scholarly journals Exposure to dialect variation in an artificial language prior to literacy training impairs reading of words with competing variants but does not affect decoding skills.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn P. Williams ◽  
Nikolay Panayotov ◽  
Vera Kempe
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Language ◽  
Decoding Skills ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Dialect Variation

scholarly journals Exposure to dialect variation in an artificial language prior to literacy training impairs reading of words with competing variants but does not affect decoding skills

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Patrick Williams ◽  
Vera Kempe ◽  
Nikolay Panayotov
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Decoding Skills ◽  
Phonological Decoding ◽  
Literacy Outcomes ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Literacy Training

Dialect exposure in children has been associated with reduced literacy outcomes but it is unclear to what extent these impairments are due to interference from competing lexical variants or reflect extralinguistic factors. Previous computational studies and artificial literacy learning experiments with adults confirmed a deficit for reading of words with dialect variants (contrastive words) but did not find detrimental effects of dialect exposure on phonological decoding of untrained words; in fact, sufficiently long periods of literacy training resulted in a dialect benefit that could arise from greater reliance on phonological decoding when dialect and standard variants increased variability in the input. However, those artificial language learning experiments interleaved word learning and reading/spelling training, yet child learners typically have well-entrenched phonological and semantic representations of most words before they start literacy training. Here we examine whether a contrastive deficit alongside unimpaired phonological decoding can be replicated when word learning precedes literacy training. We also manipulated training conditions to explore effects of interventions thought to be beneficial for literacy acquisition in naturalistic situations such as explicit social cues for variety use and literacy training in both varieties. The findings replicate the contrastive deficit which was most pronounced when literacy training in the dialect increased variability. Without such variability, only learners who successfully learned the dialect variants prior to literacy training showed the contrastive deficit. Although no benefits from the interventions were found dialect exposure per se had neither a beneficial nor a detrimental effect on phonological decoding skills.

An Alternative to Self-Reports of Trait and State Affect

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Quirin ◽  
Regina C. Bode
Keyword(s):  
Self Report ◽  
Factorial Validity ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Cognitive Representation ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Novel Variants ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
State Affect ◽  
Affective Experiences ◽  
Automatic Activation

Self-report measures for the assessment of trait or state affect are typically biased by social desirability or self-delusion. The present work provides an overview of research using a recently developed measure of automatic activation of cognitive representation of affective experiences, the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT). In the IPANAT, participants judge the extent to which nonsense words from an alleged artificial language express a number of affective states or traits. The test demonstrates appropriate factorial validity and reliabilities. We review findings that support criterion validity and, additionally, present novel variants of this procedure for the assessment of the discrete emotions such as happiness, anger, sadness, and fear.

Verbal statistical learning: Prior knowledge impacts word identification but not metacognition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laetitia Zmuda ◽  
Charlotte Baey ◽  
Paolo Mairano ◽  
Anahita Basirat
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Bayesian Approach ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Artificial Languages ◽  
Transitional Probabilities ◽  
Fully Bayesian

It is well-known that individuals can identify novel words in a stream of an artificial language using statistical dependencies. While underlying computations are thought to be similar from one stream to another (e.g. transitional probabilities between syllables), performance are not similar. According to the “linguistic entrenchment” hypothesis, this would be due to the fact that individuals have some prior knowledge regarding co-occurrences of elements in speech which intervene during verbal statistical learning. The focus of previous studies was on task performance. The goal of the current study is to examine the extent to which prior knowledge impacts metacognition (i.e. ability to evaluate one’s own cognitive processes). Participants were exposed to two different artificial languages. Using a fully Bayesian approach, we estimated an unbiased measure of metacognitive efficiency and compared the two languages in terms of task performance and metacognition. While task performance was higher in one of the languages, the metacognitive efficiency was similar in both languages. In addition, a model assuming no correlation between the two languages better accounted for our results compared to a model where correlations were introduced. We discuss the implications of our findings regarding the computations which underlie the interaction between input and prior knowledge during verbal statistical learning.

Social Dialect Variations in Sasak Monolingual Society: A Lingual Critical Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Irma Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Systematic Description ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
High Social Status ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

Social dialect variation is diversity and richness of dialect owned by an individual or group in Sasak monolingual society. Moreover, the diversity of social dialect is also often used as a medium for transferring ideology, identity, and existence by an individual or group of individual or other groups. Thus, the purpose of this study is to describe the form of vocabulary choice in social dialect variation of Sasak community to show differences in speech who is high social status (superior) and low social status (inferior) between individuals or groups and between women and men. The theory used is social dialect variation form of Janet Holmes and critical analysis Norman Fairclough. The data was collected by observing methods and interview as well as the basic techniques and derivatives, observation and documentation methods. Sources of data gathered from Sasak speakers who are communicating. Data were analyzed by using descriptive qualitative method which aims to make systematic description, categorization, and patterning. Data are presented formally and informally. At last, this study resulted in different forms of social dialect variation by an individual or group and by women and men who can cause physical-psychic intersection.

Gender from Latin to Romance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Loporcaro
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Concurrent Systems ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Back Projection ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Romance Language ◽  
Dialect Variation ◽  
Main Culprit ◽  
Gender System

The book addresses grammatical gender in Romance, and its development from Latin. It works with the toolbox of current linguistic typology, and asks the fundamental question of how the Latin grammatical gender system gradually changed into those of the Romance languages. To answer this question, the book capitalizes on the pervasive dialect variation of which the better-known standard Romance languages only represent a fragment. Indeed, inspection of dialect variation across time and space forces one to dismiss the handbook account proclaiming that the neuter gender, contrasting with masculine and feminine in Latin, was eradicated from spoken Latin by late Empire times. Both Late Latin evidence and data from several modern dialects show that this never happened, and that the vulgate account proceeds from unwarranted back-projection of the data from modern languages like French and Italian. Rather, the neuter underwent transformations which are the main culprit for the differences in the gender system observed today between, say, Romanian, Sursilvan, Neapolitan, and Asturian, to cite just a few types of system which turn out to differ significantly. A precondition for establishing the database for diachronic investigation is a detailed description of many such systems, which reveals data whose interest transcends the diachronic issue under consideration: the book thus addresses systems where ‘husbands’ are feminine and others where ‘wives’ are masculine; discusses dialects where nouns overtly mark gender, but only in certain syntactic contexts; and proposes an analysis according to which one Romance language (Asturian) has split inherited grammatical gender into two concurrent systems.

scholarly journals Young Spanish Adults and Disinformation: Do They Identify and Spread Fake News and Are They Literate in It?

Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Aida María de Vicente de Vicente Domínguez ◽  
Ana Beriain Beriain Bañares ◽  
Javier Sierra Sierra Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
Spanish Population ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Know How ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Structured Questionnaire ◽  
Do So

The infodiet of young Spanish adults aged 18 to 25 was analysed to determine their attitude towards fake news. The objectives were: to establish whether they have received any training in fake news; to determine whether they know how to identify fake information; and to investigate whether they spread it. The study employed a descriptive quantitative method consisting of a survey of 500 representative interviews of the Spanish population aged between 18 and 25 through a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that they are aware of the importance of training, although generally they do not know of any course and when they do, they do not tend to enroll on one either due to lack of interest or time. These young adults feel that they know how to identify fake content and, moreover, that they know how to do so very well. However, they do not use the best tools. While they do not always verify information, they mainly suspect the credibility of information when it is meaningless. However, they do not tend to spread fake information. We conclude that media information literacy training (MILT) is necessary in educational centres that focuses on the main issues identified.

Analyzing trends in the aural decoding errors of Japanese EFL learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kriss Lange ◽  
Joshua Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Decoding Skills ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
L2 Listening

Abstract Japanese EFL learners’ difficulty with accurately decoding connected English speech motivated this mixed methods study. The aural decoding capacities of 63 first-year Japanese university students, with low to intermediate level English proficiency, were first measured with a battery of paused transcription tests (PTT). The transcriptions were clusters of three-words that each possessed attributes typical of co-articulated speech. In addition, after each test, a subgroup of 10 participants individually listened to the same PTT and recounted introspective self-observations of their perceived difficulties with the aural decoding tasks in their L1. These quantitative and qualitative data were used to identify four trends in decoding errors which were categorized as follows: limited collocation familiarity, syntactic knowledge constraints, difficulties utilizing co-text, and L1 phonological influence. This study investigates some of the difficulties associated with aural decoding, highlights the challenges of identifying the origins of decoding errors and suggests that more focus is needed on developing decoding skills as well as knowledge of formulaic language in L2 listening education.

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