scholarly journals Accuracy and Stability in English Speakers’ Production of Japanese Pitch Accent

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110223
Author(s):  
Becky Muradás-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Japanese Pitch Accent ◽  
Accuracy And Stability

Standard Japanese uses pitch accent to distinguish words such as initially-accented hashi “chopsticks” and finally-accented hashi “bridge.” Research on the second language acquisition of pitch accent shows considerable variation: in accuracy scores in identification, in different dominant accent types in production, and in the unstable accent types of repeated words. This study investigates pitch accent production in English-speaking learners of Japanese, asking how accuracy and stability vary (a) with amount of Japanese experience and (b) between learners. Two groups of learners (13 less experienced; 8 more experienced) produced 180 words in three contexts (e.g., ame “rain,” ame da “it’s rain,” and ame ga furu “rain falls”). Three Japanese phoneticians identified the accent types of the words that the learners produced. The results showed no difference in accuracy or stability between the two groups and little inter-learner variation in accuracy: all had low accuracy. Although some learners had relatively high stability, they did not maintain accent type contrasts across contexts. These results suggest that first language English speakers do not encode pitch accent in long-term memory, raising questions for future research and language teaching.

Development and Validation of the Short Version of the Sense of Humor Scale (SHS-S)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Heintz ◽  
Willibald Ruch ◽  
Chloe Lau ◽  
Donald H. Saklofske ◽  
Paul McGhee
Keyword(s):  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Well Being ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Sense Of Humor ◽  
Three Samples ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Development And Validation

Abstract. Humor training has become increasingly popular to enhance the “sense of humor” and well-being and to decrease depressive symptoms. Despite the wide applications of these training programs, the assessment of training efficacy has attracted less attention. The Sense of Humor Scale (SHS; McGhee, 1996 , 1999 ) recently was expanded to a long version (SHS-L) to enhance its internal consistency ( Ruch & Heintz, 2018 ). At the same time, there is also the need for a brief version of this scale. The purpose of the present study is to develop a short version (SHS-S) in both German- and English-speaking countries, test its psychometric properties (internal consistency, factorial, construct, and criterion validity), and assess measurement invariance across gender and the two languages. Using three samples (Sample 1: 570 English-speakers, Sample 2: 353 German-speakers, Sample 3: 94 other-reports), the 29-item SHS-S was developed and yielded promising internal consistency and validity scores for the six humor skill factors of enjoyment of humor, laughter, verbal humor, finding humor in everyday life, laughing at yourself, and humor under stress. Overall, the SHS-S is an internally consistent, valid, and economic tool for future research and group-based applications, while the SHS-L seems especially useful in individual applications.

Song and infant-directed speech facilitate word learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 1036-1054
Author(s):  
Weiyi Ma ◽  
Anna Fiveash ◽  
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis ◽  
Douglas Behrend ◽  
William Forde Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Relationship

Two separate lines of research have examined the influence of song and infant-directed speech (IDS—a speech register that includes some melodic features) on language learning, suggesting that the use of musical attributes in speech input can enhance language learning. However, the benefits of these two types of stimuli have never been directly compared. In this investigation, we compared the effects of song and IDS for immediate word learning and long-term memory of the learned words. This study examines whether the highly musical stimuli (i.e., song) would facilitate language learning more than the less musical stimuli (i.e., IDS). English-speaking adults were administered a word learning task, with Mandarin Chinese words presented in adult-directed speech (ADS), IDS, or song. Participants’ word learning performance was assessed immediately after the word learning task (immediate word learning) and then 1 day later (long-term memory). Results showed that both song and IDS facilitated immediate word learning and long-term memory of the words; however, this facilitative effect did not differ between IDS and song, suggesting that the relationship between the degree of musicality and language learning performance is not linear. In addition, song and IDS were found to facilitate the word association process (mapping a label to its referent) rather than the word recognition process. Finally, participants’ confidence in their answers might not differ among ADS, IDS, and sung words.

Universal Grammar and the acquisition of French verb movement by native speakers of English

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
Richard Towell ◽  
Nives Bazergui
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Syntactic Differences

White (1989) has shown that L1 English-speaking learners of L2 French appear to be more successful in acquiring the postverbal location of French manner and frequency adverbs than L1 French-speaking learners of L2 English are in acquiring the preverbal location of English manner and frequency adverbs. One implication of recent work by Pollock (1989) on the structure of English and French clauses is, however, that the task of acquiring the placement of manner and frequency adverbs should be the same for both sets of learners, because English provides learners with as much positive syntactic evidence for preverbal manner/frequency adverbs as French does for the postverbal location of such adverbs. The problem, then, is to explain why there should be this difference in success. On the basis of a detailed study of the developing intuitions of English-speaking adult learners of L2 French it is suggested in this article that the English-speakers' success is only apparent. Both groups of learners have great difficulty in resetting a parametrized property of the functional category Agr, but the English- speaking learners of French are able to make use of nonparametrized properties of Universal Grammar to handle surface syntactic differences between English and French, properties which are not so readily available to the French-speaking learners of English. It is suggested that this finding is in line with an emerging view about the role of parametrized functional categories in second language acquisition.

What variables condition syntactic transfer? A look at the L3 initial state

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Rothman ◽  
Jennifer Cabrelli Amaro
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
State Testing ◽  
Initial State ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
English Speaking

This study investigates transfer at the third-language (L3) initial state, testing between the following possibilities: (1) the first language (L1) transfer hypothesis (an L1 effect for all adult acquisition), (2) the second language (L2) transfer hypothesis, where the L2 blocks L1 transfer (often referred to in the recent literature as the ‘L2 status factor’; Williams and Hammarberg, 1998), and (3) the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn et al., 2004), which proposes selective transfer from all previous linguistic knowledge. We provide data from successful English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish at the initial state of acquiring L3 French and L3 Italian relating to properties of the Null-Subject Parameter (e.g. Chomsky, 1981; Rizzi, 1982). We compare these groups to each other, as well as to groups of English learners of L2 French and L2 Italian at the initial state, and conclude that the data are consistent with the predictions of the ‘L2 status factor’. However, we discuss an alternative possible interpretation based on (psycho)typologically-motivated transfer (borrowing from Kellerman, 1983), providing a methodology for future research in this domain to meaningfully tease apart the ‘L2 status factor’ from this alternative account.

scholarly journals More allopurinol is needed to get gout patients <0.36 mmol/L: a gout audit in the form of a before–after trial

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Arroll ◽  
Merran Bennett ◽  
Nicola Dalbeth ◽  
Dilanka Hettiarachchi ◽  
Ben Cribben ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Uric Acid ◽  
Clinical Audit ◽  
First Language ◽  
Acute Gout ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Preventive Medication ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Language Strategies

AIM: To establish a benchmark for gout control using the proportion of patients with serum uric acid (SUA)<0.36 mmol/L, assess patients’ understanding of their preventive medication and trial a mail and phone intervention to improve gout control. METHODS: Patients clinically diagnosed with gout and baseline SUAs were identified in two South Auckland practices. A mail and phone intervention was introduced aimed at improving the control of gout. Intervention #1 took place in one practice over three months. Intervention #2 occurred in the other practice four to 16 months following baseline. RESULTS: No significant change in SUA from intervention #1 after three months. The second intervention by mail and phone resulted in improvement in SUA levels with a greater proportion of those with SUA <0.36 mmol/L and the difference in means statistically significant (p=0.039 two-tailed paired t-test). Benchmarking for usual care was established at 38–43% SUA <0.36 level. It was possible to increase from 38% to 50%. Issues relating to gout identified included lack of understanding of the need for long-term allopurinol and diagnosis and management for patients for whom English is not their first language. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENT: (1) Community workers who speak Pacific languages may assist GPs in communicating to non-English speaking patients. (2) Alternative diagnoses should be considered in symptomatic patients with prolonged normouricaemia. (3) GPs should gradually introduce allopurinol after acute gout attacks, emphasising importance of prophylaxis. (4) A campaign to inform patients about benefits of allopurinol should be considered. (5) A simple one keystroke audit is needed for gout audit and benchmarking. (6) GP guidelines for gout diagnosis and management should be available. KEYWORDS: Gout; uric acid; clinical audit; benchmarking; family practice

scholarly journals A Japanese pitch accent practice program and L1 influence on pitch accent acquisition

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Group Treatment ◽  
First Language ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Significant Interaction Effect ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Participant Group ◽  
Japanese Pitch Accent ◽  
Mixed Design Anova

Recent research has demonstrated that learners of Japanese struggle producing correct Japanese pitch accent. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect learners’ first language (L1) may have on accent acquisition following the introduction and use of a digital Japanese Pitch Accent Learning and Practice (PALP) program in two Japanese courses. The PALP program visually and aurally presents learners with pitch patterns and requires learners to select the correct pitch accent pattern for new vocabulary. Participants’ pitch accent abilities were assessed at the beginning and end of their courses. A mixed design ANOVA was conducted to analyze the effect of learners’ L1 on pitch accent acquisition. Results evince a significant interaction effect between participant group (treatment/control) and L1 (Chinese/English), F(1, 24) = 10.09, p < .01 (η2 = .30). Specifically, English L1 participants in the treatment group considerably outperformed the control group English L1 participants. However, the Chinese L1 participants in both groups performed at approximately equal levels. These results suggest the existence of an L1 influence on pitch accent acquisition.

Acquisition without evidence: English infinitives and poverty of stimulus in adult second language acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-443
Author(s):  
Jeanne Heil ◽  
Luis López
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Poverty Of Stimulus

This article provides a Poverty of Stimulus argument for the participation of a dedicated linguistic module in second language acquisition. We study the second language (L2) acquisition of a subset of English infinitive complements that exhibit the following properties: (a) they present an intricate web of grammatical constraints while (b) they are highly infrequent in corpora, (c) they lack visible features that would make them salient, and (d) they are communicatively superfluous. We report on an experiment testing the knowledge of some infinitival constructions by near-native adult first language (L1) Spanish / L2 English speakers. Learners demonstrated a linguistic system that includes contrasts based on subtle restrictions in the L2, including aspect restrictions in Raising to Object. These results provide evidence that frequency and other cognitive or environmental factors are insufficient to account for the acquisition of the full spectrum of English infinitivals. This leads us to the conclusion that a domain-specific linguistic faculty is required.

Feedback for Language Transfer Errors

1989 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tomasello ◽  
Carol Herron
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
First Language Transfer ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Transfer Error ◽  
Path Condition ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Teaching Conditions

In this study we compared two methods for correcting language transfer errors in the foreign language classroom. Thirty-two English-speaking college students enrolled in two sections of an introductory French course served as subjects. Eight commonly encountered English-to-French transfer errors were identified and randomly assigned to one of two teaching conditions for one class section; each error was assigned to the opposite condition for the other section. In both teaching conditions students began by translating English sentences into French. The sentences were such that an L1 (first language) transfer strategy produced correct translations (e.g., using savoir for some uses of “to know”). A sentence for which the transfer would not produce an adequate translation (e.g., a sentence requiring connaître) was then introduced in one of two ways. In one condition—what we have termed the Garden Path condition—students were given the new sentence and asked to translate as before. Their inevitable transfer error was then immediately corrected by the teacher. In the control condition students were simply given the correct French form and told that it differed from the English pattern (they were not given the opportunity to commit a transfer error). Student learning of the non-transferable form was assessed three times throughout the course of the semester, and at all time points performance was better in the Garden Path condition. We interpreted this finding as support for a cognitive comparison model of second language acquisition.

Trends in Second-Language-Acquisition Research

1977 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Hakuta ◽  
Herlinda Cancino
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
First Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Error Performance ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Recent concern with bilingual education has led to an increased interest in understanding the process of second-language acquisition. In this article Kenji Hakuta and Herlinda Cancino present a critical, historical overview of research on second–language acquisition. In this account the authors outline four analytical approaches—contrastive, error, performance, and discourse analysis—trace the shifts among these approaches, and demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of each. They also show how the different approaches reflect changing conceptions of language and the nature of learners. The authors give special emphasis to the influence of first-language-acquisition research on studies of second-language acquisition,and they speculate on future research trends.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document