scholarly journals Individual differences in the production of referential expressions: The effect of language proficiency, language exposure and executive function in bilingual and monolingual children

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovica Serratrice ◽  
Cecile De Cat
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Visual Presence ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Referential Expressions

One hundred and seventy-two English-speaking 5- to 7-year-olds participated in a referential communication task where we manipulated the linguistic mention and the visual presence of a competitor alongside a target referent. Eighty-seven of the children were additionally exposed to a language other than English (bilinguals). We measured children’s language proficiency, verbal working memory (WM), cognitivecontrol skills, family SES, and relative amount of cumulative exposure and use of the home language for the bilinguals. Children’s use of full Noun Phrases (NPs) to identify a target referent was predicted by the visual presence of a competitor more than by its linguistic mention. Verbal WM and proficiency predicted NP use, while cognitive control skills predicted both the ability to use expressions signallingdiscourse integration and sensitivity to the presence of a discourse competitor, but not of a visual competitor. Bilingual children were as informative as monolingual children once proficiency was controlled for.

scholarly journals Individual differences in the production of referential expressions: The effect of language proficiency, language exposure and executive function in bilingual and monolingual children

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovica Serratrice ◽  
Cécile De Cat
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Visual Presence ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Referential Expressions

AbstractOne hundred and seventy-two English-speaking 5- to 7-year-olds participated in a referential communication task where we manipulated the linguistic mention and the visual presence of a competitor alongside a target referent. Eighty-seven of the children were additionally exposed to a language other than English (bilinguals). We measured children's language proficiency, verbal working memory (WM), cognitive control skills, family SES, and relative amount of cumulative exposure and use of the home language for the bilinguals. Children's use of full Noun Phrases (NPs) to identify a target referent was predicted by the visual presence of a competitor more than by its linguistic mention. Verbal WM and proficiency predicted NP use, while cognitive control skills predicted both the ability to use expressions signalling discourse integration and sensitivity to the presence of a discourse competitor, but not of a visual competitor. Bilingual children were as informative as monolingual children once proficiency was controlled for.

Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Eun Jin Paek ◽  
Si On Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Referential Expressions

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

scholarly journals Real-time pragmatic inference across cultures: evidence from a non-industrialized society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Anna Ryskin ◽  
Miguel Angel Salinas ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Edward Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Pragmatic Inference ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Referential Expressions

Speakers and listeners are thought to routinely make sophisticated inferences, in real time, about their conversation partner’s knowledge state and communicative intentions. However, these inferences have only been studied in industrialized cultures. Communicative expectations may be language-dependent, as are many phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects of language. We study pragmatic inference in communication in the Tsimane’, an indigenous people of the Bolivian Amazon, who have little contact with industrialization or formal education. Using a referential communication task and eye-tracking, we probe how Tsimane' speakers use and understand referential expressions (e.g., ``Hand me the cup.'') across contexts. We manipulated aspects of the visual display to elicit contrastive inferences, including whether the referent was unique or part of a set as well as whether members of the same set differed in size or color. Strikingly, in all cases, patterns of behavior and eye-gaze of Tsimane' and English speakers were qualitatively identical, suggesting that real-time inference may be a core feature of human communication that is shared across cultures rather than a product of life in an industrialized society.

scholarly journals PREDICTING LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile De Cat
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Flexibility Measures

AbstractUsing advanced quantitative methods, this article demonstrates that cumulative exposure to the school language is the best language experience predictor of proficiency in that language (as indexed by sentence repetition, lexical semantic, and discourse semantic tasks) in a highly diverse group of 5- to 7-year-old bilingual children in monolingual education. An objective method is proposed to identify the amount of school language experience beyond which bilingual children are likely to perform within the monolingual range, and show that relative passivity in the home language does not translate into better school language proficiency. Socioeconomic status is shown to interact in complex ways with language exposure, such that it is only above a certain level of exposure to the school language that the benefits of a more privileged background have a tangible impact on school language proficiency. To tease apart the effect of environmental predictors from the effect of cognitive factors, memory and cognitive flexibility measures are included as covariates in all analyses.

Variability in the use of the English article system by Chinese learners of English

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Article System ◽  
Lexical Transfer ◽  
Chinese Learners Of English

It is well known that the Chinese language does not have functional equivalents of the English definite and indefinite article. Correspondingly, there is plenty of observational evidence that Chinese learners have difficulty with the article system in English. In particular, these learners have a marked tendency to omit the article where native speakers of English would use one. In this article we report the results of an experimental investigation of the variable use of the definite and indefinite articles by 18 Chinese learners of English. A referential communication task was used to elicit samples of the speech of these learners which was rich in referring noun phrases. From the resulting corpus 1884 noun phrases were coded, using a taxonomy based on Hawkins' (1978) description of the definite and indefinite articles and demonstratives in English. The analysis shows an overall rate of 78% suppliance of articles in contexts where a native speaker would use the definite or indefinite article. Of the remaining 22% of contexts where articles are not used, we found that many of the instances of nonsuppliance of articles could be explained by three principles: 1) a syntactic principle of ‘determiner drop’, whereby an NP with definite or indefinite reference need not be overtly marked for [± definiteness] if it is included in the scope of the determiner of a preceding NP; 2) a ‘recoverability’ principle, whereby an NP need not be marked for [± definiteness] if the information encoded in this feature is recoverable from the context; and 3) a ‘lexical transfer principle’, whereby some of these learners are using demonstratives (particularly this) and the numeral one as markers of definiteness and indefiniteness respectively. However, these principles do not account for all the instances of non-native-like usage in the corpus. There remains a residue of 206 noun phrases without articles in contexts where native speakers would use an article.There are identical contexts, moreover, where these learners use the articles. We suggest that this evidence of unsystematic variation in the use of the articles by these learners lends support to the hypothesis that the optionality in the use of articles is due to difficulty acquiring the correct mapping from the surface features of definiteness and referentiality ( the, a, and the zero article Ø) onto the abstract features of the DP.

scholarly journals ASL Production

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Rubio-Fernandez ◽  
Anne Wienholz ◽  
Carey M. Ballard ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Amy Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Developmental Factors ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Communicative Efficiency ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Scalar Adjectives ◽  
Referential Choice

Previous research has pointed at naturalness and communicative efficiency as possible constraints on language structure. Here, we investigated adjective position in American Sign Language (ASL), a language with relatively flexible word order, to test the incremental efficiency hypothesis, according to which both speakers and signers try to produce efficient referential expressions that are sensitive to the word order of their languages. The results of three experiments using a standard referential communication task confirmed that deaf ASL signers tend to produce absolute adjectives, such as color or material, in prenominal position, while scalar adjectives tend to be produced in prenominal position when expressed as lexical signs, but in postnominal position when expressed as classifiers. Age of ASL exposure also had an effect on referential choice, with early-exposed signers producing more classifiers than late-exposed signers. Overall, our results suggest that linguistic, pragmatic and developmental factors affect referential choice in ASL, supporting the hypothesis that communicative efficiency is an important factor in shaping language structure.

scholarly journals Predicting language proficiency in bilingual children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecile De Cat
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Cumulative Exposure ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Flexibility Measures

Using advanced quantitative methods, this paper demonstrates that cumulative exposure to the school language is the best language experience predictor of proficiency in that language (as indexed by sentence repetition, lexical semantic and discourse semantic tasks) in a highly diverse group of 5- to 7-year-old bilingual children in monolingual education. An objective method is proposed to identify the amount of school language experience beyond which bilingual children are likely to perform within the monolingual range, and show that relative passivity in the home language does not translate into better school language proficiency. Socio-economic status is shown to interact in complex ways with language exposure, such that it is only above a certain level of exposure to the school language that the benefits of a more privileged background have a tangible impact on school language proficiency. To tease apart the effect of environmental predictors from the effect of cognitive factors, memory andcognitive flexibility measures are included as covariates in all analyses.

How does language proficiency affect children’s iconic gesture use?

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 555-583
Author(s):  
MEGHAN ZVAIGZNE ◽  
YURIKO OSHIMA-TAKANE ◽  
MAKIKO HIRAKAWA
Keyword(s):  
Linear Relationship ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Old French ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Iconic Gesture ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Quadratic Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTPrevious research investigating the relationship between language proficiency and iconic gesture use has produced inconsistent findings. This study investigated whether a linear relationship was assumed although it is a quadratic relationship. Iconic co-speech gesture use by 4- to 6-year-old French–Japanese bilinguals with two levels of French proficiency (intermediate and low) but similar levels of Japanese proficiency was compared with that of high-proficiency French monolinguals (Study 1) and Japanese monolinguals with similar proficiency to the bilinguals (Study 2). To control the information participants communicated, a dynamic referential communication task was used; a difference between two cartoons had to be communicated to an experimenter. Study 1 showed a significant quadratic relationship between proficiency and iconic gesture use in French; the intermediate-proficiency bilinguals gestured least among the three proficiency groups. The monolingual and bilingual groups with similar Japanese proficiency in Study 2 gestured at similar rates. It is suggested that children gestured for different reasons depending on their language proficiency and the cognitive resources available for the task.

Hearing Aid Amplification Reduces Communication Effort of People With Hearing Impairment and Their Conversation Partners

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1299-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Beechey ◽  
Jörg M. Buchholz ◽  
Gitte Keidser
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Directional Hearing ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Acoustic Environments ◽  
The Impact

Objectives This study investigates the hypothesis that hearing aid amplification reduces effort within conversation for both hearing aid wearers and their communication partners. Levels of effort, in the form of speech production modifications, required to maintain successful spoken communication in a range of acoustic environments are compared to earlier reported results measured in unaided conversation conditions. Design Fifteen young adult normal-hearing participants and 15 older adult hearing-impaired participants were tested in pairs. Each pair consisted of one young normal-hearing participant and one older hearing-impaired participant. Hearing-impaired participants received directional hearing aid amplification, according to their audiogram, via a master hearing aid with gain provided according to the NAL-NL2 fitting formula. Pairs of participants were required to take part in naturalistic conversations through the use of a referential communication task. Each pair took part in five conversations, each of 5-min duration. During each conversation, participants were exposed to one of five different realistic acoustic environments presented through highly open headphones. The ordering of acoustic environments across experimental blocks was pseudorandomized. Resulting recordings of conversational speech were analyzed to determine the magnitude of speech modifications, in terms of vocal level and spectrum, produced by normal-hearing talkers as a function of both acoustic environment and the degree of high-frequency average hearing impairment of their conversation partner. Results The magnitude of spectral modifications of speech produced by normal-hearing talkers during conversations with aided hearing-impaired interlocutors was smaller than the speech modifications observed during conversations between the same pairs of participants in the absence of hearing aid amplification. Conclusions The provision of hearing aid amplification reduces the effort required to maintain communication in adverse conditions. This reduction in effort provides benefit to hearing-impaired individuals and also to the conversation partners of hearing-impaired individuals. By considering the impact of amplification on both sides of dyadic conversations, this approach contributes to an increased understanding of the likely impact of hearing impairment on everyday communication.

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