A Survey on AAC Fringe Vocabulary to Support Personal Assistance Service

Objectives: There are increasing demands for personal assistance services which help the disabled to carry out their daily life. To use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) approaches more effectively in daily communication, it is essential to include the appropriate core and fringe vocabulary in the AAC system. Considering the fact that there are few studies in Korea which have reported fringe vocabulary compared to core vocabulary, this study is aimed to develop a noun list that can be used to promote interactive communication between the disabled and their assistants in each communication situation.Methods: A literature review was conducted to elicit frequently used nouns in each communication situation. Then, a survey was carried out to identify nouns with high word commonality across 105 personal assistants.Results: Sixty-three nouns with more than 50% of word commonality across personal assistants were identified from the 244 fringe vocabulary; consisting of 112 nouns in the area of going out, 29 in cleaning, 27 in personal hygiene, 26 in cooking, 20 in meal supporting, 20 in other service areas, and 10 in commuting.Conclusion: The identified nouns are expected to help people with complex communication needs to express their needs and wants more clearly and effectively using those nouns embedded in their AAC systems. The list of nouns can be used not only for people who receive personal assistance services, but also for people who rely on AAC systems to express their daily needs.

Vocabulary: Common or Basic?

Neither linguistics nor psychology offers a single, unified notion of simplicity, and therefore the simplest “core” layer of vocabulary is hard to define in theory and hard to pinpoint in practice. In section 1 we briefly survey the main approaches, and distinguish two that are highly relevant to lexicography: we will call these common and basic. In sections 2 and 3 we compare these approaches, and in section 4 we point the reader to Kolmogorov complexity, unfamiliar as it may be to most working psychologists, lexicographers, and educators, as the best formal means to deal with core vocabulary.

A Study of Issues and Techniques for Creating Core Vocabulary Lists for English as an International Language

<p>Core vocabulary lists have long been a tool used by language learners and instructors seeking to facilitate the initial stages of foreign language learning (Fries & Traver, 1960: 2). In the past, these lists were typically based on the intuitions of experienced educators. Even before the advent of computer technology in the mid-twentieth century, attempts were made to create such lists using objective methodologies. These efforts regularly fell short, however, and – in the end – had to be tweaked subjectively. Now, in the 21st century, this is unfortunately still true, at least for those lists whose methodologies have been published. Given the present availability of sizable English-language corpora from around the world and affordable personal computers, this thesis seeks to fill this methodological gap by answering the research question: How can valid core vocabulary lists for English as an International Language be created? A practical taxonomy is proposed based on Biber’s (1988, 1995) multi-dimensional analysis of English texts. This taxonomy is based on correlated linguistic features and reasonably covers representative spoken and written texts in English. The four-part main study assesses the variance in vocabulary data within each of the four key text types: interactive (face-to-face conversation), academic exposition, imaginative narrative, and general reported exposition. The variation in word types found at progressive intervals in corpora of various sizes is measured using the Dice coefficient, a coefficient originally used to measure species variation in different biotic regions (Dice, 1945). The second study proceeds to compare the most frequent vocabulary types in each of the four text types using an equal-sized collection of each text type. Of special interest is the difference between spoken and written texts. Though types are arguably the proper unit to investigate when comparing vocabulary variation, few learners would want to approach vocabulary learning one word type at a time (Nation & Meara, 2002; Bauer & Nation, 1993). The third study thus compares the effect reordering words as families (as opposed to types) has on core vocabulary lists. An analysis is made of the major differences resulting from grouping the members of each word family under a single headword and summing their individual frequencies. Methods are then discussed for how core vocabulary lists of various sizes can be constructed based on the findings of these three studies. Recommendations are made regarding the size and composition of the source corpus and the core list extraction and construction methodology based on the learning objectives.</p>

A Study of Issues and Techniques for Creating Core Vocabulary Lists for English as an International Language

<p>Core vocabulary lists have long been a tool used by language learners and instructors seeking to facilitate the initial stages of foreign language learning (Fries & Traver, 1960: 2). In the past, these lists were typically based on the intuitions of experienced educators. Even before the advent of computer technology in the mid-twentieth century, attempts were made to create such lists using objective methodologies. These efforts regularly fell short, however, and – in the end – had to be tweaked subjectively. Now, in the 21st century, this is unfortunately still true, at least for those lists whose methodologies have been published. Given the present availability of sizable English-language corpora from around the world and affordable personal computers, this thesis seeks to fill this methodological gap by answering the research question: How can valid core vocabulary lists for English as an International Language be created? A practical taxonomy is proposed based on Biber’s (1988, 1995) multi-dimensional analysis of English texts. This taxonomy is based on correlated linguistic features and reasonably covers representative spoken and written texts in English. The four-part main study assesses the variance in vocabulary data within each of the four key text types: interactive (face-to-face conversation), academic exposition, imaginative narrative, and general reported exposition. The variation in word types found at progressive intervals in corpora of various sizes is measured using the Dice coefficient, a coefficient originally used to measure species variation in different biotic regions (Dice, 1945). The second study proceeds to compare the most frequent vocabulary types in each of the four text types using an equal-sized collection of each text type. Of special interest is the difference between spoken and written texts. Though types are arguably the proper unit to investigate when comparing vocabulary variation, few learners would want to approach vocabulary learning one word type at a time (Nation & Meara, 2002; Bauer & Nation, 1993). The third study thus compares the effect reordering words as families (as opposed to types) has on core vocabulary lists. An analysis is made of the major differences resulting from grouping the members of each word family under a single headword and summing their individual frequencies. Methods are then discussed for how core vocabulary lists of various sizes can be constructed based on the findings of these three studies. Recommendations are made regarding the size and composition of the source corpus and the core list extraction and construction methodology based on the learning objectives.</p>

Identifying the Core Vocabulary for Adults With Complex Communication Needs From the British National Corpus by Analyzing Grouped Frequency Distributions

Purpose This study is aimed to identify the high-frequency vocabulary (HFV), otherwise termed “core vocabulary” for adults with complex communication needs. Method Three major characteristics of the HFV—a relatively small number of different words (NDW), a relatively high word frequency, and a high word commonality across speakers—were examined so as not to lose any candidate words for the HFV. Specifically, instead of applying the traditionally used cutoff word frequency of 0.5‰, a grouped frequency distribution was used to examine the appropriate frequency ranges to determine the HFV candidates. To improve the representativeness of the HFV across ages, social backgrounds, conversation situations, and topics, 330,000 spoken words of 66 adults (29 men and 37 women; M age = 45.47 years, SD = 16.07) were extracted from the British National Corpus database for analysis. Results A distinct pattern of NDW was observed from the frequency of 0.1‰ in the grouped frequency distribution. In total, 671 words were found to be candidates for the HFV, accounting for 90.94% of the total sample words. After the word commonality analysis indicated at least 80% commonality across speakers, 203 words were selected for the final HFV; accountability was calculated at 80.62%. Conclusions With the innovative word analysis approach, this study provided an HFV list that can be used for a wide range of conversation topics. This method provides a scientific and principled approach to identifying and organizing vocabulary for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention that does not exist in many AAC resources that promote “core vocabulary” with identifying the source for vocabulary selection.

Patterns of persistence and diffusibility in the European lexicon

This article investigates to what extent the semantics and the phonological forms of lexical items are genealogically inherited or acquired through language contact. We focus on patterns of colexification (the encoding of two concepts with the same word) as an aspect of lexical-semantic organization. We test two pairs of hypotheses. The first pair concerns the genealogical stability (persistence) and susceptibility to contact-induced change (diffusibility) of colexification patterns and phonological matter in the 40 most genealogically stable elements of the 100-items Swadesh list, which we call “nuclear vocabulary”. We hypothesize that colexification patterns are (a) less persistent, and (b) more diffusible, than the phonological form of nuclear vocabulary. The second pair of hypotheses concerns degrees of diffusibility in two different sections of the lexicon – “core vocabulary” (all 100 elements of the Swadesh list) and its complement (“non-core/peripheral vocabulary”). We hypothesize that the colexification patterns associated with core vocabulary are (a) more persistent, and (b) less diffusible, than colexification patterns associated with peripheral vocabulary. The four hypotheses are tested using the lexical-semantic data from the CLICS database and independently determined phonological dissimilarity measures. The hypothesis that colexification patterns are less persistent than the phonological matter of nuclear vocabulary receives clear support. The hypothesis that colexification patterns are more diffusible than phonological matter receives some support, but a significant difference can only be observed for unrelated languages. The hypothesis that colexification patterns involving core vocabulary are more genealogically stable than colexification patterns at the periphery of the lexicon cannot be confirmed, but the data seem to indicate a higher degree of diffusibility for colexification patterns at the periphery of the lexicon. While we regard the results of our study as valid, we emphasize the tentativeness of our conclusions and point out some limitations as well as desiderata for future research to enable a better understanding of the genealogical versus areal distribution of linguistic features.

The Effect of Core Vocabulary Extension Program for Children with Inconsistent SSD

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the Core Vocabulary Extension Program for establishing speech sound consistency on speech inconsistency and accuracy of children with inconsistent SSD.Methods: Four children with inconsistent SSD aged 3-5 years who exhibited speech sound inconsistency, phonological error patterns, and articulation problems at the same time participated in this study. The program of this study used a core vocabulary approach and a multi-sensory approach, and parental support was provided at the same time. The experimental design used a multiple probe baseline design, with 3-5 baseline evaluations, 10 treatment evaluations, and 3 maintenance evaluations were performed. Data analysis of dependent variables, mean, trend line slope, standard deviation, immediate effect of treatment, and ratio of non-overlapping data (PND) were analyzed.Results: As a result of the study, inconsistency was reduced and articulation ability was improved. Speech inconsistency improvement was effective in all four participating children, but accuracy improvement was only effective in three children.Conclusion: This study is significant in that it confirmed the therapeutic effect of the Core Vocabulary Extension Program which integrated a multisensory approach and parent coaching based on a core vocabulary approach on speech sound inconsistency and accuracy of children with severe speech sound disorder accompanied by intellectual problems and language disorders. In the future, it is necessary to apply a phonological approach to remove the remaining phonological error patterns after speech consistency is established and to confirm the effectiveness of the phonological approach

Functions of Code Switching from Arabic to English among Jordanian Pilots in their Daily Informal Conversations: A Case Study

This study examines the frequency and the functions of code switching in informal conversations among Jordanian pilots, who have created their own jargon. It also explores the most frequent English expressions that the pilots switch to in their informal Arabic discourse. The conversations of eight Jordanian pilots aged between thirty and fifty-five were tape-recorded in three separate informal natural settings. The data were used for the purpose of finding out what the pragmatic and communicative functions are that the pilots’ code switching serves, and to investigate the most frequent expressions used in their conversations. The results showed that eight main conversational functions can be identified in their code-switching routines, namely: to compensate for the lack of exact equivalents in Arabic, to avoid interruption to the communication when not knowing the Arabic equivalent, to replace long and technical terminology in Arabic with acronyms in English (acronyms are not common in Arabic), to use aviation titles and ranks, to quote/ directly report phrases of speakers, to say the numbers, to refer to names of companies, places, documents, and organizations, and to insert some English formulaic expressions. The findings also showed that the most frequent terms and expressions used in code switching amongst Jordanian pilots are more related to the aviation register than to common-core vocabulary.