linguistic knowledge, (b) metacognitive knowledge, and (c) reading fluency

Reading comprehension level and development in native and language minority adolescent low achievers : Roles of linguistic and metacognitive knowledge and fluency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trapman, M.; van Gelderen, A.; van Schooten, E.; Hulstijn, J.

2017-01-01

In a longitudinal design, we measured 50 low-achieving adolescents’ reading comprehension development from Grades 7 to 9. There were 24 native Dutch and 26 language minority students. In addition, we assessed the roles of (a) linguistic knowledge, (b) metacognitive knowledge, and (c) reading fluency

L2 Students’ Comments on Language Exchange Communities in Language Learning

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Cem Balçıkanlı

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Problem Statement: EFL learners are rarely given opportunities to interact with native speakers and “…to do something with a language”. In Turkish settings, language learners mostly complain that they do not have enough opportunities to interact with native speakers, and class hours are too limited to acquire a language and more importantly they are not taught expressions that help them express themselves in daily contexts.Purpose of Study: This study aimed at investigating EFL (English as a Foreign Language learners’ experiences in a Language Exchange Community, namely xLingo.Method: 16 students from a state university spent time on language exchange communities. The researcher met these students once a week to make sure that everything was going fine. The students used xLingo for almost six months. The researcher interviewed them through the five questions that were earlier developed and piloted by the researcher himself.Findings and Results: The findings mostly focused on four aspects namely language development, autonomy, culture and self-confidence. Conclusions and Recommendations: Given the challenges Turkish EFL learners have to face in the process of language learning, language exchange communities are believed to open up more possibilities for language learners to get more comprehensible input and to interact with more native speakers and more importantly to do something with a language. In order to make best use of these communities, it is a mandatory step that language teachers be introduced to the concept along with practical applications and that these communities should be integrated into language testing system.

Native American Culture: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

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Troisi, Andrea

1995-01-01

Provides suggestions for a literature-based approach when integrating Native American culture into the middle school curriculum. Recommends resources in the following subjects: language arts, mathematics, physical education, health, home and career skills, technology, art, music, and second language. (AEF)

Reflecting on the dichotomy native-non native speakers in an EFL context

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Mariño, Claudia

2011-01-01

This article provides a discussion based on constructs about the dichotomy betweennative and non-native speakers. Several models and examples are displayed about thespreading of the English language with the intention of understanding its developmentin the whole world and in Colombia, specifically. Then, some possible definitions aregiven to the term “native speaker” and its conceptualization is described as both realityand myth. One of the main reasons for writing this article is grounded on...

Learning for Life, a Structured and Motivational Process of Knowledge Construction in the Acquisition/Learning of English as a Foreign Language in Native Spanish Speakers

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Mino-Garces, Fernando

2009-01-01

As language learning theory has shifted from a highly guided to a more open learning process, this paper presents the teaching/learning philosophy called Learning for Life (L for L) as a great way to motivate native Spanish speaker students learning English as a foreign language, and to help them be the constructors of their own knowledge. The…

Age of language acquisition and cortical language organization in multilingual patients undergoing awake brain mapping.

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Fernández-Coello, Alejandro; Havas, Viktória; Juncadella, Montserrat; Sierpowska, Joanna; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Gabarrós, Andreu

2017-06-01

OBJECTIVE Most knowledge regarding the anatomical organization of multilingualism is based on aphasiology and functional imaging studies. However, the results have still to be validated by the gold standard approach, namely electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) during awake neurosurgical procedures. In this ESM study the authors describe language representation in a highly specific group of 13 multilingual individuals, focusing on how age of acquisition may influence the cortical organization of language. METHODS Thirteen patients who had a high degree of proficiency in multiple languages and were harboring lesions within the dominant, left hemisphere underwent ESM while being operated on under awake conditions. Demographic and language data were recorded in relation to age of language acquisition (for native languages and early- and late-acquired languages), neuropsychological pre- and postoperative language testing, the number and location of language sites, and overlapping distribution in terms of language acquisition time. Lesion growth patterns and histopathological characteristics, location, and size were also recorded. The distribution of language sites was analyzed with respect to age of acquisition and overlap. RESULTS The functional language-related sites were distributed in the frontal (55%), temporal (29%), and parietal lobes (16%). The total number of native language sites was 47. Early-acquired languages (including native languages) were represented in 97 sites (55 overlapped) and late-acquired languages in 70 sites (45 overlapped). The overlapping distribution was 20% for early-early, 71% for early-late, and 9% for late-late. The average lesion size (maximum diameter) was 3.3 cm. There were 5 fast-growing and 7 slow-growing lesions. CONCLUSIONS Cortical language distribution in multilingual patients is not homogeneous, and it is influenced by age of acquisition. Early-acquired languages have a greater cortical representation than languages acquired

A Study of the Subtitle Translation in “The Big Bang Theory” from Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory

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甄宽; 彭念凡; 甄顺

2015-01-01

The subtitle translation is very different from other forms of translation.We translators should meet the particular needs of the subtitle.This study is going to analyze the subtitle translation in "The Big Bang Theory" from Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory in three main perspectives:the information transmission,the aesthetics effect and the emotional transmission.In the information transmission the study will put emphasis on the limited circumstance.In the aesthetics effect the study will explore the expression of the sense of beauty.In the emotional transmission this study will study the use of rhetoric to express different emotions.

Cultural responsiveness in EFL teaching: reflections from native instructors

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Cinarbas H. Ibrahim

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In recent years, many international students from different parts of the world have been studying at Turkish universities, which creates a multicultural educational setting. Due to the multicultural educational setting, English has become the most widely used language for exchanging and sharing knowledge, therefore many international universities in Turkey put a great emphasis on English language education and offer English preparatory courses to students. In order to succeed at better language education, universities employ native English instructors to provide a richer language experience with cultural components embedded in language content. In this qualitative case study, cultural reflections of native English instructors at a Turkish university were investigated. Individual and focus group interviews were data sources for the study. Findings indicated that cultural responsiveness was considered to be constructed through time, and a necessity of orientation process was emphasized. However, the native instructors’ presumptions cause intolerance and underestimation of the host culture. In addition, educational issues and students’ misbehaviors, such as cheating and calling their instructors by their first name, were attributed to cultural background of the students.

Subtitled video tutorials, an accessible teaching material

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Luis Bengochea

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The use of short-lived audio-visual tutorials constitutes an educational resource very attractive for young students, widely familiar with this type of format similar to YouTube clips. Considered as "learning pills", these tutorials are intended to strengthen the understanding of complex concepts that because their dynamic nature can’t be represented through texts or diagrams. However, the inclusion of this type of content in eLearning platforms presents accessibility problems for students with visual or hearing disabilities. This paper describes this problem and shows the way in which a teacher could add captions and subtitles to their videos.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of a computerized system to communicate with patients with limited native language proficiency in the perioperative period.

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Taicher, Brad M; Alam, Rammy I; Berman, Joshua; Epstein, Richard H

2011-01-01

Effective communication with patients having limited proficiency in the native language of anesthesia care providers during the perioperative period is often challenging. We describe how we developed, implemented, and evaluated a computerized system to convey frequently used prerecorded phrases related to perioperative anesthesia care in the languages we most often encounter in such patients. Phrases were chosen through a consensus process among anesthesia department members. These included routine sayings used to inform patients about what they should anticipate, what interventions we are performing, and how they can participate. Common questions requiring a "yes" or "no" answer were also identified. We recorded these phrases using native speakers who were both knowledgeable medically and familiar with the culture of the patients to provide accurate translations. We developed a software application that categorically grouped the phrases and allowed care providers to select a phrase and play the associated sound file to the patient and deployed the program on our touchscreen-enabled anesthesia information management system workstations. A convenience sample of obstetrical patients speaking a Chinese dialect with whom the language program was used were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire, translated into Chinese, about their experience. Ninety-five percent lower confidence limits (LCLs) were calculated for response proportions. We approached 25 parturients with varying levels of English comprehension, and all agreed to use the language program. Each used it throughout her interaction with the anesthesia care providers during labor and delivery, and all patients completed the survey. Acceptance of the process was high, with all patients indicating that they would like to use it again were they to return for another procedure requiring anesthesia. Eighty-eight percent (LCL = 73%) indicated that having instructions in their native language made them feel more

One-Parent-One-Language (OPOL) Families: Is the Majority Language-Speaking Parent Instrumental in the Minority Language Development?

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Venables, Elizabeth; Eisenchlas, Susana A.; Schalley, Andrea C.

2014-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine the strategies majority language-speaking parents use to support the development of the minority language in families who follow the pattern of exposure known as one-parent-one-language (OPOL). In this particular pattern of raising a child bilingually, each parent speaks only their own native language to their…

Chinese Students' Perceptions of Native English-Speaking Teachers in EFL Teaching

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Rao, Zhenhui

2010-01-01

The article reports the views of 20 Chinese English as a foreign Language (EFL) students on the strengths and weaknesses of native English-speaking (NES) teachers in EFL teaching. Responding to an open-ended questionnaire and in-depth interviews, EFL students named the following as NES teachers' strengths: native language authenticity, cultural…

Negation in Near-Native French: Variation and Sociolinguistic Competence

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Donaldson, Bryan

2017-01-01

This study investigated how adult second language (L2) speakers of French with near-native proficiency realize verbal negation, a well-known sociolinguistic variable in contemporary spoken French. Data included 10 spontaneous informal conversations between near-native speakers of French and native speakers (NSs) closely acquainted with them.…

Visual and auditory digit-span performance in native and nonnative speakers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Olsthoorn, N.M.; Andringa, S.; Hulstijn, J.H.

2014-01-01

We compared 121 native and 114 non-native speakers of Dutch (with 35 different first languages) on four digit-span tasks, varying modality (visual/auditory) and direction (forward/backward). An interaction was observed between nativeness and modality, such that, while natives performed better than

Students Writing Emails to Faculty: An Examination of E-Politeness among Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

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Biesenbach-Lucas, Sigrun

2007-01-01

This study combines interlanguage pragmatics and speech act research with computer-mediated communication and examines how native and non-native speakers of English formulate low- and high-imposition requests to faculty. While some research claims that email, due to absence of non-verbal cues, encourages informal language, other research has…

Dissociating Cortical Activity during Processing of Native and Non-Native Audiovisual Speech from Early to Late Infancy

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Eswen Fava

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Initially, infants are capable of discriminating phonetic contrasts across the world’s languages. Starting between seven and ten months of age, they gradually lose this ability through a process of perceptual narrowing. Although traditionally investigated with isolated speech sounds, such narrowing occurs in a variety of perceptual domains (e.g., faces, visual speech. Thus far, tracking the developmental trajectory of this tuning process has been focused primarily on auditory speech alone, and generally using isolated sounds. But infants learn from speech produced by people talking to them, meaning they learn from a complex audiovisual signal. Here, we use near-infrared spectroscopy to measure blood concentration changes in the bilateral temporal cortices of infants in three different age groups: 3-to-6 months, 7-to-10 months, and 11-to-14-months. Critically, all three groups of infants were tested with continuous audiovisual speech in both their native and another, unfamiliar language. We found that at each age range, infants showed different patterns of cortical activity in response to the native and non-native stimuli. Infants in the youngest group showed bilateral cortical activity that was greater overall in response to non-native relative to native speech; the oldest group showed left lateralized activity in response to native relative to non-native speech. These results highlight perceptual tuning as a dynamic process that happens across modalities and at different levels of stimulus complexity.

Social Interaction Affects Neural Outcomes of Sign Language Learning As a Foreign Language in Adults.

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Yusa, Noriaki; Kim, Jungho; Koizumi, Masatoshi; Sugiura, Motoaki; Kawashima, Ryuta

2017-01-01

Children naturally acquire a language in social contexts where they interact with their caregivers. Indeed, research shows that social interaction facilitates lexical and phonological development at the early stages of child language acquisition. It is not clear, however, whether the relationship between social interaction and learning applies to adult second language acquisition of syntactic rules. Does learning second language syntactic rules through social interactions with a native speaker or without such interactions impact behavior and the brain? The current study aims to answer this question. Adult Japanese participants learned a new foreign language, Japanese sign language (JSL), either through a native deaf signer or via DVDs. Neural correlates of acquiring new linguistic knowledge were investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants in each group were indistinguishable in terms of their behavioral data after the instruction. The fMRI data, however, revealed significant differences in the neural activities between two groups. Significant activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were found for the participants who learned JSL through interactions with the native signer. In contrast, no cortical activation change in the left IFG was found for the group who experienced the same visual input for the same duration via the DVD presentation. Given that the left IFG is involved in the syntactic processing of language, spoken or signed, learning through social interactions resulted in an fMRI signature typical of native speakers: activation of the left IFG. Thus, broadly speaking, availability of communicative interaction is necessary for second language acquisition and this results in observed changes in the brain.

Language&Learning

OpenAIRE

Saidi, Tamana; Djurhuus, Terji; Egeslund, Søren Due; Oikonomou, Anna Maria; Pietilä, Minerva

2013-01-01

This project aims to display how the process differs when acquiring a first language, two first languages simultaneously or a second language. The linguistic elements are presented in First Language and Second Language and in bilingualism. We will be looking at Chomsky’s Nativist approach, as well as Behaviorism by Skinner. Also, socio-cultural theory by Vygotsky and the cognitive approach are used. A study will be conducted to find out whether bilinguals can perform as well as native speaker...

The Acquisition of English Focus Marking by Non-Native Speakers

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Baker, Rachel Elizabeth

This dissertation examines Mandarin and Korean speakers' acquisition of English focus marking, which is realized by accenting particular words within a focused constituent. It is important for non-native speakers to learn how accent placement relates to focus in English because appropriate accent placement and realization makes a learner's English more native-like and easier to understand. Such knowledge may also improve their English comprehension skills. In this study, 20 native English speakers, 20 native Mandarin speakers, and 20 native Korean speakers participated in four experiments: (1) a production experiment, in which they were recorded reading the answers to questions, (2) a perception experiment, in which they were asked to determine which word in a recording was the last prominent word, (3) an understanding experiment, in which they were asked whether the answers in recorded question-answer pairs had context-appropriate prosody, and (4) an accent placement experiment, in which they were asked which word they would make prominent in a particular context. Finally, a new group of native English speakers listened to utterances produced in the production experiment, and determined whether the prosody of each utterance was appropriate for its context. The results of the five experiments support a novel predictive model for second language prosodic focus marking acquisition. This model holds that both transfer of linguistic features from a learner's native language (L1) and features of their second language (L2) affect learners' acquisition of prosodic focus marking. As a result, the model includes two complementary components: the Transfer Component and the L2 Challenge Component. The Transfer Component predicts that prosodic structures in the L2 will be more easily acquired by language learners that have similar structures in their L1 than those who do not, even if there are differences between the L1 and L2 in how the structures are realized. The L2

Learning Foreign Languages with ClipFlair: Using Captioning and Revoicing Activities to Increase Students' Motivation and Engagement

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Baños, Rocío; Sokoli, Stavroula

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale and outcomes of ClipFlair, a European-funded project aimed at countering the factors that discourage Foreign Language Learning (FLL) by providing a motivating, easily accessible online platform to learn a foreign language through revoicing (e.g. dubbing) and captioning (e.g. subtitling). This…

Language Learning Shifts and Attitudes Towards Language Learning in an Online Tandem Program for Beginner Writers

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Constanza Tolosa

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present findings of a project that investigated the potential of an online tandem program to enhance the foreign language learning of two groups of school-aged beginner learners, one learning English in Colombia and the other learning Spanish in New Zealand. We assessed the impact of the project on students’ learning with a free writing activity done as pretest and posttest and used a semi-structured interview to explore their attitudes towards language learning and their perceived development of their native language. Data analysis indicated statistically significant gains in foreign language writing and positive attitudinal changes toward foreign and native language learning.

Exploring problem solving strategies on multiple-choice science items: Comparing native Spanish-speaking English Language Learners and mainstream monolinguals

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Kachchaf, Rachel Rae

The purpose of this study was to compare how English language learners (ELLs) and monolingual English speakers solved multiple-choice items administered with and without a new form of testing accommodation---vignette illustration (VI). By incorporating theories from second language acquisition, bilingualism, and sociolinguistics, this study was able to gain more accurate and comprehensive input into the ways students interacted with items. This mixed methods study used verbal protocols to elicit the thinking processes of thirty-six native Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), and 36 native-English speaking non-ELLs when solving multiple-choice science items. Results from both qualitative and quantitative analyses show that ELLs used a wider variety of actions oriented to making sense of the items than non-ELLs. In contrast, non-ELLs used more problem solving strategies than ELLs. There were no statistically significant differences in student performance based on the interaction of presence of illustration and linguistic status or the main effect of presence of illustration. However, there were significant differences based on the main effect of linguistic status. An interaction between the characteristics of the students, the items, and the illustrations indicates considerable heterogeneity in the ways in which students from both linguistic groups think about and respond to science test items. The results of this study speak to the need for more research involving ELLs in the process of test development to create test items that do not require ELLs to carry out significantly more actions to make sense of the item than monolingual students.

Effects of reading speed on second-language sentence processing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kaan, Edith; Ballantyne, Jocelyn C.; Wijnen, Frank

2014-01-01

To test the effects of reading speed on second-language (L2) sentence processing and the potential influence of conflicting native language word order, we compared advanced L2 learners of English with native English speakers on a self-paced reading task. L2 learners read faster overall than native

Testing audiovisual comprehension tasks with questions embedded in videos as subtitles: a pilot multimethod study

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Juan Carlos Casañ Núñez

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing. Compared to viewings where the comprehension activity is available only on paper, this innovative methodology may provide some benefits. Among them, it could reduce the conflict in visual attention between watching the video and completing the task, by spatially and temporally approximating the questions and the relevant fragments. The technique is seen as especially beneficial for students with a low proficiency language level. The main objectives of this study were to investigate if embedded questions had an impact on SFL students’ audiovisual comprehension test performance and to find out what examinees thought about them. A multimethod design (Morse, 2003 involving the sequential collection of three quantitative datasets was employed. A total of 41 learners of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL participated in the study (22 in the control group and 19 in the experimental one. Informants were selected by non-probabilistic sampling. The results showed that imprinted questions did not have any effect on test performance. Test-takers’ attitudes towards this methodology were positive. Globally, students in the experimental group agreed that the embedded questions helped them to complete the tasks. Furthermore, most of them were in favour of having the questions imprinted in the video in the audiovisual comprehension test of the final exam. These opinions are in line with those obtained in previous studies that looked into experts’, SFL students’ and SFL teachers’ views about this methodology (Casañ Núñez, 2015a, 2016a, in press-b. On the whole, these studies suggest that this technique has

The Influence of Language Distance and Language Status on the Acquisition of L3 Phonology

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Llama, Raquel; Cardoso, Walcir; Collins, Laura

2010-01-01

Research in the field of third language acquisition has consistently identified two key factors which have an effect on the ways in which the two known languages may influence the acquisition of a third. These factors are language distance (typology) and language status (more specifically, second language, L2, or non-native language status). To…

Dictionary Use of Undergraduate Students in Foreign Language Departments in Turkey at Present

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Tulgar, Aysegül Takkaç

2017-01-01

Foreign language learning has always been a process carried out with the help of dictionaries which are both in target language and from native language to target language/from target language to native language. Dictionary use is an especially delicate issue for students in foreign language departments because students in those departments are…

Constraints on Negative Prefixation in Polish Sign Language.

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Tomaszewski, Piotr

2015-01-01

The aim of this article is to describe a negative prefix, NEG-, in Polish Sign Language (PJM) which appears to be indigenous to the language. This is of interest given the relative rarity of prefixes in sign languages. Prefixed PJM signs were analyzed on the basis of both a corpus of texts signed by 15 deaf PJM users who are either native or near-native signers, and material including a specified range of prefixed signs as demonstrated by native signers in dictionary form (i.e. signs produced in isolation, not as part of phrases or sentences). In order to define the morphological rules behind prefixation on both the phonological and morphological levels, native PJM users were consulted for their expertise. The research results can enrich models for describing processes of grammaticalization in the context of the visual-gestural modality that forms the basis for sign language structure.

(Non)native Speakered: Rethinking (Non)nativeness and Teacher Identity in TESOL Teacher Education

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Aneja, Geeta A.

2016-01-01

Despite its imprecision, the native-nonnative dichotomy has become the dominant paradigm for examining language teacher identity development. The nonnative English speaking teacher (NNEST) movement in particular has considered the impact of deficit framings of nonnativeness on "NNEST" preservice teachers. Although these efforts have…

Topic Continuity in Informal Conversations between Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

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Morris-Adams, Muna

2013-01-01

Topic management by non-native speakers (NNSs) during informal conversations has received comparatively little attention from researchers, and receives surprisingly little attention in second language learning and teaching. This article reports on one of the topic management strategies employed by international students during informal, social…

Facebook for informal language learning: Perspectives from tertiary language students

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Antonie Alm

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the use of Facebook for out-of-class, informal language learning. 190 New Zealand university language students (Chinese, German, French, Japanese and Spanish completed an anonymous online questionnaire on (1 their perceptions of Facebook as a multilingual environment, (2 their online writing practices and (3 their views on the educational value of their experiences. Findings indicate that language students are using a range of Facebook features to expose themselves to the languages they study (L2 and to communicate in their L2 with native speaker Facebook friends. The use of the social networking site varied according to proficiency-levels of the participants (beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, strength of social ties with native speaker Facebook friends and personal attitudes towards the site. Learning experiences on Facebook were not perceived as useful for the formal language learning context which suggests the need for bridging strategies between informal and formal learning environments.

Oscillatory Dynamics Underlying Perceptual Narrowing of Native Phoneme Mapping from 6 to 12 Months of Age.

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Ortiz-Mantilla, Silvia; Hämäläinen, Jarmo A; Realpe-Bonilla, Teresa; Benasich, April A

2016-11-30

During the first months of life, human infants process phonemic elements from all languages similarly. However, by 12 months of age, as language-specific phonemic maps are established, infants respond preferentially to their native language. This process, known as perceptual narrowing, supports neural representation and thus efficient processing of the distinctive phonemes within the sound environment. Although oscillatory mechanisms underlying processing of native and non-native phonemic contrasts were recently delineated in 6-month-old infants, the maturational trajectory of these mechanisms remained unclear. A group of typically developing infants born into monolingual English families, were followed from 6 to 12 months and presented with English and Spanish syllable contrasts varying in voice-onset time. Brain responses were recorded with high-density electroencephalogram, and sources of event-related potential generators identified at right and left auditory cortices at 6 and 12 months and also at frontal cortex at 6 months. Time-frequency analyses conducted at source level found variations in both θ and γ ranges across age. Compared with 6-month-olds, 12-month-olds' responses to native phonemes showed smaller and faster phase synchronization and less spectral power in the θ range, and increases in left phase synchrony as well as induced high-γ activity in both frontal and left auditory sources. These results demonstrate that infants become more automatized and efficient in processing their native language as they approach 12 months of age via the interplay between θ and γ oscillations. We suggest that, while θ oscillations support syllable processing, γ oscillations underlie phonemic perceptual narrowing, progressively favoring mapping of native over non-native language across the first year of life. During early language acquisition, typically developing infants gradually construct phonemic maps of their native language in auditory cortex. It is well

Localization of the native Chinese speakers language cortex by magnetic source imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun Jilin; Wu Jie; Li Sumin; Wu Jing; Zhao Huadong; Wu Yujin; Liu Lianxiang

2003-01-01

Objective: To localize the language cortex associated with Chinese word processing by magnetic source imaging (MSI). Methods: Eight right handed and one left handed healthy native Chinese speakers, including 5 men and 4 women, aged from 14 to 32 years, were examined by magnetoencephalography (MEG) and 1.5 T MR unit. All subjects were given 50 times pure tone stimuli (intensity was 80 dB sound pressure level), then 150 pairs of Chinese words (the meaning of the words was related or not related) auditory stimuli (intensity was 80 dB sound pressure level), and then 50 times pure tone stimuli at last (intensity was 80 dB sound pressure level). Evoked response fields (ERFs) time locked to the pure tone and Chinese words were recorded in a magnetically shielded room using a whole-head neuromagnetometer (Model Vectorview 306, made by 4-D Neuroimaging company, Finland) in real-time. The acquired data were averaged by the acquisition computer according to the response to the pure tone, related pairs of words and not related pairs of words. The data obtained by the MEG could be superimposed on MRI. Results: There were two obvious higher magnetic waves named M50 and M100 (two peaks occurred about 50 ms and 100 ms after giving the subjects binaurally stimuli). M50 and M100 in all subjects were localized in the bilateral transverse temporal gyri. The responses to the pairs of Chinese words (the meaning of the words was related or not related) were similar in the same hemisphere of the same subjects. There was a higher peak during 300-600 ms in the right hemisphere in the left handed subject, but there was no peak during 300-600 ms in his left hemisphere. It indicated that the language dominant hemisphere localized in the right hemisphere. Superimposing the MEG data on MRI, the language area was localized in the Wernicke's areas. There were two 300-600 ms response peaks in the bilateral hemispheres (the amplitude of the 300-600 ms response peaks in the bilateral hemisphere was

The language policy practice in mathematics education in the upper ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study showed that teachers teach between 30-46% of their mathematics lesson periods in English at the lower primary level. Efforts to use the native language for meaningful mathematics instructions are constrained by teachers' inability to speak the language and the lack of materials in the native language.

Subtitling African American English into French can we do the right thing?

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Mével, Pierre-Alexis

2017-01-01

Like Mookie in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, translators are at the nexus between cultures, making difficult decisions with sometimes dramatic consequences. Drawing on the fields of translation studies, sociolinguistics and film studies, this book analyses the French subtitling of African American English in films from the USA.

Suicide and Self-Harm Related Internet Use.

Science.gov (United States)

Padmanathan, Prianka; Biddle, Lucy; Carroll, Robert; Derges, Jane; Potokar, John; Gunnell, David

2018-05-31

The rise in Internet use adds a new dimension to suicide prevention. We investigated suicide/self-harm (S/Sh)-related Internet use among patients presenting to hospital with self-harm. We asked 1,198 adult and 315 child and adolescent patients presenting to hospital following self-harm in a city in South West England about Internet use associated with their hospital presentation. Associations between Internet use and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were investigated using multivariable logistic regression models. Focus groups with clinicians explored the acceptability and utility of asking about Internet use. The prevalence of S/Sh-related Internet use was 8.4% (95% CI: 6.8-10.1%) among adult hospital presentations and 26.0% (95% CI = 21.3-31.2%) among children's hospital presentations. In both samples, S/Sh-related Internet use was associated with higher levels of suicidal intent. Mostly, clinicians found it acceptable to ask about Internet use during psychosocial assessments and believed this could inform perceptions of risk and decision-making. It is unclear whether the findings in this study are applicable to the general self-harm patient population because only those who had psychosocial assessments were included. S/Sh-related Internet use is likely to become increasingly relevant as the Internet-native generation matures. Furthermore, Internet use may be a proxy marker for intent.

"Would you like RED or WHITE wine? - I would like red WINE" : Native speaker perception of (non-)native intonation patterns

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Maastricht, L.J.; Swerts, M.G.J.; Krahmer, E.J.

2014-01-01

The importance of intonation in communication cannot be denied (Gussenhoven, 2004; Ladd, 2008). Since the goal of most foreign language learners is to successfully communicate in a language other than their mother tongue, more research on the way they are perceived by native speakers and the role of

QUANTITATIVE REDUCTION OF VOWEL GRAPHS “A” AND “O” POSITIONED AFTER THE HARD CONSONANTS IN THE SPEECH OF NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE RUSSIAN SPEAKERS IN LITHUANIA

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Danutė Balšaitytė

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the absolute duration (ms of stressed Russian vowels /a/, /o/ (graphs: “a”, “o” and their allophones in unstressed positions after the hard consonants in the pronunciation of native and non-native Russian speakers in Lithuania. The results of the conducted spectral analysis reveal the specificities of quantitative reduction in the speech of the Russian speakers in Lithuania and the Lithuanian speakers that are learning the Russian language. These specificities are influenced by the two phonetic systems interaction. The speakers of both languages by the realisation of “a” and “o” violates the relation of unstressed vowel duration that is peculiar to the contemporary Russian language: the post-stressed vowels in closed syllables are shorter than the pre-stressed vowels; the first pre-stressed syllable differs from the second pre-stressed and post-stressed syllables by a longer voice duration. Both Russians and Lithuanians pronounce vowels longer in post-stressed syllables than in the pre-stressed syllables. This corresponds to the qualitative reduction of the Lithuanian language vowels /a:/ and /o:/. There are certain differences between the pronunciation of qualitative vowels “a” and “o” reduction among the native and non-native Russian speakers in Lithuania. The Russian speakers in Lithuania pronounce the second pre-stressed vowel longer than the first pre-stressed vowel; this corresponds to the degree of reduction of pre-stressed vowels “a” and “o” in the standardised Russian language. These degrees of quantitative reduction in the Lithuanian pronunciation are peculiar only for “a” in the Russian language. According to the duration ratio, the unstressed allophones “a” and “o” in the Russian language are closer to the unstressed /a:/ and /o:/ in the Lithuanian language in the pronunciation of Russian-Lithuanian bilinguals than in the pronunciation Lithuanian speakers.

Mental health status in pregnancy among native and non-native Swedish-speaking women

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wangel, Anne-Marie; Schei, Berit; Ryding, Elsa Lena

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVES: To describe mental health status in native and non-native Swedish-speaking pregnant women and explore risk factors of depression and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted at midwife-based antenatal clinics in South......OBJECTIVES: To describe mental health status in native and non-native Swedish-speaking pregnant women and explore risk factors of depression and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted at midwife-based antenatal clinics...... in Southern Sweden. SAMPLE: A non-selected group of women in mid-pregnancy. METHODS: Participants completed a questionnaire covering background characteristics, social support, life events, mental health variables and the short Edinburgh Depression Scale. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Depressive symptoms during...... the past week and PTS symptoms during the past year. RESULTS: Out of 1003 women, 21.4% reported another language than Swedish as their mother tongue and were defined as non-native. These women were more likely to be younger, have fewer years of education, potential financial problems, and lack of social...

Infants' preference for native audiovisual speech dissociated from congruency preference.

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Kathleen Shaw

Full Text Available Although infant speech perception in often studied in isolated modalities, infants' experience with speech is largely multimodal (i.e., speech sounds they hear are accompanied by articulating faces. Across two experiments, we tested infants' sensitivity to the relationship between the auditory and visual components of audiovisual speech in their native (English and non-native (Spanish language. In Experiment 1, infants' looking times were measured during a preferential looking task in which they saw two simultaneous visual speech streams articulating a story, one in English and the other in Spanish, while they heard either the English or the Spanish version of the story. In Experiment 2, looking times from another group of infants were measured as they watched single displays of congruent and incongruent combinations of English and Spanish audio and visual speech streams. Findings demonstrated an age-related increase in looking towards the native relative to non-native visual speech stream when accompanied by the corresponding (native auditory speech. This increase in native language preference did not appear to be driven by a difference in preference for native vs. non-native audiovisual congruence as we observed no difference in looking times at the audiovisual streams in Experiment 2.

The online application of binding condition B in native and non-native pronoun resolution

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Clare ePatterson

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Previous research has shown that anaphor resolution in a non-native language may be more vulnerable to interference from structurally inappropriate antecedents compared to native anaphor resolution. To test whether previous findings on reflexive anaphors generalise to non-reflexive pronouns, we carried out an eye-movement monitoring study investigating the application of binding condition B during native and non-native sentence processing. In two online reading experiments we examined when during processing local and/or non-local antecedents for pronouns were considered in different types of syntactic environment. Our results demonstrate that both native English speakers and native German-speaking learners of English showed online sensitivity to binding condition B in that they did not consider syntactically inappropriate antecedents. For pronouns thought to be exempt from condition B (so-called 'short-distance pronouns', the native readers showed a weak preference for the local antecedent during processing. The non-native readers, on the other hand, showed a preference for the matrix subject even where local coreference was permitted, and despite demonstrating awareness of short-distance pronouns' referential ambiguity in a complementary offline task. This indicates that non-native comprehenders are less sensitive during processing to structural cues that render pronouns exempt from condition B, and prefer to link a pronoun to a salient subject antecedent instead.

Tip-of-the-tongue in a second language: the effects of brief first-language exposure and long-term use.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreiner, Hamutal; Degani, Tamar

2015-04-01

Bilinguals have more tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) incidents than monolinguals. Whereas previous research has focused on differences in the long term language experience between these groups, the present study examined the hypothesis that both long-term and transient context factors modulate TOT rates. Russian-Hebrew bilinguals who acquired Hebrew either early (11years) were compared to native Hebrew speakers on a picture naming task in Hebrew, before and after viewing a short movie in Russian. Both the short-term context (before-after the movie) and long-term language experience modulated TOT rates: Late bilinguals exhibited significantly higher TOT rates than early bilinguals who did not significantly differ from native Hebrew speakers. Critically, following the Russian movie, bilinguals in both groups differed from the native speakers of the target language. Thus, exposure to the non-target language exerted a global, non-item-specific, cross-language interference effect. The findings highlight the dynamic nature of the bilingual system in which both short and long-term language experience operate to influence bilingual performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

-hóhta'hané: Mapping Genocide & Restorative Justice in Native America

Science.gov (United States)

Lucchesi, Annita

2018-05-01

This thesis explores critical decolonial cartography as a possible language for communicating and better understanding complex, intergenerational experiences of genocide and colonialism among Native American peoples. Utilizing a self-reflexive methodology, this work makes interventions in Native American and indigenous studies, comparative genocide studies, historiography, and geography to argue for more expansive languages with which to grapple with Native experiences of genocide. In so doing, this paper also asserts the need for indigenous narrative self-determination, development of decolonial epistemologies and praxes on genocide, and languages for violence that are specifically designed to facilitate dialogue on healing. For that reason, this work not only positions cartography and maps as a particularly useful language for understanding indigenous experiences of genocide, but documents the development of this language, with the intent of supporting and guiding others in creating alternative languages that best fit their nation, community, family, and selves. Finally, the larger aim of this work is to make the case for languages on genocide that heal, rather than re-traumatize, and give a more holistic understanding of the ways in which genocide `takes place' spatially and temporally, with the hope of creating a larger, more inclusive, less violent space for imagining and crafting restorative justice.

Language effects in second-language learners: A longitudinal electrophysiological study of spanish classroom learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Soskey, Laura; Holcomb, Phillip J; Midgley, Katherine J

2016-09-01

How do the neural mechanisms involved in word recognition evolve over the course of word learning in adult learners of a new second language? The current study sought to closely track language effects, which are differences in electrophysiological indices of word processing between one's native and second languages, in beginning university learners over the course of a single semester of learning. Monolingual L1 English-speakers enrolled in introductory Spanish were first trained on a list of 228 Spanish words chosen from the vocabulary to be learned in class. Behavioral data from the training session and the following experimental sessions spaced over the course of the semester showed expected learning effects. In the three laboratory sessions participants read words in three lists (English, Spanish and mixed) while performing a go/no-go lexical decision task in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. As observed in previous studies there were ERP language effects with larger N400s to native than second language words. Importantly, this difference declined over the course of L2 learning with N400 amplitude increasing for new second language words. These results suggest that even over a single semester of learning that new second language words are rapidly incorporated into the word recognition system and begin to take on lexical and semantic properties similar to native language words. Moreover, the results suggest that electrophysiological measures can be used as sensitive measures for tracking the acquisition of new linguistic knowledge. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Home Language Environment of Monolingual and Bilingual Children and Their Language Proficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Scheele, Anna F.; Leseman, Paul P. M.; Mayo, Aziza Y.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the relationships between home language learning activities and vocabulary in a sample of monolingual native Dutch (n = 58) and bilingual immigrant Moroccan-Dutch (n = 46) and Turkish-Dutch (n = 55) 3-year-olds, speaking Tarifit-Berber, a nonscripted language, and Turkish as their first language (L1), respectively. Despite…

Typologizing native language influence on intonation in a second language: Three transfer phenomena in Japanese EFL learners

Science.gov (United States)

Albin, Aaron Lee

While a substantial body of research has accumulated regarding how intonation is acquired in a second language (L2), the topic has historically received relatively little attention from mainstream models of L2 phonology. As such, a unified theoretical framework suited to address unique acquisitional challenges specific to this domain of L2 knowledge (such as form-function mapping) has been lacking. The theoretical component of the dissertation makes progress on this front by taking up the issue of crosslinguistic transfer in L2 intonation. Using Mennen's (2015) L2 Intonation Learning theory as a point of departure, the available empirical studies are synthesized into a typology of the different possible ways two languages' intonation systems can mismatch as well as the concomitant implications for transfer. Next, the methodological component of the dissertation presents a framework for overcoming challenges in the analysis of L2 learners' intonation production due to the interlanguage mixing of their native and L2 systems. The proposed method involves first creating a stylization of the learner's intonation contour and then running queries to extract phonologically-relevant features of interest for a particular research question. A novel approach to stylization is also introduced that not only allows for transitions between adjacent pitch targets to have a nonlinear shape but also explicitly parametrizes and stores this nonlinearity for analysis. Finally, these two strands are integrated in a third, empirical component to the dissertation. Three kinds of intonation transfer, representing nodes from different branches of the typology, are examined in Japanese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). For each kind of transfer, fourteen sentences were selected from a large L2 speech corpus (English Speech Database Read by Japanese Students), and productions of each sentence by approximately 20-30 learners were analyzed using the proposed method. Results

Atypical lateralization of ERP response to native and non-native speech in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Seery, Anne M; Vogel-Farley, Vanessa; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A

2013-07-01

Language impairment is common in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and is often accompanied by atypical neural lateralization. However, it is unclear when in development language impairment or atypical lateralization first emerges. To address these questions, we recorded event-related-potentials (ERPs) to native and non-native speech contrasts longitudinally in infants at risk for ASD (HRA) over the first year of life to determine whether atypical lateralization is present as an endophenotype early in development and whether these infants show delay in a very basic precursor of language acquisition: phonemic perceptual narrowing. ERP response for the HRA group to a non-native speech contrast revealed a trajectory of perceptual narrowing similar to a group of low-risk controls (LRC), suggesting that phonemic perceptual narrowing does not appear to be delayed in these high-risk infants. In contrast there were significant group differences in the development of lateralized ERP response to speech: between 6 and 12 months the LRC group displayed a lateralized response to the speech sounds, while the HRA group failed to display this pattern. We suggest the possibility that atypical lateralization to speech may be an ASD endophenotype over the first year of life. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Native American Visual Vocabulary: Ways of Thinking and Living.

Science.gov (United States)

Dyc, Gloria; Milligan, Carolyn

Visual literacy is a culturally-derived strength of Native American students. On a continent with more than 200 languages, Native Americans relied heavily on visual intelligence for trade and communication between tribes. Tribal people interpreted medicine paint, tattoos, and clothing styles to determine the social roles of those with whom they…

Deaf children’s non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chloe eMarshall

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Recent studies suggest that deaf children perform more poorly on working memory tasks compared to hearing children, but do not say whether this poorer performance arises directly from deafness itself or from deaf children’s reduced language exposure. The issue remains unresolved because findings come from (1 tasks that are verbal as opposed to non-verbal, and (2 involve deaf children who use spoken communication and therefore may have experienced impoverished input and delayed language acquisition. This is in contrast to deaf children who have been exposed to a sign language since birth from Deaf parents (and who therefore have native language-learning opportunities. A more direct test of how the type and quality of language exposure impacts working memory is to use measures of non-verbal working memory (NVWM and to compare hearing children with two groups of deaf signing children: those who have had native exposure to a sign language, and those who have experienced delayed acquisition compared to their native-signing peers. In this study we investigated the relationship between NVWM and language in three groups aged 6-11 years: hearing children (n=27, deaf native users of British Sign Language (BSL; n=7, and deaf children non native signers (n=19. We administered a battery of non-verbal reasoning, NVWM, and language tasks. We examined whether the groups differed on NVWM scores, and if language tasks predicted scores on NVWM tasks. For the two NVWM tasks, the non-native signers performed less accurately than the native signer and hearing groups (who did not differ from one another. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the vocabulary measure predicted scores on NVWM tasks. Our results suggest that whatever the language modality – spoken or signed – rich language experience from birth, and the good language skills that result from this early age of aacquisition, play a critical role in the development of NVWM and in performance on NVWM

The prevalence of synaesthesia depends on early language learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Marcus R; Chromý, Jan; Crawford, Lyle; Eagleman, David M; Enns, James T; Akins, Kathleen A

2017-02-01

According to one theory, synaesthesia develops, or is preserved, because it helps children learn. If so, it should be more common among adults who faced greater childhood learning challenges. In the largest survey of synaesthesia to date, the incidence of synaesthesia was compared among native speakers of languages with transparent (easier) and opaque (more difficult) orthographies. Contrary to our prediction, native speakers of Czech (transparent) were more likely to be synaesthetes than native speakers of English (opaque). However, exploratory analyses suggested that this was because more Czechs learned non-native second languages, which was strongly associated with synaesthesia, consistent with the learning hypothesis. Furthermore, the incidence of synaesthesia among speakers of opaque languages was double that among speakers of transparent languages other than Czech, also consistent with the learning hypothesis. These findings contribute to an emerging understanding of synaesthetic development as a complex and lengthy process with multiple causal influences. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Abstraction and the (misnamed) language familiarity effect

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, E.K.; Bruggeman, L.L.I.C.; Cutler, A.

2018-01-01

Talkers are recognized more accurately if they are speaking the listeners’ native language rather than an unfamiliar language. This "language familiarity effect" has been shown not to depend upon comprehension and must instead involve language sound patterns. We further examine the level of

The teaching of pragmatics by native and nonnative language teachers: What they know and what they report doing

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Andrew D. Cohen

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on how nonnative teachers of a target language (NNTs deal with pragmatics in their classes. It starts with a discussion of what pragmatics entails. Next, issues relating to the teaching of pragmatics are identified, such as the language background of the teacher, comparisons between second- (L2 and foreign-language (FL instruction, and the potential role of digital media and other means in providing models for pragmatic behavior. Then, an international survey is presented which probed into the experiences of NNTs of various languages while teaching the pragmatics of their language of instruction. A total of 113 teachers were asked to indicate what they taught with regard to pragmatics, 30 native-language teachers (NTs and 83 NNTs. They were also asked to report on their experience as teachers of L2 and FL pragmatics (e.g., if they encountered classroom moments when they did not feel like an authority on some aspect of pragmatics, what they did about it. Since pragmatics is a meeting of language and culture, the teacher respondents were asked to assess their knowledge regarding pragmalinguistics (i.e., the language forms and sociopragmatics (sociocultural knowledge. In addition, they were asked to give their opinion regarding similarities and differences between the teaching of FL as opposed to L2 pragmatics, as this traditional dichotomy gives way to a more hybrid reality in an increasingly globalized world. Similarly, they were asked about their methods for teaching pragmatics (e.g., their use of digital media and their handling of dialect differences. Finally, they were asked to suggest areas in which they would like to see research conducted that would inform the teaching of pragmatics. The paper reports the findings from the study, including statistical differences in reported teaching of criticism, sarcasm, and cursing, as well as in the use of digital media and in having students gather data on pragmatics.

Effects of tonal language background on tests of temporal sequencing in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Mukari, Siti Zamratol-Mai S; Yu, Xuan; Ishak, Wan Syafira; Mazlan, Rafidah

2015-01-01

The aims of the present study were to determine the effects of language background on the performance of the pitch pattern sequence test (PPST) and duration pattern sequence test (DPST). As temporal order sequencing may be affected by age and working memory, these factors were also studied. Performance of tonal and non-tonal language speakers on PPST and DPST were compared. Twenty-eight native Mandarin (tonal language) speakers and twenty-nine native Malay (non-tonal language) speakers between seven to nine years old participated in this study. The results revealed that relative to native Malay speakers, native Mandarin speakers demonstrated better scores on the PPST in both humming and verbal labeling responses. However, a similar language effect was not apparent in the DPST. An age effect was only significant in the PPST (verbal labeling). Finally, no significant effect of working memory was found on the PPST and the DPST. These findings suggest that the PPST is affected by tonal language background, and highlight the importance of developing different normative values for tonal and non-tonal language speakers.

Bilingual and Monolingual Children Prefer Native-Accented Speakers

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Andre L. eSouza

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Adults and young children prefer to affiliate with some individuals rather than others. Studies have shown that monolingual children show in-group biases for individuals who speak their native language without a foreign accent (Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2007. Some studies have suggested that bilingual children are less influenced than monolinguals by language variety when attributing personality traits to different speakers (Anisfeld & Lambert, 1964, which could indicate that bilinguals have fewer in-group biases and perhaps greater social flexibility. However, no previous studies have compared monolingual and bilingual children’s reactions to speakers with unfamiliar foreign accents. In the present study, we investigated the social preferences of 5-year-old English and French monolinguals and English-French bilinguals. Contrary to our predictions, both monolingual and bilingual preschoolers preferred to be friends with native-accented speakers over speakers who spoke their dominant language with an unfamiliar foreign accent. This result suggests that both monolingual and bilingual children have strong preferences for in-group members who use a familiar language variety, and that bilingualism does not lead to generalized social flexibility.

Bilingual and monolingual children prefer native-accented speakers.

Science.gov (United States)

Souza, André L; Byers-Heinlein, Krista; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

2013-01-01

Adults and young children prefer to affiliate with some individuals rather than others. Studies have shown that monolingual children show in-group biases for individuals who speak their native language without a foreign accent (Kinzler et al., 2007). Some studies have suggested that bilingual children are less influenced than monolinguals by language variety when attributing personality traits to different speakers (Anisfeld and Lambert, 1964), which could indicate that bilinguals have fewer in-group biases and perhaps greater social flexibility. However, no previous studies have compared monolingual and bilingual children's reactions to speakers with unfamiliar foreign accents. In the present study, we investigated the social preferences of 5-year-old English and French monolinguals and English-French bilinguals. Contrary to our predictions, both monolingual and bilingual preschoolers preferred to be friends with native-accented speakers over speakers who spoke their dominant language with an unfamiliar foreign accent. This result suggests that both monolingual and bilingual children have strong preferences for in-group members who use a familiar language variety, and that bilingualism does not lead to generalized social flexibility.

Language-Based Social Preferences among Children in South Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Kinzler, Katherine D.; Shutts, Kristin; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2012-01-01

Monolingual English-speaking children in the United States express social preferences for speakers of their native language with a native accent. Here we explore the nature of children's language-based social preferences through research with children in South Africa, a multilingual nation. Like children in the United States, Xhosa South African…

Teaching English as a "Second Language" in Kenya and the United States: Convergences and Divergences

Science.gov (United States)

Roy-Campbell, Zaline M.

2015-01-01

English is spoken in five countries as the native language and in numerous other countries as an official language and the language of instruction. In countries where English is the native language, it is taught to speakers of other languages as an additional language to enable them to participate in all domains of life of that country. In many…

The Effects of Advance Organizers and Subtitles on EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Hui-Yu

2014-01-01

The present research reports the findings of three experiments which explore how subtitles and advance organizers affect EFL learners' listening comprehension of authentic videos. EFL learners are randomly assigned to one of two groups. The control group receives no treatment and the experimental group receives the experimental conditions of one…

The Impact of Input Quality on Early Sign Development in Native and Non-Native Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Jenny; Jones, Anna; Morgan, Gary

2016-01-01

There is debate about how input variation influences child language. Most deaf children are exposed to a sign language from their non-fluent hearing parents and experience a delay in exposure to accessible language. A small number of children receive language input from their deaf parents who are fluent signers. Thus it is possible to document the…

Ezhil: A Tamil Programming Language

OpenAIRE

Annamalai, Muthiah

2009-01-01

Ezhil is a Tamil language based interpreted procedural programming language. Tamil keywords and grammar are chosen to make the native Tamil speaker write programs in the Ezhil system. Ezhil allows easy representation of computer program closer to the Tamil language logical constructs equivalent to the conditional, branch and loop statements in modern English based programming languages. Ezhil is a compact programming language aimed towards Tamil speaking novice computer users. Grammar for Ezh...

Language switching-but not foreign language use per se-reduces the framing effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Oganian, Y; Korn, C W; Heekeren, H R

2016-01-01

Recent studies reported reductions of well-established biases in decision making under risk, such as the framing effect, during foreign language (FL) use. These modulations were attributed to the use of FL itself, which putatively entails an increase in emotional distance. A reduced framing effect in this setting, however, might also result from enhanced cognitive control associated with language-switching in mixed-language contexts, an account that has not been tested yet. Here we assess predictions of the 2 accounts in 2 experiments with over 1,500 participants. In Experiment 1, we tested a central prediction of the emotional distance account, namely that the framing effect would be reduced at low, but not high, FL proficiency levels. We found a strong framing effect in the native language, and surprisingly also in the foreign language, independent of proficiency. In Experiment 2, we orthogonally manipulated foreign language use and language switching to concurrently test the validity of both accounts. As in Experiment 1, foreign language use per se had no effect on framing. Crucially, the framing effect was reduced following a language switch, both when switching into the foreign and the native language. Thus, our results suggest that reduced framing effects are not mediated by increased emotional distance in a foreign language, but by transient enhancement of cognitive control, putting the interplay of bilingualism and decision making in a new light. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Language Affirmation and Positive Psychology

Science.gov (United States)

Palmieri, Nicholas V.

2008-01-01

The author shares his experience as a professor teaching effective interpersonal relationships for the power of language or voice affirmation. When he was teaching a class that included students whose first language was Spanish, French, or Creole, the author requested his student to speak in native language during a presentation on the topic of…

Tact training versus bidirectional intraverbal training in teaching a foreign language.

Science.gov (United States)

Dounavi, Katerina

2014-01-01

The current study involved an evaluation of the emergence of untrained verbal relations as a function of 3 different foreign-language teaching strategies. Two Spanish-speaking adults received foreign-language (English) tact training and native-to-foreign and foreign-to-native intraverbal training. Tact training and native-to-foreign intraverbal training resulted in the emergence of a greater number of untrained responses, and may thus be more efficient than foreign-to-native intraverbal training. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

The Native American Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Kidwell, Clara Sue

2001-01-01

Begun in 1994, the Native American Studies program at the University of Oklahoma is an interdisciplinary B.A. program with a liberal arts orientation and strong emphasis on contemporary American Indian policy. Program strengths include the number and diversity of the faculty involved, the four Native languages taught, connections to tribal…

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-03-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants' memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model.

Foreign language comprehension achievement: insights from the cognate facilitation effect

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Aina eCasaponsa

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Numerous studies have shown that the native language influences foreign word recognition and that this influence is modulated by the proficiency in the nonnative language. Here we explored how the degree of reliance on cross-language similarity (as measured by the cognate facilitation effect together with other domain-general cognitive factors contribute to reading comprehension achievement in a nonnative language at different stages of the learning process. We tested two groups of native speakers of Spanish learning English at elementary and intermediate levels in an academic context. A regression model approach showed that domain-general cognitive skills are good predictors of second language reading achievement independently of the level of proficiency. Critically, we found that individual differences in the degree of reliance on the native language predicted foreign language reading achievement, showing a markedly different pattern between proficiency groups. At lower levels of proficiency the cognate facilitation effect was positively related with reading achievement, while this relation became negative at intermediate levels of foreign language learning. We conclude that the link between native- and foreign-language lexical representations helps participants at initial stages of the learning process, whereas it is no longer the case at intermediate levels of proficiency, when reliance on cross-language similarity is inversely related to successful nonnative reading achievement. Thus, at intermediate levels of proficiency strong and direct mappings from the nonnative lexical forms to semantic concepts are needed to achieve good nonnative reading comprehension, in line with the premises of current models of bilingual lexico-semantic organization.

Women's Language Model: A Proposal.

Science.gov (United States)

Dumas, Bethany K.

It is possible to think of women's language in terms of the model implied by the following statement. Insofar as native speakers of English are concerned, the language of women in America has four sets of components: those shared with the language of men in America; those shared, in varying proportions, with other women living in patriarchies;…

Infants' preferences for native speakers are associated with an expectation of information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Begus, Katarina; Gliga, Teodora; Southgate, Victoria

2016-01-01

Humans' preference for others who share our group membership is well documented, and this heightened valuation of in-group members seems to be rooted in early development. Before 12 mo of age, infants already show behavioral preferences for others who evidence cues to same-group membership...... such as race or native language, yet the function of this selectivity remains unclear. We examine one of these social biases, the preference for native speakers, and propose that this preference may result from infants' motivation to obtain information and the expectation that interactions with native speakers...... in situations when they can expect to receive information. We then used this neural measure of anticipatory theta activity to explore the expectations of 11-mo-olds when facing social partners who either speak the infants' native language or a foreign tongue (study 2). A larger increase in theta oscillations...

THE ( AND ( PHONEMES AS FOSSILIZED PRONUNCIATION ERRORS FOR TURKISH ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS: UNDOING THE FOSSILIZED PRONUNCIATION ERROR

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Mehmet Demirezen

2008-10-01

Full Text Available According to Haycraft, (1984: 90, “Since all humans have almost identical speechorgans, there should not be any ‘difficult’ sounds.” This is not a totally true thought becausethe nonnative speaking students apply the pronunciation rules of their native language, andthe result of such a conduct is the establishment of mother-tongue interference which boilsdown to be an unavoidable intrusion while learning a foreign language. A great majority ofpronunciation errors are due to inevitable mother-tongue pronunciation habits, which exhibitcertain resistance to the sounds of the target language. The mother-tongue association to theacquisition of some target language phonemes that are called the core sounds. (Demirezen2007e. The core sounds of the English language, such “consonants like / t ---> T, d ---> D, v---> w / and vowels like / e ---> Q, e ---> E, Q ----> E, « ---> Q, Q ---> Ã,  ----> ow, V-----> Vw /, constitute the prime fossilized mistake continuum for the Turkish teachers,teacher trainees and students in learning and teaching English as a foreign language.”Demirezen, 2007e: 306. This articles aims at analyzing and offering rehabilitative solutionsto one of such core sounds, namely / Q ---> à / contrast that harms the pronunciation ofTurkish learners of English.

Effects of Prior Economic Education, Native Language, and Gender on Economic Knowledge of First-Year Students in Higher Education. A Comparative Study between Germany and the USA

Science.gov (United States)

Brückner, Sebastian; Förster, Manuel; Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Olga; Walstad, William B.

2015-01-01

The assessment of university students' economic knowledge has become an increasingly important research area within and across countries. Particularly, the different influences of prior education, native language, and gender as some of the main prerequisites on students' economic knowledge have been highlighted since long. However, the findings…

Chinese language teachers’ beliefs about their roles in the Danish context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Li; Du, Xiangyun

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on how teachers of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) perceive their roles in the Danish context. In this qualitative study of twelve native and non-native Chinese-speaking language teachers, empirical data was collected from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations...

Foreign Language Houses: Identities in Transition

Science.gov (United States)

Bown, Jennifer; Dewey, Dan P.; Martinsen, Rob A.; Baker, Wendy

2011-01-01

This study examined the lived experience of students participating in foreign language houses to improve their skills in Russian, French, or Japanese. American students residing in apartments with other language learners and a native-speaking resident facilitator were required to speak with one another exclusively in the target language and…

Language-Planning in the Creole-Speaking Caribbean.

Science.gov (United States)

Devonish, Hubert

1984-01-01

As a result of anticolonial movements in the Caribbean, Creole languages are becoming major languages of communication. Language planning has begun to focus on them. These languages must be taught to non-native speakers who want to participate fully in Caribbean culture. This is clearly demonstrated in the area of cinema. (VM)

Language lateralization of hearing native signers: A functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) study of speech and sign production.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutierrez-Sigut, Eva; Daws, Richard; Payne, Heather; Blott, Jonathan; Marshall, Chloë; MacSweeney, Mairéad

2015-12-01

Neuroimaging studies suggest greater involvement of the left parietal lobe in sign language compared to speech production. This stronger activation might be linked to the specific demands of sign encoding and proprioceptive monitoring. In Experiment 1 we investigate hemispheric lateralization during sign and speech generation in hearing native users of English and British Sign Language (BSL). Participants exhibited stronger lateralization during BSL than English production. In Experiment 2 we investigated whether this increased lateralization index could be due exclusively to the higher motoric demands of sign production. Sign naïve participants performed a phonological fluency task in English and a non-sign repetition task. Participants were left lateralized in the phonological fluency task but there was no consistent pattern of lateralization for the non-sign repetition in these hearing non-signers. The current data demonstrate stronger left hemisphere lateralization for producing signs than speech, which was not primarily driven by motoric articulatory demands. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Non-Native Language Use and Risk of Incident Dementia in the Elderly

Science.gov (United States)

Sanders, Amy E.; Hall, Charles B.; Katz, Mindy J.; Lipton, Richard B.

2012-01-01

Cognitive reserve is invoked to explain the protective effects of education and cognitively-stimulating activities against all-cause dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). For non-native English speakers (n-NES), speaking English may be a cognitive activity associated with lower dementia risk. We hypothesized that n-NES have lower risk of incident dementia/AD and that educational level might modify this relationship. Participants took part in the Einstein Aging Study (Bronx, NY), a longitudinal study of aging and dementia. All (n = 1779) spoke fluent English and self-reported birthplace and whether English was their first language. n-NES additionally reported mother tongue, age of English acquisition, and current percentile-use of a non-English language. Nested Cox proportional hazards models progressively adjusted for gender, race, education, and immigrant and marital status estimated hazard ratios (HR) for incident dementia/AD as a function of n-NES status. 390 (22%) participants were n-NES. 126 incident dementia cases occurred during 4174 person-years of follow-up (median 1.44; range 0–16); 101 individuals met criteria for probable/possible AD. There was no statistically-significant association between n-NES status and incident dementia in the fully-adjusted model (HR 1.26; 95% CI 0.76–2.09; p = 0.36). Results were similar for AD. Stratification of education into three groups revealed increased risk of dementia for n-NES with ≥16 years of education (HR 3.97; 95% CI 1.62–9.75; p = 0.003). We conclude that n-NES status does not appear to have an independent protective effect against incident dementia/AD, and that n-NES status may contribute to risk of dementia in an education-dependent manner. PMID:22232011

Processing lexical semantic and syntactic information in first and second language: fMRI evidence from German and Russian.

Science.gov (United States)

Rüschemeyer, Shirley-Ann; Fiebach, Christian J; Kempe, Vera; Friederici, Angela D

2005-06-01

We introduce two experiments that explored syntactic and semantic processing of spoken sentences by native and non-native speakers. In the first experiment, the neural substrates corresponding to detection of syntactic and semantic violations were determined in native speakers of two typologically different languages using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results show that the underlying neural response of participants to stimuli across different native languages is quite similar. In the second experiment, we investigated how non-native speakers of a language process the same stimuli presented in the first experiment. First, the results show a more similar pattern of increased activation between native and non-native speakers in response to semantic violations than to syntactic violations. Second, the non-native speakers were observed to employ specific portions of the frontotemporal language network differently from those employed by native speakers. These regions included the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior temporal gyrus (STG), and subcortical structures of the basal ganglia.

Two languages, two personalities? Examining language effects on the expression of personality in a bilingual context.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Bond, Michael Harris

2010-11-01

The issue of whether personality changes as a function of language is controversial. The present research tested the cultural accommodation hypothesis by examining the impact of language use on personality as perceived by the self and by others. In Study 1, Hong Kong Chinese-English bilinguals responded to personality inventories in Chinese or English on perceived traits for themselves, typical native speakers of Chinese, and typical native speakers of English. Study 2 adopted a repeated measures design and collected data at three time points from written measures and actual conversations to examine whether bilinguals exhibited different patterns of personality, each associated with one of their two languages and the ethnicity of their interlocutors. Self-reports and behavioral observations confirmed the effects of perceived cultural norms, language priming, and interlocutor ethnicity on various personality dimensions. It is suggested that use of a second language accesses the perceived cultural norms of the group most associated with that language, especially its prototypic trait profiles, thus activating behavioral expressions of personality that are appropriate in the corresponding linguistic-social context.

Individual language experience modulates rapid formation of cortical memory circuits for novel words

Science.gov (United States)

Kimppa, Lilli; Kujala, Teija; Shtyrov, Yury

2016-01-01

Mastering multiple languages is an increasingly important ability in the modern world; furthermore, multilingualism may affect human learning abilities. Here, we test how the brain’s capacity to rapidly form new representations for spoken words is affected by prior individual experience in non-native language acquisition. Formation of new word memory traces is reflected in a neurophysiological response increase during a short exposure to novel lexicon. Therefore, we recorded changes in electrophysiological responses to phonologically native and non-native novel word-forms during a perceptual learning session, in which novel stimuli were repetitively presented to healthy adults in either ignore or attend conditions. We found that larger number of previously acquired languages and earlier average age of acquisition (AoA) predicted greater response increase to novel non-native word-forms. This suggests that early and extensive language experience is associated with greater neural flexibility for acquiring novel words with unfamiliar phonology. Conversely, later AoA was associated with a stronger response increase for phonologically native novel word-forms, indicating better tuning of neural linguistic circuits to native phonology. The results suggest that individual language experience has a strong effect on the neural mechanisms of word learning, and that it interacts with the phonological familiarity of the novel lexicon. PMID:27444206

Multi-language Struct Support in Babel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ebner, D; Prantl, A; Epperly, T W

2011-03-22

Babel is an open-source language interoperability framework tailored to the needs of high-performance scientific computing. As an integral element of the Common Component Architecture (CCA) it is used in a wide range of research projects. In this paper we describe how we extended Babel to support interoperable tuple data types (structs). Structs are a common idiom in scientific APIs; they are an efficient way to pass tuples of nonuniform data between functions, and are supported natively by most programming languages. Using our extended version of Babel, developers of scientific code can now pass structs as arguments between functions implemented in any of the supported languages. In C, C++ and Fortran 2003, structs can be passed without the overhead of data marshaling or copying, providing language interoperability at minimal cost. Other supported languages are Fortran 77, Fortran 90, Java and Python. We will show how we designed a struct implementation that is interoperable with all of the supported languages and present benchmark data compare the performance of all language bindings, highlighting the differences between languages that offer native struct support and an object-oriented interface with getter/setter methods.

Analyzing the Influence of Language Proficiency on Interactive Book Search Behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bogers, Toine; Gäde, Maria; Hall, Mark M.

2016-01-01

English content still dominates in many online domains and information systems, despite native English speakers being a minority of its users. However, we know little about how language proficiency influences search behavior in these systems. In this paper, we describe preliminary results from an...... language constraints, a preliminary analysis of native and non-native English speakers indicate little to no meaningful differences in their search behavior.......English content still dominates in many online domains and information systems, despite native English speakers being a minority of its users. However, we know little about how language proficiency influences search behavior in these systems. In this paper, we describe preliminary results from...... an interactive IR experiment with book search behavior and examine how language skills affect this behavior. A total of 97 users from 21 different countries participated in this experiment, resulting in a rich data set including usage data as well as questionnaire feedback. Although participants reported feeling...

The stuttering implementation of language policies in the South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The article decries the lack of commitment on the part of native speakers of indigenous African languages, in some instances, to invest in their languages, as a retrogressive step in the promotion and development of these languages. Keywords: Language policy, African languages, multilingualism, indigenous African ...

The foreign-language effect: thinking in a foreign tongue reduces decision biases.

Science.gov (United States)

Keysar, Boaz; Hayakawa, Sayuri L; An, Sun Gyu

2012-06-01

Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue? It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic. We discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. Four experiments show that the framing effect disappears when choices are presented in a foreign tongue. Whereas people were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses when choices were presented in their native tongue, they were not influenced by this framing manipulation in a foreign language. Two additional experiments show that using a foreign language reduces loss aversion, increasing the acceptance of both hypothetical and real bets with positive expected value. We propose that these effects arise because a foreign language provides greater cognitive and emotional distance than a native tongue does.

Native-likeness in second language lexical categorization reflects individual language history and linguistic community norms

OpenAIRE

Zinszer, B. D.; Malt, B. C.; Ameel, Eef; Li, P

2014-01-01

Second language learners face a dual challenge in vocabulary learning: First, they must learn new names for the 100s of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999), and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. I...

Hmong Parents Critical Reflections on Their Childrens Heritage Language Maintenance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Terry Yang

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This study utilizes a qualitative method to explore the critical reflections of Hmong parents helping their children maintain their native language. Specifically, it examines parents thoughts, feelings and experiences related to Hmong language maintenance. Findings reveal that Hmong parents worry about their children losing their ability to speak their native language. They believe that maintaining the Hmong language provides advantages in achieving academic success, attaining careers, and continuing to serve as role models in the community. Parents stressed the need to use Hmong at home in order to help their children develop and maintain the language. They reported some successes in doing so, while acknowledging several challenges.

Foreign language proficiency and working memory capacity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Noort, M.W.M.L. van den; Bosch, M.P.C.; Hugdahl, K.

2006-01-01

In this study, the hypothesis that working memory capacity interacts with (foreign) language proficiency was tested on multilinguals, who were native (L1) Dutch speakers, were fluent in their second (L2) language, German, and had recently started the acquisition of their third (L3) language,

Impact of Cyrillic on Native English Speakers' Phono-lexical Acquisition of Russian.

Science.gov (United States)

Showalter, Catherine E

2018-03-01

We investigated the influence of grapheme familiarity and native language grapheme-phoneme correspondences during second language lexical learning. Native English speakers learned Russian-like words via auditory presentations containing only familiar first language phones, pictured meanings, and exposure to either Cyrillic orthographic forms (Orthography condition) or the sequence (No Orthography condition). Orthography participants saw three types of written forms: familiar-congruent (e.g., -[kom]), familiar-incongruent (e.g., -[rɑt]), and unfamiliar (e.g., -[fil]). At test, participants determined whether pictures and words matched according to what they saw during word learning. All participants performed near ceiling in all stimulus conditions, except for Orthography participants on words containing incongruent grapheme-phoneme correspondences. These results suggest that first language grapheme-phoneme correspondences can cause interference during second language phono-lexical acquisition. In addition, these results suggest that orthographic input effects are robust enough to interfere even when the input does not contain novel phones.

School of German Language

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Sergei V. Evteev

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Department of German is one of the oldest language departments at MGIMO. Since its foundation in 1944 the military experienced teachers of the department, most of whom were native speakers, have begun to develop a unique method of teaching the German language, thereby revolutionize learning this foreign language. The first steps made under the supervision of the Department of Antonina V. Celica. The department refused to conventional time and is still used in universities such as the Moscow Linguistic University, separate teaching phonetics, grammar and vocabulary, which was due to the specific objectives set for the teaching staff: prepare for short term specialists in international relations, active Germanspeaking. The department can be proud of its graduates, many of whom continue his career in the walls of native high school. Many graduates have dedicated their lives to serving the State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Adaptation of a Vocabulary Test from British Sign Language to American Sign Language

Science.gov (United States)

Mann, Wolfgang; Roy, Penny; Morgan, Gary

2016-01-01

This study describes the adaptation process of a vocabulary knowledge test for British Sign Language (BSL) into American Sign Language (ASL) and presents results from the first round of pilot testing with 20 deaf native ASL signers. The web-based test assesses the strength of deaf children's vocabulary knowledge by means of different mappings of…

Family Literacy and Second Language Literacy Research: Focus on Language Minority Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Özgür Yıldırım

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Problem Statement: Countries like the U. S. A. or Canada have citizens from various ethnic backgrounds. Although English is the dominant language in many parts of these countries, immigrants generally prefer speaking their native language when they are in their homes. Whatever the reason for using native language at home is, when we consider the children in these families, we can say that being exposed to different languages at home and at school may be a problem for their language development.Purpose of Study: There are many studies conducted in order to better understand the problems of language minority children. A great deal of literature on language minority students focuses on the ties between these children‟s literacy development and their literacy practices at home. In other words, these studies aim to see how the literacy events these children are exposed to at home affect their literacy learning in the second language.Methods: This paper is an attempt to put together and discuss various theoretical and empirical studies conducted on the literacy development of language minority children in English speaking countries.Findings: Literacy education of language minority students is not an easy task. It is very complicated and difficult to achieve as it requires a complete collaboration among all the responsible parties (teachers, families, researchers, education policy makers, school administrators. Conclusion and Recommendations: Successful collaboration among all the involved parties would bring successful outcomes in terms of children‟s healthy literacy development. The collaboration between teachers and families is the most vital one because these two parties are the ones that have one-to-one interaction with children.

Emotional communication in medical consultations with native and non-native patients applying two different methodological approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Kale, Emine; Skjeldestad, Kristin; Finset, Arnstein

2013-09-01

To explore the potential agreement between two different methods to investigate emotional communication of native and non-native patients in medical consultations. The data consisted of 12 videotaped hospital consultations with six native and six non-native patients. The consultations were coded according to coding rules of the Verona Coding definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES) and afterwards analyzed by discourse analysis (DA) by two co-workers who were blind to the results from VR-CoDES. The agreement between VR-CoDES and DA was high in consultations with many cues and concerns, both with native and non-native patients. In consultations with no (or one cue) according to VR-CoDES criteria the DA still indicated the presence of emotionally salient expressions and themes. In some consultations cues to underlying emotions are communicated so vaguely or veiled by language barriers that standard VR-CoDES coding may miss subtle cues. Many of these sub-threshold cues could potentially be coded as cues according to VR-CoDES main coding categories, if criteria for coding vague or ambiguous cues had been better specified. Combining different analytical frameworks on the same dataset provide us new insights on emotional communication. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Phonotactic Influence on the Perception of a Consonant Cluster /pt/ by Native English and Native Polish Listeners: A Behavioral and Event Related Potential (ERP) Study

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Monica; Shafer, Valerie L.; Martin, Brett; Steinschneider, Mitchell

2012-01-01

The effect of exposure to the contextual features of the /pt/ cluster was investigated in native-English and native-Polish listeners using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) methodology. Both groups experience the /pt/ cluster in their languages, but only the Polish group experiences the cluster in the context of word onset examined in…

Russian Language Analysis Project

Science.gov (United States)

Serianni, Barbara; Rethwisch, Carolyn

2011-01-01

This paper is the result of a language analysis research project focused on the Russian Language. The study included a diverse literature review that included published materials as well as online sources in addition to an interview with a native Russian speaker residing in the United States. Areas of study include the origin and history of the…

Relation of Native-Language Reading and Spelling Abilities to Attitudes toward Learning a Second Language

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Katrinda Wills; Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R. Steve

2009-01-01

The authors investigated the relation of foreign language attitudes and perceptions to reading and spelling skills for 278 English-speaking college students enrolled in 100- and 200- level foreign language classes, using the Foreign Language Attitudes and Perceptions Survey (R. Sparks & L. Ganschow, 1993b), the Test of Dyslexia-Rapid…

78 FR 66619 - National Native American Heritage Month, 2013

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-05

... violence, marginalization, broken promises, and upended justice. There was a time when native languages and... natural disasters strike their homelands. In March, I signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization...

Sociolinguistic Typology and Sign Languages.

Science.gov (United States)

Schembri, Adam; Fenlon, Jordan; Cormier, Kearsy; Johnston, Trevor

2018-01-01

This paper examines the possible relationship between proposed social determinants of morphological 'complexity' and how this contributes to linguistic diversity, specifically via the typological nature of the sign languages of deaf communities. We sketch how the notion of morphological complexity, as defined by Trudgill (2011), applies to sign languages. Using these criteria, sign languages appear to be languages with low to moderate levels of morphological complexity. This may partly reflect the influence of key social characteristics of communities on the typological nature of languages. Although many deaf communities are relatively small and may involve dense social networks (both social characteristics that Trudgill claimed may lend themselves to morphological 'complexification'), the picture is complicated by the highly variable nature of the sign language acquisition for most deaf people, and the ongoing contact between native signers, hearing non-native signers, and those deaf individuals who only acquire sign languages in later childhood and early adulthood. These are all factors that may work against the emergence of morphological complexification. The relationship between linguistic typology and these key social factors may lead to a better understanding of the nature of sign language grammar. This perspective stands in contrast to other work where sign languages are sometimes presented as having complex morphology despite being young languages (e.g., Aronoff et al., 2005); in some descriptions, the social determinants of morphological complexity have not received much attention, nor has the notion of complexity itself been specifically explored.

Sociolinguistic Typology and Sign Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Schembri, Adam; Fenlon, Jordan; Cormier, Kearsy; Johnston, Trevor

2018-01-01

This paper examines the possible relationship between proposed social determinants of morphological ‘complexity’ and how this contributes to linguistic diversity, specifically via the typological nature of the sign languages of deaf communities. We sketch how the notion of morphological complexity, as defined by Trudgill (2011), applies to sign languages. Using these criteria, sign languages appear to be languages with low to moderate levels of morphological complexity. This may partly reflect the influence of key social characteristics of communities on the typological nature of languages. Although many deaf communities are relatively small and may involve dense social networks (both social characteristics that Trudgill claimed may lend themselves to morphological ‘complexification’), the picture is complicated by the highly variable nature of the sign language acquisition for most deaf people, and the ongoing contact between native signers, hearing non-native signers, and those deaf individuals who only acquire sign languages in later childhood and early adulthood. These are all factors that may work against the emergence of morphological complexification. The relationship between linguistic typology and these key social factors may lead to a better understanding of the nature of sign language grammar. This perspective stands in contrast to other work where sign languages are sometimes presented as having complex morphology despite being young languages (e.g., Aronoff et al., 2005); in some descriptions, the social determinants of morphological complexity have not received much attention, nor has the notion of complexity itself been specifically explored. PMID:29515506

Sociolinguistic Typology and Sign Languages

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Schembri

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the possible relationship between proposed social determinants of morphological ‘complexity’ and how this contributes to linguistic diversity, specifically via the typological nature of the sign languages of deaf communities. We sketch how the notion of morphological complexity, as defined by Trudgill (2011, applies to sign languages. Using these criteria, sign languages appear to be languages with low to moderate levels of morphological complexity. This may partly reflect the influence of key social characteristics of communities on the typological nature of languages. Although many deaf communities are relatively small and may involve dense social networks (both social characteristics that Trudgill claimed may lend themselves to morphological ‘complexification’, the picture is complicated by the highly variable nature of the sign language acquisition for most deaf people, and the ongoing contact between native signers, hearing non-native signers, and those deaf individuals who only acquire sign languages in later childhood and early adulthood. These are all factors that may work against the emergence of morphological complexification. The relationship between linguistic typology and these key social factors may lead to a better understanding of the nature of sign language grammar. This perspective stands in contrast to other work where sign languages are sometimes presented as having complex morphology despite being young languages (e.g., Aronoff et al., 2005; in some descriptions, the social determinants of morphological complexity have not received much attention, nor has the notion of complexity itself been specifically explored.

Developing the Bilingual Competence in Learning Foreign Languages

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T. A. Znamenskaya

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The paper considers the problem of bilingualism and its effect on the personality of the speaker. Various types of bilingualism are described along with the factors determining the bilingual competence formation: age, individual experience, socio-cultural conditions of the native and foreign language interaction. The author points out both the positive and negative impact on the native language as the result of the second language learning. The special emphasis is on language interference in the process of learning a foreign language. To make sure the students achieve the adequate degree of its authenticity, and therefore the bilingual competence, the teacher should take into account the specificity of national styles, communicative strategies and speech tactics of both languages. A comparative analysis of linguistic differences of the English and Russian languages is demonstrated on the level of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and national communicative stylistics. The author maintains that successful inter-language and cross-cultural communication requires the integrative cross-disciplinary approach, consolidation of the linguistic theory and methods of foreign language teaching. 

Native Geosciences: Strengthening the Future Through Tribal Traditions

Science.gov (United States)

Bolman, J. R.; Quigley, I.; Douville, V.; Hollow Horn Bear, D.

2008-12-01

Native people have lived for millennia in distinct and unique ways in our natural sacred homelands and environments. Tribal cultures are the expression of deep understandings of geosciences shared through oral histories, language and ceremonies. Today, Native people as all people are living in a definite time of change. The developing awareness of "change" brings forth an immense opportunity to expand and elevate Native geosciences knowledge, specifically in the areas of earth, wind, fire and water. At the center of "change" is the need to balance the needs of the people with the needs of the environment. Native tradition and our inherent understanding of what is "sacred above is sacred below" is the foundation for an emerging multi-faceted approach to increasing the representation of Natives in geosciences. The approach is also a pathway to assist in Tribal language revitalization, connection of oral histories and ceremonies as well as building an intergenerational teaching/learning community. Humboldt State University, Sinte Gleska University and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in partnership with Northern California (Hoopa, Yurok, & Karuk) and Great Plains (Lakota) Tribes have nurtured Native geosciences learning communities connected to Tribal Sacred Sites and natural resources. These sites include the Black Hills (Mato Paha, Mato Tiplia, Hinhan Kaga Paha, Mako Sica etc.), Klamath River (Ishkêesh), and Hoopa Valley (Natinixwe). Native geosciences learning is centered on the themes of earth, wind, fire and water and Native application of remote sensing technologies. Tribal Elders and Native geoscientists work collaboratively providing Native families in-field experiential intergenerational learning opportunities which invite participants to immerse themselves spiritually, intellectually, physically and emotionally in the experiences. Through this immersion and experience Native students and families strengthen the circle of our future Tribal

Non-Native English Speakers and Nonstandard English: An In-Depth Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Polat, Brittany

2012-01-01

Given the rising prominence of nonstandard varieties of English around the world (Jenkins 2007), learners of English as a second language are increasingly called on to communicate with speakers of both native and non-native nonstandard English varieties. In many classrooms around the world, however, learners continue to be exposed only to…

From Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to Mobile Assisted Language Use (MALU)

Science.gov (United States)

Jarvis, Huw; Achilleos, Marianna

2013-01-01

This article begins by critiquing the long-established acronym CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). We then go on to report on a small-scale study which examines how student non-native speakers of English use a range of digital devices beyond the classroom in both their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. We look also at the extent to…

The foreign language effect on the self-serving bias: A field experiment in the high school classroom.

Science.gov (United States)

van Hugten, Joeri; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen

2018-01-01

The rise of bilingual education triggers an important question: which language is preferred for a particular school activity? Our field experiment (n = 120) shows that students (aged 13-15) who process feedback in non-native English have greater self-serving bias than students who process feedback in their native Dutch. By contrast, literature on the foreign-language emotionality effect suggests a weaker self-serving bias in the non-native language, so our result adds nuance to that literature. The result is important to schools as it suggests that teachers may be able to reduce students' defensiveness and demotivation by communicating negative feedback in the native language, and teachers may be able to increase students' confidence and motivation by communicating positive feedback in the foreign language.

A Home-Language Free Adult Pre-Vocational Audio-Visual Course in English-as-a-Second Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Philip D., Jr.

A pre-vocational English-as-a-second language course for adults was developed for the non-native speaker based upon the following assumptions: the teacher does not have to speak the language of the student; students in a class do not have to speak each others' language; the teacher need not be professionally trained in the field of teaching ESL;…

Language or Music, Mother or Mozart? Structural and Environmental Influences on Infants' Language Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Dehaene-Lambertz, G.; Montavont, A.; Jobert, A.; Allirol, L.; Dubois, J.; Hertz-Pannier, L.; Dehaene, S.

2010-01-01

Understanding how language emerged in our species calls for a detailed investigation of the initial specialization of the human brain for speech processing. Our earlier research demonstrated that an adult-like left-lateralized network of perisylvian areas is already active when infants listen to sentences in their native language, but did not…

Learning Vietnamese as a Heritage Language in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Yeh, Yu-Ching; Ho, Hsiang-Ju; Chen, Ming-Chung

2015-01-01

In 2011, the Taiwanese Government began a campaign to encourage new immigrants to teach their native languages (heritage languages) to their children. However, these heritage languages are seldom used in cross-national families and the effectiveness of formal heritage language courses in Taiwan has yet to be explored. The present study examines…

Interethnic relations and language variation: language use and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

respect, CAT has typically dealt with interactional settings involving socially contrasting ethnic groups. In such settings ... self-ascribed category in opposition to both "White" and "Native" (or "Black") (Adhikari 1996: 9, 2005). .... axes of demography, institutional control, and status variables related to a language community's ...

The role of syllables in sign language production.

Science.gov (United States)

Baus, Cristina; Gutiérrez, Eva; Carreiras, Manuel

2014-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the functional role of syllables in sign language and how the different phonological combinations influence sign production. Moreover, the influence of age of acquisition was evaluated. Deaf signers (native and non-native) of Catalan Signed Language (LSC) were asked in a picture-sign interference task to sign picture names while ignoring distractor-signs with which they shared two phonological parameters (out of three of the main sign parameters: Location, Movement, and Handshape). The results revealed a different impact of the three phonological combinations. While no effect was observed for the phonological combination Handshape-Location, the combination Handshape-Movement slowed down signing latencies, but only in the non-native group. A facilitatory effect was observed for both groups when pictures and distractors shared Location-Movement. Importantly, linguistic models have considered this phonological combination to be a privileged unit in the composition of signs, as syllables are in spoken languages. Thus, our results support the functional role of syllable units during phonological articulation in sign language production.

Self-harm.

Science.gov (United States)

Skegg, Keren

The term self-harm is commonly used to describe a wide range of behaviours and intentions including attempted hanging, impulsive self-poisoning, and superficial cutting in response to intolerable tension. As with suicide, rates of self-harm vary greatly between countries. 5-9% of adolescents in western countries report having self-harmed within the previous year. Risk factors include socioeconomic disadvantage, and psychiatric illness--particularly depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders. Cultural aspects of some societies may protect against suicide and self-harm and explain some of the international variation in rates of these events. Risk of repetition of self-harm and of later suicide is high. More than 5% of people who have been seen at a hospital after self-harm will have committed suicide within 9 years. Assessment after self-harm includes careful consideration of the patient's intent and beliefs about the lethality of the method used. Strong suicidal intent, high lethality, precautions against being discovered, and psychiatric illness are indicators of high suicide risk. Management after self-harm includes forming a trusting relationship with the patient, jointly identifying problems, ensuring support is available in a crisis, and treating psychiatric illness vigorously. Family and friends may also provide support. Large-scale studies of treatments for specific subgroups of people who self-harm might help to identify more effective treatments than are currently available. Although risk factors for self-harm are well established, aspects that protect people from engaging in self-harm need to be further explored.

To Converse with Creation: Saving California Indian Languages.

Science.gov (United States)

Whittemore, Katharine

1997-01-01

Describes the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program, which seeks to save endangered Native Californian languages by pairing speakers and nonspeakers and providing the pairs with materials, technical support, and personal support. Briefly discusses the history of American Indian genocide and language extinction in California. Includes…

Phonetic and lexical processing in a second language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broersma, M.

2005-01-01

Speech comprehension is more difficult in a second language than in one's native language. This dissertation examines the recognition of speech sounds and the recognition of words in a second language. First, Dutch and English listeners' perception of the British English vowels /ae/-/E/, was

Hmong Parents’ Critical Reflections on Their Children’s Heritage Language Maintenance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Terry Yang

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This study utilizes a qualitative method to explore the critical reflections of Hmong parents helping their children maintain their native language. Specifically, it examines parents’ thoughts, feelings and experiences related to Hmong language maintenance. Findings reveal that Hmong parents worry about their children losing their ability to speak their native language. They believe that maintaining the Hmong language provides advantages in achieving academic success, attaining careers, and continuing to serve as role models in the community. Parents stressed the need to use Hmong at home in order to help their children develop and maintain the language. They reported some successes in doing so, while acknowledging several challenges.

Juggling Languages: A Case Study of Preschool Teachers' Language Choices and Practices in Mauritius

Science.gov (United States)

Auleear Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah

2012-01-01

Mauritius is a linguistically diverse island: most people on the island are native speakers of Mauritian Creole, a French-lexified Creole; English is the written medium of instruction in primary schools and French is taught as a compulsory subject. The discontinuity between the home language and the school languages is viewed as problematic by…

Spanish Home Language Use and English Proficiency as Differential Measures of Language Maintenance and Shift.

Science.gov (United States)

Bills, Garland D.; Hudson, Alan; Chavez, Eduardo Hernandez

1999-01-01

Examines 1990 Census data for a large sample of the Hispanic-origin population in the Southwest, exploring two possible indices of language maintenance--Spanish home language claiming and English proficiency--as these are influenced by nativity, time, and age of immigration, citizenship status of the foreign born, education, and income.…

Alterations of markers of oxidative stress caused by environmental factors and their dynamics under impact of native biomodulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stasytyte-Buneviciene, D.; Juozulynas, A.; Bunevicius, J.

2004-01-01

Intensified formation of free radicals is one of the most important harmful factors of ionizing radiation acting upon human organism. Under physiological conditions, anti oxidative system preserves from harmful influence of free radicals. To avoid a disturbing influence of oxidative stress upon the processes of human homeostasis, additional quantities of antioxidants are indispensable. Among native biomodulators, pollen are well known for their anti oxidative, antitoxic and radioprotective properties. Dynamics of alterations of markers of oxidative stress as well as possibilities of restitution of their qualitative and quantitative indices were studied using native pollen. Correction programme was performed on 50 persons, 9 males and 41 female, residing and working under impact of harmful factors of oxidative stress, who used pollen 10 g per day during a period of 30 days. Control group consisted of 57 persons, 10 males and 47 females living and working under the same conditions. Blood tests (diene conjugates, malonic dialdehyde and katalase) using standard spectrophotometric methodic were studied before and after the course of treatment. After the treatment, contents of metabolites of lipid peroxidation, diene conjugates and malonic dialdehyde in blood serum essentially reduced. Activity of catalase decreased significantly in blood serum of the males and regularly smoking females. In conclusion, data presented demonstrate anti oxidative efficiency of native pollen and suggest more often it's applying in cases with alterated processes of homeostasis under impact of harmful factors of oxidative stress including influence of ionizing radiation. (author)

Minority Language Education in Malaysia: Four Ethnic Communities' Experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Karla J.

2003-01-01

Discusses minority language education in Malaysia, a multilingual and multicultural country. Looks at four language minority groups and what they have done to to provide beginning education programs for their children that use the children's native languages. (Author/VWL)

A Study of Jordanian University Students' Perceptions of Using Email Exchanges with Native English Keypals for Improving Their Writing Competency

Science.gov (United States)

Mahfouz, Safi Mahmoud

2010-01-01

English foreign language learners generally tend to consider email exchanges with native speakers (NSs) as an effective tool for improving their foreign language proficiency. This study investigated Jordanian university students' perceptions of using email exchanges with native English keypals (NEKs) for improving their writing competency. A…

Explaining differences in adult second language learning : The role of language input characteristics and learners’ cognitive aptitudes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ćurčić, M.

2018-01-01

This dissertation examines how adult learning of novel language structures is affected by the characteristics of the language input that learners are exposed to and by learners’ cognitive aptitudes, such as analytical ability and working memory capacity. In a series of experiments, adult native

MINORITY LANGUAGES IN ESTONIAN SEGREGATIVE LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elvira Küün

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The goal of this project in Estonia was to determine what languages are spoken by students from the 2nd to the 5th year of basic school at their homes in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. At the same time, this problem was also studied in other segregated regions of Estonia: Kohtla-Järve and Maardu. According to the database of the population census from the year 2000 (Estonian Statistics Executive Office's census 2000, there are representatives of 142 ethnic groups living in Estonia, speaking a total of 109 native languages. At the same time, the database doesn’t state which languages are spoken at homes. The material presented in this article belongs to the research topic “Home Language of Basic School Students in Tallinn” from years 2007–2008, specifically financed and ordered by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (grant No. ETF 7065 in the framework of an international study called “Multilingual Project”. It was determined what language is dominating in everyday use, what are the factors for choosing the language for communication, what are the preferred languages and language skills. This study reflects the actual trends of the language situation in these cities.

Foreign Language Study in Budapest.

Science.gov (United States)

Feinberg, Lilian O.; Tarjan, Jeno

1968-01-01

Foreign language study at the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences in Budapest aims to develop the ability to use the language as a native would in a particular business or profession, and to help the student become fully aware of the political, historical, sociological, and geographical background of the foreign country and the…

Informal Language Learning Setting: Technology or Social Interaction?

Science.gov (United States)

Bahrani, Taher; Sim, Tam Shu

2012-01-01

Based on the informal language learning theory, language learning can occur outside the classroom setting unconsciously and incidentally through interaction with the native speakers or exposure to authentic language input through technology. However, an EFL context lacks the social interaction which naturally occurs in an ESL context. To explore…

QUANTATIVE SET COMPARISONS WITH COMPONENT MONEY IN MODERN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE CONTRASTED WITH SLAVIC LANGUAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zinovieva, E.I.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The article provides a detailed analysis of semantics and functioning of Russian set comparisons according to dictionaries, literary context, periodicals and the Internet and studies stereotypical perception of what is considered small or large amounts of money and the way it is reflected in consciousness of native speakers and the Russian language on the basis of survey. Set comparisons in Russian language are contrasted with other Slavic languages to identify their universal and distinctive features.

Dna c-values of 20 invasive alien species and 3 native species in south china

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Gong Ni

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Cultivated fields and forests in South China are experiencing serious damage due to invasive alien plants. We investigated the relation between DNA C-values and invasiveness. The DNA C-values of 23 species ranged from 0.39 pg to 3.37 pg. Herbs, perennials and native species had higher mean DNA C-values than shrubs, annuals and invasive alien species. DNA C-values decreased with increasing invasiveness. Paederia scandens, a harmful native species, has the lowest DNA C-value among the perennials, indicating that native species with low nuclear content may also possess an invasive potential.

Why Not Non-Native Varieties of English as Listening Comprehension Test Input?

Science.gov (United States)

Abeywickrama, Priyanvada

2013-01-01

The existence of different varieties of English in target language use (TLU) domains calls into question the usefulness of listening comprehension tests whose input is limited only to a native speaker variety. This study investigated the impact of non-native varieties or accented English speech on test takers from three different English use…

Examining the linguistic coding differences hypothesis to explain individual differences in foreign language learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Sparks, R L

1995-01-01

In this paper, it is suggested that foreign language learning problems result from difficulties with native language learning and hypothesized that difficulties with phonological processing may be the locus of foreign language learning difficulties for some poor foreign language learners. Evidence is described that supports these positions. It is argued that conceptualizing foreign language learning problems as alanguage problem allows researchers to more clearly specify deficits related to the learning of a foreign language. Research evidence which shows that good and poor foreign language learners exhibit significantly different levels of native language skill and phonological processing is summarized. Finally, potential challenges to my hypotheses as an explanation for foreign language learning problems are reviewed.

English vowel identification and vowel formant discrimination by native Mandarin Chinese- and native English-speaking listeners: The effect of vowel duration dependence.

Science.gov (United States)

Mi, Lin; Tao, Sha; Wang, Wenjing; Dong, Qi; Guan, Jingjing; Liu, Chang

2016-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between English vowel identification and English vowel formant discrimination for native Mandarin Chinese- and native English-speaking listeners. The identification of 12 English vowels was measured with the duration cue preserved or removed. The thresholds of vowel formant discrimination on the F2 of two English vowels,/Λ/and/i/, were also estimated using an adaptive-tracking procedure. Native Mandarin Chinese-speaking listeners showed significantly higher thresholds of vowel formant discrimination and lower identification scores than native English-speaking listeners. The duration effect on English vowel identification was similar between native Mandarin Chinese- and native English-speaking listeners. Moreover, regardless of listeners' language background, vowel identification was significantly correlated with vowel formant discrimination for the listeners who were less dependent on duration cues, whereas the correlation between vowel identification and vowel formant discrimination was not significant for the listeners who were highly dependent on duration cues. This study revealed individual variability in using multiple acoustic cues to identify English vowels for both native and non-native listeners. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The globalization of ayahuasca: harm reduction or benefit maximization?

Science.gov (United States)

Tupper, Kenneth W

2008-08-01

Ayahuasca is a tea made from two plants native to the Amazon, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, which, respectively, contain the psychoactive chemicals harmala alkaloids and dimethyltryptamine. The tea has been used by indigenous peoples in countries such as Brazil, Ecuador and Peru for medicinal, spiritual and cultural purposes since pre-Columbian times. In the 20th century, ayahuasca spread beyond its native habitat and has been incorporated into syncretistic practices that are being adopted by non-indigenous peoples in modern Western contexts. Ayahuasca's globalization in the past few decades has led to a number of legal cases which pit religious freedom against national drug control laws. This paper explores some of the philosophical and policy implications of contemporary ayahuasca use. It addresses the issue of the social construction of ayahuasca as a medicine, a sacrament and a "plant teacher." Issues of harm reduction with respect to ayahuasca use are explored, but so too is the corollary notion of "benefit maximization."

La traducción audiovisual en la enseñanza de una LE: la subtitulación como herramienta metodológica para la adquisición de léxico Audiovisual / Translation in the teaching of a FL: Subtitling as a Methodological Tool for Lexis acquisition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Betlem Soler Pardo

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Resumen: La traducción y los materiales audiovisuales han demostrado ser herramientas eficaces para el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. Hemos querido abordar la traducción audiovisual desde el punto de vista didáctico tomando una de sus modalidades, la subtitulación, para obtener evidencia de su eficacia como método pedagógico para la adquisición de léxico en una lengua extranjera. Para ello, hemos creado una serie de actividades basadas en un vídeo con subtítulos con el que pretendemos obtener un incremento en la adquisición de léxico y una mejora en la comprensión lectora y auditiva, y la expresión escrita de los alumnos. Abstract: Translation and audiovisual materials have proven effective tools for foreign language acquisition. This article addresses audiovisual translation from a pedagogical perspective, focussing primarily on subtitling. The aim is to document their effectiveness as a teaching method for the acquisition of vocabulary in a foreign language. In order to achieve this goal, I have created a series of activities based on a vídeo with subtitles designed to optimise the acquisition of vocabulary and facilitate improvement in students’ reading, listening, and writing skills.

Nativity and language preference as drivers of health information seeking: examining differences and trends from a U.S. population-based survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Massey, Philip M; Langellier, Brent A; Sentell, Tetine; Manganello, Jennifer

2017-12-01

To examine differences in health information seeking between U.S.-born and foreign-born populations in the U.S. Data from 2008 to 2014 from the Health Information National Trends Survey were used in this study (n = 15,249). Bivariate analyses, logistic regression, and predicted probabilities were used to examine health information seeking and sources of health information. Findings demonstrate that 59.3% of the Hispanic foreign-born population reported looking for health information, fewer than other racial/ethnic groups in the sample. Compared with non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black (OR = 0.62) and Hispanic foreign-born individuals (OR = 0.31) were the least likely to use the internet as a first source for health information. Adjustment for language preference explains much of the disparity in health information seeking between the Hispanic foreign-born population and Whites; controlling for nativity, respondents who prefer Spanish have 0.25 the odds of using the internet as a first source of health information compared to those who prefer English. Foreign-born nativity and language preference are significant determinants of health information seeking. Further research is needed to better understand how information seeking patterns can influence health care use, and ultimately health outcomes. To best serve diverse racial and ethnic minority populations, health care systems, health care providers, and public health professionals must provide culturally competent health information resources to strengthen access and use by vulnerable populations, and to ensure that all populations are able to benefit from evolving health information sources in the digital age.

Harmful Waste Process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ki, Mun Bong; Lee, Shi Jin; Park, Jun Seok; Yoon, Seok Pyo; Lee, Jae Hyo; Jo, Byeong Ryeol

2008-08-01

This book gives descriptions of processing harmful waste, including concerned law and definition of harmful waste, current conditions and generation of harmful waste in Korea, international condition of harmful waste, minimizing of generation of harmful waste, treatment and storage. It also tells of basic science for harmful waste disposal with physics, chemistry, combustion engineering, microbiology and technique of disposal such as physical, chemical, biological process, stabilizing and solidification, incineration and waste in landfill.

Audiovisual Translation:A Critical Review on Sino-western Perspectives of Film Subtitle Translation

OpenAIRE

Junchen Zhang

2018-01-01

The paper argues the development of audiovisual translation (mainly focuses on the strand of film subtitle translation) in the West and China. Firstly, the paper discusses film translation from the perspective of the West and critically reviews the achievements produced by western researchers. Secondly, the paper analyzes film translation from Chinese perspective and outlines its change and development in Mainland China. Thirdly, some major issues exited in film translation such as cultural p...

Are you a movie lover? Do you enjoy speaking other languages?

CERN Multimedia

2015-01-01

On the occasion of the European Day of Languages, the Language Tandem Programme is collaborating with the CERN CinéClub to offer you the possibility of watching a series of movies that share the common theme of communication.   Learning a language is like diving into another Universe. Movies can take us visually into other Universes. Just like watching a movie, learning a new language takes us on an adventure, a discovery of something new. It can bring us new ways of looking at life; it can broaden our horizons. The aim of this collaboration between the CinéClub and the Language Tandem Programme is to take you on this journey of discovery and we hope you will join us. The series of movies, which started on 2 September, ends with an aperitif on 30 September where we can all get together. Please see the list of movies here: 9 September: Italian for beginners  (in Danish and Italian, with English subtitles) 16 September: Spanglish (in English and Spanis...

Non-native scientists, research dissemination and English neologisms: What happens in the early stages of reception and re-production?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Linder

2016-11-01

Full Text Available That the English language is the prevailing language in international scientific discourse is an undeniable fact for research professionals who are non-native speakers of English (NNSE. An exploratory, survey-based study of scientists in the experimental disciplines of neuroscience and medicine seeks to reveal, on the one hand, the habits of scientists who in their research practice come across neologisms in English and need to use them in oral and written scientific discourse in their own languages, and, on the other hand, their attitudes towards these neologisms and towards English as the language of international science. We found that all scientists write and publish their research articles (RAs in English and most submit them unrevised by native speakers of English. When first encountering a neologism in English, scientists tend to pay close attention to these new concepts, ideas or terms and very early in the reception process attempt to coin acceptable, natural-sounding Spanish equivalents for use in the laboratory and in their Spanish texts. In conjunction with the naturalized Spanish term, they often use the English neologism verbatim in a coexistent bilingual form, but they avoid using only the English term and very literal translations. These behaviors show an ambivalent attitude towards English (the language of both new knowledge reception and dissemination of their RAs and Spanish (used for local professional purposes and for popularization: while accepting to write in their acquired non-native language, they simultaneously recognize that their native language needs to preserve its specificity as a language of science.

The Attitudes and Perceptions of Non-Native English Speaking ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

native English speaking adults toward explicit grammar instruction (EGI). The factors influencing those attitudes and perceptions are also explored. The data collected in this study indicate that adult English as a second language (ESL) students ...

Language proficiency among immigrants and the establishment of interethnic relations: a comparative analysis of Bilbao, Lisbon and Rotterdam

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alina Esteves

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Despite the increasing interest in exploring language proficiency among immigrants as a quintessential element for their economic integration in the host country, less attention has been devoted to the social impacts that destination-language proficiency may have on enhancing interethnic contacts between immigrants and the native population. This research aims to shed light on this latter topic, discussing if being a native-speaker immigrant in the host country or, for those immigrants who are non-native speakers, having a stronger command of the destination-language may increase their likelihood of interacting with the native population. Moreover, we question if there are significant differences in the interaction patterns between these two groups and the natives, presenting the cities of Bilbao, Lisbon and Rotterdam as a territorial frame. The analysis is based on data gathered through the GEITONIES survey. The results obtained indicate that native-speaker immigrants generally tend to show more interaction with the natives. Nevertheless, for immigrants not sharing such cultural similarity, those with a higher level of second-language proficiency clearly show stronger bonds with the native population; in both cases this can also be related to individual, group or place related variables.

Word Order in Russian Sign Language

Science.gov (United States)

Kimmelman, Vadim

2012-01-01

In this paper the results of an investigation of word order in Russian Sign Language (RSL) are presented. A small corpus of narratives based on comic strips by nine native signers was analyzed and a picture-description experiment (based on Volterra et al. 1984) was conducted with six native signers. The results are the following: the most frequent…

Working Memory and Language: An Overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Baddeley, Alan

2003-01-01

This article introduces the concept of a multi-component working memory. Emphasis is placed on the phonological loop component, its fractionation into a storage and processing component, and implications for native and second language learning. An overview of the visual spatial sketchpad and its possible role in language is provided. (Contains…

Dna c-values of 20 invasive alien species and 3 native species in south china

OpenAIRE

Gong Ni; Wang Yu-Tao; Björn Lars Olof; Li Shao-Shan

2014-01-01

Cultivated fields and forests in South China are experiencing serious damage due to invasive alien plants. We investigated the relation between DNA C-values and invasiveness. The DNA C-values of 23 species ranged from 0.39 pg to 3.37 pg. Herbs, perennials and native species had higher mean DNA C-values than shrubs, annuals and invasive alien species. DNA C-values decreased with increasing invasiveness. Paederia scandens, a harmful native species, has the lo...

English Language Teacher Education Research Colloquium Who Should Be Teachers of English?

OpenAIRE

Yıldıran, Güzver

2015-01-01

The problems related to native versus non-native teachers of English are discussed. The possible lack of knowledge of the cultural background of the language to be taught by non-native teachers is juxtaposed against the transmission of values related to cultural superiority by native English speaking teachers.

125 The Fading Phase of Igbo Language and Culture: Path to its ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tracie1

favour of foreign language (and culture). They also ... native language, and children are unable to learn a language not spoken ... shielding them off their mother tongue”. ..... the effect endangered language has on the existence of the owners.

Investigating digital native female learners’ attitudes towards paperless language learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsoghik Grigoryan

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This study is an investigation of paperless language learning in the context of the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of this study was to examine Emirati level 1 English language learners’ attitudes towards the iPad use as a means of language learning. It was done through a cross-sectional survey questionnaire, wholly composed of fixed-choice questions, and through weekly reflective journals that were written by the teachers teaching the groups. The survey collected data through a questionnaire from 80 students who had been exposed to paperless language learning for a duration of 80 teaching periods. The data collected showed positive student attitudes towards iPad implementation as a language learning tool in terms of learner satisfaction, motivation, perceived tool usefulness and learning effectiveness. Reflective journal analysis showed that the digital world presents the students with a direct link between the effort taken and the reward received, whereas the feedback or the reward given by the teachers in the traditional classroom was either too nebulous or too slow to motivate students to keep the pace of progressive learning.

The impact of study abroad on Japanese language learners’ social networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rikki Campbell

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Study abroad is commonly believed to be an ideal environment for second language acquisition to take place, due to the increased opportunities for interaction with native speakers that it is considered to offer. However, several studies have challenged these beliefs, finding that study abroad students were disappointed with the degree of out-of-class interaction they had with native speakers. It is therefore important to gain an understanding of the study abroad context and the factors that promote and constrain opportunities for second language (L2 interaction. This paper examines the complexities behind six Japanese language learners’ interaction and social relationships with native speakers through analysis of their social networks before, during, and after a study abroad period in Japan. It also compares the networks that were formed in an urban and a regional setting in Australia. The paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits of study abroad and offers several implications for foreign language teaching and study abroad program development.

Communicative language teaching in Georgia : from theory to practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Edisherashvili, Natalia

2014-01-01

In a globalizing world, the majority of language learners need to study foreign languages for real-life purposes, in order to be able to communicate beyond the bounds of their own country. This is especially important for the populations of smaller countries such as Georgia, whose native language is

Communication and Gamification in the Web-Based Foreign Language Educational System: Web- Based Foreign Language Educational System

Science.gov (United States)

Osipov, Ilya V.; Volinsky, Alex A.; Nikulchev, Evgeny; Prasikova, Anna Y.

2016-01-01

The paper describes development of the educational online web communication platform for teaching and learning foreign languages. The main objective was to develop a web application for teaching foreigners to understand casual fluent speech. The system is based on the time bank principle, allowing users to teach others their native language along…

The Impact of Text Structure Reading Strategy Instruction in a Second Language: Benefits across Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Ana Isabel; Mendoza, Laura; Meyer, Bonnie

2017-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of learning a text structure strategy (TSS) for improving reading comprehension and recall for second language (L2) learners, as well as to test for transfer of the strategy to the native language (L1). University L2 learners of English completed a five-session course on using the TSS to…

The Representation and Execution of Articulatory Timing in First and Second Language Acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Redford, Melissa A; Oh, Grace E

2017-07-01

The early acquisition of language-specific temporal patterns relative to the late development of speech motor control suggests a dissociation between the representation and execution of articulatory timing. The current study tested for such a dissociation in first and second language acquisition. American English-speaking children (5- and 8-year-olds) and Korean-speaking adult learners of English repeatedly produced real English words in a simple carrier sentence. The words were designed to elicit different language-specific vowel length contrasts. Measures of absolute duration and variability in single vowel productions were extracted to evaluate the realization of contrasts (representation) and to index speech motor abilities (execution). Results were mostly consistent with a dissociation. Native English-speaking children produced the same language-specific temporal patterns as native English-speaking adults, but their productions were more variable than the adults'. In contrast, Korean-speaking adult learners of English typically produced different temporal patterns than native English-speaking adults, but their productions were as stable as the native speakers'. Implications of the results are discussed with reference to different models of speech production.

Lost in Translation: Product Label Language and the Mediating Role of Authenticity on Purchase Intention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chrysochou, Polymeros; Traganou, Maria

2018-01-01

Should an exported product that is produced in a specific country keep the native language on its label or not? In this study, we explore how the role of native language of an origin-labelled product impacts consumer response. Based on an online experiment with consumers in the US (N=981) using...... as stimuli an olive oil product originating from Tunisia, our findings suggest that the presence of native language on a product’s label has a positive effect on product authenticity, which, in turn, increases purchase intention. However, this process is conditional on country of origin (COO) preferences...

Pharmaceutical health care and Inuit language communications in Nunavut, Canada

OpenAIRE

Romain, Sandra J.

2013-01-01

Background. Pharmaceutical communication is an essential component of pharmaceutical health care, optimally ensuring patients understand the proper administration and side effects of their medications. Communication can often be complicated by language and culture, but with pharmaceuticals, misunderstandings can prove particularly harmful. In Nunavut, to ensure the preservation and revitalization of Inuit languages, the Inuit Language Protection Act and Official Languages Act were passed requ...

The neural correlates of highly iconic structures and topographic discourse in French Sign Language as observed in six hearing native signers.

Science.gov (United States)

Courtin, C; Hervé, P-Y; Petit, L; Zago, L; Vigneau, M; Beaucousin, V; Jobard, G; Mazoyer, B; Mellet, E; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N

2010-09-01

"Highly iconic" structures in Sign Language enable a narrator to act, switch characters, describe objects, or report actions in four-dimensions. This group of linguistic structures has no real spoken-language equivalent. Topographical descriptions are also achieved in a sign-language specific manner via the use of signing-space and spatial-classifier signs. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the neural correlates of topographic discourse and highly iconic structures in French Sign Language (LSF) in six hearing native signers, children of deaf adults (CODAs), and six LSF-naïve monolinguals. LSF materials consisted of videos of a lecture excerpt signed without spatially organized discourse or highly iconic structures (Lect LSF), a tale signed using highly iconic structures (Tale LSF), and a topographical description using a diagrammatic format and spatial-classifier signs (Topo LSF). We also presented texts in spoken French (Lect French, Tale French, Topo French) to all participants. With both languages, the Topo texts activated several different regions that are involved in mental navigation and spatial working memory. No specific correlate of LSF spatial discourse was evidenced. The same regions were more activated during Tale LSF than Lect LSF in CODAs, but not in monolinguals, in line with the presence of signing-space structure in both conditions. Motion processing areas and parts of the fusiform gyrus and precuneus were more active during Tale LSF in CODAs; no such effect was observed with French or in LSF-naïve monolinguals. These effects may be associated with perspective-taking and acting during personal transfers. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Which English? Whose English? An Investigation of "Non-Native" Teachers' Beliefs about Target Varieties

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Tony Johnstone; Walsh, Steve

2010-01-01

This study explored the beliefs of "non-native English speaking" teachers about the usefulness and appropriacy of varieties such as English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), compared with native speaker varieties. The study therefore addresses the current theoretical debate concerning "appropriate" target…

STUDENTS WRITING EMAILS TO FACULTY: AN EXAMINATION OF E-POLITENESS AMONG NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas

2007-02-01

Full Text Available This study combines interlanguage pragmatics and speech act research with computer-mediated communication and examines how native and non-native speakers of English formulate low- and high-imposition requests to faculty. While some research claims that email, due to absence of non-verbal cues, encourages informal language, other research has claimed the opposite. However, email technology also allows writers to plan and revise messages before sending them, thus affording the opportunity to edit not only for grammar and mechanics, but also for pragmatic clarity and politeness.The study examines email requests sent by native and non-native English speaking graduate students to faculty at a major American university over a period of several semesters and applies Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper’s (1989 speech act analysis framework – quantitatively to distinguish levels of directness, i.e. pragmatic clarity; and qualitatively to compare syntactic and lexical politeness devices, the request perspectives, and the specific linguistic request realization patterns preferred by native and non-native speakers. Results show that far more requests are realized through direct strategies as well as hints than conventionally indirect strategies typically found in comparative speech act studies. Politeness conventions in email, a text-only medium with little guidance in the academic institutional hierarchy, appear to be a work in progress, and native speakers demonstrate greater resources in creating e-polite messages to their professors than non-native speakers. A possible avenue for pedagogical intervention with regard to instruction in and acquisition of politeness routines in hierarchically upward email communication is presented.

THE WORDPLAY OF ‘THE BIG BANG THEORY’ MOVIE SUBTITLE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sang Ayu Isnu Maharani

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This study aims to describe the type of wordplay in the subtitle of the movie entitled ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and also to describe the technique applied in translating the wordplay. This study is a descriptive qualitative and library study. The data was collected through observation and note taking techniques. The framework of this study is Delabatista (1993 concerning with types of wordplay translation and Humanika (2012 about the techniques to translate the wordplay. This study found that there are three types of wordplay; they are the phonological structure (homonymy and homophony, the lexical development (idiom and the syntactic structure. The techniques of translating wordplay found consist of literal translation, loan translation, situational translation and no translation.

Self-harm

Science.gov (United States)

Self-harm refers to a person's harming their own body on purpose. About 1 in 100 people hurts himself or herself in this way. More females hurt themselves than males. A person who self-harms usually does not mean to kill himself or herself. But they are at higher risk of attempting suicide if they do ...

Rational Deletion Cloze Processing Strategies: ESL and Native English.

Science.gov (United States)

Markham, Paul L.

1987-01-01

Explores cloze sensitivity to global comprehension by means of retrospective interview techniques. No significant differences were found between English as a second language (ESL) college students (N=14) and native English-speaking students (N=14) in their processing strategies. (Author/CB)

Harm reduction in U.S. tobacco control: Constructions in textual news media.

Science.gov (United States)

Eversman, Michael H

2015-06-01

U.S. tobacco control has long emphasized abstinence, yet quitting smoking is hard and cessation rates low. Tobacco harm reduction alternatives espouse substituting cigarettes with safer nicotine and tobacco products. Policy shifts embracing tobacco harm reduction have increased media attention, yet it remains controversial. Discourse theory posits language as fluid, and socially constructed meaning as neither absolute nor neutral, elevating certain views over others while depicting "discursive struggle" between them. While an abstinence-based framework dominates tobacco policy, discourse theory suggests constructions of nicotine and tobacco use can change, for example by positioning tobacco harm reduction more favorably. Textual discourse analysis was used to explore constructions of tobacco harm reduction in 478 (308 original) U.S. textual news media articles spanning 1996-2014. Using keyword database sampling, retrieved articles were analyzed first as discrete recording units and then to identify emergent thematic content. Constructions of tobacco harm reduction shifted over this time, revealing tension among industry and policy interests through competing definitions of tobacco harm reduction, depictions of its underlying science, and accounts of regulatory matters including tobacco industry support for harm reduction and desired marketing and taxation legislation. Heightened salience surrounding tobacco harm reduction and electronic cigarettes suggests their greater acceptance in U.S. tobacco control. Various media depictions construct harm reduction as a temporary means to cessation, and conflict with other constructions of it that place no subjective value on continued "safer" tobacco/nicotine use. Constructions of science largely obscure claims of the veracity of tobacco harm reduction, with conflict surrounding appropriate public health benchmarks for tobacco policy and health risks of nicotine use. Taxation policies and e-cigarette pricing relative to

Sharing programming resources between Bio* projects through remote procedure call and native call stack strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Prins, Pjotr; Goto, Naohisa; Yates, Andrew; Gautier, Laurent; Willis, Scooter; Fields, Christopher; Katayama, Toshiaki

2012-01-01

Open-source software (OSS) encourages computer programmers to reuse software components written by others. In evolutionary bioinformatics, OSS comes in a broad range of programming languages, including C/C++, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, and R. To avoid writing the same functionality multiple times for different languages, it is possible to share components by bridging computer languages and Bio* projects, such as BioPerl, Biopython, BioRuby, BioJava, and R/Bioconductor. In this chapter, we compare the two principal approaches for sharing software between different programming languages: either by remote procedure call (RPC) or by sharing a local call stack. RPC provides a language-independent protocol over a network interface; examples are RSOAP and Rserve. The local call stack provides a between-language mapping not over the network interface, but directly in computer memory; examples are R bindings, RPy, and languages sharing the Java Virtual Machine stack. This functionality provides strategies for sharing of software between Bio* projects, which can be exploited more often. Here, we present cross-language examples for sequence translation, and measure throughput of the different options. We compare calling into R through native R, RSOAP, Rserve, and RPy interfaces, with the performance of native BioPerl, Biopython, BioJava, and BioRuby implementations, and with call stack bindings to BioJava and the European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite. In general, call stack approaches outperform native Bio* implementations and these, in turn, outperform RPC-based approaches. To test and compare strategies, we provide a downloadable BioNode image with all examples, tools, and libraries included. The BioNode image can be run on VirtualBox-supported operating systems, including Windows, OSX, and Linux.

The interaction between acoustic salience and language experience in developmental speech perception: evidence from nasal place discrimination.

Science.gov (United States)

Narayan, Chandan R; Werker, Janet F; Beddor, Patrice Speeter

2010-05-01

Previous research suggests that infant speech perception reorganizes in the first year: young infants discriminate both native and non-native phonetic contrasts, but by 10-12 months difficult non-native contrasts are less discriminable whereas performance improves on native contrasts. In the current study, four experiments tested the hypothesis that, in addition to the influence of native language experience, acoustic salience also affects the perceptual reorganization that takes place in infancy. Using a visual habituation paradigm, two nasal place distinctions that differ in relative acoustic salience, acoustically robust labial-alveolar [ma]-[na] and acoustically less salient alveolar-velar [na]-[ enga], were presented to infants in a cross-language design. English-learning infants at 6-8 and 10-12 months showed discrimination of the native and acoustically robust [ma]-[na] (Experiment 1), but not the non-native (in initial position) and acoustically less salient [na]-[ enga] (Experiment 2). Very young (4-5-month-old) English-learning infants tested on the same native and non-native contrasts also showed discrimination of only the [ma]-[na] distinction (Experiment 3). Filipino-learning infants, whose ambient language includes the syllable-initial alveolar (/n/)-velar (/ eng/) contrast, showed discrimination of native [na]-[ enga] at 10-12 months, but not at 6-8 months (Experiment 4). These results support the hypothesis that acoustic salience affects speech perception in infancy, with native language experience facilitating discrimination of an acoustically similar phonetic distinction [na]-[ enga]. We discuss the implications of this developmental profile for a comprehensive theory of speech perception in infancy.

Non-Native Language Exposure Promotes Children's Willingness to Accept Labels in Two Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Rojo, Dolly P.; Echols, Catharine H.

2018-01-01

Bilingualism has been associated with a range of cognitive and language-related advantages, including the recognition that words can have different labels across languages. However, most previous research has failed to consider heterogeneity in the linguistic environments of children categorized as monolingual. Our study assessed the influence of…

La lengua y la identidad (Language and Identity).

Science.gov (United States)

Blanco Lazaro, Enrique T.

1980-01-01

Discusses the links among native language, personal identity and ethnicity. Sees language as the carrier of all the values and qualities that distinguish an individual and a people, as the prime repository of a culture, and the foundation of its institution. (MES)

76 FR 76603 - Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Educational Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-08

..., including Native language immersion programs, that encourage the learning and development of AI/AN children... Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1059c). Sec. 3. White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education. (a) Establishment. There is hereby established the White House Initiative on American Indian and...

Implementing Language Acquisition in Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Carrigan, Richard P.

2009-01-01

Ads that read, "If you can speak it, you can teach it," attracted thousands of young people to travel the world to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). English language schools of the 1960s and 1970s flourished with the influx of native speakers who were given a scripted textbook with all the "right" things to say. However, by the end of the…

Predictors and Outcomes of Early vs. Later English Language Proficiency Among English Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Halle, Tamara; Hair, Elizabeth; Wandner, Laura; McNamara, Michelle; Chien, Nina

2011-01-01

The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children’s growth and development. PMID:22389551

LingoBee: Engaging Mobile Language Learners through Crowd-Sourcing

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Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Procter-Legg, Emma; Cacchione, Annamaria

2014-01-01

This paper describes three case studies, where language learners were invited to use "LingoBee" as a means of supporting their language learning. LingoBee is a mobile app that provides user-generated language content in a cloud-based shared repository. Assuming that today's students are mobile savvy and "Digital Natives" able…

Integrating Mobile Technologies into Very Young Second Language Learners' Curriculum

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Sadykova, Gulnara; Gimaletdinova, Gulnara; Khalitova, Liliia; Kayumova, Albina

2016-01-01

This report is based on an exploratory case study of a private multilingual preschool language program that integrated a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) project into the curriculum of five/six year-old children whose native language(s) is/are Russian and/or Tatar. The purpose of the study was to reveal teachers' and parents' perceptions…

Language Muse: Automated Linguistic Activity Generation for English Language Learners

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Madnani, Nitin; Burstein, Jill; Sabatini, John; Biggers, Kietha; Andreyev, Slava

2016-01-01

Current education standards in the U.S. require school students to read and understand complex texts from different subject areas (e.g., social studies). However, such texts usually contain figurative language, complex phrases and sentences, as well as unfamiliar discourse relations. This may present an obstacle to students whose native language…

What’s the Harm? Harms in Research with Adults with Intellectual Disability

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McDonald, Katherine E.; Conroy, Nicole E.; Olick, Robert S.

2017-01-01

Scientific advances can improve the lives of adults with intellectual disability, yet concerns that research participation may impose harm impede scientific progress. What counts as harmful can be subjective and perceptions of harm may vary among stakeholders. We studied perspectives on the harmfulness of research events among adults with intellectual disability, family members and friends, disability service providers, researchers, and Institutional Review Board members. We found considerable variance. For example, adults with intellectual disability see exclusion from research as more harmful, but most psychosocial harms as less significant than others. All stakeholders agree that having someone else make the participation decision is harmful. Findings provide insights into the concept of harm and ethical research with adults with intellectual disability. PMID:28095059

Culture and Language Learning: Middle Eastern Students.

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Magrath, Douglas

Middle Eastern students face cultural conflicts in adapting to the western value system. While feeling obligated to maintain their native culture they also need to feel comfortable with the culture of their target language. In attempting to identify with a new group, ESL students may sense a loss of membership in their native group. Culture stress…

A Literary Approach to Teaching English Language in a Multicultural Classroom

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Choudhary, Sanju

2016-01-01

Literature is not generally considered as a coherent branch of the curriculum in relation to language development in either native or foreign language teaching. As teachers of English in multicultural Indian classrooms, we come across students with varying degrees of competence in English language learning. Although language learning is a natural…

Does Mother Tongue Interfere in Second Language Learning?

OpenAIRE

Denizer, Elif Nur

2017-01-01

Mother tongue largely refers to not only the language one learns from one’s mother but also the speaker’s dominant and home language. It’s also called native language. This study was conducted to find whether mother tongue interferences in second-language learning, and if so; whether it affects the learners’ performance in four language skills, and also in which skill(s) it has the biggest effect. Data collection tool included a questionnaire by which participants were asked to rate the quest...

The Role of Colloquial French in Communication and Implications for Language Instruction

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Bonin, Therese M.

1978-01-01

This article discusses comprehension problems encountered by students of French as a second language as a result of the mismatch between the standard language they learn in classrooms and the language used by native speakers. (CLK)

Essays on economics of language and family economics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yao, Yuxin

2017-01-01

The thesis consists of four chapters in economics of language and family economics. Chapter 2 studies how language problems in Dutch affect labor market performance on immigrants. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of dialect-speaking on native Dutch residents. Chapter 4 studies the effects of

THE REFLECTION OF BILINGUALISM IN THE SPEECH OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN SPEAKING NATIVE (ERZYA AND NON-NATIVE (RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

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Mosina, N.M.

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This article considers the specific features of Mordovian speech of 16 bilingual children, aged 3 to 7 years, speaking both the Erzya and Russian languages, living in Mordovia. Their language is studied on the example of short stories in pictures, and it attempts to identify the influence of the Russian language on the Erzya one and to detect the occurrences of interference at the lexical and grammatical levels.

Research on Translation Strategy of English Subtitle Television Drama for College Students based on Cultural Differences

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Zhou Gang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract. Translation strategy is closely-tied with the translation of ESTD (English Subtitle Television Drama. The research of translation strategy is to serve translations of ESTD in earlier days. The 21 S century is the information times. The development of science and technology is quick. Quantities of ESTD grow explosively. Translations of English Subtitle Television Dramas play a significant role in the progress of Chinese science and technology. Although the quality of traditional manual translations is very good, the speed of translation is too slow. Traditional manual translations can not meet the need of translations of ESTD day by day. It is a new topic to face the new stern challenge and follow the development's steps of the times for technical translators. The paper will discuss the transformation of translation idea, and suggest carrying on translation strategy, web page translation and software translation. Finally, the author states her views on the implementation of computer assistant translation, the managements of translation projects and information-shared platform.

The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense/lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners.

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Kondaurova, Maria V; Francis, Alexander L

2008-12-01

Two studies explored the role of native language use of an acoustic cue, vowel duration, in both native and non-native contexts in order to test the hypothesis that non-native listeners' reliance on vowel duration instead of vowel quality to distinguish the English tense/lax vowel contrast could be explained by the role of duration as a cue in native phonological contrasts. In the first experiment, native Russian, Spanish, and American English listeners identified stimuli from a beat/bit continuum varying in nine perceptually equal spectral and duration steps. English listeners relied predominantly on spectrum, but showed some reliance on duration. Russian and Spanish speakers relied entirely on duration. In the second experiment, three tests examined listeners' use of vowel duration in native contrasts. Duration was equally important for the perception of lexical stress for all three groups. However, English listeners relied more on duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing than did native Spanish or Russian listeners, and Spanish listeners relied on duration more than did Russian listeners. Results suggest that, although allophonic experience may contribute to cross-language perceptual patterns, other factors such as the application of statistical learning mechanisms and the influence of language-independent psychoacoustic proclivities cannot be ruled out.

The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense∕lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners

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Kondaurova, Maria V.; Francis, Alexander L.

2008-01-01

Two studies explored the role of native language use of an acoustic cue, vowel duration, in both native and non-native contexts in order to test the hypothesis that non-native listeners’ reliance on vowel duration instead of vowel quality to distinguish the English tense∕lax vowel contrast could be explained by the role of duration as a cue in native phonological contrasts. In the first experiment, native Russian, Spanish, and American English listeners identified stimuli from a beat∕bit continuum varying in nine perceptually equal spectral and duration steps. English listeners relied predominantly on spectrum, but showed some reliance on duration. Russian and Spanish speakers relied entirely on duration. In the second experiment, three tests examined listeners’ use of vowel duration in native contrasts. Duration was equally important for the perception of lexical stress for all three groups. However, English listeners relied more on duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing than did native Spanish or Russian listeners, and Spanish listeners relied on duration more than did Russian listeners. Results suggest that, although allophonic experience may contribute to cross-language perceptual patterns, other factors such as the application of statistical learning mechanisms and the influence of language-independent psychoacoustic proclivities cannot be ruled out. PMID:19206820

Learning language with the wrong neural scaffolding: The cost of neural commitment to sounds.

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Amy Sue Finn

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Does tuning to one’s native language explain the sensitive period for language learning? We explore the idea that tuning to (or becoming more selective for the properties of one’s native-language could result in being less open (or plastic for tuning to the properties of a new language. To explore how this might lead to the sensitive period for grammar learning, we ask if tuning to an earlier-learned aspect of language (sound structure has an impact on the neural representation of a later-learned aspect (grammar. English-speaking adults learned one of two miniature artificial languages over 4 days in the lab. Compared to English, both languages had novel grammar, but only one was comprised of novel sounds. After learning a language, participants were scanned while judging the grammaticality of sentences. Judgments were performed for the newly learned language and English. Learners of the similar-sounds language recruited regions that overlapped more with English. Learners of the distinct-sounds language, however, recruited the Superior Temporal Gyrus (STG to a greater extent, which was coactive with the Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG. Across learners, recruitment of IFG (but not STG predicted both learning success in tests conducted prior to the scan and grammatical judgment ability during the scan. Data suggest that adults’ difficulty learning language, especially grammar, could be due, at least in part, to the neural commitments they have made to the lower level linguistic components of their native language.

Learning language with the wrong neural scaffolding: the cost of neural commitment to sounds

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Finn, Amy S.; Hudson Kam, Carla L.; Ettlinger, Marc; Vytlacil, Jason; D'Esposito, Mark

2013-01-01

Does tuning to one's native language explain the “sensitive period” for language learning? We explore the idea that tuning to (or becoming more selective for) the properties of one's native-language could result in being less open (or plastic) for tuning to the properties of a new language. To explore how this might lead to the sensitive period for grammar learning, we ask if tuning to an earlier-learned aspect of language (sound structure) has an impact on the neural representation of a later-learned aspect (grammar). English-speaking adults learned one of two miniature artificial languages (MALs) over 4 days in the lab. Compared to English, both languages had novel grammar, but only one was comprised of novel sounds. After learning a language, participants were scanned while judging the grammaticality of sentences. Judgments were performed for the newly learned language and English. Learners of the similar-sounds language recruited regions that overlapped more with English. Learners of the distinct-sounds language, however, recruited the Superior Temporal Gyrus (STG) to a greater extent, which was coactive with the Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG). Across learners, recruitment of IFG (but not STG) predicted both learning success in tests conducted prior to the scan and grammatical judgment ability during the scan. Data suggest that adults' difficulty learning language, especially grammar, could be due, at least in part, to the neural commitments they have made to the lower level linguistic components of their native language. PMID:24273497

A cross-case analysis of three Native Science Field Centers

Science.gov (United States)

Augare, Helen J.; Davíd-Chavez, Dominique M.; Groenke, Frederick I.; Little Plume-Weatherwax, Melissa; Lone Fight, Lisa; Meier, Gene; Quiver-Gaddie, Helene; Returns From Scout, Elvin; Sachatello-Sawyer, Bonnie; St. Pierre, Nate; Valdez, Shelly; Wippert, Rachel

2017-06-01

Native Science Field Centers (NSFCs) were created to engage youth and adults in environmental science activities through the integration of traditional Native ways of knowing (understanding about the natural world based on centuries of observation including philosophy, worldview, cosmology, and belief systems of Indigenous peoples), Native languages, and Western science concepts. This paper focuses on the Blackfeet Native Science Field Center, the Lakota Native Science Field Center, and the Wind River Native Science Field Center. One of the long-term, overarching goals of these NSFCs was to stimulate the interest of Native American students in ways that encouraged them to pursue academic and career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. A great deal can be learned from the experiences of the NSFCs in terms of effective educational strategies, as well as advantages and challenges in blending Native ways of knowing and Western scientific knowledge in an informal science education setting. Hopa Mountain—a Bozeman, Montana-based nonprofit—partnered with the Blackfeet Community College on the Blackfeet Reservation, Fremont County School District #21 on the Wind River Reservation, and Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation to cooperatively establish the Native Science Field Centers. This paper presents a profile of each NSFC and highlights their program components and accomplishments.

ERP correlates of German Sign Language processing in deaf native signers.

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Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Skotara, Nils; Kügow, Monique; Salden, Uta; Bottari, Davide; Röder, Brigitte

2014-05-10

The present study investigated the neural correlates of sign language processing of Deaf people who had learned German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) from their Deaf parents as their first language. Correct and incorrect signed sentences were presented sign by sign on a computer screen. At the end of each sentence the participants had to judge whether or not the sentence was an appropriate DGS sentence. Two types of violations were introduced: (1) semantically incorrect sentences containing a selectional restriction violation (implausible object); (2) morphosyntactically incorrect sentences containing a verb that was incorrectly inflected (i.e., incorrect direction of movement). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 74 scalp electrodes. Semantic violations (implausible signs) elicited an N400 effect followed by a positivity. Sentences with a morphosyntactic violation (verb agreement violation) elicited a negativity followed by a broad centro-parietal positivity. ERP correlates of semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of DGS clearly differed from each other and showed a number of similarities with those observed in other signed and oral languages. These data suggest a similar functional organization of signed and oral languages despite the visual-spacial modality of sign language.

Classroom tandem – Outlining a model for language learning and ınstruction

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Katri Karjalaınen

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to outline classroom tandem by comparing it with informal tandem learning contexts and other language instruction methods. Classroom tandem is used for second language instruction in mixed language groups in the subjects of Finnish and Swedish as L2. Tandem learning entails that two persons with different mother tongues learn each other’s native languages in reciprocal cooperation. The students function, in turns, as a second language learner and as a model in the native language. We aim to give an overview description of the interaction in classroom tandem practice. The empirical data consists of longitudinal video recordings of meetings of one tandem dyad within a co-located Swedishmedium and Finnish-medium school. Focus in the analysis is on the language aspects the informants orient to and topicalize in their interaction. The language aspects vary depending on what classroom activities they are engaged in, text-based or oral activities.

Understanding native Russian listeners' errors on an English word recognition test: model-based analysis of phoneme confusion.

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Shi, Lu-Feng; Morozova, Natalia

2012-08-01

Word recognition is a basic component in a comprehensive hearing evaluation, but data are lacking for listeners speaking two languages. This study obtained such data for Russian natives in the US and analysed the data using the perceptual assimilation model (PAM) and speech learning model (SLM). Listeners were randomly presented 200 NU-6 words in quiet. Listeners responded verbally and in writing. Performance was scored on words and phonemes (word-initial consonants, vowels, and word-final consonants). Seven normal-hearing, adult monolingual English natives (NM), 16 English-dominant (ED), and 15 Russian-dominant (RD) Russian natives participated. ED and RD listeners differed significantly in their language background. Consistent with the SLM, NM outperformed ED listeners and ED outperformed RD listeners, whether responses were scored on words or phonemes. NM and ED listeners shared similar phoneme error patterns, whereas RD listeners' errors had unique patterns that could be largely understood via the PAM. RD listeners had particular difficulty differentiating vowel contrasts /i-I/, /æ-ε/, and /ɑ-Λ/, word-initial consonant contrasts /p-h/ and /b-f/, and word-final contrasts /f-v/. Both first-language phonology and second-language learning history affect word and phoneme recognition. Current findings may help clinicians differentiate word recognition errors due to language background from hearing pathologies.

Vietnamese American Experiences of English Language Learning: Ethnic Acceptance and Prejudice

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Jeffrey LaBelle

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the effects of ethnic acceptance and prejudice on English language learning among immigrant nonnative speakers. During 2004 and 2005, the author conducted participatory dialogues among six Vietnamese and Mexican adult immigrant English language learners. The researcher sought to answer five questions: (1 What are some nonnative English speakers’ experience regarding the way native speakers treat them? (2 How have nonnative English speakers’ experiences of ethnic acceptance or ethnic prejudice affected their learning of English? (3 What do nonnative English speakers think they need in order to lower their anxiety as they learn a new language? (4 What can native English speakers do to lower nonnative speakers’ anxiety? (5 What can nonnative English speakers do to lower their anxiety with native English speakers? Even though many of the adult immigrant participants experienced ethnic prejudice, they developed strategies to overcome anxiety, frustration, and fear. The dialogues generated themes of acceptance, prejudice, power, motivation, belonging, and perseverance, all factors essential to consider when developing English language learning programs for adult immigrants.

Doctor-certified sickness absence in first and second trimesters of pregnancy among native and immigrant women in Norway.

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Brekke, Idunn; Berg, John E; Sletner, Line; Jenum, Anne Karen

2013-03-01

The authors sought to estimate differences in doctor-certified sickness absence during pregnancy among immigrant and native women. Population-based cohort study of pregnant women attending three Child Health Clinics in Groruddalen, Oslo, and their offspring. Questionnaire data were collected at gestational weeks 10-20 and 28. The participation rate was 74%. A multivariate Poisson regression was used to analyse differences in sickness absence in pregnancy between immigrant and native women. A total of 573 women who were employed prior to their pregnancies were included, 51% were immigrants. After adjusting for age, years of education, marital status, number of children, occupation, part-time/full-time work, health status, severe pregnancy-induced emesis and language proficiency, the immigrant/native differences in number of weeks with sickness absence decreased from 2.0 to 1.2 weeks. Part-time/full-time work, health status, severe pregnancy-induced emesis and language proficiency were significant predictors of sickness absence. Immigrant women had higher sickness absence than native women during pregnancy. The difference in average number of weeks between native and immigrant women was partly explained by poorer health status prior to pregnancy, severe pregnancy-induced emesis and poorer proficiency in the Norwegian language among the immigrant women.

Songs as Ambient Language Input in Phonology Acquisition

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Au, Terry Kit-fong

2013-01-01

Children cannot learn to speak a language simply from occasional noninteractive exposure to native speakers' input (e.g., by hearing television dialogues), but can they learn something about its phonology? To answer this question, the present study varied ambient hearing experience for 126 5- to 7-year-old native Cantonese-Chinese speakers…

Foreign language affects the contribution of intentions and outcomes to moral judgment.

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Geipel, Janet; Hadjichristidis, Constantinos; Surian, Luca

2016-09-01

We examine whether the use of a foreign language, as opposed to the native language, influences the relative weight intentions versus outcomes carry in moral evaluations. In Study 1, participants were presented with actions that had positive outcomes but were motivated by dubious intentions, while in Study 2 with actions that had negative outcomes but were motivated by positive intentions. Participants received the materials either in their native or a foreign language. Foreign language prompted more positive moral evaluations in Study 1 and less positive evaluations in Study 2. These results show that foreign language reduces the relative weight placed on intentions versus outcomes. We discuss several theoretical accounts that are consistent with the results such as that foreign language attenuates emotions (triggered by intentions) or it depletes cognitive resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Second Language Word Learning through Repetition and Imitation: Functional Networks as a Function of Learning Phase and Language Distance.

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Ghazi-Saidi, Ladan; Ansaldo, Ana Ines

2017-01-01

Introduction and Aim : Repetition and imitation are among the oldest second language (L2) teaching approaches and are frequently used in the context of L2 learning and language therapy, despite some heavy criticism. Current neuroimaging techniques allow the neural mechanisms underlying repetition and imitation to be examined. This fMRI study examines the influence of verbal repetition and imitation on network configuration. Integration changes within and between the cognitive control and language networks were studied, in a pair of linguistically close languages (Spanish and French), and compared to our previous work on a distant language pair (Ghazi-Saidi et al., 2013). Methods : Twelve healthy native Spanish-speaking (L1) adults, and 12 healthy native Persian-speaking adults learned 130 new French (L2) words, through a computerized audiovisual repetition and imitation program. The program presented colored photos of objects. Participants were instructed to look at each photo and pronounce its name as closely as possible to the native template (imitate). Repetition was encouraged as many times as necessary to learn the object's name; phonological cues were provided if necessary. Participants practiced for 15 min, over 30 days, and were tested while naming the same items during fMRI scanning, at week 1 (shallow learning phase) and week 4 (consolidation phase) of training. To compare this set of data with our previous work on Persian speakers, a similar data analysis plan including accuracy rates (AR), response times (RT), and functional integration values for the language and cognitive control network at each measure point was included, with further L1-L2 direct comparisons across the two populations. Results and Discussion : The evidence shows that learning L2 words through repetition induces neuroplasticity at the network level. Specifically, L2 word learners showed increased network integration after 3 weeks of training, with both close and distant language

Nuestra lengua en el Mundo (Our Language in the World)

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Rosenblat, Angel

1975-01-01

Reviews the spread of Spanish as a native, second or foreign language and shows that Latin America, rather than Spain, is now the center of gravity for that language. Gives a statistical distribution of the major languages throughout the world. The homogeneity of Spanish is mentioned. (Text is in Spanish.) (TL)

Propagation and Establishment of Native Plants for Vegetative Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-01

ERDC/EL TR-13-9 ii Abstract Aquatic plants are a vital, but often missing, component of shallow, freshwater systems. Manmade systems, such as... water quality problems; development of noxious algal blooms; and, often, susceptibility to invasion by harmful, non-native, aquatic weeds. If...emergent aquatic plants that we have successfully used in founder colony establishment in US water bodies. ............................................. 7

(In)Complete Acquisition of Aspect in Second Language and Heritage Russian

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Mikhaylova, Anna

2012-01-01

This dissertation compares the knowledge of Russian Verbal Aspect in two types of learners enrolled in college level Russian courses: foreign language learners of Russian whose native language is English and heritage language speakers of Russian whose dominant language at the time of study is English. Russian Aspect is known to be problematic both…

Teaching and Learning Language as Culture

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

刘朝晖

2007-01-01

It's important to master a foreign language, English in particular.But the problem is how students should learn in order to communicate well with the native speakers and even become members of the target language community.The author narrates two incidents related to the Chinese study and English study experiences, pointing out that language study can't be separated from culture study.In line with the research results by some language experts about culture, language is the carrier of culture as literature is accomplished through languages,therefore language learning and teaching in isolation from culture is impossible.The author argues that language should be taught and learnt in a cultural approach.But as a sword with double blades, cultural approach may lead to culture invasion, culture inequality and the loss of culture diversity.

What is preventable harm in healthcare? A systematic review of definitions

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Nabhan Mohammed

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Mitigating or reducing the risk of harm associated with the delivery of healthcare is a policy priority. While the risk of harm can be reduced in some instances (i.e. preventable, what constitutes preventable harm remains unclear. A standardized and clear definition of preventable harm is the first step towards safer and more efficient healthcare delivery system. We aimed to summarize the definitions of preventable harm and its conceptualization in healthcare. Methods We conducted a comprehensive electronic search of relevant databases from January 2001 to June 2011 for publications that reported a definition of preventable harm. Only English language publications were included. Definitions were coded for common concepts and themes. We included any study type, both original studies and reviews. Two reviewers screened the references for eligibility and 28% (127/460 were finally included. Data collected from studies included study type, description of the study population and setting, and data corresponding to the outcome of interest. Three reviewers extracted the data. The level of agreement between the reviewers was calculated. Results One hundred and twenty seven studies were eligible. The three most prevalent preventable harms in the included studies were: medication adverse events (33/127 studies, 26%, central line infections (7/127, 6% and venous thromboembolism (5/127, 4%. Seven themes or definitions for preventable harm were encountered. The top three were: presence of an identifiable modifiable cause (58/132 definitions, 44%, reasonable adaptation to a process will prevent future recurrence (30/132, 23%, adherence to guidelines (22/132, 16%. Data on the validity or operational characteristic (e.g., accuracy, reproducibility of definitions were limited. Conclusions There is limited empirical evidence of the validity and reliability of the available definitions of preventable harm, such that no single one is supported by

Linguistics, pedagogy and teaching of the language

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Álvaro William Santiago Galvis

2005-02-01

Full Text Available This article tackles the relationship that exists between linguistics and pedagogy with regards to pedagocical language practices. From this relationship, the approach that has been given to practical native language teaching can be determined as well as characterized. Finally, the paper provides reasons for the communicational approach to teaching spanish.   

Speaking out about physical harms from tobacco use: response to graphic warning labels among American Indian/Alaska Native communities.

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Patterson Silver Wolf, David A; Tovar, Molly; Thompson, Kellie; Ishcomer, Jamie; Kreuter, Matthew W; Caburnay, Charlene; Boyum, Sonia

2016-03-23

This study is the first to explore the impact of graphic cigarette labels with physical harm images on members of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. The aim of this article is to investigate how AI/AN respond to particular graphic warning labels. The parent study recruited smokers, at-risk smokers and non-smokers from three different age groups (youths aged 13-17 years, young adults aged 18-24 years and adults aged 25+ years) and five population subgroups with high smoking prevalence or smoking risk. Using nine graphic labels, this study collected participant data in the field via an iPad-administered survey and card sorting of graphic warning labels. This paper reports on findings for AI/AN participants. After viewing graphic warning labels, participants rated their likelihood of talking about smoking risks to friends, parents and siblings higher than their likelihood of talking to teachers and doctors. Further, this study found that certain labels (eg, the label of the toddler in the smoke cloud) made them think about their friends and family who smoke. Given the influence of community social networks on health beliefs and attitudes, health communication using graphic warning labels could effect change in the smoking habits of AI/AN community members. Study findings suggest that graphic labels could serve as stimuli for conversations about the risks of smoking among AI/AN community members, and could be an important element of a peer-to-peer smoking cessation effort. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Emergence of category-level sensitivities in non-native speech sound learning

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Emily eMyers

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Over the course of development, speech sounds that are contrastive in one’s native language tend to become perceived categorically: that is, listeners are unaware of variation within phonetic categories while showing excellent sensitivity to speech sounds that span linguistically meaningful phonetic category boundaries. The end stage of this developmental process is that the perceptual systems that handle acoustic-phonetic information show special tuning to native language contrasts, and as such, category-level information appears to be present at even fairly low levels of the neural processing stream. Research on adults acquiring non-native speech categories offers an avenue for investigating the interplay of category-level information and perceptual sensitivities to these sounds as speech categories emerge. In particular, one can observe the neural changes that unfold as listeners learn not only to perceive acoustic distinctions that mark non-native speech sound contrasts, but also to map these distinctions onto category-level representations. An emergent literature on the neural basis of novel and non-native speech sound learning offers new insight into this question. In this review, I will examine this literature in order to answer two key questions. First, where in the neural pathway does sensitivity to category-level phonetic information first emerge over the trajectory of speech sound learning? Second, how do frontal and temporal brain areas work in concert over the course of non-native speech sound learning? Finally, in the context of this literature I will describe a model of speech sound learning in which rapidly-adapting access to categorical information in the frontal lobes modulates the sensitivity of stable, slowly-adapting responses in the temporal lobes.

Teaching Arabic to Native Speakers Educational Games in a New Curriculum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alshikhabobakr, Hanan; Papadopoulos, Pantelis M.; Ibrahim, Zeinab

2016-01-01

This paper presents nine educational games and activities for learning the Arabic language developed for Arabiyyatii project, a three-year endeavor that involves re-conceptualization of the standard Arabic language learning curriculum as a first language for kindergarten students. The applications...... presented in this paper are developed for tabletop surface computers, which support a collaborative and interactive learning environment. These applications focus on speaking, word production, and sentence recognition of the Modern Standard Arabic to young native speakers. This work employs...... an interdisciplinary research framework, exploiting best practices used from related disciplines. Namely: computer-supported collaborative learning, language learning, teaching and learning pedagogy, instructional design and scaffolding....

LingoBee--Crowd-Sourced Mobile Language Learning in the Cloud

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Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Procter-Legg, Emma; Cacchione, Annamaria

2013-01-01

This paper describes three case studies, where language learners were invited to use "LingoBee" as a means of supporting their language learning. LingoBee is a mobile app that provides user-generated language content in a cloud-based shared repository. Assuming that today's students are mobile savvy and "Digital Natives" able…

The problems inherent in teaching technical writing and report writing to native Americans

Science.gov (United States)

Zukowski/faust, J.

1981-01-01

Teaching technical writing to Native Americans contending with a second language and culture is addressed. Learning difficulties arising from differences between native and acquired language and cultural systems are examined. Compartmentalized teaching, which presents the ideals of technical writing in minimal units, and skills development are considered. Rhetorical problems treated include logic of arrangement, selection of support and scope of detail, and time and space. Specific problems selected include the concept of promptness, the contextualization of purpose, interpersonal relationships, wordiness, mixture of registers, and the problem of abstracting. Four inductive procedures for students having writing and perception problems are included. Four sample exercises and a bibliography of 13 references are also included.

Effects of lips and hands on auditory learning of second-language speech sounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirata, Yukari; Kelly, Spencer D

2010-04-01

Previous research has found that auditory training helps native English speakers to perceive phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, but their performance did not reach native levels after training. Given that multimodal information, such as lip movement and hand gesture, influences many aspects of native language processing, the authors examined whether multimodal input helps to improve native English speakers' ability to perceive Japanese vowel length contrasts. Sixty native English speakers participated in 1 of 4 types of training: (a) audio-only; (b) audio-mouth; (c) audio-hands; and (d) audio-mouth-hands. Before and after training, participants were given phoneme perception tests that measured their ability to identify short and long vowels in Japanese (e.g., /kato/ vs. /kato/). Although all 4 groups improved from pre- to posttest (replicating previous research), the participants in the audio-mouth condition improved more than those in the audio-only condition, whereas the 2 conditions involving hand gestures did not. Seeing lip movements during training significantly helps learners to perceive difficult second-language phonemic contrasts, but seeing hand gestures does not. The authors discuss possible benefits and limitations of using multimodal information in second-language phoneme learning.

Non-native Speech Learning in Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Ingvalson, Erin M; Nowicki, Casandra; Zong, Audrey; Wong, Patrick C M

2017-01-01

Though there is an extensive literature investigating the ability of younger adults to learn non-native phonology, including investigations into individual differences in younger adults' lexical tone learning, very little is known about older adults' ability to learn non-native phonology, including lexical tone. There are several reasons to suspect that older adults would use different learning mechanisms when learning lexical tone than younger adults, including poorer perception of dynamic pitch, greater reliance on working memory capacity in second language learning, and poorer category learning in older adulthood. The present study examined the relationships among older adults' baseline sensitivity for pitch patterns, working memory capacity, and declarative memory capacity with their ability to learn to associate tone with lexical meaning. In older adults, baseline pitch pattern sensitivity was not associated with generalization performance. Rather, older adults' learning performance was best predicted by declarative memory capacity. These data suggest that training paradigms will need to be modified to optimize older adults' non-native speech sound learning success.

The relationship between mathematics and language: academic implications for children with specific language impairment and English language learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Alt, Mary; Arizmendi, Genesis D; Beal, Carole R

2014-07-01

The present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs). School-age children (N = 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native monolingual English [NE]) were assessed using a norm-referenced mathematics instrument and 3 experimental computer-based mathematics games that varied in language demands. Group means were compared with analyses of variance. The ELL group was less accurate than the NE group only when tasks were language heavy. In contrast, the group with SLI was less accurate than the groups with NE and ELLs on language-heavy tasks and some language-light tasks. Specifically, the group with SLI was less accurate on tasks that involved comparing numerical symbols and using visual working memory for patterns. However, there were no group differences between children with SLI and peers without SLI on language-light mathematics tasks that involved visual working memory for numerical symbols. Mathematical difficulties of children who are ELLs appear to be related to the language demands of mathematics tasks. In contrast, children with SLI appear to have difficulty with mathematics tasks because of linguistic as well as nonlinguistic processing constraints.

Critical Text Analysis: Linking Language and Cultural Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Wharton, Sue

2011-01-01

Many UK universities offer degree programmes in English Language specifically for non-native speakers of English. Such programmes typically include not only language development but also development in various areas of content knowledge. A challenge that arises is to design courses in different areas that mutually support each other, thus…

The SQL++ Query Language: Configurable, Unifying and Semi-structured

OpenAIRE

Ong, Kian Win; Papakonstantinou, Yannis; Vernoux, Romain

2014-01-01

NoSQL databases support semi-structured data, typically modeled as JSON. They also provide limited (but expanding) query languages. Their idiomatic, non-SQL language constructs, the many variations, and the lack of formal semantics inhibit deep understanding of the query languages, and also impede progress towards clean, powerful, declarative query languages. This paper specifies the syntax and semantics of SQL++, which is applicable to both JSON native stores and SQL databases. The SQL++ sem...

Personality expression in Chinese language use.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Lin; Lu, Jiahui; Ramsay, Jonathan; Yang, Shanshan; Qu, Weina; Zhu, Tingshao

2017-12-01

To date, little research has investigated personality expressions in languages other than English. Given that the Chinese language has the largest number of native speakers in the world, it is vitally important to examine the associations between personality and Chinese language use. In this research, we analysed Chinese microblogs and identified word categories and factorial structures associated with personality traits. We also compared our results with previous findings in English and showed that linguistic expression of personality has both universal- and language-specific aspects. Expression of personality via content words is more likely to be consistent across languages than expression via function words. This makes an important step towards uncovering universal patterns of personality expression in language. © 2016 International Union of Psychological Science.

Ownership and maintenance of a language in transnational use

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haberland, Hartmut

2011-01-01

education, due to increased transnational student mobility, university teacher mobility and offshore delivery of university education. In this paper it is argued that in discussing norms for international English, an ownership discourse and a maintenance (or cultivation) discourse should be distinguished......English is a very special language in that it has many more non-native speakers than native speakers, and that it is used in far more settings where there are no native speakers present than in those between or including native speakers. Many of these settings are within contexts of higher...

[Self-harming behaviour].

Science.gov (United States)

Kool, Nienke; Pollen, Wim; van Meijel, Berno

2010-01-01

To gain a better understanding of self-harm, a 28-year-old female patient and a 19-year-old female patient with self-harming behaviour are presented. The first patient refused treatment of cut wounds when the doctor enquired about the reason for self-harm. The second patient was referred for mental health care. These cases illustrate the complexity of this behaviour for the patient and the caregiver. Self-harm is often a symbol of underlying problems and serves multiple psychological functions. It is mostly used by patients to cope with unbearable emotions for which they have no other solution. The self-harm invokes different feelings in caregivers which tend to influence the attitude of the caregiver towards the patient. It is very important that caregivers are aware of their feelings and use them professionally. People who self-harm should not be judged, but treated respectfully and attention should be paid to their suffering.

Language policy and the disengagement of the international academic elite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Harbord

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the phenomena of academic multiliteracy (the habit of writing academically in more than one language and of L2 monoliteracy (that of only writing academically in a language that is not one’s own and their impact on policy. Based on interviews and surveys conducted with 33 multiliterate and 15 L2 monoliterate scholars connected to one university in Central Europe between 2010 and 2014, I show how incentives to publish in English constructed by educational policies often push ambitious young researchers whose first language is not English away from engaging in academic and societal debates in their first language community. They may thus disengage from the national community, with negative consequences for the interaction between global and local that is essential for good governance. To overcome the difficulty young scholars encounter in writing in their native languages, they should be taught writing both in their native language and in English. Furthermore, university and state policies should reward scholars for writing not only for the international community but also for local society.

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in Support of (Re)-Learning Native Languages: The Case of Runyakitara

Science.gov (United States)

Katushemererwe, Fridah; Nerbonne, John

2015-01-01

This study presents the results from a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system of Runyakitara (RU_CALL). The major objective was to provide an electronic language learning environment that can enable learners with mother tongue deficiencies to enhance their knowledge of grammar and acquire writing skills in Runyakitara. The system…

A cross-language study of perception of lexical stress in English.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Vickie Y; Andruski, Jean E

2010-08-01

This study investigates the question of whether language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English. Thirty native English speakers and 30 native Chinese learners of English participated in a stressed-syllable identification task and a discrimination task involving three types of stimuli (real words/pseudowords/hums). The results show that both language groups were able to identify and discriminate stress patterns. Lexical and segmental information affected the English and Chinese speakers in varying degrees. English and Chinese speakers showed different response patterns to trochaic vs. iambic stress across the three types of stimuli. An acoustic analysis revealed that two language groups used different acoustic cues to process lexical stress. The findings suggest that the different degrees of lexical and segmental effects can be explained by language background, which in turn supports the hypothesis that language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English.

A Selective Mutism Arising from First Language Attrition, Successfully Treated with Paroxetine-CBT Combination Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Serra, Agostino; Di Mauro, Paola; Andaloro, Claudio; Maiolino, Luigi; Pavone, Piero; Cocuzza, Salvatore

2015-10-01

After immersion in a foreign language, speakers often have difficulty retrieving native-language words and may experience a decrease in its proficiency, this phenomenon, in the non-pathological form, is known as first language attrition. Self-perception of this low native-language proficiency and apprehension occurring when speaking is expected and, may sometimes lead these people to a state of social anxiety and, in extreme forms, can involve the withholding of speech as a primitive tool for self-protection, linking them to selective mutism. We report an unusual case of selective mutism arising from first language attrition in an Italian girl after attending a two-year "German language school", who successfully responded to a paroxetine-cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) combination treatment.

Cross-language Babel structs—making scientific interfaces more efficient

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prantl, Adrian; Epperly, Thomas G W; Ebner, Dietmar

2013-01-01

Babel is an open-source language interoperability framework tailored to the needs of high-performance scientific computing. As an integral element of the Common Component Architecture, it is employed in a wide range of scientific applications where it is used to connect components written in different programming languages. In this paper we describe how we extended Babel to support interoperable tuple data types (structs). Structs are a common idiom in (mono-lingual) scientific application programming interfaces (APIs); they are an efficient way to pass tuples of nonuniform data between functions, and are supported natively by most programming languages. Using our extended version of Babel, developers of scientific codes can now pass structs as arguments between functions implemented in any of the supported languages. In C, C++, Fortran 2003/2008 and Chapel, structs can be passed without the overhead of data marshaling or copying, providing language interoperability at minimal cost. Other supported languages are Fortran 77, Fortran 90/95, Java and Python. We will show how we designed a struct implementation that is interoperable with all of the supported languages and present benchmark data to compare the performance of all language bindings, highlighting the differences between languages that offer native struct support and an object-oriented interface with getter/setter methods. A case study shows how structs can help simplify the interfaces of scientific codes significantly. (paper)

Biolinguistics or Physicolinguistics? Is the Third Factor Helpful or Harmful in Explaining Language?

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Sverker Johansson

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Noam Chomsky (2005 proposed that a ‘third factor’, consisting of general principles and natural laws, may explain core properties of language in a principled manner, minimizing the need for either genetic endowment or experience. But the focus on third-factor patterns in much recent bio-linguistic work is misguided for several reasons: First, ‘the’ third factor is a vague and disparate collection of unrelated components, useless as an analytical tool. Second, the vagueness of the third factor, together with the desire for principled explanations, too often leads to sweeping claims, such as syntax “coming for free, directly from physics”, that are unwarranted without a case-by-case causal analysis. Third, attention is diverted away from a proper causal analysis of language as a biological feature. The point with biolinguistics is to acknowledge the language faculty as a biological feature. The best way forward towards an understanding of language is to take the biology connection seriously, instead of dabbling with physics.

Autonomous Language Learning on Twitter: Performing Affiliation with Target Language Users through #hashtags

Science.gov (United States)

Solmaz, Osman

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential of social networking sites for autonomous language learners, specifically the role of hashtag literacies in learners' affiliation performances with native speakers. Informed by ecological approach and guided by Zappavigna's (2012) concepts of "searchable talk" and "ambient…

Repositioning Ghana Schools as English Language Learner Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Mark

2016-01-01

Although English has traditionally been the only language of instruction in Ghana, most young children do not speak English at home. This paper argues that students' academic performance might be improved if their native languages were also used in school. Such an approach offers benefits in areas such as classroom participation, engagement in…

Are long physician working hours harmful to patient safety?

Science.gov (United States)

Ehara, Akira

2008-04-01

Pediatricians of Japanese hospitals including not only residents but also attending physicians work long hours, and 8% work for >79 h per week. Most of them work consecutively for >or=32 h when they are on call. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of long work hours on patient safety. The electronic databases MEDLINE and EMBASE to searched identify the English- and Japanese-language literature for studies on work hours, medical errors, patient safety, and malpractice for years 1966-2005. Studies that analyzed the relationship between physician work hours and outcomes directly related to patient safety were selected. Seven studies met the criteria. Four studies suggest that reduction of work hours has a favorable effect on patient safety indicators. In the other three studies no significant changes of the indicators were observed, but no report found that shorter work hours were harmful to patient safety. Decrease of physician work hours is not harmful but favorable to patient safety.

The Influence of ative Language on Ghanaian Junior Secondary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

cce

School Students' Understanding of some Science Concepts ... Language is one of the various media through which every culture expresses its ... development of literacy in student's native language provides the social, cognitive, ..... three years of elementary school instruction in most cases, it is used for the greater.

A pilot study of language facilitation for bilingual, language-handicapped children: theoretical and intervention implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Perozzi, J A

1985-11-01

Three Spanish-speaking (SS) and 3 English-Speaking (ES) preschool children served as subjects. One SS subject was diagnosed as having mild language delay, 1 as being language disordered, and 1 as having normal language. One ES subject was diagnosed as having mild language delay and 2 as having normal language. A within-subject design wherein Condition A consisted of teaching receptive vocabulary in L1 (native language) followed by L2 (second language) and Condition B consisted of teaching receptive vocabulary in L2 followed by L1 was utilized. The sequence of conditions was ABBA for each subject. Analysis of each subject's trials to criterion for L2 in each condition indicated a strong tendency for recently learned receptive vocabulary in L1 to facilitate the learning of receptive vocabulary in L2. The results are interpreted as support for the practice of initial language intervention in L1 when bilingualism is a goal and for transference/facilitation theories of L2 learning.

Lessons from the Other Side of the Teacher's Desk: Discovering Insights to Help Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Westbrook, Frances

2011-01-01

Most language teachers become teachers because they are fascinated by language. They like the way languages work, they are intrigued by differences between their native tongues and other languages, and they enjoy the process of helping their students learn. Most language teachers have had positive experiences as language students themselves…

78 FR 23769 - Notice of Final Issuance on the Adoption of Administration for Native Americans (ANA) Program...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-22

... of the applicant organization's governing body. In addition, there should be a separation of duties... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families [CFDA Numbers: 93... as SEEDS), Native Language Preservation and Maintenance (hereinafter referred to as Language...

Native fruit traits may mediate dispersal competition between native and non-native plants

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Clare Aslan

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Seed disperser preferences may mediate the impact of invasive, non-native plant species on their new ecological communities. Significant seed disperser preference for invasives over native species could facilitate the spread of the invasives while impeding native plant dispersal. Such competition for dispersers could negatively impact the fitness of some native plants. Here, we review published literature to identify circumstances under which preference for non-native fruits occurs. The importance of fruit attraction is underscored by several studies demonstrating that invasive, fleshy-fruited plant species are particularly attractive to regional frugivores. A small set of studies directly compare frugivore preference for native vs. invasive species, and we find that different designs and goals within such studies frequently yield contrasting results. When similar native and non-native plant species have been compared, frugivores have tended to show preference for the non-natives. This preference appears to stem from enhanced feeding efficiency or accessibility associated with the non-native fruits. On the other hand, studies examining preference within existing suites of co-occurring species, with no attempt to maximize fruit similarity, show mixed results, with frugivores in most cases acting opportunistically or preferring native species. A simple, exploratory meta-analysis finds significant preference for native species when these studies are examined as a group. We illustrate the contrasting findings typical of these two approaches with results from two small-scale aviary experiments we conducted to determine preference by frugivorous bird species in northern California. In these case studies, native birds preferred the native fruit species as long as it was dissimilar from non-native fruits, while non-native European starlings preferred non-native fruit. However, native birds showed slight, non-significant preference for non-native fruit

Using Video in the English Language Clasroom

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Amado Vicente

2002-08-01

Full Text Available Video is a popular and a motivating potential medium in schools. Using video in the language classroom helps the language teachers in many different ways. Video, for instance, brings the outside world into the language classroom, providing the class with many different topics and reasons to talk about. It can provide comprehensible input to the learners through contextualised models of language use. It also offers good opportunities to introduce native English speech into the language classroom. Through this article I will try to show what the benefits of using video are and, at the end, I present an instrument to select and classify video materials.

The Arabic Natural Language Processing: Introduction and Challenges

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Boukhatem Nadera

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Arabic is a Semitic language spoken by more than 330 million people as a native language, in an area extending from the Arabian/Persian Gulf in the East to the Atlantic Ocean in the West. Moreover, it is the language in which 1.4 billion Muslims around the world perform their daily prayers. Over the last few years, Arabic natural language processing (ANLP has gained increasing importance, and several state of the art systems have been developed for a wide range of applications.

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC SIMILARITIES IN THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN AS NATIVE LANGUAGES.

Science.gov (United States)

SLOBIN, DAN I.

ONE APPROACH TO CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IS THAT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL, GENERATIVE GRAMMAR WHICH EMPHASIZES MAN'S ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND PRODUCE AN UNLIMITED VARIETY OF SENTENCES THROUGH CONTROL OF A LIMITED NUMBER OF LANGUAGE RULES. THUS, A CHILD LEARNS TO SPEAK BY DEVELOPING HIS OWN THEORIES OF THE STRUCTURE OF HIS LANGUAGE. STUDIES OF…

Diabetes Australia position statement. A new language for diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Speight, J.; Conn, J.; Dunning, T.

2012-01-01

can be the language used to refer to diabetes, its management and the person with diabetes. The way verbal and written language is used reflects and shapes people's thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. Language has the power to persuade, change or reinforce beliefs and stereotypes - for better or worse...... and countered. Diabetes Australia believes optimal communication increases the motivation, health and well-being of people with diabetes, and that careless or negative language can be de-motivating, is often inaccurate, and can be harmful. Diabetes Australia developed this position statement to encourage...

Cultural Diversity in English Language Teaching: Learners' Voices

Science.gov (United States)

Chinh, Nguyen Duc

2013-01-01

The focus of culture in English language teaching (ELT) has traditionally been on the target culture of English speaking countries. However, the new status of English as international language (EIL) has led to significant changes in the practice of teaching and learning culture in ELT. Rather than relying on the paradigm of native speaker…

A tradução do humor em The Big Bang Theory por legendadores virtuais: aspectos linguísticos-culturais

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Mariane Oliveira Caetano

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, the tasks of translation, subtitle and dubbing professionals are frequently required and also considered fundamental due to the television industry development and its great significance. Concerning this aspect, this research aims to analyze previously selected subtitles fragments, which involve humor, from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory – usually related to cultural-linguistic aspects – which present challenges to the translator. The analyses of these excerpts were made from a qualitative approach, considering the profile of the virtual subtitlers, ABNT norms to subtitle genre and the theories applied to humor translation. It was possible to conclude, through the analyses of the subtitles, that due to the lack of accurate referents between the languages and also the specificities of the subtitle genre, humor was sometimes reconstructed in the target language. In this way, it is considered unjustifiable to focus on the concept of fidelity related to linguistics when it comes to a subtitle translation.

A cross-language study of the speech sounds in Yorùbá and Malay: Implications for Second Language Acquisition

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Boluwaji Oshodi

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Acquiring a language begins with the knowledge of its sounds system which falls under the branch of linguistics known as phonetics. The knowledge of the sound system becomes very important to prospective learners particularly L2 learners whose L1 exhibits different sounds and features from the target L2 because this knowledge is vital in order to internalise the correct pronunciation of words. This study examined and contrasted the sound systems of Yorùbá a Niger-Congo language spoken in Nigeria to that of Malay (Peninsular variety, an Austronesian language spoken in Malaysia with emphasis on the areas of differences. The data for this study were collected from ten participants; five native female Malay speakers who are married to Yorùbá native speakers but live in Malaysia and five Yorùbá native speakers who reside in Nigeria. The findings revealed that speakers from both sides have difficulties with sounds and features in the L2 which are not attested in their L1 and they tended to substitute them for similar ones in their L1 through transfer. This confirms the fact that asymmetry between the sound systems of L1 and L2 is a major source of error in L2 acquisition.

Cross-domain correlation in pitch perception, the influence of native language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chen, A.; Liu, L.; Kager, R.W.J.

2016-01-01

The current study explores how language experience may shape the correlation between lexical tone and musical pitch perception. A two domains (music and lexical tone) by two languages (tone, Mandarin Chinese and non-tone, Dutch) design is adopted. Participants were tested on their discrimination of

The contribution of phonological knowledge, memory, and language background to reading comprehension in deaf populations

Science.gov (United States)

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A.; Dye, Matthew W. G.; Hauser, Peter; Supalla, Ted R.; Bavelier, Daphne

2015-01-01

While reading is challenging for many deaf individuals, some become proficient readers. Little is known about the component processes that support reading comprehension in these individuals. Speech-based phonological knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension in hearing individuals, yet its role in deaf readers is controversial. This could reflect the highly varied language backgrounds among deaf readers as well as the difficulty of disentangling the relative contribution of phonological versus orthographic knowledge of spoken language, in our case ‘English,’ in this population. Here we assessed the impact of language experience on reading comprehension in deaf readers by recruiting oral deaf individuals, who use spoken English as their primary mode of communication, and deaf native signers of American Sign Language. First, to address the contribution of spoken English phonological knowledge in deaf readers, we present novel tasks that evaluate phonological versus orthographic knowledge. Second, the impact of this knowledge, as well as memory measures that rely differentially on phonological (serial recall) and semantic (free recall) processing, on reading comprehension was evaluated. The best predictor of reading comprehension differed as a function of language experience, with free recall being a better predictor in deaf native signers than in oral deaf. In contrast, the measures of English phonological knowledge, independent of orthographic knowledge, best predicted reading comprehension in oral deaf individuals. These results suggest successful reading strategies differ across deaf readers as a function of their language experience, and highlight a possible alternative route to literacy in deaf native signers. Highlights: 1. Deaf individuals vary in their orthographic and phonological knowledge of English as a function of their language experience. 2. Reading comprehension was best predicted by different factors in oral deaf and

Open Source Subtitle Editor Software Study for Section 508 Close Caption Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, F. Brandon

2013-01-01

This paper will focus on a specific item within the NASA Electronic Information Accessibility Policy - Multimedia Presentation shall have synchronized caption; thus making information accessible to a person with hearing impairment. This synchronized caption will assist a person with hearing or cognitive disability to access the same information as everyone else. This paper focuses on the research and implementation for CC (subtitle option) support to video multimedia. The goal of this research is identify the best available open-source (free) software to achieve synchronized captions requirement and achieve savings, while meeting the security requirement for Government information integrity and assurance. CC and subtitling are processes that display text within a video to provide additional or interpretive information for those whom may need it or those whom chose it. Closed captions typically show the transcription of the audio portion of a program (video) as it occurs (either verbatim or in its edited form), sometimes including non-speech elements (such as sound effects). The transcript can be provided by a third party source or can be extracted word for word from the video. This feature can be made available for videos in two forms: either Soft-Coded or Hard-Coded. Soft-Coded is the more optional version of CC, where you can chose to turn them on if you want, or you can turn them off. Most of the time, when using the Soft-Coded option, the transcript is also provided to the view along-side the video. This option is subject to compromise, whereas the transcript is merely a text file that can be changed by anyone who has access to it. With this option the integrity of the CC is at the mercy of the user. Hard-Coded CC is a more permanent form of CC. A Hard-Coded CC transcript is embedded within a video, without the option of removal.

Revisiting the role of language in spatial cognition: Categorical perception of spatial relations in English and Korean speakers.

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Kevin J; Moty, Kelsey; Regier, Terry

2017-12-01

The spatial relation of support has been regarded as universally privileged in nonlinguistic cognition and immune to the influence of language. English, but not Korean, obligatorily distinguishes support from nonsupport via basic spatial terms. Despite this linguistic difference, previous research suggests that English and Korean speakers show comparable nonlinguistic sensitivity to the support/nonsupport distinction. Here, using a paradigm previously found to elicit cross-language differences in color discrimination, we provide evidence for a difference in sensitivity to support/nonsupport between native English speakers and native Korean speakers who were late English learners and tested in a context that privileged Korean. Whereas the former group showed categorical perception (CP) when discriminating spatial scenes capturing the support/nonsupport distinction, the latter did not. An additional group of native Korean speakers-relatively early English learners tested in an English-salient context-patterned with the native English speakers in showing CP for support/nonsupport. These findings suggest that obligatory marking of support/nonsupport in one's native language can affect nonlinguistic sensitivity to this distinction, contra earlier findings, but that such sensitivity may also depend on aspects of language background and the immediate linguistic context.

SUBTITLE FOR THE DEAF (SDH MEDIA AS AN NEW MODEL TO TEACH ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR THE DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lilik Untari

2017-04-01

Full Text Available English is a compulsory subject for the students in Indonesia including students of SMPLB. The SMPLB students are found to have difficulties in reaching the standard grade to pass the National evaluation (UN. This might happen since they have limitation in vocabulary mastery due to their hearing impairment. This study is to recognize the characteristic of DH students, implement SDH to teach English vocabulary for DH students and find out its strengths. It is a Classroom Action Research, involving 6 students of SLB-B YRTRW Surakarta. It is recognized that physically, the students have severely to profoundly pre-lingual deafness. They cannot hear conversational speech, but they may still hear loud sound. Vision is their primary modality for communication. Their individual speech is not easy to understand. Psychological characteristics are seen from their spoken language development, communication ability, academic achievement, social adaptation, and intelligence. To solve their limitation in acquiring vocabulary through hearing, SDH is offered. SDH is a media that can be used to introduce a concept of word by visualizing the concept audio-visually as well as literally. The visual context on the subtitled video made the students easy to comprehend the vocabulary. Thus, it helps the students understand the story structure of the video. It encouraged other language activity to take place in the class. Thus, after the implementation of SDH, the students demonstrated increased vocabulary mastery. In the interview, it was revealed that the students have valuable classroom activity with SDH. They showed their attractiveness toward the class.

Whys & therefores a rational look at the English language

CERN Document Server

Rutherford, William

2011-01-01

Whys & Therefores aids the reader to arrive at generalizations for the shape of the English language: words, grammar, meaning, sound and spelling. The format adopted throughout is that of a light-hearted ongoing Socratic dialogue between a mentor and a pupil. The intended effects of such activity are: awareness of what it means to 'know' a language; reliance upon native-language intuition; discovery of what one didn't know that one already 'knows' about the language; use of ungrammaticality as an investigative tool; healthy questioning of received facts about language from so-called experts; a

An investigation of mathematics and science instruction in English and Spanish for English language learners

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Esquivel, Marina