scholarly journals Bilingualism reveals fundamental variation in language processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
MELINDA FRICKE ◽  
MEGAN ZIRNSTEIN ◽  
CHRISTIAN NAVARRO-TORRES ◽  
JUDITH F. KROLL
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
The Common ◽  
Language And Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Consequences ◽  
Special Case

Although variation in the ways individuals process language has long been a topic of interest and discussion in the psycholinguistic literature, only recently have studies of bilingualism and its cognitive consequences begun to reveal the fundamental dynamics between language and cognition. We argue that the active use of two languages provides a lens through which the interactions between language use, language processing, and the contexts in which these take place can be fully understood. Far from bilingualism being considered a special case, it may provide the common basis upon which the principles of language learning and use can be modeled.

scholarly journals Completing the English Vocabulary Profile: C1 and C2 vocabulary

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Capel
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Validation Phase ◽  
Extensive Information ◽  
The Common ◽  
Polysemous Words

AbstractThe English Vocabulary Profile is an online vocabulary resource for teachers, teacher trainers, exam setters, materials writers and syllabus designers. It offers extensive information about the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels of words, phrases, phrasal verbs and idioms, and currently includes just under 7,000 headwords. This article reports on the trialling and validation phase of the A1−B2 levels of the resource, as well as outlining the research and completion of the C1 and C2 levels. The project has followed a ‘can-do’ rationale, focusing on what learners actually know rather than prescribing what they should know, and is underpinned by up-to-date corpus evidence, including the 50-million word Cambridge Learner Corpus and the 1.2-billion word Cambridge English Corpus of first language use. At C1 and C2 levels, the English Vocabulary Profile describes both General and Academic English, and the additional sources used to research this area of language learning are described in the article. Polysemous words are treated in depth and the project has sought to determine which meanings of these important words appear to be acquired first; new, less frequent meanings often continue to be learned across all six CEFR levels. Phrases form another substantial part of the resource and this aspect has been guided by expert research (see Martínez 2011).

Usage-Based Approaches to Language and Their Applications to Second Language Learning

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 270-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Common

Over the past 20 years, many in the field of second language learning and pedagogy have become familiar with models of language that emphasize its communicative nature. These models are often referred to as usage-based because they emphasize the notion that actual language use is a primary shaper of linguistic form. Supporters of these models also argue that making meaning, that is, the use to which language is put, is central to how language is configured. Usage-based models share several other underlying assumptions as well. While these usage models have a number of ideas in common, several distinct approaches have emerged. They often use similar terms, such as cognition and metaphor, but the precise interpretations can vary from model to model. The overall result is that without extensive reading, it is not always clear just how these models differ and what unique insights each offer. This article attempts to address this situation by examining three major usage-based models—systemic functional linguistics, discourse functionalism, and cognitive linguistics. First, the common, underlying tenets shared by the three models are discussed. Second, an overview of the unique tenets and concerns of each approach is presented in order to distinguish key differences among them. Within the discussion of each approach, I also discuss various attempts to apply the model to issues in second language learning.

FREQUENCY EFFECTS, NOTICING, AND CREATIVITY

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Tarone
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Related Factor ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Probabilistic Knowledge

Ellis's target article suggests that language processing is based on frequency and probabilistic knowledge and that language learning is implicit. These findings are consistent with those of SLA researchers working within a variationist framework (e.g., Tarone, 1985; Bayley & Preston, 1996). This paper provides a brief overview of this research area, which has developed useful models for dealing with frequency effects in language use, and describes a psycholinguistic model of language variation currently being proposed by Preston (2000a, 2000b) that dovetails nicely with Ellis's proposals. The present commentary addresses the question “To what extent is the learner's interlanguage passively and unconsciously derived from input frequencies?” Ellis does state that factors other than frequency are also important for SLA—specifically, conscious noticing and social context. A related factor is the learner'screativity, revealed when learners' noticing leads them to view utterances not just as potential objects of analysis but as potential objects of language play. Noticing results in the selective internalization of language input in interactions with various L2 speakers, and creativity occurs in the learner's consequent production of any of a range of different voices thus internalized for the purposes of expressing social identity and of language play (Tarone 2000).

You’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette. Linguistic complexity and instruction in SLA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick De Graaff
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
Instructed Second Language Acquisition ◽  
The One

In this epilogue, I take a teaching practice and teacher education perspective on complexity in Instructed Second Language Acquisition. I take the stance that it is essential to understand if and how linguistic complexity relates to learning challenges, what the implications are for language pedagogy, and how this challenges the role of the teacher. Research shows that differences in task complexity may lead to differences in linguistic complexity in language learners’ speech or writing. Different tasks (e.g. descriptive vs narrative) and different modes (oral vs written) may lead to different types and levels of complexity in language use. On the one hand, this is a challenge for language assessment, as complexity in language performance may be affected by task characteristics. On the other hand, it is an opportunity for language teaching: using a diversity of tasks, modes and text types may evoke and stretch lexically and syntactically complex language use. I maintain that it is essential for teachers to understand that it is at least as important to aim for development in complexity as it is to aim for development in accuracy. Namely, that ‘errors’ in language learning are part of the deal: complex tasks lead to complex language use, including lexical and syntactical errors, but they are a necessary prerequisite for language development.

scholarly journals Building natural language processing tools for Runyakitara

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fridah Katushemererwe ◽  
Andrew Caines ◽  
Paula Buttery
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Linguistic Resources

AbstractThis paper describes an endeavour to build natural language processing (NLP) tools for Runyakitara, a group of four closely related Bantu languages spoken in western Uganda. In contrast with major world languages such as English, for which corpora are comparatively abundant and NLP tools are well developed, computational linguistic resources for Runyakitara are in short supply. First therefore, we need to collect corpora for these languages, before we can proceed to the design of a spell-checker, grammar-checker and applications for computer-assisted language learning (CALL). We explain how we are collecting primary data for a new Runya Corpus of speech and writing, we outline the design of a morphological analyser, and discuss how we can use these new resources to build NLP tools. We are initially working with Runyankore–Rukiga, a closely-related pair of Runyakitara languages, and we frame our project in the context of NLP for low-resource languages, as well as CALL for the preservation of endangered languages. We put our project forward as a test case for the revitalization of endangered languages through education and technology.

Increasing adolescent girls’ social competence through cognitive counseling by social workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110102
Author(s):  
Chau-kiu Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Social Competence ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Lower Education

Summary Despite the common basis of cognitive theory for cognitive counseling and social competence development, no research has charted the effectiveness of the counseling in raising social competence in young female residents of the residential service. To examine the effectiveness, this study analyzed data gleaned from monthly surveys of young female residents and their social workers regarding the latter’s daily life cognitive counseling. The data consisted of 391 cases pairing the female residents and social workers in Hong Kong over 33 months. Findings The cases afforded a cross-lagged analysis showing the raising of the girl’s social competence by the worker’s cognitive counseling earlier in the previous month. In substantiating this raising, the analysis also indicated that earlier social competence did not affect the counseling. Applications The findings imply the worth of promoting the social worker’s daily life cognitive counseling to advance girl residents’ social competence. Such counseling is particularly helpful to girls with lower education, who are lower in social competence.

scholarly journals 3D Avatar Approach for Continuous Sign Movement Using Speech/Text

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3439
Author(s):  
Debashis Das Chakladar ◽  
Pradeep Kumar ◽  
Shubham Mandal ◽  
Partha Pratim Roy ◽  
Masakazu Iwamura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Learning System ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Indian Sign Language ◽  
Impaired Person ◽  
3D Avatar

Sign language is a visual language for communication used by hearing-impaired people with the help of hand and finger movements. Indian Sign Language (ISL) is a well-developed and standard way of communication for hearing-impaired people living in India. However, other people who use spoken language always face difficulty while communicating with a hearing-impaired person due to lack of sign language knowledge. In this study, we have developed a 3D avatar-based sign language learning system that converts the input speech/text into corresponding sign movements for ISL. The system consists of three modules. Initially, the input speech is converted into an English sentence. Then, that English sentence is converted into the corresponding ISL sentence using the Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique. Finally, the motion of the 3D avatar is defined based on the ISL sentence. The translation module achieves a 10.50 SER (Sign Error Rate) score.

scholarly journals Finding What Is Inaccessible: Antimicrobial Resistance Language Use among the One Health Domains

Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 385
Author(s):  
Lauren L. Wind ◽  
Jonathan S. Briganti ◽  
Anne M. Brown ◽  
Timothy P. Neher ◽  
Meghan F. Davis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
One Health ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Health Domains ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
The One

The success of a One Health approach to combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) requires effective data sharing across the three One Health domains (human, animal, and environment). To investigate if there are differences in language use across the One Health domains, we examined the peer-reviewed literature using a combination of text data mining and natural language processing techniques on 20,000 open-access articles related to AMR and One Health. Evaluating AMR key term frequency from the European PubMed Collection published between 1990 and 2019 showed distinct AMR language usage within each domain and incongruent language usage across domains, with significant differences in key term usage frequencies when articles were grouped by the One Health sub-specialties (2-way ANOVA; p < 0.001). Over the 29-year period, “antibiotic resistance” and “AR” were used 18 times more than “antimicrobial resistance” and “AMR”. The discord of language use across One Health potentially weakens the effectiveness of interdisciplinary research by creating accessibility issues for researchers using search engines. This research was the first to quantify this disparate language use within One Health, which inhibits collaboration and crosstalk between domains. We suggest the following for authors publishing AMR-related research within the One Health context: (1) increase title/abstract searchability by including both antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance related search terms; (2) include “One Health” in the title/abstract; and (3) prioritize open-access publication.

The Common Denominator of Land Classification in Canada: an Ecological Approach to Mapping

1980 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Land Classification ◽  
Ecological Land Classification ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
The Common

The cores and boundaries of land units are located by reference to relationships between climate, landform and biota in ecological land classification. This appeal to relationships, rather than to climate, or to geomorphology, or to soils, or to vegetation alone, provides the common basis for land classification.

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