scholarly journals Rhythmic grouping biases in simultaneous bilinguals

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1070-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Boll-Avetisyan ◽  
Anjali Bhatara ◽  
Annika Unger ◽  
Thierry Nazzi ◽  
Barbara Höhle
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Model Fitting ◽  
Bimodal Distribution ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Language Context

AbstractThis study provides a novel approach for testing the universality of perceptual biases by looking at speech processing in simultaneous bilingual adults learning two languages that support the maintenance of this bias to different degrees. Specifically, we investigated the Iambic/Trochaic Law, an assumed universal grouping bias, in simultaneous French–German bilinguals, presenting them with streams of syllables varying in intensity, duration or neither and asking them whether they perceived them as strong-weak or weak-strong groupings. Results showed robust, consistent grouping preferences. A comparison to monolinguals from previous studies revealed that they pattern with German-speaking monolinguals, and differ from French-speaking monolinguals. The distribution of simultaneous bilinguals' individual performance was best explained by a model fitting a unimodal (not bimodal) distribution, failing to support two subgroups of language dominance. Moreover, neither language experience nor language context predicted their performance. These findings suggest a special role for universal biases in simultaneous bilinguals.

Psychometrical Properties of a French Version of the General Self-Efficacy Short Scale (ASKU)

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Jean Philippe Décieux ◽  
Philipp Emanuel Sischka ◽  
Anette Schumacher ◽  
Helmut Willems
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
German Version ◽  
French Version ◽  
Context Variable ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Valid Instrument ◽  
General Self Efficacy

Abstract. General self-efficacy is a central personality trait often evaluated in surveys as context variable. It can be interpreted as a personal coping resource reflecting individual belief in one’s overall competence to perform across a variety of situations. The German-language Allgemeine-Selbstwirksamkeit-Kurzskala (ASKU) is a reliable and valid instrument to assess this disposition in the German-speaking countries based on a three-item equation. This study develops a French version of the ASKU and tests this French version for measurement invariance compared to the original ASKU. A reliable and valid French instrument would make it easy to collect data in the French-speaking countries and allow comparisons between the French and German results. Data were collected on a sample of 1,716 adolescents. Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a good fit for a single-factor model of the data (in total, French, and German version). Additionally, construct validity was assessed by elucidating intercorrelations between the ASKU and different factors that should theoretically be related to ASKU. Furthermore, we confirmed configural and metric as well as scalar invariance between the different language versions, meaning that all forms of statistical comparison between the developed French version and the original German version are allowed.

Intraword Variability in French-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Kehoe ◽  
Emilie Cretton
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Phonological Complexity

Purpose This study examines intraword variability in 40 typically developing French-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, aged 2;6–4;8 (years;months). Specifically, it measures rate of intraword variability and investigates which factors best account for it. They include child-specific ones such as age, expressive vocabulary, gender, bilingual status, and speech sound production ability, and word-specific factors, such as phonological complexity (including number of syllables), phonological neighborhood density (PND), and word frequency. Method A variability test was developed, consisting of 25 words, which differed in terms of phonological complexity, PND, and word frequency. Children produced three exemplars of each word during a single session, and productions of words were coded as variable or not variable. In addition, children were administered an expressive vocabulary test and two tests tapping speech motor ability (oral motor assessment and diadochokinetic test). Speech sound ability was also assessed by measuring percent consonants correct on all words produced by the children during the session. Data were entered into a binomial logistic regression. Results Average intraword variability was 29% across all children. Several factors were found to predict intraword variability including age, gender, bilingual status, speech sound production ability, phonological complexity, and PND. Conclusions Intraword variability was found to be lower in French than what has been reported in English, consistent with phonological differences between French and English. Our findings support those of other investigators in indicating that the factors influencing intraword variability are multiple and reflect sources at various levels in the speech processing system.

Second language acquisition across modalities: Production variability in adult L2 learners of American Sign Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison I Hilger ◽  
Torrey MJ Loucks ◽  
David Quinto-Pozos ◽  
Matthew WG Dye
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Linear Trend ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Experience Levels ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Production Variability ◽  
Deaf Signers

A study was conducted to examine production variability in American Sign Language (ASL) in order to gain insight into the development of motor control in a language produced in another modality. Production variability was characterized through the spatiotemporal index (STI), which represents production stability in whole utterances and is a function of variability in effector displacement waveforms (Smith et al., 1995). Motion capture apparatus was used to acquire wrist displacement data across a set of eight target signs embedded in carrier phrases. The STI values of Deaf signers and hearing learners at three different ASL experience levels were compared to determine whether production stability varied as a function of time spent acquiring ASL. We hypothesized that lower production stability as indexed by the STI would be evident for beginning ASL learners, indicating greater production variability, with variability decreasing as ASL language experience increased. As predicted, Deaf signers showed significantly lower STI values than the hearing learners, suggesting that stability of production is indeed characteristic of increased ASL use. The linear trend across experience levels of hearing learners was not statistically significant in all spatial dimensions, indicating that improvement in production stability across relatively short time scales was weak. This novel approach to characterizing production stability in ASL utterances has relevance for the identification of sign production disorders and for assessing L2 acquisition of sign languages.

Written Narrative by Spanish Heritage Language Speakers

2017 ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Verónica Sánchez Abchi ◽  
Audrey Bonvin ◽  
Amelia Lambelet ◽  
Carlos Pestana
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

This article aims to study narrative complexity in written texts produced by Spanish heritage speakers growing up in two linguistic regions of Switzerland. Texts produced in their heritage language by children living either in French- or German-speaking parts of Switzerland were analyzed and compared to texts written by Spanish speaking children growing up in a mostly monolingual context in Argentina. According to the literature, it was expected that children’s heritage language command and literacy abilities would mask their narrative competence in Spanish (i.e., that heritage speakers would show lower narrative complexity than their monolingual peers). The participants were 138 pupils aged between 9 and 12;5 (twelve years and five months), distributed in three groups: Spanish heritage language speakers living in German-speaking Switzerland (n=66), Spanish heritage language speakers living in French-speaking Switzerland (n=25), and a comparison Group made up of Spanish speakers growing up in a monolingual context (n=47). Heritage speakers’ parents also completed a questionnaire describing the children’s linguistic background. We did not find significant differences between groups in terms of story grammar components, suggesting that command of language and writing constraints do not affect narrative complexity development in heritage language speakers.

scholarly journals Stay-at-home fathers on the wane – In comes daddy day! Changing practices of fathering in German-speaking countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Schwiter ◽  
Diana Baumgarten
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Primary Caregivers ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Market Opportunities ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Changing Practices ◽  
Language Context ◽  
At Home

Our commentary brings Boyer et al.’s (2017) argument of a ‘regendering of care’ through men’s growing engagement as caregivers into a dialogue with scholarship from German-speaking countries. This literature supports Boyer et al.’s claim of a connection between labour market opportunities and stay-at-home fatherhood. However, the research from our language context also suggests that fathers who are not gainfully employed do not necessarily become primary caregivers. Furthermore, the number of stay-at-home fathers is shrinking rather than growing. In light of these findings, we suggest shifting the discussion from stay-at-home fathers to fathers as part-time workers and part-time carers. This is where we identify the potential for a subtle revolution that bears the promise of far more wide-ranging changes in the gendering of care.

scholarly journals On the question of federalism in Belgium

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-377
Author(s):  
S. M. Gavrilova
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Administrative Structure ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking

The Kingdom of Belgium is a Federation in terms of its territorial and administrative structure. Federalism in Belgium has a number of specific features, since it is based on the principles of division not only on the national and administrative principle, but also on linguistic. The main contradictions within the nation-state are related to the interaction of Walloon (French-speaking) and Flemish (speaking Dutch and its dialects) communities. The current situation in the country has developed as a result of a number of state reforms carried out in the second half of the XX — early XXI century. At present, the crisis in Belgium remains unresolved, primarily due to the imbalance in the economic development of the regions and the growing conflicts in this regard and the special status of bilingual Brussels. The situation is complicated by the presence of a German-speaking community in the state. The article assesses the prospects for the development of the situation in Belgium in terms of the transformation of the system of federalism in the country.

scholarly journals Hierarchy of speech-driven spectrotemporal receptive fields in human auditory cortex

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Henry Venezia ◽  
Steven Matthew Thurman ◽  
Virginia Richards ◽  
Gregory Hickok
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Clustering Algorithm ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Phonological Information ◽  
Spectrotemporal Receptive Fields ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Cortical Responses ◽  
Level Information ◽  
Speech Information

Existing data indicate that cortical speech processing is hierarchically organized. Numerous studies have shown that early auditory areas encode fine acoustic details while later areas encode abstracted speech patterns. However, it remains unclear precisely what speech information is encoded across these hierarchical levels. Estimation of speech-driven spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) provides a means to explore cortical speech processing in terms of acoustic or linguistic information associated with characteristic spectrotemporal patterns. Here, we estimate STRFs from cortical responses to continuous speech in fMRI. Using a novel approach based on filtering randomly-selected spectrotemporal modulations (STMs) from aurally-presented sentences, STRFs were estimated for a group of listeners and categorized using a data-driven clustering algorithm. ‘Behavioral STRFs’ highlighting STMs crucial for speech recognition were derived from intelligibility judgments. Clustering revealed that STRFs in the supratemporal plane represented a broad range of STMs, while STRFs in the lateral temporal lobe represented circumscribed STM patterns important to intelligibility. Detailed analysis recovered a bilateral organization with posterior-lateral regions preferentially processing STMs associated with phonological information and anterior-lateral regions preferentially processing STMs associated with word- and phrase-level information. Regions in lateral Heschl’s gyrus preferentially processed STMs associated with vocalic information (pitch).

scholarly journals Language experience during the sensitive period narrows infants’ sensory speech encoding----music intervention reverse it

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Christina Zhao ◽  
Fernando Llanos ◽  
Bharath Chandrasekaran ◽  
Patricia K. Kuhl
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Auditory Pathway ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Music Intervention ◽  
Tracking Accuracy ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Pitch Tracking ◽  
Speech Encoding ◽  
Sensory Encoding

The sensitive period for phonetic learning (6~12 months), evidenced by increases in native and declines in nonnative speech processing, represents an early milestone in language acquisition. We examined the extent that sensory encoding of speech is altered by experience during this period by testing two hypotheses: 1) early sensory encoding of nonnative speech declines as infants gain native-language experience, and 2) music intervention reverses this decline. We longitudinally measured the frequency-following response (FFR), a robust indicator of early sensory encoding along the auditory pathway, to a Mandarin lexical tone in 7- and 11-months-old monolingual English-learning infants. Infants received music intervention (music-intervention group) or no intervention (language-experience group) randomly between FFR recordings. The language-experience group exhibited the expected decline in FFR pitch-tracking accuracy to the Mandarin tone while the music-intervention group did not. Our results support both hypotheses and demonstrate that both language and music experience alter infants’ speech encoding.

scholarly journals Exploring the U-shape geographical bias in manufactured exports of MERCOSUR countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (206) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Delbianco ◽  
Andrés Fioriti ◽  
Germán González
Keyword(s):  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Bimodal Distribution ◽  
Regional Trade Agreements ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Geographical Bias ◽  
Manufactured Goods ◽  
Manufactured Exports

We proposed a novel approach to understand the industrialization pattern of MERCOSUR countries during the last 60 years. We performed an index to measure the geographical bias of manufactured exports between the region and the world and showed that regional trade agreements allowed MERCOSUR countries to decrease the bias and increase competitiveness. However, we noted that in recent years the bias deepened in favor of exporting a higher proportion of manufactured goods to the region. Our main result is that these economies present a U-shape geographical bias in manufactured exports associated with a bimodal distribution of breaks. Furthermore, we observed that the 1980s and 2000s were the most relevant periods for defining the region trends.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document