scholarly journals The impact of language attrition on language teaching: the dynamics of linguistic knowledge retention and maintenance in multilingualism

Author(s):  
Felipe Flores Kupske

Language attrition has become a vibrant theme as it has implications for theoretical linguistics, including, for example, the organization of linguistic information in the brain and language processing. Insights from this area also have impact on the study of second language (L2) development and can feed the area of language teaching. Once language attrition may be of value for the study of language retention and maintenance, it can contribute to language teaching with long lasting results, more effective planning and syllabus design. In this perspective, as studies exploring L2 attrition are still limited, this article provides a synthesis of research on the area. By drawing from the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism and from the Threshold Hypothesis, it also explores the implications L2 attrition research has for language teaching with a view to establishing more informed language practices and policies.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Becky Wong ◽  
Bin Yin ◽  
Beth O’Brien

Advances in neuroimaging techniques and analytic methods have led to a proliferation of studies investigating the impact of bilingualism on the cognitive and brain systems in humans. Lately, these findings have attracted much interest and debate in the field, leading to a number of recent commentaries and reviews. Here, we contribute to the ongoing discussion by compiling and interpreting the plethora of findings that relate to the structural, functional, and connective changes in the brain that ensue from bilingualism. In doing so, we integrate theoretical models and empirical findings from linguistics, cognitive/developmental psychology, and neuroscience to examine the following issues: (1) whether the language neural network is different for first (dominant) versus second (nondominant) language processing; (2) the effects of bilinguals’ executive functioning on the structure and function of the “universal” language neural network; (3) the differential effects of bilingualism on phonological, lexical-semantic, and syntactic aspects of language processing on the brain; and (4) the effects of age of acquisition and proficiency of the user’s second language in the bilingual brain, and how these have implications for future research in neurolinguistics.


Diabetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 332-OR
Author(s):  
BOYI JIANG ◽  
YUXIANG ZHONG ◽  
PRATIK AGRAWAL ◽  
TONI L. CORDERO ◽  
ROBERT VIGERSKY
Keyword(s):  

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
L. A. Montoya ◽  
E. E. Rodríguez ◽  
H. J. Zúñiga ◽  
I. Mejía

Rotating systems components such as rotors, have dynamic characteristics that are of great importance to understand because they may cause failure of turbomachinery. Therefore, it is required to study a dynamic model to predict some vibration characteristics, in this case, the natural frequencies and mode shapes (both of free vibration) of a centrifugal compressor shaft. The peculiarity of the dynamic model proposed is that using frequency and displacements values obtained experimentally, it is possible to calculate the mass and stiffness distribution of the shaft, and then use these values to estimate the theoretical modal parameters. The natural frequencies and mode shapes of the shaft were obtained with experimental modal analysis by using the impact test. The results predicted by the model are in good agreement with the experimental test. The model is also flexible with other geometries and has a great time and computing performance, which can be evaluated with respect to other commercial software in the future.


Author(s):  
David J. Lobina

The study of cognitive phenomena is best approached in an orderly manner. It must begin with an analysis of the function in intension at the heart of any cognitive domain (its knowledge base), then proceed to the manner in which such knowledge is put into use in real-time processing, concluding with a domain’s neural underpinnings, its development in ontogeny, etc. Such an approach to the study of cognition involves the adoption of different levels of explanation/description, as prescribed by David Marr and many others, each level requiring its own methodology and supplying its own data to be accounted for. The study of recursion in cognition is badly in need of a systematic and well-ordered approach, and this chapter lays out the blueprint to be followed in the book by focusing on a strict separation between how this notion applies in linguistic knowledge and how it manifests itself in language processing.


Author(s):  
Riitta Salmelin ◽  
Jan Kujala ◽  
Mia Liljeström

When seeking to uncover the brain correlates of language processing, timing and location are of the essence. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) offers them both, with the highest sensitivity to cortical activity. MEG has shown its worth in revealing cortical dynamics of reading, speech perception, and speech production in adults and children, in unimpaired language processing as well as developmental and acquired language disorders. The MEG signals, once recorded, provide an extensive selection of measures for examination of neural processing. Like all other neuroimaging tools, MEG has its own strengths and limitations of which the user should be aware in order to make the best possible use of this powerful method and to generate meaningful and reliable scientific data. This chapter reviews MEG methodology and how MEG has been used to study the cortical dynamics of language.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Theres Grüter ◽  
Hannah Rohde

Abstract This study examines the use of discourse-level information to create expectations about reference in real-time processing, testing whether patterns previously observed among native speakers of English generalize to nonnative speakers. Findings from a visual-world eye-tracking experiment show that native (L1; N = 53) but not nonnative (L2; N = 52) listeners’ proactive coreference expectations are modulated by grammatical aspect in transfer-of-possession events. Results from an offline judgment task show these L2 participants did not differ from L1 speakers in their interpretation of aspect marking on transfer-of-possession predicates in English, indicating it is not lack of linguistic knowledge but utilization of this knowledge in real-time processing that distinguishes the groups. English proficiency, although varying substantially within the L2 group, did not modulate L2 listeners’ use of grammatical aspect for reference processing. These findings contribute to the broader endeavor of delineating the role of prediction in human language processing in general, and in the processing of discourse-level information among L2 users in particular.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 892
Author(s):  
Elisa L. J. Moya ◽  
Elodie Vandenhaute ◽  
Eleonora Rizzi ◽  
Marie-Christine Boucau ◽  
Johan Hachani ◽  
...  

Central nervous system (CNS) diseases are one of the top causes of death worldwide. As there is a difficulty of drug penetration into the brain due to the blood–brain barrier (BBB), many CNS drugs treatments fail in clinical trials. Hence, there is a need to develop effective CNS drugs following strategies for delivery to the brain by better selecting them as early as possible during the drug discovery process. The use of in vitro BBB models has proved useful to evaluate the impact of drugs/compounds toxicity, BBB permeation rates and molecular transport mechanisms within the brain cells in academic research and early-stage drug discovery. However, these studies that require biological material (animal brain or human cells) are time-consuming and involve costly amounts of materials and plastic wastes due to the format of the models. Hence, to adapt to the high yields needed in early-stage drug discoveries for compound screenings, a patented well-established human in vitro BBB model was miniaturized and automated into a 96-well format. This replicate met all the BBB model reliability criteria to get predictive results, allowing a significant reduction in biological materials, waste and a higher screening capacity for being extensively used during early-stage drug discovery studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 740-740
Author(s):  
Gerard Karsenty

Abstract We hypothesized that bone may secrete hormones that regulate energy metabolism and reproduction. Testing this hypothesis revealed that the osteoblast-specific secreted protein osteocalcin is a hormone regulating glucose homeostasis and male fertility by signaling through a GPCR, Gprc6a, expressed in pancreatic β bells and Leydig cells of the testes. The systematic exploration of osteocalcin biology, revealed that it regulates an unexpectedly large spectrum of physiological functions in the brain and peripheral organs and that it has most features of an antigeromic molecule. As will be presented at the meeting, this body of work suggests that harnessing osteocalcin for therapeutic purposes may be beneficial in the treatment of age-related diseases such as depression, age-related memory loss and the decline in muscle function seen in sarcopenia.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
Lehel Balogh ◽  
Masaru Tanaka ◽  
Nóra Török ◽  
László Vécsei ◽  
Shigeru Taguchi

Psychotherapy is a comprehensive biological treatment modifying complex underlying cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and regulatory responses in the brain, leading patients with mental illness to a new interpretation of the sense of self and others. Psychotherapy is an art of science integrated with psychology and/or philosophy. Neurological sciences study the neurological basis of cognition, memory, and behavior as well as the impact of neurological damage and disease on these functions, and their treatment. Both psychotherapy and neurological sciences deal with the brain; nevertheless, they continue to stay polarized. Existential phenomenological psychotherapy (EPP) has been in the forefront of meaning-centered counseling for almost a century. The phenomenological approach in psychotherapy originated in the works of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Viktor Frankl, and it has been committed to accounting for the existential possibilities and limitations of one’s life. EPP provides philosophically rich interpretations and empowers counseling techniques to assist mentally suffering individuals by finding meaning and purpose to life. The approach has proven to be effective in treating mood and anxiety disorders. This narrative review article demonstrates the development of EPP, the therapeutic methodology, evidence-based accounts of its curative techniques, current understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in neurological sciences, and a possible converging path to translate and integrate meaning-centered psychotherapy and neuroscience, concluding that the EPP may potentially play a synergistic role with the currently prevailing medication-based approaches for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.


AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842110286
Author(s):  
Kylie L. Anglin ◽  
Vivian C. Wong ◽  
Arielle Boguslav

Though there is widespread recognition of the importance of implementation research, evaluators often face intense logistical, budgetary, and methodological challenges in their efforts to assess intervention implementation in the field. This article proposes a set of natural language processing techniques called semantic similarity as an innovative and scalable method of measuring implementation constructs. Semantic similarity methods are an automated approach to quantifying the similarity between texts. By applying semantic similarity to transcripts of intervention sessions, researchers can use the method to determine whether an intervention was delivered with adherence to a structured protocol, and the extent to which an intervention was replicated with consistency across sessions, sites, and studies. This article provides an overview of semantic similarity methods, describes their application within the context of educational evaluations, and provides a proof of concept using an experimental study of the impact of a standardized teacher coaching intervention.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document