The Impact of the Native American Languages Act on Public School Curriculum: A Different View.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Littlejohn, Jim

2000-01-01

Responds to Scott Ferrin's argument (EJ 583 598) and, as the former policy director for the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR), decries both Ferrin and OCR for their relentless and, in his view, unwarranted promotion of bilingual education. Contends that no civil-rights laws, including the Native American Languages Act (NALA), support or allow…

Infants' Selectively Pay Attention to the Information They Receive from a Native Speaker of Their Language.

PubMed

Marno, Hanna; Guellai, Bahia; Vidal, Yamil; Franzoi, Julia; Nespor, Marina; Mehler, Jacques

2016-01-01

From the first moments of their life, infants show a preference for their native language, as well as toward speakers with whom they share the same language. This preference appears to have broad consequences in various domains later on, supporting group affiliations and collaborative actions in children. Here, we propose that infants' preference for native speakers of their language also serves a further purpose, specifically allowing them to efficiently acquire culture specific knowledge via social learning. By selectively attending to informants who are native speakers of their language and who probably also share the same cultural background with the infant, young learners can maximize the possibility to acquire cultural knowledge. To test whether infants would preferably attend the information they receive from a speaker of their native language, we familiarized 12-month-old infants with a native and a foreign speaker, and then presented them with movies where each of the speakers silently gazed toward unfamiliar objects. At test, infants' looking behavior to the two objects alone was measured. Results revealed that infants preferred to look longer at the object presented by the native speaker. Strikingly, the effect was replicated also with 5-month-old infants, indicating an early development of such preference. These findings provide evidence that young infants pay more attention to the information presented by a person with whom they share the same language. This selectivity can serve as a basis for efficient social learning by influencing how infants' allocate attention between potential sources of information in their environment.

Foreign Subtitles Help but Native-Language Subtitles Harm Foreign Speech Perception

PubMed Central

Mitterer, Holger; McQueen, James M.

2009-01-01

Understanding foreign speech is difficult, in part because of unusual mappings between sounds and words. It is known that listeners in their native language can use lexical knowledge (about how words ought to sound) to learn how to interpret unusual speech-sounds. We therefore investigated whether subtitles, which provide lexical information, support perceptual learning about foreign speech. Dutch participants, unfamiliar with Scottish and Australian regional accents of English, watched Scottish or Australian English videos with Dutch, English or no subtitles, and then repeated audio fragments of both accents. Repetition of novel fragments was worse after Dutch-subtitle exposure but better after English-subtitle exposure. Native-language subtitles appear to create lexical interference, but foreign-language subtitles assist speech learning by indicating which words (and hence sounds) are being spoken. PMID:19918371

Sign Language and Pantomime Production Differentially Engage Frontal and Parietal Cortices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emmorey, Karen; McCullough, Stephen; Mehta, Sonya; Ponto, Laura L. B.; Grabowski, Thomas J.

2011-01-01

We investigated the functional organisation of neural systems supporting language production when the primary language articulators are also used for meaningful, but nonlinguistic, expression such as pantomime. Fourteen hearing nonsigners and 10 deaf native users of American Sign Language (ASL) participated in an H[subscript 2][superscript…

Somalia: Country Status Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFerren, Margaret

A survey of the status of language usage in Somalia begins with an overview of the usage patterns of Somali, the official language, and three languages previously used officially: English, Italian, and Arabic. The cultural context that for many years has supported the usage of a single native language for communication and administration is also…

Iconic Native Culture Cues Inhibit Second Language Production in a Non-immigrant Population: Evidence from Bengali-English Bilinguals.

PubMed

Roychoudhuri, Kesaban S; Prasad, Seema G; Mishra, Ramesh K

2016-01-01

We examined if iconic pictures belonging to one's native culture interfere with second language production in bilinguals in an object naming task. Bengali-English bilinguals named pictures in both L1 and L2 against iconic cultural images representing Bengali culture or neutral images. Participants named in both "Blocked" and "Mixed" language conditions. In both conditions, participants were significantly slower in naming in English when the background was an iconic Bengali culture picture than a neutral image. These data suggest that native language culture cues lead to activation of the L1 lexicon that competed against L2 words creating an interference. These results provide further support to earlier observations where such culture related interference has been observed in bilingual language production. We discuss the results in the context of cultural influence on the psycholinguistic processes in bilingual object naming.

Do Decision Rules Matter? A Descriptive Study of English Language Proficiency Assessment Classifications for English-Language Learners and Native English Speakers in Fifth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Patricia E.; Bailey, Alison L.

2016-01-01

English language proficiency assessments (ELPA) are used in the United States to measure annually the English language progress and proficiency of English-language learners (ELLs), a subgroup of language minority students who receive language acquisition support mandated and largely funded by Title III (NCLB, 2001). ELPA proficient and…

One-Parent-One-Language (OPOL) Families: Is the Majority Language-Speaking Parent Instrumental in the Minority Language Development?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venables, Elizabeth; Eisenchlas, Susana A.; Schalley, Andrea C.

2014-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine the strategies majority language-speaking parents use to support the development of the minority language in families who follow the pattern of exposure known as one-parent-one-language (OPOL). In this particular pattern of raising a child bilingually, each parent speaks only their own native language to their…

LingoBee--Crowd-Sourced Mobile Language Learning in the Cloud

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Procter-Legg, Emma; Cacchione, Annamaria

2013-01-01

This paper describes three case studies, where language learners were invited to use "LingoBee" as a means of supporting their language learning. LingoBee is a mobile app that provides user-generated language content in a cloud-based shared repository. Assuming that today's students are mobile savvy and "Digital Natives" able…

LingoBee: Engaging Mobile Language Learners through Crowd-Sourcing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Procter-Legg, Emma; Cacchione, Annamaria

2014-01-01

This paper describes three case studies, where language learners were invited to use "LingoBee" as a means of supporting their language learning. LingoBee is a mobile app that provides user-generated language content in a cloud-based shared repository. Assuming that today's students are mobile savvy and "Digital Natives" able…

Form-focused Communicative Practice via CMC: What Language Learners Say

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meskill, Carla; Anthony, Natasha

2007-01-01

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is being used widely to support and extend foreign language instruction. Language learners are practicing the target language by communicating with their instructors, peers, and native speakers at a distance. This study examines high-beginning and low-intermediate learners of Russian and their uses of, and…

Students with Learning Disabilities in the Foreign Language Learning Environment and the Practice of Exemption

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wight, Mary Caitlin S.

2015-01-01

This examination of the literature on foreign, or second, language learning by native English-speaking students with disabilities addresses the benefits of language learning, the practices and policies of language exemption, the perceptions of students and educators regarding those practices, and available resources for supporting students with…

Listening with an accent: speech perception in a second language by late bilinguals.

PubMed

Leikin, Mark; Ibrahim, Raphiq; Eviatar, Zohar; Sapir, Shimon

2009-10-01

The goal of the present study was to examine functioning of late bilinguals in their second language. Specifically, we asked how native and non-native Hebrew speaking listeners perceive accented and native-accented Hebrew speech. To achieve this goal we used the gating paradigm to explore the ability of healthy late fluent bilinguals (Russian and Arabic native speakers) to recognize words in L2 (Hebrew) when they were spoken in an accent like their own, a native accent (Hebrew speakers), or another foreign accent (American accent). The data revealed that for Hebrew speakers, there was no effect of accent, whereas for the two bilingual groups (Russian and Arabic native speakers), stimuli with an accent like their own and the native Hebrew accent, required significantly less phonological information than the other foreign accents. The results support the hypothesis that phonological assimilation works in a similar manner in these two different groups.

-hóhta'hané: Mapping Genocide & Restorative Justice in Native America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucchesi, Annita

2018-05-01

This thesis explores critical decolonial cartography as a possible language for communicating and better understanding complex, intergenerational experiences of genocide and colonialism among Native American peoples. Utilizing a self-reflexive methodology, this work makes interventions in Native American and indigenous studies, comparative genocide studies, historiography, and geography to argue for more expansive languages with which to grapple with Native experiences of genocide. In so doing, this paper also asserts the need for indigenous narrative self-determination, development of decolonial epistemologies and praxes on genocide, and languages for violence that are specifically designed to facilitate dialogue on healing. For that reason, this work not only positions cartography and maps as a particularly useful language for understanding indigenous experiences of genocide, but documents the development of this language, with the intent of supporting and guiding others in creating alternative languages that best fit their nation, community, family, and selves. Finally, the larger aim of this work is to make the case for languages on genocide that heal, rather than re-traumatize, and give a more holistic understanding of the ways in which genocide `takes place' spatially and temporally, with the hope of creating a larger, more inclusive, less violent space for imagining and crafting restorative justice.

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in Support of (Re)-Learning Native Languages: The Case of Runyakitara

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katushemererwe, Fridah; Nerbonne, John

2015-01-01

This study presents the results from a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system of Runyakitara (RU_CALL). The major objective was to provide an electronic language learning environment that can enable learners with mother tongue deficiencies to enhance their knowledge of grammar and acquire writing skills in Runyakitara. The system…

The Parameter of Aspect in Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slabakova, Roumyana

1999-01-01

Presents a detailed study of the second-language (L2) acquisition of English aspect by native speakers of Slavic languages. Results bring new evidence to bear on the theoretical choice between direct access to the L2 value or starting out the process of acquisition with the first-language value of a parameter, supporting the latter view.…

Critical Text Analysis: Linking Language and Cultural Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wharton, Sue

2011-01-01

Many UK universities offer degree programmes in English Language specifically for non-native speakers of English. Such programmes typically include not only language development but also development in various areas of content knowledge. A challenge that arises is to design courses in different areas that mutually support each other, thus…

Intelligibility of foreign-accented speech: Effects of listening condition, listener age, and listener hearing status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferguson, Sarah Hargus

2005-09-01

It is well known that, for listeners with normal hearing, speech produced by non-native speakers of the listener's first language is less intelligible than speech produced by native speakers. Intelligibility is well correlated with listener's ratings of talker comprehensibility and accentedness, which have been shown to be related to several talker factors, including age of second language acquisition and level of similarity between the talker's native and second language phoneme inventories. Relatively few studies have focused on factors extrinsic to the talker. The current project explored the effects of listener and environmental factors on the intelligibility of foreign-accented speech. Specifically, monosyllabic English words previously recorded from two talkers, one a native speaker of American English and the other a native speaker of Spanish, were presented to three groups of listeners (young listeners with normal hearing, elderly listeners with normal hearing, and elderly listeners with hearing impairment; n=20 each) in three different listening conditions (undistorted words in quiet, undistorted words in 12-talker babble, and filtered words in quiet). Data analysis will focus on interactions between talker accent, listener age, listener hearing status, and listening condition. [Project supported by American Speech-Language-Hearing Association AARC Award.

The role of syllables in sign language production.

PubMed

Baus, Cristina; Gutiérrez, Eva; Carreiras, Manuel

2014-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the functional role of syllables in sign language and how the different phonological combinations influence sign production. Moreover, the influence of age of acquisition was evaluated. Deaf signers (native and non-native) of Catalan Signed Language (LSC) were asked in a picture-sign interference task to sign picture names while ignoring distractor-signs with which they shared two phonological parameters (out of three of the main sign parameters: Location, Movement, and Handshape). The results revealed a different impact of the three phonological combinations. While no effect was observed for the phonological combination Handshape-Location, the combination Handshape-Movement slowed down signing latencies, but only in the non-native group. A facilitatory effect was observed for both groups when pictures and distractors shared Location-Movement. Importantly, linguistic models have considered this phonological combination to be a privileged unit in the composition of signs, as syllables are in spoken languages. Thus, our results support the functional role of syllable units during phonological articulation in sign language production.

Learning builds on learning: Infants' use of native language sound patterns to learn words

PubMed Central

Graf Estes, Katharine

2014-01-01

The present research investigated how infants apply prior knowledge of environmental regularities to support new learning. The experiments tested whether infants could exploit experience with native language (English) phonotactic patterns to facilitate associating sounds with meanings during word learning. Fourteen-month-olds heard fluent speech that contained cues for detecting target words; they were embedded in sequences that occur across word boundaries. A separate group heard the target words embedded without word boundary cues. Infants then participated in an object label-learning task. With the opportunity to use native language patterns to segment the target words, infants subsequently learned the labels. Without this experience, infants failed. Novice word learners can take advantage of early learning about sounds scaffold lexical development. PMID:24980741

Language Preservation: the Language of Science as a bridge to the Native American Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexander, C. J.; Martin, M.; Grant, G.

2009-12-01

Many Native American communities recognize that the retention of their language, and the need to make the language relevant to the technological age we live in, represents one of their largest and most urgent challenges. Almost 70 percent of Navajos speak their tribal language in the home, and 25 per cent do not know English very well. In contrast, only 30 percent of Native Americans as a whole speak their own tribal language in the home. For the Cherokee and the Chippewa, less than 10 percent speak the native language in the home. And for the Navajo, the number of first graders who solely speak English is almost four times higher than it was in 1970. The U.S. Rosetta Project is the NASA contribution to the International Rosetta Mission. The Rosetta stone is the inspiration for the mission’s name. As outlined by the European Space Agency, Rosetta is expected to provide the keys to the primordial solar system the way the original Rosetta Stone provided a key to ancient language. The concept of ancient language as a key provides a theme for this NASA project’s outreach to Native American communities anxious for ways to enhance and improve the numbers of native speakers. In this talk we will present a concept for building on native language as it relates to STEM concepts. In 2009, a student from the Dine Nation interpreted 28 NASA terms for his senior project at Chinle High School in Chinle, AZ. These terms included such words as space telescope, weather satellite, space suit, and the planets including Neptune and Uranus. This work represents a foundation for continued work between NASA and the Navajo Nation. Following approval by the tribal elders, the U.S. Rosetta project would host the newly translated Navajo words on a web-site, and provide translation into both Navajo and English. A clickable map would allow the user to move through all the words, see Native artwork related to the word, and hear audio translation. Extension to very remote teachers in the Navajo Nation, those who teach in Navajo and have little access to contemporary computer technology, is a mid-term goal. Tie-ins with existing Native American Astronomy projects such as Sharing the Skies with be presented. The project is expected to be expanded into other Native communities such as Cherokee, Crow, and Hawaiian. Work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, was supported by NASA. The Rosetta mission is a cooperative project of NASA and the European Space Agency.

Do Bilinguals Automatically Activate Their Native Language When They Are Not Using It?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costa, Albert; Pannunzi, Mario; Deco, Gustavo; Pickering, Martin J.

2017-01-01

Most models of lexical access assume that bilingual speakers activate their two languages even when they are in a context in which only one language is used. A critical piece of evidence used to support this notion is the observation that a given word automatically activates its translation equivalent in the other language. Here, we argue that…

A study of the effects of English language proficiency and scientific reasoning skills on the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners and native English language-speaking students participating in grade 10 science classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torres, Hector Neftali, Sr.

2000-11-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of English language proficiency and levels of scientific reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. The researcher studied a group of high school Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students participating in Grade 10 science classes. The language proficiency of the students was to be measured through the use of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) instrument. A Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning developed by Lawson (1978) was administered in either English or Spanish to the group of Hispanic English language learners and in English to the group of native English language-speaking students in order to determine their levels of scientific reasoning skills. The students' acquisition of science content knowledge was measured through the use of statewide-standardized science test developed by the State's Department of Education. This study suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners in the study. The results of the study also suggest that with regards to scientific reasoning skills, students that showed high levels or reflective reasoning skills for the most part performed better on the statewide-standardized science test than students with intuitive or transitional reasoning skills. This assertion was supported by the studies conducted by Lawson and his colleagues, which showed that high levels of reasoning or reflective reasoning skills are prerequisite for most high school science courses. The findings in this study imply that high order English language proficiency combined with high levels of reasoning skills enhances students' abilities to learn science content subject matter. This lends support to Cummins' theoretical framework, which indicates that learning science content subject matter requires cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). The study also indicates that CALP maybe the combination of high order English language proficiency and high levels of reasoning skills. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Infant-Directed Speech Supports Phonetic Category Learning in English and Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werker, Janet F.; Pons, Ferran; Dietrich, Christiane; Kajikawa, Sachiyo; Fais, Laurel; Amano, Shigeaki

2007-01-01

Across the first year of life, infants show decreased sensitivity to phonetic differences not used in the native language [Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. "Infant Behaviour and Development," 7, 49-63]. In an artificial language learning…

Expressive Vocabulary Development in Children from Bilingual and Monolingual Homes: A Longitudinal Study from Two to Four Years

PubMed Central

Hoff, Erika; Rumiche, Rosario; Burridge, Andrea; Ribot, Krystal M.; Welsh, Stephanie N.

2014-01-01

The early course of language development among children from bilingual homes varies in ways that are not well described and as a result of influences that are not well understood. Here, we describe trajectories of relative change in expressive vocabulary from 22 to 48 months and vocabulary achievement at 48 months in two groups of children from bilingual homes (children with one and children with two native Spanish-speaking parents [ns = 15 and 11]) and in an SES-equivalent group of children from monolingual English homes (n = 31). The two groups from bilingual homes differed in their mean levels of English and Spanish skills, in their developmental trajectories during this period, and in the relation between language use at home and their vocabulary development. Children with two native Spanish-speaking parents showed steepest gains in total vocabulary and were more nearly balanced bilinguals at 48 months. Children with one native Spanish- and one native English-speaking parent showed trajectories of relative decline in Spanish vocabulary. At 48 months, mean levels of English skill among the bilingual children were comparable to monolingual norms, but children with two native Spanish-speaking parents had lower English scores than the SES-equivalent monolingual group. Use of English at home was a significant positive predictor of English vocabulary scores only among children with a native English-speaking parent. These findings argue that efforts to optimize school readiness among children from immigrant families should facilitate their access to native speakers of the community language, and efforts to support heritage language maintenance should include encouraging heritage language use by native speakers in the home. PMID:25089074

Expressive Vocabulary Development in Children from Bilingual and Monolingual Homes: A Longitudinal Study from Two to Four Years.

PubMed

Hoff, Erika; Rumiche, Rosario; Burridge, Andrea; Ribot, Krystal M; Welsh, Stephanie N

2014-10-01

The early course of language development among children from bilingual homes varies in ways that are not well described and as a result of influences that are not well understood. Here, we describe trajectories of relative change in expressive vocabulary from 22 to 48 months and vocabulary achievement at 48 months in two groups of children from bilingual homes (children with one and children with two native Spanish-speaking parents [ n s = 15 and 11]) and in an SES-equivalent group of children from monolingual English homes ( n = 31). The two groups from bilingual homes differed in their mean levels of English and Spanish skills, in their developmental trajectories during this period, and in the relation between language use at home and their vocabulary development. Children with two native Spanish-speaking parents showed steepest gains in total vocabulary and were more nearly balanced bilinguals at 48 months. Children with one native Spanish- and one native English-speaking parent showed trajectories of relative decline in Spanish vocabulary. At 48 months, mean levels of English skill among the bilingual children were comparable to monolingual norms, but children with two native Spanish-speaking parents had lower English scores than the SES-equivalent monolingual group. Use of English at home was a significant positive predictor of English vocabulary scores only among children with a native English-speaking parent. These findings argue that efforts to optimize school readiness among children from immigrant families should facilitate their access to native speakers of the community language, and efforts to support heritage language maintenance should include encouraging heritage language use by native speakers in the home.

Collection of Data on Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Nativity by US Public Health Surveillance and Monitoring Systems: Gaps and Opportunities.

PubMed

Rodriguez-Lainz, Alfonso; McDonald, Mariana; Fonseca-Ford, Maureen; Penman-Aguilar, Ana; Waterman, Stephen H; Truman, Benedict I; Cetron, Martin S; Richards, Chesley L

Despite increasing diversity in the US population, substantial gaps in collecting data on race, ethnicity, primary language, and nativity indicators persist in public health surveillance and monitoring systems. In addition, few systems provide questionnaires in foreign languages for inclusion of non-English speakers. We assessed (1) the extent of data collected on race, ethnicity, primary language, and nativity indicators (ie, place of birth, immigration status, and years in the United States) and (2) the use of data-collection instruments in non-English languages among Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-supported public health surveillance and monitoring systems in the United States. We identified CDC-supported surveillance and health monitoring systems in place from 2010 through 2013 by searching CDC websites and other federal websites. For each system, we assessed its website, documentation, and publications for evidence of the variables of interest and use of data-collection instruments in non-English languages. We requested missing information from CDC program officials, as needed. Of 125 data systems, 100 (80%) collected data on race and ethnicity, 2 more collected data on ethnicity but not race, 26 (21%) collected data on racial/ethnic subcategories, 40 (32%) collected data on place of birth, 21 (17%) collected data on years in the United States, 14 (11%) collected data on immigration status, 13 (10%) collected data on primary language, and 29 (23%) used non-English data-collection instruments. Population-based surveys and disease registries more often collected data on detailed variables than did case-based, administrative, and multiple-source systems. More complete and accurate data on race, ethnicity, primary language, and nativity can improve the quality, representativeness, and usefulness of public health surveillance and monitoring systems to plan and evaluate targeted public health interventions to eliminate health disparities.

Differential neural contributions to native- and foreign-language talker identification

PubMed Central

Perrachione, Tyler K.; Pierrehumbert, Janet B.; Wong, Patrick C.M.

2009-01-01

Humans are remarkably adept at identifying individuals by the sound of their voice, a behavior supported by the nervous system’s ability to integrate information from voice and speech perception. Talker-identification abilities are significantly impaired when listeners are unfamiliar with the language being spoken. Recent behavioral studies describing the language-familiarity effect implicate functionally integrated neural systems for speech and voice perception, yet specific neuroscientific evidence demonstrating the basis for such integration has not yet been shown. Listeners in the present study learned to identify voices speaking a familiar (native) or unfamiliar (foreign) language. The talker-identification performance of neural circuitry in each cerebral hemisphere was assessed using dichotic listening. To determine the relative contribution of circuitry in each hemisphere to ecological (binaural) talker identification abilities, we compared the predictive capacity of dichotic performance on binaural performance across languages. We found listeners’ right-ear (left hemisphere) performance to be a better predictor of overall accuracy in their native language than a foreign one. The enhanced predictive capacity of the classically language-dominant left-hemisphere on overall talker-identification accuracy demonstrates functionally integrated neural systems for speech and voice perception during natural talker identification. PMID:19968445

Language of Science as a Bridge to Native American Educators and Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexander, C. J.; Angrum, A.; Martin, M.; Ali, N.; Kingfisher, J.; Treuer, A.; Grant, G.; Ciotti, J.

2010-12-01

In the Western tradition, words and vocabulary encapsulate much of how knowledge enters the public discourse, and is passed from one generation to the next. Much of Native American knowledge is passed along in an oral tradition. Chants and ceremonies contain context and long-baseline data on the environment (geology, climate, and astronomy) that may even surpasses the lifespan of a single individual. For Native American students and researchers, the concept of ‘modern research and science education’ may be wrapped up into the conundrum of assimilation and loss of cultural identification and traditional way of life. That conundrum is also associated with the lack of language and vocabulary with which to discuss 'modern research.' Native Americans emphasize the need to know themselves and their own culture when teaching their students. Many Native American communities recognize that the retention of their language - and need to make the language relevant to the technological age we live in, represents one of their largest and most urgent challenges. One strategy for making science education relevant to Native American learners is identifying appropriate terms that cross the cultural divide. More than just words and vocabulary, the thought processes and word/concept relationships can be quite different in the native cultures. The U.S. Rosetta Project has worked to identify words associated with Western 'STEM' concepts in three Native American communities: Navajo, Hawaiian, and Ojibwe. The U.S. Rosetta Project is NASA’s contribution to the International Rosetta Mission. The Rosetta stone, inspiration for the mission’s name, is expected to provide the keys to the primordial solar system the way the original Rosetta Stone provided a key to ancient language. Steps taken so far include identification and presentation of online astronomy, geology, and physical science vocabulary terms in the native language, identification of teachers and classrooms - often in Native American charter schools - interested in working STEM concepts in the native language, and initiation of an essay contest to encourage use and cognitive understanding of the terms. One of our lesson's learned, is that finding people who are bi-lingual, who have an understanding of western science and traditional knowledge are key to making the cross-cultural connections work. STEM language elements in Navajo, Hawaiian, and Ojibwe can be found at the U.S. Rosetta website. Work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, was supported by NASA. The Rosetta mission is a cooperative project of NASA and the European Space Agency.

Is Native-Language Decoding Skill Related to Second-Language Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meschyan, Gayane; Hernandez, Arturo

2002-01-01

Investigated the mechanisms through which native-language (English) word decoding ability predicted individual differences in native- and second-language (Spanish) learning. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that second-language learning is founded on native-language phonological-orthographic ability among college-age adults, especially…

The Multi/Plural Turn, Postcolonial Theory, and Neoliberal Multiculturalism: Complicities and Implications for Applied Linguistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kubota, Ryuko

2016-01-01

In applied linguistics and language education, an increased focus has been placed on plurality and hybridity to challenge monolingualism, the native speaker norm, and the modernist view of language and language use as unitary and bounded. The multi/plural turn parallels postcolonial theory in that they both support hybridity and fluidity while…

Long-Term Effects of Gestures on Memory for Foreign Language Words Trained in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macedonia, Manuela; Klimesch, Wolfgang

2014-01-01

Language and gesture are viewed as highly interdependent systems. Besides supporting communication, gestures also have an impact on memory for verbal information compared to pure verbal encoding in native but also in foreign language learning. This article presents a within-subject longitudinal study lasting 14 months that tested the use of…

75 FR 26942 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-13

... Management. Office of English Language Acquisitions Type of Review: Reinstatement. Title: Application for Grants Under English Language Acquisition and Language Enhancement: Native American and Alaska Native... Grants Under English Language Acquisition and Language Enhancement: Native American and Alaska Native...

The Sociolinguistics of Foreign-Language Classrooms: Contributions of the Native, the Near-Native, and the Non-Native Speaker. Issues in Language Program Direction, A Series of Annual Volumes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blyth, Carl, Ed.

This collection of papers is divided into five parts. Part 1, "The Native Speaker," includes "The (Non)Native Standard Language in Foreign Language Education: A Critical Perspective" (Robert W. Train) and "The Native Speaker, the Student, and Woody Allen: Examining Traditional Roles in the Foreign Language Classroom"…

Sleep and Native Language Interference Affect Non-Native Speech Sound Learning

PubMed Central

Earle, F. Sayako; Myers, Emily B.

2015-01-01

Adults learning a new language are faced with a significant challenge: non-native speech sounds that are perceptually similar to sounds in one’s native language can be very difficult to acquire. Sleep and native language interference, two factors that may help to explain this difficulty in acquisition, are addressed in three studies. Results of Experiment 1 showed that participants trained on a non-native contrast at night improved in discrimination 24 hours after training, while those trained in the morning showed no such improvement. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed the possibility that incidental exposure to perceptually similar native language speech sounds during the day interfered with maintenance in the morning group. Taken together, results show that the ultimate success of non-native speech sound learning depends not only on the similarity of learned sounds to the native language repertoire, but also to interference from native language sounds before sleep. PMID:26280264

Sleep and native language interference affect non-native speech sound learning.

PubMed

Earle, F Sayako; Myers, Emily B

2015-12-01

Adults learning a new language are faced with a significant challenge: non-native speech sounds that are perceptually similar to sounds in one's native language can be very difficult to acquire. Sleep and native language interference, 2 factors that may help to explain this difficulty in acquisition, are addressed in 3 studies. Results of Experiment 1 showed that participants trained on a non-native contrast at night improved in discrimination 24 hr after training, while those trained in the morning showed no such improvement. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed the possibility that incidental exposure to perceptually similar native language speech sounds during the day interfered with maintenance in the morning group. Taken together, results show that the ultimate success of non-native speech sound learning depends not only on the similarity of learned sounds to the native language repertoire, but also to interference from native language sounds before sleep. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of syllables in sign language production

PubMed Central

Baus, Cristina; Gutiérrez, Eva; Carreiras, Manuel

2014-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the functional role of syllables in sign language and how the different phonological combinations influence sign production. Moreover, the influence of age of acquisition was evaluated. Deaf signers (native and non-native) of Catalan Signed Language (LSC) were asked in a picture-sign interference task to sign picture names while ignoring distractor-signs with which they shared two phonological parameters (out of three of the main sign parameters: Location, Movement, and Handshape). The results revealed a different impact of the three phonological combinations. While no effect was observed for the phonological combination Handshape-Location, the combination Handshape-Movement slowed down signing latencies, but only in the non-native group. A facilitatory effect was observed for both groups when pictures and distractors shared Location-Movement. Importantly, linguistic models have considered this phonological combination to be a privileged unit in the composition of signs, as syllables are in spoken languages. Thus, our results support the functional role of syllable units during phonological articulation in sign language production. PMID:25431562

A cross-language study of perception of lexical stress in English.

PubMed

Yu, Vickie Y; Andruski, Jean E

2010-08-01

This study investigates the question of whether language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English. Thirty native English speakers and 30 native Chinese learners of English participated in a stressed-syllable identification task and a discrimination task involving three types of stimuli (real words/pseudowords/hums). The results show that both language groups were able to identify and discriminate stress patterns. Lexical and segmental information affected the English and Chinese speakers in varying degrees. English and Chinese speakers showed different response patterns to trochaic vs. iambic stress across the three types of stimuli. An acoustic analysis revealed that two language groups used different acoustic cues to process lexical stress. The findings suggest that the different degrees of lexical and segmental effects can be explained by language background, which in turn supports the hypothesis that language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English.

Modern Greek Language: Acquisition of Morphology and Syntax by Non-Native Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreou, Georgia; Karapetsas, Anargyros; Galantomos, Ioannis

2008-01-01

This study investigated the performance of native and non native speakers of Modern Greek language on morphology and syntax tasks. Non-native speakers of Greek whose native language was English, which is a language with strict word order and simple morphology, made more errors and answered more slowly than native speakers on morphology but not…

The problems inherent in teaching technical writing and report writing to native Americans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zukowski/faust, J.

1981-01-01

Teaching technical writing to Native Americans contending with a second language and culture is addressed. Learning difficulties arising from differences between native and acquired language and cultural systems are examined. Compartmentalized teaching, which presents the ideals of technical writing in minimal units, and skills development are considered. Rhetorical problems treated include logic of arrangement, selection of support and scope of detail, and time and space. Specific problems selected include the concept of promptness, the contextualization of purpose, interpersonal relationships, wordiness, mixture of registers, and the problem of abstracting. Four inductive procedures for students having writing and perception problems are included. Four sample exercises and a bibliography of 13 references are also included.

An investigation of mathematics and science instruction in English and Spanish for English language learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez-Esquivel, Marina

The contextual demands of language in content area are difficult for ELLS. Content in the native language furthers students' academic development and native language skills, while they are learning English. Content in English integrates pedagogical strategies for English acquisition with subject area instruction. The following models of curriculum content are provided in most Miami Dade County Public Schools: (a) mathematics instruction in the native language with science instruction in English or (b) science instruction in the native language with mathematics instruction in English. The purpose of this study was to investigate which model of instruction is more contextually supportive for mathematics and science achievement. A pretest and posttest, nonequivalent group design was used with 94 fifth grade ELLs who received instruction in curriculum model (a) or (b). This allowed for statistical analysis that detected a difference in the means of .5 standard deviations with a power of .80 at the .05 level of significance. Pretreatment and post-treatment assessments of mathematics, reading, and science achievement were obtained through the administration of Aprenda-Segunda Edicion and the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. The results indicated that students receiving mathematics in English and Science in Spanish scored higher on achievement tests in both Mathematics and Science than the students who received Mathematics in Spanish and Science in English. In addition, the mean score of students on the FCAT mathematics examination was higher than their mean score on the FCAT science examination regardless of the language of instruction.

Listen! Native Radio Can Save Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Kallen

1996-01-01

In the United States and Canada, the number of radio stations operated by Native Americans has greatly increased in recent years, as have the amount of programming in native languages and the number of native language instructional programs. Such programming can play a role in maintaining vigorous native languages and revitalizing endangered…

Perceiving non-native speech: Word segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mondini, Michèle; Miller, Joanne L.

2004-05-01

One important source of information listeners use to segment speech into discrete words is allophonic variation at word junctures. Previous research has shown that non-native speakers impose their native-language phonetic norms on their second language; as a consequence, non-native speech may (in some cases) exhibit altered patterns of allophonic variation at word junctures. We investigated the perceptual consequences of this for word segmentation by presenting native-English listeners with English word pairs produced either by six native-English speakers or six highly fluent, native-French speakers of English. The target word pairs had contrastive word juncture involving voiceless stop consonants (e.g., why pink/wipe ink; gray ties/great eyes; we cash/weak ash). The task was to identify randomized instances of each individual target word pair (as well as control pairs) by selecting one of four possible choices (e.g., why pink, wipe ink, why ink, wipe pink). Overall, listeners were more accurate in identifying target word pairs produced by the native-English speakers than by the non-native English speakers. These findings suggest that one contribution to the processing cost associated with listening to non-native speech may be the presence of altered allophonic information important for word segmentation. [Work supported by NIH/NIDCD.

Native-language N400 and P600 predict dissociable language-learning abilities in adults

PubMed Central

Qi, Zhenghan; Beach, Sara D.; Finn, Amy S.; Minas, Jennifer; Goetz, Calvin; Chan, Brian; Gabrieli, John D.E.

2018-01-01

Language learning aptitude during adulthood varies markedly across individuals. An individual’s native-language ability has been associated with success in learning a new language as an adult. However, little is known about how native-language processing affects learning success and what neural markers of native-language processing, if any, are related to success in learning. We therefore related variation in electrophysiology during native-language processing to success in learning a novel artificial language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while native English speakers judged the acceptability of English sentences prior to learning an artificial language. There was a trend towards a double dissociation between native-language ERPs and their relationships to novel syntax and vocabulary learning. Individuals who exhibited a greater N400 effect when processing English semantics showed better future learning of the artificial language overall. The N400 effect was related to syntax learning via its specific relationship to vocabulary learning. In contrast, the P600 effect size when processing English syntax predicted future syntax learning but not vocabulary learning. These findings show that distinct neural signatures of native-language processing relate to dissociable abilities for learning novel semantic and syntactic information. PMID:27737775

Notes from the Field: Lolak--Another Moribund Language of Indonesia, with Supporting Audio

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lobel, Jason William; Paputungan, Ade Tatak

2017-01-01

This paper consists of a short multimedia introduction to Lolak, a near-extinct Greater Central Philippine language traditionally spoken in three small communities on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. In addition to being one of the most underdocumented languages in the area, it is also spoken by one of the smallest native speaker populations…

34 CFR 300.29 - Native language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Native language. 300.29 Section 300.29 Education... DISABILITIES General Definitions Used in This Part § 300.29 Native language. (a) Native language, when used with respect to an individual who is limited English proficient, means the following: (1) The language...

Linguistic Support for Non-Native English Speakers: Higher Education Practices in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow Andrade, Maureen; Evans, Norman W.; Hartshorn, K. James

2014-01-01

Higher education institutions in English-speaking nations host significant populations of non-native English speakers (NNES), both international and resident. English language proficiency is a critical factor to their success. This study reviews higher education practices in the United States related to this population. Findings indicate…

Differential Neural Contributions to Native- and Foreign-Language Talker Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perrachione, Tyler K.; Pierrehumbert, Janet B.; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2009-01-01

Humans are remarkably adept at identifying individuals by the sound of their voice, a behavior supported by the nervous system's ability to integrate information from voice and speech perception. Talker-identification abilities are significantly impaired when listeners are unfamiliar with the language being spoken. Recent behavioral studies…

Language Supports for Journal Abstract Writing across Disciplines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liou, H.-C.; Yang, P.-C.; Chang, J. S.

2012-01-01

Various writing assistance tools have been developed through efforts in the areas of natural language processing with different degrees of success of curriculum integration depending on their functional rigor and pedagogical designs. In this paper, we developed a system, WriteAhead, that provides six types of suggestions when non-native graduate…

Project Porvenir, 1988-89. Evaluation Section Report. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Lista, Carlos A.

In its first year, Project Porvenir provided instructional and support services to Spanish-speaking students of limited English proficiency in bilingual and special education in four Bronx (New York) elementary schools. Project goals were to increase students' English language proficiency and develop native language skills, provide career…

Native-language N400 and P600 predict dissociable language-learning abilities in adults.

PubMed

Qi, Zhenghan; Beach, Sara D; Finn, Amy S; Minas, Jennifer; Goetz, Calvin; Chan, Brian; Gabrieli, John D E

2017-04-01

Language learning aptitude during adulthood varies markedly across individuals. An individual's native-language ability has been associated with success in learning a new language as an adult. However, little is known about how native-language processing affects learning success and what neural markers of native-language processing, if any, are related to success in learning. We therefore related variation in electrophysiology during native-language processing to success in learning a novel artificial language. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while native English speakers judged the acceptability of English sentences prior to learning an artificial language. There was a trend towards a double dissociation between native-language ERPs and their relationships to novel syntax and vocabulary learning. Individuals who exhibited a greater N400 effect when processing English semantics showed better future learning of the artificial language overall. The N400 effect was related to syntax learning via its specific relationship to vocabulary learning. In contrast, the P600 effect size when processing English syntax predicted future syntax learning but not vocabulary learning. These findings show that distinct neural signatures of native-language processing relate to dissociable abilities for learning novel semantic and syntactic information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Examining the contribution of motor movement and language dominance to increased left lateralization during sign generation in native signers.

PubMed

Gutierrez-Sigut, Eva; Payne, Heather; MacSweeney, Mairéad

2016-08-01

The neural systems supporting speech and sign processing are very similar, although not identical. In a previous fTCD study of hearing native signers (Gutierrez-Sigut, Daws, et al., 2015) we found stronger left lateralization for sign than speech. Given that this increased lateralization could not be explained by hand movement alone, the contribution of motor movement versus 'linguistic' processes to the strength of hemispheric lateralization during sign production remains unclear. Here we directly contrast lateralization strength of covert versus overt signing during phonological and semantic fluency tasks. To address the possibility that hearing native signers' elevated lateralization indices (LIs) were due to performing a task in their less dominant language, here we test deaf native signers, whose dominant language is British Sign Language (BSL). Signers were more strongly left lateralized for overt than covert sign generation. However, the strength of lateralization was not correlated with the amount of time producing movements of the right hand. Comparisons with previous data from hearing native English speakers suggest stronger laterality indices for sign than speech in both covert and overt tasks. This increased left lateralization may be driven by specific properties of sign production such as the increased use of self-monitoring mechanisms or the nature of phonological encoding of signs. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Acquisition of English Focus Marking by Non-Native Speakers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, Rachel Elizabeth

This dissertation examines Mandarin and Korean speakers' acquisition of English focus marking, which is realized by accenting particular words within a focused constituent. It is important for non-native speakers to learn how accent placement relates to focus in English because appropriate accent placement and realization makes a learner's English more native-like and easier to understand. Such knowledge may also improve their English comprehension skills. In this study, 20 native English speakers, 20 native Mandarin speakers, and 20 native Korean speakers participated in four experiments: (1) a production experiment, in which they were recorded reading the answers to questions, (2) a perception experiment, in which they were asked to determine which word in a recording was the last prominent word, (3) an understanding experiment, in which they were asked whether the answers in recorded question-answer pairs had context-appropriate prosody, and (4) an accent placement experiment, in which they were asked which word they would make prominent in a particular context. Finally, a new group of native English speakers listened to utterances produced in the production experiment, and determined whether the prosody of each utterance was appropriate for its context. The results of the five experiments support a novel predictive model for second language prosodic focus marking acquisition. This model holds that both transfer of linguistic features from a learner's native language (L1) and features of their second language (L2) affect learners' acquisition of prosodic focus marking. As a result, the model includes two complementary components: the Transfer Component and the L2 Challenge Component. The Transfer Component predicts that prosodic structures in the L2 will be more easily acquired by language learners that have similar structures in their L1 than those who do not, even if there are differences between the L1 and L2 in how the structures are realized. The L2 Challenge Component predicts that for difficult tasks, language learners will rely on widely-applied prosodic patterns, making them more successful at prosodically marking broad focus than narrow focus. However, for easy tasks, language learners will more successfully mark information structures that have a more direct relationship between focus and accent placement.

34 CFR 668.153 - Administration of tests for individuals whose native language is not English or for individuals...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... language is not English or for individuals with disabilities. 668.153 Section 668.153 Education Regulations... whose native language is not English or for individuals with disabilities. (a) Individuals whose native language is not English. For an individual whose native language is not English and who is not fluent in...

34 CFR 303.403 - Prior notice; native language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Prior notice; native language. 303.403 Section 303.403... TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards General § 303.403 Prior notice; native language. (a... file a complaint and the timelines under those procedures. (c) Native language. (1) The notice must be...

The emotional impact of being myself: Emotions and foreign-language processing.

PubMed

Ivaz, Lela; Costa, Albert; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni

2016-03-01

Native languages are acquired in emotionally rich contexts, whereas foreign languages are typically acquired in emotionally neutral academic environments. As a consequence of this difference, it has been suggested that bilinguals' emotional reactivity in foreign-language contexts is reduced as compared with native language contexts. In the current study, we investigated whether this emotional distance associated with foreign languages could modulate automatic responses to self-related linguistic stimuli. Self-related stimuli enhance performance by boosting memory, speed, and accuracy as compared with stimuli unrelated to the self (the so-called self-bias effect). We explored whether this effect depends on the language context by comparing self-biases in a native and a foreign language. Two experiments were conducted with native Spanish speakers with a high level of English proficiency in which they were asked to complete a perceptual matching task during which they associated simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, and triangles) with the labels "you," "friend," and "other" either in their native or foreign language. Results showed a robust asymmetry in the self-bias in the native- and foreign-language contexts: A larger self-bias was found in the native than in the foreign language. An additional control experiment demonstrated that the same materials administered to a group of native English speakers yielded robust self-bias effects that were comparable in magnitude to the ones obtained with the Spanish speakers when tested in their native language (but not in their foreign language). We suggest that the emotional distance evoked by the foreign-language contexts caused these differential effects across language contexts. These results demonstrate that the foreign-language effects are pervasive enough to affect automatic stages of emotional processing. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Perception of English intonation by English, Spanish, and Chinese listeners.

PubMed

Grabe, Esther; Rosner, Burton S; García-Albea, José E; Zhou, Xiaolin

2003-01-01

Native language affects the perception of segmental phonetic structure, of stress, and of semantic and pragmatic effects of intonation. Similarly, native language might influence the perception of similarities and differences among intonation contours. To test this hypothesis, a cross-language experiment was conducted. An English utterance was resynthesized with seven falling and four rising intonation contours. English, Iberian Spanish, and Chinese listeners then rated each pair of nonidentical stimuli for degree of difference. Multidimensional scaling of the results supported the hypothesis. The three groups of listeners produced statistically different perceptual configurations for the falling contours. All groups, however, perceptually separated the falling from the rising contours. This result suggested that the perception of intonation begins with the activation of universal auditory mechanisms that process the direction of relatively slow frequency modulations. A second experiment therefore employed frequency-modulated sine waves that duplicated the fundamental frequency contours of the speech stimuli. New groups of English, Spanish, and Chinese subjects yielded no cross-language differences between the perceptual configurations for these nonspeech stimuli. The perception of similarities and differences among intonation contours calls upon universal auditory mechanisms whose output is molded by experience with one's native language.

Sharing programming resources between Bio* projects through remote procedure call and native call stack strategies.

PubMed

Prins, Pjotr; Goto, Naohisa; Yates, Andrew; Gautier, Laurent; Willis, Scooter; Fields, Christopher; Katayama, Toshiaki

2012-01-01

Open-source software (OSS) encourages computer programmers to reuse software components written by others. In evolutionary bioinformatics, OSS comes in a broad range of programming languages, including C/C++, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, and R. To avoid writing the same functionality multiple times for different languages, it is possible to share components by bridging computer languages and Bio* projects, such as BioPerl, Biopython, BioRuby, BioJava, and R/Bioconductor. In this chapter, we compare the two principal approaches for sharing software between different programming languages: either by remote procedure call (RPC) or by sharing a local call stack. RPC provides a language-independent protocol over a network interface; examples are RSOAP and Rserve. The local call stack provides a between-language mapping not over the network interface, but directly in computer memory; examples are R bindings, RPy, and languages sharing the Java Virtual Machine stack. This functionality provides strategies for sharing of software between Bio* projects, which can be exploited more often. Here, we present cross-language examples for sequence translation, and measure throughput of the different options. We compare calling into R through native R, RSOAP, Rserve, and RPy interfaces, with the performance of native BioPerl, Biopython, BioJava, and BioRuby implementations, and with call stack bindings to BioJava and the European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite. In general, call stack approaches outperform native Bio* implementations and these, in turn, outperform RPC-based approaches. To test and compare strategies, we provide a downloadable BioNode image with all examples, tools, and libraries included. The BioNode image can be run on VirtualBox-supported operating systems, including Windows, OSX, and Linux.

Seward Park High School. Project Superemos, 1981-1982. O.E.E. Evaluation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torres, Judith A.; And Others

Project Superemos, conducted at Seward Park High School in New York City, was implemented in order to supplement the school's instructional services in English as a Second Language, native language arts, and bilingual instruction. The project provided supportive services necessary for mainstreaming into the regular school curriculum approximately…

Computers in Bilingual Education: Project CIBE. Evaluation Section Report. OREA Reports.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Alvarez, Rosalyn

This project provided 360 students at South Bronx High School (New York) with instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL); Native Language Arts (NLA); the bilingual content area subjects of mathematics, science, and social studies; and computer literacy. The goal of the project was to provide instructional and support services to…

Supporting Oral Narrative Development of Kindergarten English Language Learners Using Multimedia Stories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Sha

2016-01-01

Narrative ability comes before literacy for bilingual students and helps narrow down the gap in text-level literacy between English language learners (ELLs) and native English speakers. Kindergarten ELLs are the best age group to receive intervention to improve their oral narrative skills. Multimedia stories have potential to assist kindergarten…

Phonetic convergence in spontaneous conversations as a function of interlocutor language distance

PubMed Central

Kim, Midam; Horton, William S.; Bradlow, Ann R.

2013-01-01

This study explores phonetic convergence during conversations between pairs of talkers with varying language distance. Specifically, we examined conversations within two native English talkers and within two native Korean talkers who had either the same or different regional dialects, and between native and nonnative talkers of English. To measure phonetic convergence, an independent group of listeners judged the similarity of utterance samples from each talker through an XAB perception test, in which X was a sample of one talker’s speech and A and B were samples from the other talker at either early or late portions of the conversation. The results showed greater convergence for same-dialect pairs than for either the different-dialect pairs or the different-L1 pairs. These results generally support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between phonetic convergence and interlocutor language distance. We interpret this pattern as suggesting that phonetic convergence between talker pairs that vary in the degree of their initial language alignment may be dynamically mediated by two parallel mechanisms: the need for intelligibility and the extra demands of nonnative speech production and perception. PMID:23637712

34 CFR 303.401 - Definitions of consent, native language, and personally identifiable information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Definitions of consent, native language, and personally... Definitions of consent, native language, and personally identifiable information. As used in this subpart— (a... which consent is sought, in the parent's native language or other mode of communication; (2) The parent...

Blinded by taboo words in L1 but not L2.

PubMed

Colbeck, Katie L; Bowers, Jeffrey S

2012-04-01

The present study compares the emotionality of English taboo words in native English speakers and native Chinese speakers who learned English as a second language. Neutral and taboo/sexual words were included in a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task as to-be-ignored distracters in a short- and long-lag condition. Compared with neutral distracters, taboo/sexual distracters impaired the performance in the short-lag condition only. Of critical note, however, is that the performance of Chinese speakers was less impaired by taboo/sexual distracters. This supports the view that a first language is more emotional than a second language, even when words are processed quickly and automatically. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Medical education in a foreign language and history-taking in the native language in Lebanon - a nationwide survey.

PubMed

Abi Raad, Vanda; Raad, Kareem; Daaboul, Yazan; Korjian, Serge; Asmar, Nadia; Jammal, Mouin; Aoun Bahous, Sola

2016-11-22

With the adoption of the English language in medical education, a gap in clinical communication may develop in countries where the native language is different from the language of medical education. This study investigates the association between medical education in a foreign language and students' confidence in their history-taking skills in their native language. This cross-sectional study consisted of a 17-question survey among medical students in clinical clerkships of Lebanese medical schools. The relationship between the language of medical education and confidence in conducting a medical history in Arabic (the native language) was evaluated (n = 457). The majority (88.5%) of students whose native language was Arabic were confident they could conduct a medical history in Arabic. Among participants enrolled in the first clinical year, high confidence in Arabic history-taking was independently associated with Arabic being the native language and with conducting medical history in Arabic either in the pre-clinical years or during extracurricular activities. Among students in their second clinical year, however, these factors were not associated with confidence levels. Despite having their medical education in a foreign language, the majority of students in Lebanese medical schools are confident in conducting a medical history in their native language.

Reclaiming the Gift: Indigenous Youth Counter-Narratives on Native Language Loss and Revitalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Romero, Mary Eunice; Zepeda, Ofelia

2006-01-01

In this article, the authors explore the personal, familial, and academic stakes of Native language loss for youth, drawing on narrative data from the Native Language Shift and Retention Project, a five year (2001-06), federally funded study of the nature and impacts of Native language shift and retention on American Indian students' language…

Creating Official Language Policy from Local Practice: The Example of the Native American Languages Act 1990/1992

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warhol, Larisa

2012-01-01

This research explores the development of landmark federal language policy in the United States: the Native American Languages Act of 1990/1992 (NALA). Overturning more than two centuries of United States American Indian policy, NALA established the federal role in preserving and protecting Native American languages. Indigenous languages in the…

Assisting Native Americans in Assuring the Survival and Continuing Vitality of Their Languages. Report To Accompany S. 2044. Senate, 102d Congress, 2d Session.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

Past U.S. policies toward Indian and other Native American languages have attempted to suppress the use of the languages in government-operated Indian schools for assimilating Indian children. About 155 Native languages are spoken today in the United States, but only 20 are spoken by people of all ages. The Native American Languages Act of 1990…

Can non-interactive language input benefit young second-language learners?

PubMed

Au, Terry Kit-Fong; Chan, Winnie Wailan; Cheng, Liao; Siegel, Linda S; Tso, Ricky Van Yip

2015-03-01

To fully acquire a language, especially its phonology, children need linguistic input from native speakers early on. When interaction with native speakers is not always possible - e.g. for children learning a second language that is not the societal language - audios are commonly used as an affordable substitute. But does such non-interactive input work? Two experiments evaluated the usefulness of audio storybooks in acquiring a more native-like second-language accent. Young children, first- and second-graders in Hong Kong whose native language was Cantonese Chinese, were given take-home listening assignments in a second language, either English or Putonghua Chinese. Accent ratings of the children's story reading revealed measurable benefits of non-interactive input from native speakers. The benefits were far more robust for Putonghua than English. Implications for second-language accent acquisition are discussed.

Sentence durations and accentedness judgments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bond, Z. S.; Stockmal, Verna; Markus, Dace

2003-04-01

Talkers in a second language can frequently be identified as speaking with a foreign accent. It is not clear to what degree a foreign accent represents specific deviations from a target language versus more general characteristics. We examined the identifications of native and non-native talkers by listeners with various amount of knowledge of the target language. Native and non-native speakers of Latvian provided materials. All the non-native talkers spoke Russian as their first language and were long-term residents of Latvia. A listening test, containing sentences excerpted from a short recorded passage, was presented to three groups of listeners: native speakers of Latvian, Russians for whom Latvian was a second language, and Americans with no knowledge of either of the two languages. The listeners were asked to judge whether each utterance was produced by a native or non-native talker. The Latvians identified the non-native talkers very accurately, 88%. The Russians were somewhat less accurate, 83%. The American listeners were least accurate, but still identified the non-native talkers at above chance levels, 62%. Sentence durations correlated with the judgments provided by the American listeners but not with the judgments provided by native or L2 listeners.

The effects of native language on Indian English sounds and timing patterns

PubMed Central

Sirsa, Hema; Redford, Melissa A.

2013-01-01

This study explored whether the sound structure of Indian English (IE) varies with the divergent native languages of its speakers or whether it is similar regardless of speakers' native languages. Native Hindi (Indo-Aryan) and Telugu (Dravidian) speakers produced comparable phrases in IE and in their native languages. Naïve and experienced IE listeners were then asked to judge whether different sentences had been spoken by speakers with the same or different native language backgrounds. The findings were an interaction between listener experience and speaker background such that only experienced listeners appropriately distinguished IE sentences produced by speakers with different native language backgrounds. Naïve listeners were nonetheless very good at distinguishing between Hindi and Telugu phrases. Acoustic measurements on monophthongal vowels, select obstruent consonants, and suprasegmental temporal patterns all differentiated between Hindi and Telugu, but only 3 of the measures distinguished between IE produced by speakers of the different native languages. The overall results are largely consistent with the idea that IE has a target phonology that is distinct from the phonology of native Indian languages. The subtle L1 effects on IE may reflect either the incomplete acquisition of the target phonology or, more plausibly, the influence of sociolinguistic factors on the use and evolution of IE. PMID:24860200

Powerful Learning Tools for ELLs: Using Native Language, Familiar Examples, and Concept Mapping to Teach English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dong, Yu Ren

2013-01-01

This article highlights how English language learners' (ELLs) prior knowledge can be used to help learn science vocabulary. The article explains that the concept of prior knowledge needs to encompass the ELL student's native language, previous science learning, native literacy skills, and native cultural knowledge and life experiences.…

Alaska Native Languages: Past, Present, and Future. Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers No. 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krauss, Michael E.

Three papers (1978-80) written for the non-linguistic public about Alaska Native languages are combined here. The first is an introduction to the prehistory, history, present status, and future prospects of all Alaska Native languages, both Eskimo-Aleut and Athabaskan Indian. The second and third, presented as appendixes to the first, deal in…

Nassi-Schneiderman Diagram in HTML Based on AML

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Menyhárt, László

2013-01-01

In an earlier work I defined an extension of XML called Algorithm Markup Language (AML) for easy and understandable coding in an IDE which supports XML editing (e.g. NetBeans). The AML extension contains annotations and native language (English or Hungarian) tag names used when coding our algorithm. This paper presents a drawing tool with which…

The contribution of phonological knowledge, memory, and language background to reading comprehension in deaf populations

PubMed Central

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A.; Dye, Matthew W. G.; Hauser, Peter; Supalla, Ted R.; Bavelier, Daphne

2015-01-01

While reading is challenging for many deaf individuals, some become proficient readers. Little is known about the component processes that support reading comprehension in these individuals. Speech-based phonological knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension in hearing individuals, yet its role in deaf readers is controversial. This could reflect the highly varied language backgrounds among deaf readers as well as the difficulty of disentangling the relative contribution of phonological versus orthographic knowledge of spoken language, in our case ‘English,’ in this population. Here we assessed the impact of language experience on reading comprehension in deaf readers by recruiting oral deaf individuals, who use spoken English as their primary mode of communication, and deaf native signers of American Sign Language. First, to address the contribution of spoken English phonological knowledge in deaf readers, we present novel tasks that evaluate phonological versus orthographic knowledge. Second, the impact of this knowledge, as well as memory measures that rely differentially on phonological (serial recall) and semantic (free recall) processing, on reading comprehension was evaluated. The best predictor of reading comprehension differed as a function of language experience, with free recall being a better predictor in deaf native signers than in oral deaf. In contrast, the measures of English phonological knowledge, independent of orthographic knowledge, best predicted reading comprehension in oral deaf individuals. These results suggest successful reading strategies differ across deaf readers as a function of their language experience, and highlight a possible alternative route to literacy in deaf native signers. Highlights: 1. Deaf individuals vary in their orthographic and phonological knowledge of English as a function of their language experience. 2. Reading comprehension was best predicted by different factors in oral deaf and deaf native signers. 3. Free recall memory (primacy effect) better predicted reading comprehension in deaf native signers as compared to oral deaf or hearing individuals. 4. Language experience should be taken into account when considering cognitive processes that mediate reading in deaf individuals. PMID:26379566

Native-Language Education: Addressing the Interests of Special Populations within U.S. Federal Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Best, Jane; Dunlap, Allison

2012-01-01

This brief provides an overview of three federal laws that address native-language education and illustrates how these federal laws produce different results when coupled with state laws and other regional circumstances. For the purposes of this brief, native-language education refers to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and…

Phraseology and Frequency of Occurrence on the Web: Native Speakers' Perceptions of Google-Informed Second Language Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geluso, Joe

2013-01-01

Usage-based theories of language learning suggest that native speakers of a language are acutely aware of formulaic language due in large part to frequency effects. Corpora and data-driven learning can offer useful insights into frequent patterns of naturally occurring language to second/foreign language learners who, unlike native speakers, are…

The Impact of Native Language Use on Second Language Vocabulary Learning by Saudi EFL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Muhammad Saleem

2016-01-01

This paper strives to explore the impact of Native Language use on Foreign Language vocabulary learning on the basis of empirical and available data. The study is carried out with special reference to the English Language Programme students in Buraydah Community College, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. The Native Language of these students is…

Addressing Cultural and Native Language Interference in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allard, Daniele; Bourdeau, Jacqueline; Mizoguchi, Riichiro

2011-01-01

This paper addresses the problem of cultural and native language interference in second/foreign language acquisition. More specifically, it examines issues of interference that can be traced to a student's native language and that also have a cultural component. To this effect, an understanding of what actually comprises both interference and…

Why segmentation matters: experience-driven segmentation errors impair “morpheme” learning

PubMed Central

Finn, Amy S.; Hudson Kam, Carla L.

2015-01-01

We ask whether an adult learner’s knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners’ ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically triggered variation of morphemes. We find that learning is impaired when words and component morphemes are structured to conflict with a learner’s native-language phonotactic system, but not when native-language phonotactics do not conflict with morpheme boundaries in the artificial language. A learner’s native-language knowledge can therefore have a cascading impact affecting word segmentation and the morphological variation that relies upon proper segmentation. These results show that getting word segmentation right early in learning is deeply important for learning other aspects of language, even those (morphology) that are known to pose a great difficulty for adult language learners. PMID:25730305

The influence of different native language systems on vowel discrimination and identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kewley-Port, Diane; Bohn, Ocke-Schwen; Nishi, Kanae

2005-04-01

The ability to identify the vowel sounds of a language reliably is dependent on the ability to discriminate between vowels at a more sensory level. This study examined how the complexity of the vowel systems of three native languages (L1) influenced listeners perception of American English (AE) vowels. AE has a fairly complex vowel system with 11 monophthongs. In contrast, Japanese has only 5 spectrally different vowels, while Swedish has 9 and Danish has 12. Six listeners, with exposure of less than 4 months in English speaking environments, participated from each L1. Their performance in two tasks was compared to 6 AE listeners. As expected, there were large differences in a linguistic identification task using 4 confusable AE low vowels. Japanese listeners performed quite poorly compared to listeners with more complex L1 vowel systems. Thresholds for formant discrimination for the 3 groups were very similar to those of native AE listeners. Thus it appears that sensory abilities for discriminating vowels are only slightly affected by native vowel systems, and that vowel confusions occur at a more central, linguistic level. [Work supported by funding from NIHDCD-02229 and the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

Immigrants' acculturation and changes in Body Mass Index.

PubMed

Iversen, Tor; Ma, Ching-to Albert; Meyer, Haakon E

2013-01-01

We study Body Mass Index (BMI) changes among immigrants from Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam relative to native Norwegians in Oslo. We assess the effect of acculturation on BMI changes. We hypothesize that acculturation reduces the gap of BMIs between natives and immigrants. Acculturation is measured by immigrants' language skills. Our data come from two surveys in Oslo 2000-2002. Weights and heights were measured at the surveys; participants were asked to recall weights when they were 25 years old. Norwegian language skills and socio-economic data were collected. Our findings support our hypothesis. Acculturation, as measured by proficiency in the Norwegian language, has the predicted effects on BMI changes. We do not find any effect of immigrants' time of residency on BMI changes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language proficiency and health status: are bilingual immigrants healthier?

PubMed

Schachter, Ariela; Kimbro, Rachel T; Gorman, Bridget K

2012-03-01

Bilingual immigrants appear to have a health advantage, and identifying the mechanisms responsible for this is of increasing interest to scholars and policy makers in the United States. Utilizing the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS; n = 3,264), we investigate the associations between English and native-language proficiency and usage and self-rated health for Asian and Latino U.S. immigrants from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. The findings demonstrate that across immigrant ethnic groups, being bilingual is associated with better self-rated physical and mental health relative to being proficient in only English or only a native language, and moreover, these associations are partially mediated by socioeconomic status and family support but not by acculturation, stress and discrimination, or health access and behaviors.

Native language shapes automatic neural processing of speech.

PubMed

Intartaglia, Bastien; White-Schwoch, Travis; Meunier, Christine; Roman, Stéphane; Kraus, Nina; Schön, Daniele

2016-08-01

The development of the phoneme inventory is driven by the acoustic-phonetic properties of one's native language. Neural representation of speech is known to be shaped by language experience, as indexed by cortical responses, and recent studies suggest that subcortical processing also exhibits this attunement to native language. However, most work to date has focused on the differences between tonal and non-tonal languages that use pitch variations to convey phonemic categories. The aim of this cross-language study is to determine whether subcortical encoding of speech sounds is sensitive to language experience by comparing native speakers of two non-tonal languages (French and English). We hypothesized that neural representations would be more robust and fine-grained for speech sounds that belong to the native phonemic inventory of the listener, and especially for the dimensions that are phonetically relevant to the listener such as high frequency components. We recorded neural responses of American English and French native speakers, listening to natural syllables of both languages. Results showed that, independently of the stimulus, American participants exhibited greater neural representation of the fundamental frequency compared to French participants, consistent with the importance of the fundamental frequency to convey stress patterns in English. Furthermore, participants showed more robust encoding and more precise spectral representations of the first formant when listening to the syllable of their native language as compared to non-native language. These results align with the hypothesis that language experience shapes sensory processing of speech and that this plasticity occurs as a function of what is meaningful to a listener. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing Native and Non-Native Raters of US Federal Government Speaking Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Rachel Lunde

2013-01-01

Previous Language Testing research has largely reported that although many raters' characteristics affect their evaluations of language assessments (Reed & Cohen, 2001), being a native speaker or non-native speaker rater does not significantly affect final ratings (Kim, 2009). In Second Language Acquisition, some researchers conclude that…

A Code Generation Approach for Auto-Vectorization in the Spade Compiler

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Huayong; Andrade, Henrique; Gedik, Buğra; Wu, Kun-Lung

We describe an auto-vectorization approach for the Spade stream processing programming language, comprising two ideas. First, we provide support for vectors as a primitive data type. Second, we provide a C++ library with architecture-specific implementations of a large number of pre-vectorized operations as the means to support language extensions. We evaluate our approach with several stream processing operators, contrasting Spade's auto-vectorization with the native auto-vectorization provided by the GNU gcc and Intel icc compilers.

Predictors and Outcomes of Early vs. Later English Language Proficiency Among English Language Learners

PubMed Central

Halle, Tamara; Hair, Elizabeth; Wandner, Laura; McNamara, Michelle; Chien, Nina

2011-01-01

The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children’s growth and development. PMID:22389551

Pre-attentive sensitivity to vowel duration reveals native phonology and predicts learning of second-language sounds.

PubMed

Chládková, Kateřina; Escudero, Paola; Lipski, Silvia C

2013-09-01

In some languages (e.g. Czech), changes in vowel duration affect word meaning, while in others (e.g. Spanish) they do not. Yet for other languages (e.g. Dutch), the linguistic role of vowel duration remains unclear. To reveal whether Dutch represents vowel length in its phonology, we compared auditory pre-attentive duration processing in native and non-native vowels across Dutch, Czech, and Spanish. Dutch duration sensitivity patterned with Czech but was larger than Spanish in the native vowel, while it was smaller than Czech and Spanish in the non-native vowel. An interpretation of these findings suggests that in Dutch, duration is used phonemically but it might be relevant for the identity of certain native vowels only. Furthermore, the finding that Spanish listeners are more sensitive to duration in non-native than in native vowels indicates that a lack of duration differences in one's native language could be beneficial for second-language learning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The development of perceptual attention and articulatory skill in one or two languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fowler, Carol; Best, Catherine

2002-05-01

Infants acquire properties of their native language especially during the second half of the first year of life. Models, such as Jusczyk's WRAPSA, Best's PAM, Kuhl's NLM, and Werker's account describe changes in perceptual or attentional space that may underlie the perceptual changes that infants exhibit. Unknown is the relation of these changes to changes in speechlike vocalizations that occur at the same time. Future research should address whether the perceptual models predict production learning. Other issues concern how the perceptual and articulatory systems develop for infants exposed to more than one language. Do multiple perceptual spaces develop, or does one space accommodate both languages? For infants exposed to just one language, but living in an environment where the ambient and pedagogical language is different (say, infants in a monolingual Spanish home in the U.S.), early language learning fosters learning the native language, but it may impede learning the ambient language. How much or how little does early exposure to the ambient language allow development of perceptual and articulatory systems for the ambient language? A final issue addresses whether the emergence of lexical, morphological and/or syntactic abilities in the second year is related to further changes in speech perception and production. [Work supported by NICHD.

Asian and Arabic Mediated Enrichment Resource and Instructional Career Awareness. Project Amreica 1988-89. OREA Evaluation Section Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Hriskos, Constantine

Project America provided supplemental instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL); Native Language Arts (NLA); and bilingual instruction in the subjects of mathematics, science, and social studies. The project also provided support services to encourage pride in, and respect for, both ethnic heritage and the American culture. The project…

"I Understand English but Can't Write It": The Power of Native Language Instruction for Adult English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lukes, Marguerite

2011-01-01

This study explores the potential of native language literacy instruction for adult immigrant English language learners who have limited formal schooling or have had interruptions in their formal education. By examining 3 programs that provide native language literacy in combination with English as a second language (ESL) instruction, this study…

Spanish Native Language Arts Staff Development Turnkey Training Program, Spring 1989. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.

The Spanish Native Language Arts Development Turnkey Training Program attempted to create a network of secondary school administrators and teachers of Spanish acquainted with current research and methodology and able to provide staff development in native language arts for teachers of native Spanish speakers of limited English proficiency. Nine…

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification

PubMed Central

Xie, Xin; Myers, Emily

2015-01-01

Listeners can use pitch changes in speech to identify talkers. Individuals exhibit large variability in sensitivity to pitch and in accuracy perceiving talker identity. In particular, people who have musical training or long-term tone language use are found to have enhanced pitch perception. In the present study, the influence of pitch experience on talker identification was investigated as listeners identified talkers in native language as well as non-native languages. Experiment 1 was designed to explore the influence of pitch experience on talker identification in two groups of individuals with potential advantages for pitch processing: musicians and tone language speakers. Experiment 2 further investigated individual differences in pitch processing and the contribution to talker identification by testing a mediation model. Cumulatively, the results suggested that (a) musical training confers an advantage for talker identification, supporting a shared resources hypothesis regarding music and language and (b) linguistic use of lexical tones also increases accuracy in hearing talker identity. Importantly, these two types of hearing experience enhance talker identification by sharpening pitch perception skills in a domain-general manner. PMID:25618071

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification.

PubMed

Xie, Xin; Myers, Emily

2015-01-01

Listeners can use pitch changes in speech to identify talkers. Individuals exhibit large variability in sensitivity to pitch and in accuracy perceiving talker identity. In particular, people who have musical training or long-term tone language use are found to have enhanced pitch perception. In the present study, the influence of pitch experience on talker identification was investigated as listeners identified talkers in native language as well as non-native languages. Experiment 1 was designed to explore the influence of pitch experience on talker identification in two groups of individuals with potential advantages for pitch processing: musicians and tone language speakers. Experiment 2 further investigated individual differences in pitch processing and the contribution to talker identification by testing a mediation model. Cumulatively, the results suggested that (a) musical training confers an advantage for talker identification, supporting a shared resources hypothesis regarding music and language and (b) linguistic use of lexical tones also increases accuracy in hearing talker identity. Importantly, these two types of hearing experience enhance talker identification by sharpening pitch perception skills in a domain-general manner.

Morphological learning in a novel language: A cross-language comparison.

PubMed

Havas, Viktória; Waris, Otto; Vaquero, Lucía; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Laine, Matti

2015-01-01

Being able to extract and interpret the internal structure of complex word forms such as the English word dance+r+s is crucial for successful language learning. We examined whether the ability to extract morphological information during word learning is affected by the morphological features of one's native tongue. Spanish and Finnish adult participants performed a word-picture associative learning task in an artificial language where the target words included a suffix marking the gender of the corresponding animate object. The short exposure phase was followed by a word recognition task and a generalization task for the suffix. The participants' native tongues vary greatly in terms of morphological structure, leading to two opposing hypotheses. On the one hand, Spanish speakers may be more effective in identifying gender in a novel language because this feature is present in Spanish but not in Finnish. On the other hand, Finnish speakers may have an advantage as the abundance of bound morphemes in their language calls for continuous morphological decomposition. The results support the latter alternative, suggesting that lifelong experience on morphological decomposition provides an advantage in novel morphological learning.

Cross-lingual neighborhood effects in generalized lexical decision and natural reading.

PubMed

Dirix, Nicolas; Cop, Uschi; Drieghe, Denis; Duyck, Wouter

2017-06-01

The present study assessed intra- and cross-lingual neighborhood effects, using both a generalized lexical decision task and an analysis of a large-scale bilingual eye-tracking corpus (Cop, Dirix, Drieghe, & Duyck, 2016). Using new neighborhood density and frequency measures, the general lexical decision task yielded an inhibitory cross-lingual neighborhood density effect on reading times of second language words, replicating van Heuven, Dijkstra, and Grainger (1998). Reaction times for native language words were not influenced by neighborhood density or frequency but error rates showed cross-lingual neighborhood effects depending on target word frequency. The large-scale eye movement corpus confirmed effects of cross-lingual neighborhood on natural reading, even though participants were reading a novel in a unilingual context. Especially second language reading and to a lesser extent native language reading were influenced by lexical candidates from the nontarget language, although these effects in natural reading were largely facilitatory. These results offer strong and direct support for bilingual word recognition models that assume language-independent lexical access. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Native Geosciences: Strengthening the Future Through Tribal Traditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolman, J. R.; Quigley, I.; Douville, V.; Hollow Horn Bear, D.

2008-12-01

Native people have lived for millennia in distinct and unique ways in our natural sacred homelands and environments. Tribal cultures are the expression of deep understandings of geosciences shared through oral histories, language and ceremonies. Today, Native people as all people are living in a definite time of change. The developing awareness of "change" brings forth an immense opportunity to expand and elevate Native geosciences knowledge, specifically in the areas of earth, wind, fire and water. At the center of "change" is the need to balance the needs of the people with the needs of the environment. Native tradition and our inherent understanding of what is "sacred above is sacred below" is the foundation for an emerging multi-faceted approach to increasing the representation of Natives in geosciences. The approach is also a pathway to assist in Tribal language revitalization, connection of oral histories and ceremonies as well as building an intergenerational teaching/learning community. Humboldt State University, Sinte Gleska University and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in partnership with Northern California (Hoopa, Yurok, & Karuk) and Great Plains (Lakota) Tribes have nurtured Native geosciences learning communities connected to Tribal Sacred Sites and natural resources. These sites include the Black Hills (Mato Paha, Mato Tiplia, Hinhan Kaga Paha, Mako Sica etc.), Klamath River (Ishkêesh), and Hoopa Valley (Natinixwe). Native geosciences learning is centered on the themes of earth, wind, fire and water and Native application of remote sensing technologies. Tribal Elders and Native geoscientists work collaboratively providing Native families in-field experiential intergenerational learning opportunities which invite participants to immerse themselves spiritually, intellectually, physically and emotionally in the experiences. Through this immersion and experience Native students and families strengthen the circle of our future Tribal communities and a return to traditional ways of supporting the development of our "story" or purpose for being. The opportunities include residential summer field experiences, interdisciplinary curriculums and development of Tribally-driven Native research experiences. The National Science Foundation, University of North Dakota's Northern Great Plains Center for People and the Environment, Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC), and Tribes have provided funding to support the development of Native geosciences. The presentation will focus on current projects: NSF OEDG "He Sapa Bloketu Woecun; Geosciences at the Heart of Everything That Is", NSF S-STEM "Scientific Leadership Scholars" and the NSF BPC "Coalition of American Indians in Computing". The expressed goal of future initiatives is to connect Tribal communities across the Midwest and West in developing a Native Geosciences Pathway. This pathway supports the identification and support of Tribal students with an interest or "story" connected to geosciences ensuring a future Native geosciences workforce.

Editor's Essay: Honoring Native Languages, Defeating the Shame.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambler, Marjane

2000-01-01

Provides an overview of the articles in this issue of the Tribal College Journal, which demonstrate how tribal colleges are gradually creating places where Native languages are safe. Asserts that a place where the language is honored is a place that education, too, becomes honored, and that recognizing Native languages leads to self-esteem and…

25 CFR 39.131 - What is a Language Development Program?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... learning their Native language for the purpose of maintenance or language restoration and enhancement; (d) Are being instructed in their Native language; or (e) Are learning non-language subjects in their...

Teaching American Indian and Alaska Native Languages in the Schools: What Has Been Learned. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peacock, Thomas D.; Day, Donald R.

This digest considers issues, possible solutions, and successful efforts in dealing with Native language loss, maintenance, and restoration in American Indian and Alaska Native communities and schools. The preservation and maintenance of the remaining 210 tribal languages is a major cultural and education concern in Native communities. The problem…

Nativization processes in L1 Esperanto.

PubMed

Bergen, B K

2001-10-01

The artificial language Esperanto is spoken not only as a second language, by its proponents, but also as a native language by children of some of those proponents. The present study is a preliminary description of some characteristics of the Native Esperanto (NE) of eight speakers, ranging in age from six to fourteen years. As such, it is the first of its kind--previous works on NE are either theoretical treatises or individual case studies. We find, at least for the eight subjects studied, both bilingualism and nativization effects, differentiating native from non-native Esperanto speech. Among these effects are loss or modification of the accusative case, phonological reduction, attrition of the tense/aspect system, and pronominal cliticization. The theoretical ramifications are discussed, particularly with regard to universals of language acquisition and the effects of expressive requirements of language.

The influence of language deprivation in early childhood on L2 processing: An ERP comparison of deaf native signers and deaf signers with a delayed language acquisition.

PubMed

Skotara, Nils; Salden, Uta; Kügow, Monique; Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Röder, Brigitte

2012-05-03

To examine which language function depends on early experience, the present study compared deaf native signers, deaf non-native signers and hearing German native speakers while processing German sentences. The participants watched simple written sentences while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. At the end of each sentence they were asked to judge whether the sentence was correct or not. Two types of violations were introduced in the middle of the sentence: a semantically implausible noun or a violation of subject-verb number agreement. The results showed a similar ERP pattern after semantic violations (an N400 followed by a positivity) in all three groups. After syntactic violations, native German speakers and native signers of German sign language (DGS) with German as second language (L2) showed a left anterior negativity (LAN) followed by a P600, whereas no LAN but a negativity over the right hemisphere instead was found in deaf participants with a delayed onset of first language (L1) acquisition. The P600 of this group had a smaller amplitude and a different scalp distribution as compared to German native speakers. The results of the present study suggest that language deprivation in early childhood alters the cerebral organization of syntactic language processing mechanisms for L2. Semantic language processing instead was unaffected.

What Clinicians Need to Know about Bilingual Development

PubMed Central

Hoff, Erika; Core, Cynthia

2016-01-01

Basic research on bilingual development suggests several conclusions that can inform clinical practice with children from bilingual environments. They include the following: (1) Dual language input does not confuse children. (2) It is not necessary for the two languages to be kept separate in children’s experience to avoid confusion. (3) Learning two languages takes longer than learning one; on average, bilingual children lag behind monolingual children in single language comparisons. (4) A dominant language is not equivalent to an only language. (5) A measure of total vocabulary provides the best indicator of young bilingual children’s language learning capacity. (6) Bilingual children can have different strengths in each language. (7) The quantity and quality of bilingual children’s input in each language influence their rates of development in each language. (8) Immigrant parents should not be discouraged from speaking their native language to their children. (9) Bilingual environments vary enormously in the support they provide for each language, with the result that bilingual children vary enormously in their dual language skills. Empirical findings in support of each conclusion are presented. PMID:25922994

More than Just Language Advising: Rapport in University English Writing Consultations and Implications for Tutor Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Cynthia

2015-01-01

Adopting a case study approach with multiple data sources, this paper explores the ways in which rapport is built, and its impact on the learning process based on five successive writing support consultations between a native English-speaking (NES) tutor and her second language (L2) tutee in a Hong Kong university. With reference to the prepared…

Where to Look for American Sign Language (ASL) Sublexical Structure in the Visual World: Reply to Salverda (2016)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lieberman, Amy M.; Borovsky, Arielle; Hatrak, Marla; Mayberry, Rachel I.

2016-01-01

In this reply to Salverda (2016), we address a critique of the claims made in our recent study of real-time processing of American Sign Language (ASL) signs using a novel visual world eye-tracking paradigm (Lieberman, Borovsky, Hatrak, & Mayberry, 2015). Salverda asserts that our data do not support our conclusion that native signers and…

Querying Proofs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aspinall, David; Denney, Ewen; Lueth, Christoph

2012-01-01

We motivate and introduce a query language PrQL designed for inspecting machine representations of proofs. PrQL natively supports hiproofs which express proof structure using hierarchical nested labelled trees. The core language presented in this paper is locally structured (first-order), with queries built using recursion and patterns over proof structure and rule names. We define the syntax and semantics of locally structured queries, demonstrate their power, and sketch some implementation experiments.

When the Native Is Also a Non-Native: "Retrodicting" the Complexity of Language Teacher Cognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aslan, Erhan

2015-01-01

The impact of native (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) identities on second or foreign language teachers' cognition and practices in the classroom has mainly been investigated in ESL/EFL contexts. Using complexity theory as a framework, this case study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by presenting a foreign language teacher in the…

Designing an Online Writing System: Learning with Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Chih-Hua

2008-01-01

The potential of online language learning has received much attention recently. This paper reports the design of an online writing system featuring learning support for non-native students during their writing process. The central premise is that in the online writing situation, students are in great need of writing aids. The proposed system…

The Road to Language Learning Is Not Entirely Iconic: Iconicity, Neighborhood Density, and Frequency Facilitate Acquisition of Sign Language.

PubMed

Caselli, Naomi K; Pyers, Jennie E

2017-07-01

Iconic mappings between words and their meanings are far more prevalent than once estimated and seem to support children's acquisition of new words, spoken or signed. We asked whether iconicity's prevalence in sign language overshadows two other factors known to support the acquisition of spoken vocabulary: neighborhood density (the number of lexical items phonologically similar to the target) and lexical frequency. Using mixed-effects logistic regressions, we reanalyzed 58 parental reports of native-signing deaf children's productive acquisition of 332 signs in American Sign Language (ASL; Anderson & Reilly, 2002) and found that iconicity, neighborhood density, and lexical frequency independently facilitated vocabulary acquisition. Despite differences in iconicity and phonological structure between signed and spoken language, signing children, like children learning a spoken language, track statistical information about lexical items and their phonological properties and leverage this information to expand their vocabulary.

Lexical exposure to native language dialects can improve non-native phonetic discrimination.

PubMed

Olmstead, Annie J; Viswanathan, Navin

2018-04-01

Nonnative phonetic learning is an area of great interest for language researchers, learners, and educators alike. In two studies, we examined whether nonnative phonetic discrimination of Hindi dental and retroflex stops can be improved by exposure to lexical items bearing the critical nonnative stops. We extend the lexical retuning paradigm of Norris, McQueen, and Cutler (Cognitive Psychology, 47, 204-238, 2003) by having naive American English (AE)-speaking participants perform a pretest-training-posttest procedure. They performed an AXB discrimination task with the Hindi retroflex and dental stops before and after transcribing naturally produced words from an Indian English speaker that either contained these tokens or not. Only those participants who heard words with the critical nonnative phones improved in their posttest discrimination. This finding suggests that exposure to nonnative phones in native lexical contexts supports learning of difficult nonnative phonetic discrimination.

76 FR 3120 - Native American and Alaska Native Children in School Program; Office of English Language...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-19

... English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English.... Barrera, Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director, Office of English Language Acquisition, Language... learners (ELs) \\1\\, and to promote parental and community participation in language instruction educational...

Native American Youth Discourses on Language Shift and Retention: Ideological Cross-Currents and Their Implications for Language Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Romero-Little, Mary Eunice; Zepeda, Ofelia

2006-01-01

This paper examines preliminary findings from an ongoing federally funded study of Native language shift and retention in the US Southwest, focusing on in-depth ethnographic interviews with Navajo youth. We begin with an overview of Native American linguistic ecologies, noting the dynamic, variegated and complex nature of language proficiencies…

Pitch expertise is not created equal: Cross-domain effects of musicianship and tone language experience on neural and behavioural discrimination of speech and music.

PubMed

Hutka, Stefanie; Bidelman, Gavin M; Moreno, Sylvain

2015-05-01

Psychophysiological evidence supports a music-language association, such that experience in one domain can impact processing required in the other domain. We investigated the bidirectionality of this association by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) in native English-speaking musicians, native tone language (Cantonese) nonmusicians, and native English-speaking nonmusician controls. We tested the degree to which pitch expertise stemming from musicianship or tone language experience similarly enhances the neural encoding of auditory information necessary for speech and music processing. Early cortical discriminatory processing for music and speech sounds was characterized using the mismatch negativity (MMN). Stimuli included 'large deviant' and 'small deviant' pairs of sounds that differed minimally in pitch (fundamental frequency, F0; contrastive musical tones) or timbre (first formant, F1; contrastive speech vowels). Behavioural F0 and F1 difference limen tasks probed listeners' perceptual acuity for these same acoustic features. Musicians and Cantonese speakers performed comparably in pitch discrimination; only musicians showed an additional advantage on timbre discrimination performance and an enhanced MMN responses to both music and speech. Cantonese language experience was not associated with enhancements on neural measures, despite enhanced behavioural pitch acuity. These data suggest that while both musicianship and tone language experience enhance some aspects of auditory acuity (behavioural pitch discrimination), musicianship confers farther-reaching enhancements to auditory function, tuning both pitch and timbre-related brain processes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Culture shapes the evolution of cognition.

PubMed

Thompson, Bill; Kirby, Simon; Smith, Kenny

2016-04-19

A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be learned. An evolutionary stance appears to provide support for linguistic nativism, because coordinated constraints on variation may facilitate communication and therefore be adaptive. However, language, like many other human behaviors, is underpinned by social learning and cultural transmission alongside biological evolution. We set out two models of these interactions, which show how culture can facilitate rapid biological adaptation yet rule out strong nativization. The amplifying effects of culture can allow weak cognitive biases to have significant population-level consequences, radically increasing the evolvability of weak, defeasible inductive biases; however, the emergence of a strong cultural universal does not imply, nor lead to, nor require, strong innate constraints. From this we must conclude, on evolutionary grounds, that the strong nativist hypothesis for language is false. More generally, because such reciprocal interactions between cultural and biological evolution are not limited to language, nativist explanations for many behaviors should be reconsidered: Evolutionary reasoning shows how we can have cognitively driven behavioral universals and yet extreme plasticity at the level of the individual-if, and only if, we account for the human capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Wherever culture is involved, weak cognitive biases rather than strong innate constraints should be the default assumption.

Links between local language competence and peer relations among Swiss and immigrant children: the mediating role of social behavior.

PubMed

von Grünigen, Renate; Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky; Perren, Sonja; Alsaker, Françoise D

2012-04-01

The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate a model in which children's social behaviors, including prosocial behavior, setting limits, and social withdrawal, were hypothesized to mediate the links between local language competence (LLC) and peer acceptance and victimization. Longitudinal data were collected via teacher and peer reports on 541 (286 boys and 255 girls) immigrant and Swiss native 5-to-6 year-old kindergarteners. Results showed the immigrant children were less fluent in the local language compared to native Swiss classmates. Moreover, results from structural equation models, with bootstrap tests of indirect effects, indicated that social behaviors mediated the link between LLC and the quality of children's peer relationships. Implications of these findings for school professionals are discussed, such as the need to help immigrant children make a smoother transition to their host communities by providing additional language and social supports while children acculturate and acclimate to their new surroundings and peer group. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Adult Learners of English Interacting with Native Speaker Teachers and Non-Native Speaker Teachers: Exploring Differences in Students' Language Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nadeau, Melody Hallenbeck

2014-01-01

This mixed-methods study examined the lived experience of adult English Language Learners (ELLs) in classrooms led by native speaking teachers, compared with their experience in classrooms led by non-native teachers. The socio-cognitive approach to language and emergent common ground framed the development of the English classroom as a Community…

Decoding the Myths of the Native and Non-Native English Speakers Teachers (NESTs & NNESTs) on Saudi EFL Tertiary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alghofaili, Noor Motlaq; Elyas, Tariq

2017-01-01

Many people believe the myth that being taught by a native speaker is the best way to learn a language. This belief has influenced many Saudi schools, language institutes, and universities to include the nativeness factor as part of a language instructor's job requirements. Using an open ended questionnaire, this study aims to investigate the…

Dissociation of working memory processing associated with native and second languages: PET investigation.

PubMed

Kim, Jae-Jin; Kim, Myung Sun; Lee, Jae Sung; Lee, Dong Soo; Lee, Myung Chul; Kwon, Jun Soo

2002-04-01

Verbal working memory plays a significant role in language comprehension and problem-solving. The prefrontal cortex has been suggested as a critical area in working memory. Given that domain-specific dissociations of working memory may exist within the prefrontal cortex, it is possible that there may also be further functional divisions within the verbal working memory processing. While differences in the areas of the brain engaged in native and second languages have been demonstrated, little is known about the dissociation of verbal working memory associated with native and second languages. We have used H2(15)O positron emission tomography in 14 normal subjects in order to identify the neural correlates selectively involved in working memory of native (Korean) and second (English) languages. All subjects were highly proficient in the native language but poorly proficient in the second language. Cognitive tasks were a two-back task for three kinds of visually presented objects: simple pictures, English words, and Korean words. The anterior portion of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the left superior temporal gyrus were activated in working memory for the native language, whereas the posterior portion of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the left inferior temporal gyrus were activated in working memory for the second language. The results suggest that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left temporal lobe may be organized into two discrete, language-related functional systems. Internal phonological processing seems to play a predominant role in working memory processing for the native language with a high proficiency, whereas visual higher order control does so for the second language with a low proficiency. (C)2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

Dictionary Use of Undergraduate Students in Foreign Language Departments in Turkey at Present

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tulgar, Aysegül Takkaç

2017-01-01

Foreign language learning has always been a process carried out with the help of dictionaries which are both in target language and from native language to target language/from target language to native language. Dictionary use is an especially delicate issue for students in foreign language departments because students in those departments are…

Speech-sound duration processing in a second language is specific to phonetic categories.

PubMed

Nenonen, Sari; Shestakova, Anna; Huotilainen, Minna; Näätänen, Risto

2005-01-01

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event-related potential was used to determine the effect of native language, Russian, on the processing of speech-sound duration in a second language, Finnish, that uses duration as a cue for phonological distinction. The native-language effect was compared with Finnish vowels that either can or cannot be categorized using the Russian phonological system. The results showed that the duration-change MMN for the Finnish sounds that could be categorized through Russian was reduced in comparison with that for the Finnish sounds having no Russian equivalent. In the Finnish sounds that can be mapped through the Russian phonological system, the facilitation of the duration processing may be inhibited by the native Russian language. However, for the sounds that have no Russian equivalent, new vowel categories independent of the native Russian language have apparently been established, enabling a native-like duration processing of Finnish.

Domain-General Mechanisms for Speech Segmentation: The Role of Duration Information in Language Learning

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Speech segmentation is supported by multiple sources of information that may either inform language processing specifically, or serve learning more broadly. The Iambic/Trochaic Law (ITL), where increased duration indicates the end of a group and increased emphasis indicates the beginning of a group, has been proposed as a domain-general mechanism that also applies to language. However, language background has been suggested to modulate use of the ITL, meaning that these perceptual grouping preferences may instead be a consequence of language exposure. To distinguish between these accounts, we exposed native-English and native-Japanese listeners to sequences of speech (Experiment 1) and nonspeech stimuli (Experiment 2), and examined segmentation using a 2AFC task. Duration was manipulated over 3 conditions: sequences contained either an initial-item duration increase, or a final-item duration increase, or items of uniform duration. In Experiment 1, language background did not affect the use of duration as a cue for segmenting speech in a structured artificial language. In Experiment 2, the same results were found for grouping structured sequences of visual shapes. The results are consistent with proposals that duration information draws upon a domain-general mechanism that can apply to the special case of language acquisition. PMID:27893268

The Study of Foreign Language Teachers-- Teacher Efficacy and Native Speakership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liaw, En-Chong

2009-01-01

This study aims at examining the differences between native and nonnative foreign language teachers at a major northeast university. The primary areas of investigation are "teacher efficacy" and "teacher perceptions of language teaching." The results of this study suggested that both nativeness and wide repertoire of teaching…

Bilinguals’ Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language

PubMed Central

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-01-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants’ memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model. PMID:28781384

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language.

PubMed

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-03-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants' memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model.

Native- and Non-Native Speaking English Teachers in Vietnam: Weighing the Benefits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walkinshaw, Ian; Duong, Oanh Thi Hoang

2012-01-01

This paper examines a common belief that learners of English as a foreign language prefer to learn English from native-speaker teachers rather than non-native speakers of English. 50 Vietnamese learners of English evaluated the importance of native-speakerness compared with seven qualities valued in an English language teacher: teaching…

Impact of language on development of auditory-visual speech perception.

PubMed

Sekiyama, Kaoru; Burnham, Denis

2008-03-01

The McGurk effect paradigm was used to examine the developmental onset of inter-language differences between Japanese and English in auditory-visual speech perception. Participants were asked to identify syllables in audiovisual (with congruent or discrepant auditory and visual components), audio-only, and video-only presentations at various signal-to-noise levels. In Experiment 1 with two groups of adults, native speakers of Japanese and native speakers of English, the results on both percent visually influenced responses and reaction time supported previous reports of a weaker visual influence for Japanese participants. In Experiment 2, an additional three age groups (6, 8, and 11 years) in each language group were tested. The results showed that the degree of visual influence was low and equivalent for Japanese and English language 6-year-olds, and increased over age for English language participants, especially between 6 and 8 years, but remained the same for Japanese participants. This may be related to the fact that English language adults and older children processed visual speech information relatively faster than auditory information whereas no such inter-modal differences were found in the Japanese participants' reaction times.

Native Language Spoken as a Risk Marker for Tooth Decay.

PubMed

Carson, J; Walker, L A; Sanders, B J; Jones, J E; Weddell, J A; Tomlin, A M

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess dmft, the number of decayed, missing (due to caries), and/ or filled primary teeth, of English-speaking and non-English speaking patients of a hospital based pediatric dental clinic under the age of 72 months to determine if native language is a risk marker for tooth decay. Records from an outpatient dental clinic which met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Patient demographics and dmft score were recorded, and the patients were separated into three groups by the native language spoken by their parents: English, Spanish and all other languages. A total of 419 charts were assessed: 253 English-speaking, 126 Spanish-speaking, and 40 other native languages. After accounting for patient characteristics, dmft was significantly higher for the other language group than for the English-speaking (p<0.001) and Spanish-speaking groups (p<0.05), however the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking groups were not different from each other (p>0.05). Those patients under 72 months of age whose parents' native language is not English or Spanish, have the highest risk for increased dmft when compared to English and Spanish speaking patients. Providers should consider taking additional time to educate patients and their parents, in their native language, on the importance of routine dental care and oral hygiene.

Masking Release for Igbo and English.

PubMed

Ebem, Deborah U; Desloge, Joseph G; Reed, Charlotte M; Braida, Louis D; Uguru, Joy O

2013-09-01

In this research, we explored the effect of noise interruption rate on speech intelligibility. Specifically, we used the Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) procedure with the original HINT stimuli (English) and Igbo stimuli to assess speech reception ability in interrupted noise. For a given noise level, the HINT test provides an estimate of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) required for 50%-correct speech intelligibility. The SNR for 50%-correct intelligibility changes depending upon the interruption rate of the noise. This phenomenon (called Masking Release) has been studied extensively in English but not for Igbo - which is an African tonal language spoken predominantly in South Eastern Nigeria. This experiment explored and compared the phenomenon of Masking Release for (i) native English speakers listening to English, (ii) native Igbo speakers listening to English, and (iii) native Igbo speakers listening to Igbo. Since Igbo is a tonal language and English is a non-tonal language, this allowed us to compare Masking Release patterns on native speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages. Our results for native English speakers listening to English HINT show that the SNR and the masking release are orderly and consistent with other English HINT data for English speakers. Our result for Igbo speakers listening to English HINT sentences show that there is greater variability in results across the different Igbo listeners than across the English listeners. This result likely reflects different levels of ability in the English language across the Igbo listeners. The masking release values in dB are less than for English listeners. Our results for Igbo speakers listening to Igbo show that in general, the SNRs for Igbo sentences are lower than for English/English and Igbo/English. This means that the Igbo listeners could understand 50% of the Igbo sentences at SNRs less than those required for English sentences by either native or non-native listeners. This result can be explained by the fact that the perception of Igbo utterances by Igbo subjects may have been aided by the prediction of tonal and vowel harmony features existent in the Igbo language. In agreement with other studies, our results also show that in a noisy environment listeners are able to perceive their native language better than a second language. The ability of native language speakers to perceive their language better than a second language in a noisy environment may be attributed to the fact that: Native speakers are more familiar with the sounds of their language than second language speakers.One of the features of language is that it is predictable hence even in noise a native speaker may be able to predict a succeeding word that is scarcely audible. These contextual effects are facilitated by familiarity.

Tact Training versus Bidirectional Intraverbal Training in Teaching a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dounavi, Katerina

2014-01-01

The current study involved an evaluation of the emergence of untrained verbal relations as a function of 3 different foreign-language teaching strategies. Two Spanish-speaking adults received foreign-language (English) tact training and native-to-foreign and foreign-to-native intraverbal training. Tact training and native-to-foreign intraverbal…

Native Language Self-Concept and Reading Self-Concept: Same or Different?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arens, A. Katrin; Yeung, Alexander Seeshing; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2014-01-01

In assessing verbal academic self-concept with preadolescents, researchers have used scales for students' self-concepts in reading and in their native language interchangeably. The authors conducted 3 studies with German students to test whether reading and German (i.e., native language) self-concepts can be treated as the same or different…

Infant diet-related changes in syllable processing between 4 and 5 months: Implications for developing native language sensitivity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Since maturational processes triggering increased attunement to native language features in early infancy are sensitive to dietary factors, infant-diet related differences in brain processing of native-language speech stimuli might indicate variations in onset of this tuning process. We measured cor...

Native and Novel Language Prosodic Sensitivity in English-Speaking Children with and without Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Alida; Lin, Candise Y.; Wang, Min

2013-01-01

Children with reading disability and normal reading development were compared in their ability to discriminate native (English) and novel language (Mandarin) from nonlinguistic sounds. Children's preference for native versus novel language sounds and for disyllables containing dominant trochaic versus non-dominant iambic stress patterns was also…

The Interpretability Hypothesis: Evidence from Wh-Interrogatives in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria; Dimitrakopoulou, Maria

2007-01-01

The second language acquisition (SLA) literature reports numerous studies of proficient second language (L2) speakers who diverge significantly from native speakers despite the evidence offered by the L2 input. Recent SLA theories have attempted to account for native speaker/non-native speaker (NS/NNS) divergence by arguing for the dissociation…

75 FR 11181 - Issuance of Final Policy Directive

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-10

... this both Native Language FOAs provide opportunities for teacher training for all types of schools and... funds to language survival schools, language nests, and language restoration programs; however, the type... School Projects: working toward a goal of all students achieving fluency in a Native American language...

Native and Nonnative English Teachers' Perceptions of Their Professional Identity: Convergent or Divergent?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tajeddin, Zia; Adeh, Aylar

2016-01-01

There is still a preference for native speaker teachers in the language teaching profession, which is supposed to influence the self-perceptions of native and nonnative teachers. However, the status of English as a globalized language is changing the legitimacy of native/nonnative teacher dichotomy. This study sought to investigate native and…

The foreign language effect on the self-serving bias: A field experiment in the high school classroom.

PubMed

van Hugten, Joeri; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen

2018-01-01

The rise of bilingual education triggers an important question: which language is preferred for a particular school activity? Our field experiment (n = 120) shows that students (aged 13-15) who process feedback in non-native English have greater self-serving bias than students who process feedback in their native Dutch. By contrast, literature on the foreign-language emotionality effect suggests a weaker self-serving bias in the non-native language, so our result adds nuance to that literature. The result is important to schools as it suggests that teachers may be able to reduce students' defensiveness and demotivation by communicating negative feedback in the native language, and teachers may be able to increase students' confidence and motivation by communicating positive feedback in the foreign language.

The Emotional Impact of Being Myself: Emotions and Foreign-Language Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ivaz, Lela; Costa, Albert; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni

2016-01-01

Native languages are acquired in emotionally rich contexts, whereas foreign languages are typically acquired in emotionally neutral academic environments. As a consequence of this difference, it has been suggested that bilinguals' emotional reactivity in foreign-language contexts is reduced as compared with native language contexts. In the current…

Signed Language Working Memory Capacity of Signed Language Interpreters and Deaf Signers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jihong; Napier, Jemina

2013-01-01

This study investigated the effects of hearing status and age of signed language acquisition on signed language working memory capacity. Professional Auslan (Australian sign language)/English interpreters (hearing native signers and hearing nonnative signers) and deaf Auslan signers (deaf native signers and deaf nonnative signers) completed an…

Native-likeness in second language lexical categorization reflects individual language history and linguistic community norms.

PubMed

Zinszer, Benjamin D; Malt, Barbara C; Ameel, Eef; Li, Ping

2014-01-01

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS FACE A DUAL CHALLENGE IN VOCABULARY LEARNING: First, they must learn new names for the 100s of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999), and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. In the present study, Chinese learners of English with varying language histories and resident in two different language settings (Beijing, China and State College, PA, USA) named 67 photographs of common serving dishes (e.g., cups, plates, and bowls) in both Chinese and English. Participants' response patterns were quantified in terms of similarity to the responses of functionally monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English and showed the cross-language convergence previously observed in simultaneous bilinguals (Ameel et al., 2005). For English, bilinguals' names for each individual stimulus were also compared to the dominant name generated by the native speakers for the object. Using two statistical models, we disentangle the effects of several highly interactive variables from bilinguals' language histories and the naming norms of the native speaker community to predict inter-personal and inter-item variation in L2 (English) native-likeness. We find only a modest age of earliest exposure effect on L2 category native-likeness, but importantly, we find that classroom instruction in L2 negatively impacts L2 category native-likeness, even after significant immersion experience. We also identify a significant role of both L1 and L2 norms in bilinguals' L2 picture naming responses.

Native-likeness in second language lexical categorization reflects individual language history and linguistic community norms

PubMed Central

Zinszer, Benjamin D.; Malt, Barbara C.; Ameel, Eef; Li, Ping

2014-01-01

Second language learners face a dual challenge in vocabulary learning: First, they must learn new names for the 100s of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999), and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. In the present study, Chinese learners of English with varying language histories and resident in two different language settings (Beijing, China and State College, PA, USA) named 67 photographs of common serving dishes (e.g., cups, plates, and bowls) in both Chinese and English. Participants’ response patterns were quantified in terms of similarity to the responses of functionally monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English and showed the cross-language convergence previously observed in simultaneous bilinguals (Ameel et al., 2005). For English, bilinguals’ names for each individual stimulus were also compared to the dominant name generated by the native speakers for the object. Using two statistical models, we disentangle the effects of several highly interactive variables from bilinguals’ language histories and the naming norms of the native speaker community to predict inter-personal and inter-item variation in L2 (English) native-likeness. We find only a modest age of earliest exposure effect on L2 category native-likeness, but importantly, we find that classroom instruction in L2 negatively impacts L2 category native-likeness, even after significant immersion experience. We also identify a significant role of both L1 and L2 norms in bilinguals’ L2 picture naming responses. PMID:25386149

Semantic processing in native and second language: evidence from hemispheric differences in fine and coarse semantic coding.

PubMed

Faust, Miriam; Ben-Artzi, Elisheva; Vardi, Nili

2012-12-01

Previous studies suggest that whereas the left hemisphere (LH) is involved in fine semantic processing, the right hemisphere (RH) is uniquely engaged in coarse semantic coding including the comprehension of distinct types of language such as figurative language, lexical ambiguity and verbal humor (e.g., Chiarello, 2003; Faust, 2012). The present study examined the patterns of hemispheric involvement in fine/coarse semantic processing in native and non-native languages using a split visual field priming paradigm. Thirty native Hebrew speaking students made lexical decision judgments of Hebrew and English target words preceded by strongly, weakly, or unrelated primes. Results indicated that whereas for Hebrew pairs, priming effect for the weakly-related word pairs was obtained only for RH presented target words, for English pairs, no priming effect for the weakly-related pairs emerged for either LH or RH presented targets, suggesting that coarse semantic coding is much weaker for a non-native than native language. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Morphosyntactic Processing in Advanced Second Language (L2) Learners: An Event-Related Potential Investigation of the Effects of L1-l2 Similarity and Structural Distance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alemán Bañón, José; Fiorentino, Robert; Gabriele, Alison

2014-01-01

Different theoretical accounts of second language (L2) acquisition differ with respect to whether or not advanced learners are predicted to show native-like processing for features not instantiated in the native language (L1). We examined how native speakers of English, a language with number but not gender agreement, process number and gender…

To What Extent Do Native and Non-Native Writers Make Use of Collocations?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durrant, Philip; Schmitt, Norbert

2009-01-01

Usage-based models claim that first language learning is based on the frequency-based analysis of memorised phrases. It is not clear though, whether adult second language learning works in the same way. It has been claimed that non-native language lacks idiomatic formulas, suggesting that learners neglect phrases, focusing instead on orthographic…

The Role of Native-Language Knowledge in the Perception of Casual Speech in a Second Language

PubMed Central

Mitterer, Holger; Tuinman, Annelie

2012-01-01

Casual speech processes, such as /t/-reduction, make word recognition harder. Additionally, word recognition is also harder in a second language (L2). Combining these challenges, we investigated whether L2 learners have recourse to knowledge from their native language (L1) when dealing with casual speech processes in their L2. In three experiments, production and perception of /t/-reduction was investigated. An initial production experiment showed that /t/-reduction occurred in both languages and patterned similarly in proper nouns but differed when /t/ was a verbal inflection. Two perception experiments compared the performance of German learners of Dutch with that of native speakers for nouns and verbs. Mirroring the production patterns, German learners’ performance strongly resembled that of native Dutch listeners when the reduced /t/ was part of a word stem, but deviated where /t/ was a verbal inflection. These results suggest that a casual speech process in a second language is problematic for learners when the process is not known from the leaner’s native language, similar to what has been observed for phoneme contrasts. PMID:22811675

Evaluating the lexico-grammatical differences in the writing of native and non-native speakers of English in peer-reviewed medical journals in the field of pediatric oncology: Creation of the genuine index scoring system

PubMed Central

Gayle, Alberto Alexander; Shimaoka, Motomu

2017-01-01

Introduction The predominance of English in scientific research has created hurdles for “non-native speakers” of English. Here we present a novel application of native language identification (NLI) for the assessment of medical-scientific writing. For this purpose, we created a novel classification system whereby scoring would be based solely on text features found to be distinctive among native English speakers (NS) within a given context. We dubbed this the “Genuine Index” (GI). Methodology This methodology was validated using a small set of journals in the field of pediatric oncology. Our dataset consisted of 5,907 abstracts, representing work from 77 countries. A support vector machine (SVM) was used to generate our model and for scoring. Results Accuracy, precision, and recall of the classification model were 93.3%, 93.7%, and 99.4%, respectively. Class specific F-scores were 96.5% for NS and 39.8% for our benchmark class, Japan. Overall kappa was calculated to be 37.2%. We found significant differences between countries with respect to the GI score. Significant correlation was found between GI scores and two validated objective measures of writing proficiency and readability. Two sets of key terms and phrases differentiating NS and non-native writing were identified. Conclusions Our GI model was able to detect, with a high degree of reliability, subtle differences between the terms and phrasing used by native and non-native speakers in peer reviewed journals, in the field of pediatric oncology. In addition, L1 language transfer was found to be very likely to survive revision, especially in non-Western countries such as Japan. These findings show that even when the language used is technically correct, there may still be some phrasing or usage that impact quality. PMID:28212419

Evaluating the lexico-grammatical differences in the writing of native and non-native speakers of English in peer-reviewed medical journals in the field of pediatric oncology: Creation of the genuine index scoring system.

PubMed

Gayle, Alberto Alexander; Shimaoka, Motomu

2017-01-01

The predominance of English in scientific research has created hurdles for "non-native speakers" of English. Here we present a novel application of native language identification (NLI) for the assessment of medical-scientific writing. For this purpose, we created a novel classification system whereby scoring would be based solely on text features found to be distinctive among native English speakers (NS) within a given context. We dubbed this the "Genuine Index" (GI). This methodology was validated using a small set of journals in the field of pediatric oncology. Our dataset consisted of 5,907 abstracts, representing work from 77 countries. A support vector machine (SVM) was used to generate our model and for scoring. Accuracy, precision, and recall of the classification model were 93.3%, 93.7%, and 99.4%, respectively. Class specific F-scores were 96.5% for NS and 39.8% for our benchmark class, Japan. Overall kappa was calculated to be 37.2%. We found significant differences between countries with respect to the GI score. Significant correlation was found between GI scores and two validated objective measures of writing proficiency and readability. Two sets of key terms and phrases differentiating NS and non-native writing were identified. Our GI model was able to detect, with a high degree of reliability, subtle differences between the terms and phrasing used by native and non-native speakers in peer reviewed journals, in the field of pediatric oncology. In addition, L1 language transfer was found to be very likely to survive revision, especially in non-Western countries such as Japan. These findings show that even when the language used is technically correct, there may still be some phrasing or usage that impact quality.

Consolidation of novel word learning in native English-speaking adults.

PubMed

Kurdziel, Laura B F; Spencer, Rebecca M C

2016-01-01

Sleep has been shown to improve the retention of newly learned words. However, most methodologies have used artificial or foreign language stimuli, with learning limited to word/novel word or word/image pairs. Such stimuli differ from many word-learning scenarios in which definition strings are learned with novel words. Thus, we examined sleep's benefit on learning new words within a native language by using very low-frequency words. Participants learned 45 low-frequency English words and, at subsequent recall, attempted to recall the words when given the corresponding definitions. Participants either learned in the morning with recall in the evening (wake group), or learned in the evening with recall the following morning (sleep group). Performance change across the delay was significantly better in the sleep than the wake group. Additionally, the Levenshtein distance, a measure of correctness of the typed word compared with the target word, became significantly worse following wake, whereas sleep protected correctness of recall. Polysomnographic data from a subsample of participants suggested that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may be particularly important for this benefit. These results lend further support for sleep's function on semantic learning even for word/definition pairs within a native language.

The Effect of Intensified Language Exposure on Accommodating Talker Variability.

PubMed

Antoniou, Mark; Wong, Patrick C M; Wang, Suiping

2015-06-01

This study systematically examined the role of intensified exposure to a second language on accommodating talker variability. English native listeners (n = 37) were compared with Mandarin listeners who had either lived in the United States for an extended period of time (n = 33) or had lived only in China (n = 44). Listeners responded to target words in an English word-monitoring task in which sequences of words were randomized. Half of the sequences were spoken by a single talker and the other half by multiple talkers. Mandarin listeners living in China were slower and less accurate than both English listeners and Mandarin listeners living in the United States. Mandarin listeners living in the United States were less accurate than English natives only in the more cognitively demanding mixed-talker condition. Mixed-talker speech affects processing in native and nonnative listeners alike, although the decrement is larger in nonnatives and further exaggerated in less proficient listeners. Language immersion improves listeners' ability to resolve talker variability, and this suggests that immersion may automatize nonnative processing, freeing cognitive resources that may play a crucial role in speech perception. These results lend support to the active control model of speech perception.

Free classification of American English dialects by native and non-native listeners

PubMed Central

Clopper, Cynthia G.; Bradlow, Ann R.

2009-01-01

Most second language acquisition research focuses on linguistic structures, and less research has examined the acquisition of sociolinguistic patterns. The current study explored the perceptual classification of regional dialects of American English by native and non-native listeners using a free classification task. Results revealed similar classification strategies for the native and non-native listeners. However, the native listeners were more accurate overall than the non-native listeners. In addition, the non-native listeners were less able to make use of constellations of cues to accurately classify the talkers by dialect. However, the non-native listeners were able to attend to cues that were either phonologically or sociolinguistically relevant in their native language. These results suggest that non-native listeners can use information in the speech signal to classify talkers by regional dialect, but that their lack of signal-independent cultural knowledge about variation in the second language leads to less accurate classification performance. PMID:20161400

The Effects of Multisensory Structured Language Instruction on Native Language and Foreign Language Aptitude Skills of At-Risk High School Foreign Language Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard; And Others

1992-01-01

A multisensory structured language (MSL) approach was utilized with two groups of at-risk high school students (n=63), taught in either English and Spanish (MSL/ES) or Spanish only. Foreign language aptitude improved for both groups and native language skills for the MSL/ES group. A group receiving traditional foreign language instruction showed…

Language-Through-Literature; A Literary Language/Language Arts Program for Bilingual Education, ESL and Other Activities in Early Childhood. Books 1 and 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Paul; King, Eva

This language-through-literature program is designed to be used as a native language program (language arts/reading readiness), as a second language program, or as a combined native and second language program in early childhood education. Sequentially developed over the year and within each unit, the program is subdivided into 14 units of about…

Culture shapes the evolution of cognition

PubMed Central

Thompson, Bill; Kirby, Simon; Smith, Kenny

2016-01-01

A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be learned. An evolutionary stance appears to provide support for linguistic nativism, because coordinated constraints on variation may facilitate communication and therefore be adaptive. However, language, like many other human behaviors, is underpinned by social learning and cultural transmission alongside biological evolution. We set out two models of these interactions, which show how culture can facilitate rapid biological adaptation yet rule out strong nativization. The amplifying effects of culture can allow weak cognitive biases to have significant population-level consequences, radically increasing the evolvability of weak, defeasible inductive biases; however, the emergence of a strong cultural universal does not imply, nor lead to, nor require, strong innate constraints. From this we must conclude, on evolutionary grounds, that the strong nativist hypothesis for language is false. More generally, because such reciprocal interactions between cultural and biological evolution are not limited to language, nativist explanations for many behaviors should be reconsidered: Evolutionary reasoning shows how we can have cognitively driven behavioral universals and yet extreme plasticity at the level of the individual—if, and only if, we account for the human capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Wherever culture is involved, weak cognitive biases rather than strong innate constraints should be the default assumption. PMID:27044094

Teaching English as a "Second Language" in Kenya and the United States: Convergences and Divergences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy-Campbell, Zaline M.

2015-01-01

English is spoken in five countries as the native language and in numerous other countries as an official language and the language of instruction. In countries where English is the native language, it is taught to speakers of other languages as an additional language to enable them to participate in all domains of life of that country. In many…

Competence linguistique et environnement social (Linguistic Competence and Social Environment).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laflamme, Simon; Berger, Jacques

1988-01-01

A study found native French-speaking and native English-speaking university students had similar writing skill levels and error patterns despite their position as language-minority or language-majority members of society. It is concluded that language competency is not necessarily linked to language difficulty or to the position of the language.…

Overlap and Differences in Brain Networks Underlying the Processing of Complex Sentence Structures in Second Language Users Compared with Native Speakers.

PubMed

Weber, Kirsten; Luther, Lisa; Indefrey, Peter; Hagoort, Peter

2016-05-01

When we learn a second language later in life, do we integrate it with the established neural networks in place for the first language or is at least a partially new network recruited? While there is evidence that simple grammatical structures in a second language share a system with the native language, the story becomes more multifaceted for complex sentence structures. In this study, we investigated the underlying brain networks in native speakers compared with proficient second language users while processing complex sentences. As hypothesized, complex structures were processed by the same large-scale inferior frontal and middle temporal language networks of the brain in the second language, as seen in native speakers. These effects were seen both in activations and task-related connectivity patterns. Furthermore, the second language users showed increased task-related connectivity from inferior frontal to inferior parietal regions of the brain, regions related to attention and cognitive control, suggesting less automatic processing for these structures in a second language.

The foreign language effect on the self-serving bias: A field experiment in the high school classroom

PubMed Central

van Witteloostuijn, Arjen

2018-01-01

The rise of bilingual education triggers an important question: which language is preferred for a particular school activity? Our field experiment (n = 120) shows that students (aged 13–15) who process feedback in non-native English have greater self-serving bias than students who process feedback in their native Dutch. By contrast, literature on the foreign-language emotionality effect suggests a weaker self-serving bias in the non-native language, so our result adds nuance to that literature. The result is important to schools as it suggests that teachers may be able to reduce students’ defensiveness and demotivation by communicating negative feedback in the native language, and teachers may be able to increase students’ confidence and motivation by communicating positive feedback in the foreign language. PMID:29425224

Tact training versus bidirectional intraverbal training in teaching a foreign language.

PubMed

Dounavi, Katerina

2014-01-01

The current study involved an evaluation of the emergence of untrained verbal relations as a function of 3 different foreign-language teaching strategies. Two Spanish-speaking adults received foreign-language (English) tact training and native-to-foreign and foreign-to-native intraverbal training. Tact training and native-to-foreign intraverbal training resulted in the emergence of a greater number of untrained responses, and may thus be more efficient than foreign-to-native intraverbal training. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

When Alphabets Collide: Alphabetic First-Language Speakers' Approach to Speech Production in an Alphabetic Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vokic, Gabriela

2011-01-01

This study analysed the extent to which literate native speakers of a language with a phonemic alphabetic orthography rely on their first language (L1) orthography during second language (L2) speech production of a language that has a morphophonemic alphabetic orthography. The production of the English flapping rule by 15 adult native speakers of…

Structural Correlates for Lexical Efficiency and Number of Languages in Non-Native Speakers of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grogan, A.; Parker Jones, O.; Ali, N.; Crinion, J.; Orabona, S.; Mechias, M. L.; Ramsden, S.; Green, D. W.; Price, C. J.

2012-01-01

We used structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and voxel based morphometry (VBM) to investigate whether the efficiency of word processing in the non-native language (lexical efficiency) and the number of non-native languages spoken (2+ versus 1) were related to local differences in the brain structure of bilingual and multilingual speakers.…

How Sex, Native Language, and College Major Relate to the Cognitive Strategies Used during 3-D Mental Rotation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Yingli; O'Boyle, Michael W.

2008-01-01

Eighty college students mentally rotated 3-D shapes while maintaining a concurrent verbal or spatial memory load to investigate how sex, native language, and college major relate to the cognitive strategies employed during mental rotation (MR). Males were significantly better than females at MR, whereas native language was not related to MR…

The Native Language in Teaching Kindergarten Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espada, Janet P.

2012-01-01

The use of the native language as a medium of instruction is believed to be the fastest and most natural route towards developing a strong foundation in mathematics literacy (Mimaropa, In D.O.No. 74, s.2009). This study examined the effect of using the native language in the teaching of kindergarten mathematics. A total of 34 five to six year old…

Explicit and Implicit Second Language Training Differentially Affect the Achievement of Native-like Brain Activation Patterns

PubMed Central

Morgan-Short, Kara; Steinhauer, Karsten; Sanz, Cristina; Ullman, Michael T.

2013-01-01

It is widely believed that adults cannot learn a foreign language in the same way that children learn a first language. However, recent evidence suggests that adult learners of a foreign language can come to rely on native-like language brain mechanisms. Here, we show that the type of language training crucially impacts this outcome. We used an artificial language paradigm to examine longitudinally whether explicit training (that approximates traditional grammar-focused classroom settings) and implicit training (that approximates immersion settings) differentially affect neural (electrophysiological) and behavioral (performance) measures of syntactic processing. Results showed that performance of explicitly and implicitly trained groups did not differ at either low or high proficiency. In contrast, electrophysiological (ERP) measures revealed striking differences between the groups’ neural activity at both proficiency levels in response to syntactic violations. Implicit training yielded an N400 at low proficiency, whereas at high proficiency, it elicited a pattern typical of native speakers: an anterior negativity followed by a P600 accompanied by a late anterior negativity. Explicit training, by contrast, yielded no significant effects at low proficiency and only an anterior positivity followed by a P600 at high proficiency. Although the P600 is reminiscent of native-like processing, this response pattern as a whole is not. Thus, only implicit training led to an electrophysiological signature typical of native speakers. Overall, the results suggest that adult foreign language learners can come to rely on native-like language brain mechanisms, but that the conditions under which the language is learned may be crucial in attaining this goal. PMID:21861686

Evaluating Workplace English Language Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ekkens, Kristin; Winke, Paula

2009-01-01

Companies across the United States provide workplace English classes to non-native-English-speaking employees to increase productivity, retention, and on-the-job safety. Institutions that financially support the programs often require evidence of learning through standardized tests as a prerequisite for continued funding. However, the tests…

Differential use of temporal cues to the /s/-/z/ contrast by native and non-native speakers of English.

PubMed

Flege, J E; Hillenbrand, J

1986-02-01

This study examined the effect of linguistic experience on perception of the English /s/-/z/ contrast in word-final position. The durations of the periodic ("vowel") and aperiodic ("fricative") portions of stimuli, ranging from peas to peace, were varied in a 5 X 5 factorial design. Forced-choice identification judgments were elicited from two groups of native speakers of American English differing in dialect, and from two groups each of native speakers of French, Swedish, and Finnish differing in English-language experience. The results suggested that the non-native subjects used cues established for the perception of phonetic contrasts in their native language to identify fricatives as /s/ or /z/. Lengthening vowel duration increased /z/ judgments in all eight subject groups, although the effect was smaller for native speakers of French than for native speakers of the other languages. Shortening fricative duration, on the other hand, significantly decreased /z/ judgments only by the English and French subjects. It did not influence voicing judgments by the Swedish and Finnish subjects, even those who had lived for a year or more in an English-speaking environment. These findings raise the question of whether adults who learn a foreign language can acquire the ability to integrate multiple acoustic cues to a phonetic contrast which does not exist in their native language.

Identifying a Foreign Accent in an Unfamiliar Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Major, Roy C.

2007-01-01

This study explores the question of whether native and nonnative listeners, some familiar with the language and some not, differ in their accent ratings of native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs). Although a few studies have employed native and nonnative judges to evaluate native and nonnative speech, the present study is perhaps the…

Learning to Read Words in a New Language Shapes the Neural Organization of the Prior Languages

PubMed Central

Mei, Leilei; Xue, Gui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Chen, Chuansheng; Zhang, Mingxia; He, Qinghua; Wei, Miao; Dong, Qi

2014-01-01

Learning a new language entails interactions with one's prior language(s). Much research has shown how native language affects the cognitive and neural mechanisms of a new language, but little is known about whether and how learning a new language shapes the neural mechanisms of prior language(s). In two experiments in the current study, we used an artificial language training paradigm in combination with fMRI to examine (1) the effects of different linguistic components (phonology and semantics) of a new language on the neural process of prior languages (i.e., native and second languages), and (2) whether such effects were modulated by the proficiency level in the new language. Results of Experiment 1 showed that when the training in a new language involved semantics (as opposed to only visual forms and phonology), neural activity during word reading in the native language (Chinese) was reduced in several reading-related regions, including the left pars opercularis, pars triangularis, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and inferior occipital gyrus. Results of Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and further found that semantic training also affected neural activity during word reading in the subjects’ second language (English). Furthermore, we found that the effects of the new language were modulated by the subjects’ proficiency level in the new language. These results provide critical imaging evidence for the influence of learning to read words in a new language on word reading in native and second languages. PMID:25447375

Can Non-Interactive Language Input Benefit Young Second-Language Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Au, Terry Kit-fong; Chan, Winnie Wailan; Cheng, Liao; Siegel, Linda S.; Tso, Ricky Van Yip

2015-01-01

To fully acquire a language, especially its phonology, children need linguistic input from native speakers early on. When interaction with native speakers is not always possible--e.g. for children learning a second language that is not the societal language--audios are commonly used as an affordable substitute. But does such non-interactive input…

Native Language Teachers in a Struggle for Language and Cultural Survival

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suina, Joseph H.

2004-01-01

Language shift among New Mexico Pueblo Indians threatens the loss of their oral-based cultures. Language revival for many Pueblos has resulted in school programs in which students are easily accessible and teachers are accountable to tribes rather than the state. Finding "Pueblo space" for the Native language in school, where it was…

Differential relationships between language skills and working memory in Turkish-Dutch and native-Dutch first-graders from low-income families.

PubMed

Bosman, Anna M T; Janssen, Marije

2017-01-01

In the Netherlands, Turkish-Dutch children constitute a substantial group of children who learn to speak Dutch at the age of four after they learned to speak Turkish. These children are generally academically less successful. Academic success appears to be affected by both language proficiency and working memory skill. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between language skills and working memory in Turkish-Dutch and native-Dutch children from low-income families. The findings revealed reduced Dutch language and Dutch working-memory skills for Turkish-Dutch children compared to native-Dutch children. Working memory in native-Dutch children was unrelated to their language skills, whereas in Turkish-Dutch children strong correlations were found both between Turkish language skills and Turkish working-memory performance and between Dutch language skills and Dutch working-memory performance. Reduced language proficiencies and reduced working-memory skills appear to manifest itself in strong relationships between working memory and language skills in Turkish-Dutch children. The findings seem to indicate that limited verbal working-memory and language deficiencies in bilingual children may have reciprocal effects that strongly warrants adequate language education.

American Indian Language Proficiency Assessment; Considerations and Resources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arizona State Dept. of Education, Phoenix.

A primary concern affecting the more than 300 American Indian tribes and their educational institutions is the promotion, maintenance, and preservation of their approximately 200 native languages. The nature of language use must be documented and assessed to ascertain whether tribal members, particularly children, possess native language skills…

Metacognitive Language in Bilingual Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campoverde, Cecilia

An exploratory study was conducted to identify the degree of language performance in native and bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking children under circumstances of native and bilingual language instruction. The study is a first step in testing the hypothesis that the underachievement of children in English-as-a-second-language programs and…

Negotiating Sociolinguistic Borderlands--Native Youth Language Practices in Space, Time, and Place

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.

2014-01-01

Drawing on the work of Philip Deloria (2004) and recent explorations of "American Indian languages in unexpected places" (Webster & Peterson, 2011a), this article challenges received expectations of Native American languages and language users as "rural" and physically distant and of "urban" Indigenous language…

Deaf children's non-verbal working memory is impacted by their language experience

PubMed Central

Marshall, Chloë; Jones, Anna; Denmark, Tanya; Mason, Kathryn; Atkinson, Joanna; Botting, Nicola; Morgan, Gary

2015-01-01

Several recent studies have suggested that deaf children perform more poorly on working memory tasks compared to hearing children, but these studies have not been able to determine whether this poorer performance arises directly from deafness itself or from deaf children's reduced language exposure. The issue remains unresolved because findings come mostly from (1) tasks that are verbal as opposed to non-verbal, and (2) involve deaf children who use spoken communication and therefore may have experienced impoverished input and delayed language acquisition. This is in contrast to deaf children who have been exposed to a sign language since birth from Deaf parents (and who therefore have native language-learning opportunities within a normal developmental timeframe for language acquisition). A more direct, and therefore stronger, test of the hypothesis that the type and quality of language exposure impact working memory is to use measures of non-verbal working memory (NVWM) and to compare hearing children with two groups of deaf signing children: those who have had native exposure to a sign language, and those who have experienced delayed acquisition and reduced quality of language input compared to their native-signing peers. In this study we investigated the relationship between NVWM and language in three groups aged 6–11 years: hearing children (n = 28), deaf children who were native users of British Sign Language (BSL; n = 8), and deaf children who used BSL but who were not native signers (n = 19). We administered a battery of non-verbal reasoning, NVWM, and language tasks. We examined whether the groups differed on NVWM scores, and whether scores on language tasks predicted scores on NVWM tasks. For the two executive-loaded NVWM tasks included in our battery, the non-native signers performed less accurately than the native signer and hearing groups (who did not differ from one another). Multiple regression analysis revealed that scores on the vocabulary measure predicted scores on those two executive-loaded NVWM tasks (with age and non-verbal reasoning partialled out). Our results suggest that whatever the language modality—spoken or signed—rich language experience from birth, and the good language skills that result from this early age of acquisition, play a critical role in the development of NVWM and in performance on NVWM tasks. PMID:25999875

The Cognitive Validity of Child English Language Tests: What Young Language Learners and Their Native-Speaking Peers Can Reveal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winke, Paula; Lee, Shinhye; Ahn, Jieun Irene; Choi, Ina; Cui, Yaqiong; Yoon, Hyung-Jo

2018-01-01

This study investigated the cognitive validity of two child English language tests. Some teachers maintain that these types of tests may be cognitively invalid because native-English-speaking children would not do well on them (Winke, 2011). So the researchers had native speakers and learners of English aged 7 to 9 take sample versions of two…

Second Life for Distance Language Learning: A Framework for Native/Non-Native Speaker Interactions in a Virtual World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tusing, Jennifer; Berge, Zane L.

2010-01-01

This paper examines a number of theoretical principles governing second language teaching and learning and the ways in which these principles are being applied in 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life. Also examined are the benefits to language learning afforded by the Second Life interface, including access, the availability of native speakers of…

The effect of listening experience on the discrimination of /ba/ and /pa/ in Hebrew-learning and Arabic-learning infants.

PubMed

Segal, Osnat; Hejli-Assi, Saja; Kishon-Rabin, Liat

2016-02-01

Infant speech discrimination can follow multiple trajectories depending on the language and the specific phonemes involved. Two understudied languages in terms of the development of infants' speech discrimination are Arabic and Hebrew. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of listening experience with the native language on the discrimination of the voicing contrast /ba-pa/ in Arabic-learning infants whose native language includes only the phoneme /b/ and in Hebrew-learning infants whose native language includes both phonemes. 128 Arabic-learning infants and Hebrew-learning infants, 4-to-6 and 10-to-12-month-old infants, were tested with the Visual Habituation Procedure. The results showed that 4-to-6-month-old infants discriminated between /ba-pa/ regardless of their native language and order of presentation. However, only 10-to-12-month-old infants learning Hebrew retained this ability. 10-to-12-month-old infants learning Arabic did not discriminate the change from /ba/ to /pa/ but showed a tendency for discriminating the change from /pa/ to /ba/. This is the first study to report on the reduced discrimination of /ba-pa/ in older infants learning Arabic. Our findings are consistent with the notion that experience with the native language changes discrimination abilities and alters sensitivity to non-native contrasts, thus providing evidence for 'top-down' processing in young infants. The directional asymmetry in older infants learning Arabic can be explained by assimilation of the non-native consonant /p/ to the native Arabic category /b/ as predicted by current speech perception models. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relative Difficulty of Understanding Foreign Accents as a Marker of Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lev-Ari, Shiri; van Heugten, Marieke; Peperkamp, Sharon

2017-01-01

Foreign-accented speech is generally harder to understand than native-accented speech. This difficulty is reduced for non-native listeners who share their first language with the non-native speaker. It is currently unclear, however, how non-native listeners deal with foreign-accented speech produced by speakers of a different language. We show…

Lexical Encoding of L2 Tones: The Role of L1 Stress, Pitch Accent and Intonation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braun, Bettina; Galts, Tobias; Kabak, Baris

2014-01-01

Native language prosodic structure is known to modulate the processing of non-native suprasegmental information. It has been shown that native speakers of French, a language without lexical stress, have difficulties storing non-native stress contrasts. We investigated whether the ability to store lexical tone (as in Mandarin Chinese) also depends…

Recently learned foreign abstract and concrete nouns are represented in distinct cortical networks similar to the native language.

PubMed

Mayer, Katja M; Macedonia, Manuela; von Kriegstein, Katharina

2017-09-01

In the native language, abstract and concrete nouns are represented in distinct areas of the cerebral cortex. Currently, it is unknown whether this is also the case for abstract and concrete nouns of a foreign language. Here, we taught adult native speakers of German 45 abstract and 45 concrete nouns of a foreign language. After learning the nouns for 5 days, participants performed a vocabulary translation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Translating abstract nouns in contrast to concrete nouns elicited responses in regions that are also responsive to abstract nouns in the native language: the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left middle and superior temporal gyri. Concrete nouns elicited larger responses in the angular gyri bilaterally and the left parahippocampal gyrus than abstract nouns. The cluster in the left angular gyrus showed psychophysiological interaction (PPI) with the left lingual gyrus. The left parahippocampal gyrus showed PPI with the posterior cingulate cortex. Similar regions have been previously found for concrete nouns in the native language. The results reveal similarities in the cortical representation of foreign language nouns with the representation of native language nouns that already occur after 5 days of vocabulary learning. Furthermore, we showed that verbal and enriched learning methods were equally suitable to teach foreign abstract and concrete nouns. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4398-4412, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Perceptual Phonetic Similarity Space for Languages: Evidence from Five Native Language Listener Groups1

PubMed Central

Bradlow, Ann; Clopper, Cynthia; Smiljanic, Rajka; Walter, Mary Ann

2010-01-01

The goal of the present study was to devise a means of representing languages in a perceptual similarity space based on their overall phonetic similarity. In Experiment 1, native English listeners performed a free classification task in which they grouped 17 diverse languages based on their perceived phonetic similarity. A similarity matrix of the grouping patterns was then submitted to clustering and multidimensional scaling analyses. In Experiment 2, an independent group of native English listeners sorted the group of 17 languages in terms of their distance from English. Experiment 3 repeated Experiment 2 with four groups of non-native English listeners: Dutch, Mandarin, Turkish and Korean listeners. Taken together, the results of these three experiments represent a step towards establishing an approach to assessing the overall phonetic similarity of languages. This approach could potentially provide the basis for developing predictions regarding foreign-accented speech intelligibility for various listener groups, and regarding speech perception accuracy in the context of background noise in various languages. PMID:21179563

Signed language working memory capacity of signed language interpreters and deaf signers.

PubMed

Wang, Jihong; Napier, Jemina

2013-04-01

This study investigated the effects of hearing status and age of signed language acquisition on signed language working memory capacity. Professional Auslan (Australian sign language)/English interpreters (hearing native signers and hearing nonnative signers) and deaf Auslan signers (deaf native signers and deaf nonnative signers) completed an Auslan working memory (WM) span task. The results revealed that the hearing signers (i.e., the professional interpreters) significantly outperformed the deaf signers on the Auslan WM span task. However, the results showed no significant differences between the native signers and the nonnative signers in their Auslan working memory capacity. Furthermore, there was no significant interaction between hearing status and age of signed language acquisition. Additionally, the study found no significant differences between the deaf native signers (adults) and the deaf nonnative signers (adults) in their Auslan working memory capacity. The findings are discussed in relation to the participants' memory strategies and their early language experience. The findings present challenges for WM theories.

Does Attending an English-Language University Diminish Abilities in the Native Language? Data from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayçiçegi-Dinn, Ayse; SISman-Bal, Simge; Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L.

2017-01-01

Does a native language suffer when students take all of their classes in a foreign language, even in their home country? Turkish students studying psychology, economics, or English literature with English as the language of instruction (N = 91) were studied across a three-year period. Test scores, word fluency measures, and self-ratings were…

Focusing the lens of language experience: Perception of Ma'di stops by Greek and English bilinguals and monolinguals

PubMed Central

Antoniou, Mark; Best, Catherine T.; Tyler, Michael D.

2013-01-01

Monolingual listeners are constrained by native language experience when categorizing and discriminating unfamiliar non-native contrasts. Are early bilinguals constrained in the same way by their two languages, or do they possess an advantage? Greek–English bilinguals in either Greek or English language mode were compared to monolinguals on categorization and discrimination of Ma'di stop-voicing distinctions that are non-native to both languages. As predicted, English monolinguals categorized Ma'di prevoiced plosive and implosive stops and the coronal voiceless stop as English voiced stops. The Greek monolinguals categorized the Ma'di short-lag voiceless stops as Greek voiceless stops, and the prevoiced implosive stops and the coronal prevoiced stop as Greek voiced stops. Ma'di prenasalized stops were uncategorized. Greek monolinguals discriminated the non-native voiced-voiceless contrasts very well, whereas the English monolinguals did poorly. Bilinguals were given all oral and written instructions either in English or in Greek (language mode manipulation). Each language mode subgroup categorized Ma'di stop-voicing comparably to the corresponding monolingual group. However, the bilinguals’ discrimination was unaffected by language mode: both subgroups performed intermediate to the monolinguals for the prevoiced-voiceless contrast. Thus, bilinguals do not possess an advantage for unfamiliar non-native contrasts, but are nonetheless uniquely configured language users, differing from either monolingual group. PMID:23556605

Focusing the lens of language experience: perception of Ma'di stops by Greek and English bilinguals and monolinguals.

PubMed

Antoniou, Mark; Best, Catherine T; Tyler, Michael D

2013-04-01

Monolingual listeners are constrained by native language experience when categorizing and discriminating unfamiliar non-native contrasts. Are early bilinguals constrained in the same way by their two languages, or do they possess an advantage? Greek-English bilinguals in either Greek or English language mode were compared to monolinguals on categorization and discrimination of Ma'di stop-voicing distinctions that are non-native to both languages. As predicted, English monolinguals categorized Ma'di prevoiced plosive and implosive stops and the coronal voiceless stop as English voiced stops. The Greek monolinguals categorized the Ma'di short-lag voiceless stops as Greek voiceless stops, and the prevoiced implosive stops and the coronal prevoiced stop as Greek voiced stops. Ma'di prenasalized stops were uncategorized. Greek monolinguals discriminated the non-native voiced-voiceless contrasts very well, whereas the English monolinguals did poorly. Bilinguals were given all oral and written instructions either in English or in Greek (language mode manipulation). Each language mode subgroup categorized Ma'di stop-voicing comparably to the corresponding monolingual group. However, the bilinguals' discrimination was unaffected by language mode: both subgroups performed intermediate to the monolinguals for the prevoiced-voiceless contrast. Thus, bilinguals do not possess an advantage for unfamiliar non-native contrasts, but are nonetheless uniquely configured language users, differing from either monolingual group.

Quantifying the intelligibility of speech in noise for non-native listeners.

PubMed

van Wijngaarden, Sander J; Steeneken, Herman J M; Houtgast, Tammo

2002-04-01

When listening to languages learned at a later age, speech intelligibility is generally lower than when listening to one's native language. The main purpose of this study is to quantify speech intelligibility in noise for specific populations of non-native listeners, only broadly addressing the underlying perceptual and linguistic processing. An easy method is sought to extend these quantitative findings to other listener populations. Dutch subjects listening to Germans and English speech, ranging from reasonable to excellent proficiency in these languages, were found to require a 1-7 dB better speech-to-noise ratio to obtain 50% sentence intelligibility than native listeners. Also, the psychometric function for sentence recognition in noise was found to be shallower for non-native than for native listeners (worst-case slope around the 50% point of 7.5%/dB, compared to 12.6%/dB for native listeners). Differences between native and non-native speech intelligibility are largely predicted by linguistic entropy estimates as derived from a letter guessing task. Less effective use of context effects (especially semantic redundancy) explains the reduced speech intelligibility for non-native listeners. While measuring speech intelligibility for many different populations of listeners (languages, linguistic experience) may be prohibitively time consuming, obtaining predictions of non-native intelligibility from linguistic entropy may help to extend the results of this study to other listener populations.

Quantifying the intelligibility of speech in noise for non-native listeners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Wijngaarden, Sander J.; Steeneken, Herman J. M.; Houtgast, Tammo

2002-04-01

When listening to languages learned at a later age, speech intelligibility is generally lower than when listening to one's native language. The main purpose of this study is to quantify speech intelligibility in noise for specific populations of non-native listeners, only broadly addressing the underlying perceptual and linguistic processing. An easy method is sought to extend these quantitative findings to other listener populations. Dutch subjects listening to Germans and English speech, ranging from reasonable to excellent proficiency in these languages, were found to require a 1-7 dB better speech-to-noise ratio to obtain 50% sentence intelligibility than native listeners. Also, the psychometric function for sentence recognition in noise was found to be shallower for non-native than for native listeners (worst-case slope around the 50% point of 7.5%/dB, compared to 12.6%/dB for native listeners). Differences between native and non-native speech intelligibility are largely predicted by linguistic entropy estimates as derived from a letter guessing task. Less effective use of context effects (especially semantic redundancy) explains the reduced speech intelligibility for non-native listeners. While measuring speech intelligibility for many different populations of listeners (languages, linguistic experience) may be prohibitively time consuming, obtaining predictions of non-native intelligibility from linguistic entropy may help to extend the results of this study to other listener populations.

Learning to read words in a new language shapes the neural organization of the prior languages.

PubMed

Mei, Leilei; Xue, Gui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Chen, Chuansheng; Zhang, Mingxia; He, Qinghua; Wei, Miao; Dong, Qi

2014-12-01

Learning a new language entails interactions with one׳s prior language(s). Much research has shown how native language affects the cognitive and neural mechanisms of a new language, but little is known about whether and how learning a new language shapes the neural mechanisms of prior language(s). In two experiments in the current study, we used an artificial language training paradigm in combination with an fMRI to examine (1) the effects of different linguistic components (phonology and semantics) of a new language on the neural process of prior languages (i.e., native and second languages), and (2) whether such effects were modulated by the proficiency level in the new language. Results of Experiment 1 showed that when the training in a new language involved semantics (as opposed to only visual forms and phonology), neural activity during word reading in the native language (Chinese) was reduced in several reading-related regions, including the left pars opercularis, pars triangularis, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and inferior occipital gyrus. Results of Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and further found that semantic training also affected neural activity during word reading in the subjects׳ second language (English). Furthermore, we found that the effects of the new language were modulated by the subjects׳ proficiency level in the new language. These results provide critical imaging evidence for the influence of learning to read words in a new language on word reading in native and second languages. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Native Speaker, the Student, and Woody Allen: Examining Traditional Roles in the Foreign Language Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finger, Anke

This paper uses a language classroom role-playing scene from a Woody Allen movie to examine the language student who has traditionally been asked to emulate and copy the native speaker and to discuss roles that teachers ask students to play. It also presents the changing paradigm of the native speaker and his or her role inside and outside the…

Individual language experience modulates rapid formation of cortical memory circuits for novel words

PubMed Central

Kimppa, Lilli; Kujala, Teija; Shtyrov, Yury

2016-01-01

Mastering multiple languages is an increasingly important ability in the modern world; furthermore, multilingualism may affect human learning abilities. Here, we test how the brain’s capacity to rapidly form new representations for spoken words is affected by prior individual experience in non-native language acquisition. Formation of new word memory traces is reflected in a neurophysiological response increase during a short exposure to novel lexicon. Therefore, we recorded changes in electrophysiological responses to phonologically native and non-native novel word-forms during a perceptual learning session, in which novel stimuli were repetitively presented to healthy adults in either ignore or attend conditions. We found that larger number of previously acquired languages and earlier average age of acquisition (AoA) predicted greater response increase to novel non-native word-forms. This suggests that early and extensive language experience is associated with greater neural flexibility for acquiring novel words with unfamiliar phonology. Conversely, later AoA was associated with a stronger response increase for phonologically native novel word-forms, indicating better tuning of neural linguistic circuits to native phonology. The results suggest that individual language experience has a strong effect on the neural mechanisms of word learning, and that it interacts with the phonological familiarity of the novel lexicon. PMID:27444206

On the Development of Speech Resources for the Mixtec Language

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The Mixtec language is one of the main native languages in Mexico. In general, due to urbanization, discrimination, and limited attempts to promote the culture, the native languages are disappearing. Most of the information available about the Mixtec language is in written form as in dictionaries which, although including examples about how to pronounce the Mixtec words, are not as reliable as listening to the correct pronunciation from a native speaker. Formal acoustic resources, as speech corpora, are almost non-existent for the Mixtec, and no speech technologies are known to have been developed for it. This paper presents the development of the following resources for the Mixtec language: (1) a speech database of traditional narratives of the Mixtec culture spoken by a native speaker (labelled at the phonetic and orthographic levels by means of spectral analysis) and (2) a native speaker-adaptive automatic speech recognition (ASR) system (trained with the speech database) integrated with a Mixtec-to-Spanish/Spanish-to-Mixtec text translator. The speech database, although small and limited to a single variant, was reliable enough to build the multiuser speech application which presented a mean recognition/translation performance up to 94.36% in experiments with non-native speakers (the target users). PMID:23710134

Spelling Development in Arabic as a Foreign Language among Native Hebrew Speaking Pupils

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russak, Susie; Fragman, Alon

2014-01-01

It has been suggested that linguistic proximity affects the ease of acquisition between typologically similar languages, due to the fact that the languages have shared phonological and orthographic properties (Koda, 2008). Thus, a native Hebrew speaker learning Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) would be expected to easily develop linguistic…

Cognitive Process in Second Language Reading: Transfer of L1 Reading Skills and Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koda, Keiko

1988-01-01

Experiments with skilled readers (N=83) from four native-language orthographic backgrounds examined the effects of: (1) blocked visual or auditory information on lexical decision-making; and (2) heterographic homophones on reading comprehension. Native and second language transfer does occur in second language reading, and orthographic structure…

Politeness Strategies among Native and Romanian Speakers of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambrose, Dominic

1995-01-01

Background: Politeness strategies vary from language to language and within each society. At times the wrong strategies can have disastrous effects. This can occur when languages are used by non-native speakers or when they are used outside of their own home linguistic context. Purpose: This study of spoken language compares the politeness…

Pitch Ability as an Aptitude for Tone Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowles, Anita R.; Chang, Charles B.; Karuzis, Valerie P.

2016-01-01

Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this manner. The present study examined components of an aptitude for mastering L2 lexical tone. Native English speakers with no previous tone language experience…

Moving across Languages, Literacies, and Schooling Traditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Leslie C.

2011-01-01

Millions of children participate in both Qur'anic schooling and public schooling. For the majority, this double schooling entails learning (in) two different non-native languages. Seeking to understand the double-schooling experiences of Muslim children for whom the language of literacy in both of their schools is not their native language, Moore…

Listeners Retune Phoneme Categories across Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinisch, Eva; Weber, Andrea; Mitterer, Holger

2013-01-01

Native listeners adapt to noncanonically produced speech by retuning phoneme boundaries by means of lexical knowledge. We asked whether a second language lexicon can also guide category retuning and whether perceptual learning transfers from a second language (L2) to the native language (L1). During a Dutch lexical-decision task, German and Dutch…

Effects of tonal language background on tests of temporal sequencing in children.

PubMed

Mukari, Siti Zamratol-Mai S; Yu, Xuan; Ishak, Wan Syafira; Mazlan, Rafidah

2015-01-01

The aims of the present study were to determine the effects of language background on the performance of the pitch pattern sequence test (PPST) and duration pattern sequence test (DPST). As temporal order sequencing may be affected by age and working memory, these factors were also studied. Performance of tonal and non-tonal language speakers on PPST and DPST were compared. Twenty-eight native Mandarin (tonal language) speakers and twenty-nine native Malay (non-tonal language) speakers between seven to nine years old participated in this study. The results revealed that relative to native Malay speakers, native Mandarin speakers demonstrated better scores on the PPST in both humming and verbal labeling responses. However, a similar language effect was not apparent in the DPST. An age effect was only significant in the PPST (verbal labeling). Finally, no significant effect of working memory was found on the PPST and the DPST. These findings suggest that the PPST is affected by tonal language background, and highlight the importance of developing different normative values for tonal and non-tonal language speakers.

Cross-language comparisons of contextual variation in the production and perception of vowels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strange, Winifred

2005-04-01

In the last two decades, a considerable amount of research has investigated second-language (L2) learners problems with perception and production of non-native vowels. Most studies have been conducted using stimuli in which the vowels are produced and presented in simple, citation-form (lists) monosyllabic or disyllabic utterances. In my laboratory, we have investigated the spectral (static/dynamic formant patterns) and temporal (syllable duration) variation in vowel productions as a function of speech-style (list/sentence utterances), speaking rate (normal/rapid), sentence focus (narrow focus/post-focus) and phonetic context (voicing/place of surrounding consonants). Data will be presented for a set of languages that include large and small vowel inventories, stress-, syllable-, and mora-timed prosody, and that vary in the phonological/phonetic function of vowel length, diphthongization, and palatalization. Results show language-specific patterns of contextual variation that affect the cross-language acoustic similarity of vowels. Research on cross-language patterns of perceived phonetic similarity by naive listeners suggests that listener's knowledge of native language (L1) patterns of contextual variation influences their L1/L2 similarity judgments and subsequently, their discrimination of L2 contrasts. Implications of these findings for assessing L2 learners perception of vowels and for developing laboratory training procedures to improve L2 vowel perception will be discussed. [Work supported by NIDCD.

Native Geosciences: Pathways to Traditional Knowledge in Modern Research and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolman, J. R.

2010-12-01

Native people have lived for millennia in distinct and unique ways in our natural sacred homelands and environments. Tribal cultures are the expression of deep understandings of geosciences shared through oral histories, language, traditional practices and ceremonies. Today, Native people as all people are living in a definite time of change. The developing awareness of "change" brings forth an immense opportunity to expand, elevate and incorporate Traditional Native geosciences knowledge into modern research and education to expand understandings for all learners. At the center of "change" is the need to balance the needs of the people with the needs of the environment. Native traditions and our inherent understanding of what is "sacred above is sacred below" is the foundation for a multi-faceted approach for increasing the representation of Natives in geosciences. The approach is centered on the incorporation of traditional knowledge into modern research/education. The approach is also a pathway to assist in Tribal language revitalization, connection of oral histories and ceremonies to place and building an intergenerational teaching/learning community. Humboldt State University, Sinte Gleska University and Tribes in Northern California (Hoopa, Yurok, & Karuk) and Great Plains (Lakota) Tribes have nurtured Native geosciences learning and research communities connected to Tribal Sacred Sites and natural resources. Native geoscience learning is centered on the themes of earth, wind, fire and water and the Native application of remote sensing technologies. Tribal Elders and Native geoscientists work collaboratively providing Native families in-field experiential intergenerational learning opportunities which invite participants to immerse themselves spiritually, intellectually, physically and emotionally in the experiences. Through this immersion and experience Native students and families strengthen the circle of our future Tribal communities and a return to traditional ways of supporting the development of our "story" or purpose for being. The opportunities include residential summer field experiences, interdisciplinary curriculums and development of Tribally-driven Native research/education experiences.

The effects of ethnicity, musicianship, and tone language experience on pitch perception.

PubMed

Zheng, Yi; Samuel, Arthur G

2018-02-01

Language and music are intertwined: music training can facilitate language abilities, and language experiences can also help with some music tasks. Possible language-music transfer effects are explored in two experiments in this study. In Experiment 1, we tested native Mandarin, Korean, and English speakers on a pitch discrimination task with two types of sounds: speech sounds and fundamental frequency (F0) patterns derived from speech sounds. To control for factors that might influence participants' performance, we included cognitive ability tasks testing memory and intelligence. In addition, two music skill tasks were used to examine general transfer effects from language to music. Prior studies showing that tone language speakers have an advantage on pitch tasks have been taken as support for three alternative hypotheses: specific transfer effects, general transfer effects, and an ethnicity effect. In Experiment 1, musicians outperformed non-musicians on both speech and F0 sounds, suggesting a music-to-language transfer effect. Korean and Mandarin speakers performed similarly, and they both outperformed English speakers, providing some evidence for an ethnicity effect. Alternatively, this could be due to population selection bias. In Experiment 2, we recruited Chinese Americans approximating the native English speakers' language background to further test the ethnicity effect. Chinese Americans, regardless of their tone language experiences, performed similarly to their non-Asian American counterparts in all tasks. Therefore, although this study provides additional evidence of transfer effects across music and language, it casts doubt on the contribution of ethnicity to differences observed in pitch perception and general music abilities.

Raspberry, not a car: context predictability and a phonological advantage in early and late learners’ processing of speech in noise

PubMed Central

Gor, Kira

2014-01-01

Second language learners perform worse than native speakers under adverse listening conditions, such as speech in noise (SPIN). No data are available on heritage language speakers’ (early naturalistic interrupted learners’) ability to perceive SPIN. The current study fills this gap and investigates the perception of Russian speech in multi-talker babble noise by the matched groups of high- and low-proficiency heritage speakers (HSs) and late second language learners of Russian who were native speakers of English. The study includes a control group of Russian native speakers. It manipulates the noise level (high and low), and context cloze probability (high and low). The results of the SPIN task are compared to the tasks testing the control of phonology, AXB discrimination and picture-word discrimination, and lexical knowledge, a word translation task, in the same participants. The increased phonological sensitivity of HSs interacted with their ability to rely on top–down processing in sentence integration, use contextual cues, and build expectancies in the high-noise/high-context condition in a bootstrapping fashion. HSs outperformed oral proficiency-matched late second language learners on SPIN task and two tests of phonological sensitivity. The outcomes of the SPIN experiment support both the early naturalistic advantage and the role of proficiency in HSs. HSs’ ability to take advantage of the high-predictability context in the high-noise condition was mitigated by their level of proficiency. Only high-proficiency HSs, but not any other non-native group, took advantage of the high-predictability context that became available with better phonological processing skills in high-noise. The study thus confirms high-proficiency (but not low-proficiency) HSs’ nativelike ability to combine bottom–up and top–down cues in processing SPIN. PMID:25566130

Raspberry, not a car: context predictability and a phonological advantage in early and late learners' processing of speech in noise.

PubMed

Gor, Kira

2014-01-01

Second language learners perform worse than native speakers under adverse listening conditions, such as speech in noise (SPIN). No data are available on heritage language speakers' (early naturalistic interrupted learners') ability to perceive SPIN. The current study fills this gap and investigates the perception of Russian speech in multi-talker babble noise by the matched groups of high- and low-proficiency heritage speakers (HSs) and late second language learners of Russian who were native speakers of English. The study includes a control group of Russian native speakers. It manipulates the noise level (high and low), and context cloze probability (high and low). The results of the SPIN task are compared to the tasks testing the control of phonology, AXB discrimination and picture-word discrimination, and lexical knowledge, a word translation task, in the same participants. The increased phonological sensitivity of HSs interacted with their ability to rely on top-down processing in sentence integration, use contextual cues, and build expectancies in the high-noise/high-context condition in a bootstrapping fashion. HSs outperformed oral proficiency-matched late second language learners on SPIN task and two tests of phonological sensitivity. The outcomes of the SPIN experiment support both the early naturalistic advantage and the role of proficiency in HSs. HSs' ability to take advantage of the high-predictability context in the high-noise condition was mitigated by their level of proficiency. Only high-proficiency HSs, but not any other non-native group, took advantage of the high-predictability context that became available with better phonological processing skills in high-noise. The study thus confirms high-proficiency (but not low-proficiency) HSs' nativelike ability to combine bottom-up and top-down cues in processing SPIN.

Writing Science Like an English Native Speaker: How Far Can and Should Non-Native Speakers of English Go?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burrough-Boenisch, Joy

This paper discusses how a native English-speaking scientist should write and how they actually write scientific articles. This is complemented by considering the aspects of English that journal editors reported as influencing their assessment of manuscripts submitted by second language authors. Some of the ways in which native language and…

Native Speakers as Teachers in Turkey: Non-Native Pre-Service English Teachers' Reactions to a Nation-Wide Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coskun, Abdullah

2013-01-01

Although English is now a recognized international language and the concept of native speaker is becoming more doubtful every day, the empowerment of the native speakers of English as language teaching professionals is still continuing (McKay, 2002), especially in Asian countries like China and Japan. One of the latest examples showing the…

Conceptualization of American English Native Speaker Norms: A Case Study of an English Language Classroom in South Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahn, Kyungja

2011-01-01

This case study aims to reveal how conceptualization of native speakership was constructed and reinforced in a South Korean university classroom of English as a foreign language (EFL). In addition, it examines how this conceptualization positions native speakers, a non-native EFL teacher, and learners, and what learning opportunities were provided…

Attitudes of Palestinian Undergraduate Students towards Native and Non-Native English Language Teachers and Their Relation to Students' Listening Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nafi, Jamal Subhi Ismail; Qabaja, Ziad Mohammed Mahmoud; Al-Kar, Hibah Jabir Ibrahim

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of Palestinian undergraduate students towards native and non-native English language teachers and their relation to students' listening ability. To achieve this purpose and to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, the researchers adopted both the descriptive and inferential…

Managing and Querying Image Annotation and Markup in XML.

PubMed

Wang, Fusheng; Pan, Tony; Sharma, Ashish; Saltz, Joel

2010-01-01

Proprietary approaches for representing annotations and image markup are serious barriers for researchers to share image data and knowledge. The Annotation and Image Markup (AIM) project is developing a standard based information model for image annotation and markup in health care and clinical trial environments. The complex hierarchical structures of AIM data model pose new challenges for managing such data in terms of performance and support of complex queries. In this paper, we present our work on managing AIM data through a native XML approach, and supporting complex image and annotation queries through native extension of XQuery language. Through integration with xService, AIM databases can now be conveniently shared through caGrid.

Managing and Querying Image Annotation and Markup in XML

PubMed Central

Wang, Fusheng; Pan, Tony; Sharma, Ashish; Saltz, Joel

2010-01-01

Proprietary approaches for representing annotations and image markup are serious barriers for researchers to share image data and knowledge. The Annotation and Image Markup (AIM) project is developing a standard based information model for image annotation and markup in health care and clinical trial environments. The complex hierarchical structures of AIM data model pose new challenges for managing such data in terms of performance and support of complex queries. In this paper, we present our work on managing AIM data through a native XML approach, and supporting complex image and annotation queries through native extension of XQuery language. Through integration with xService, AIM databases can now be conveniently shared through caGrid. PMID:21218167

Personalised Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning System for Supporting Effective English Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Ming; Li, Yi-Lun

2010-01-01

Because learning English is extremely popular in non-native English speaking countries, developing modern assisted-learning schemes that facilitate effective English learning is a critical issue in English-language education. Vocabulary learning is vital within English learning because vocabulary comprises the basic building blocks of English…

25 CFR 32.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... this part, the term: (a) Agency School Board means a body, the members of which are appointed by the..., appropriate for their age, development, language and culture which supplement and support usual family... Bureau school, means a body chosen in accordance with the laws of the Tribe or Alaska Native entity to be...

25 CFR 32.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... this part, the term: (a) Agency School Board means a body, the members of which are appointed by the..., appropriate for their age, development, language and culture which supplement and support usual family... Bureau school, means a body chosen in accordance with the laws of the Tribe or Alaska Native entity to be...

25 CFR 32.2 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... this part, the term: (a) Agency School Board means a body, the members of which are appointed by the..., appropriate for their age, development, language and culture which supplement and support usual family... Bureau school, means a body chosen in accordance with the laws of the Tribe or Alaska Native entity to be...

Support Diversity through the Arts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregoire, Michele A.; Lupinetti, Jude

2005-01-01

The arts are the great equalizer in education. Regardless of native language, ability, or disability, music, art, and drama are accessible to all. Because the arts are largely nonverbal and focus on creativity, students in any classroom can participate in various satisfying ways. Further, this participation can lead to better understanding and…

Item Performance Across Native Language Groups on the Test of English as a Foreign Language. TOEFL Research Reports, 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alderman, Donald L.; Holland, Paul W.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was examined for instances in which the item performance of examinees with comparable scores differed according to their native languages. A chi-square procedure, sensitive to deviations of less than ten percent from the expected frequencies of correct item responses across several language groups,…

The Impact of Input Quality on Early Sign Development in Native and Non-Native Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Jenny; Jones, Anna; Morgan, Gary

2016-01-01

There is debate about how input variation influences child language. Most deaf children are exposed to a sign language from their non-fluent hearing parents and experience a delay in exposure to accessible language. A small number of children receive language input from their deaf parents who are fluent signers. Thus it is possible to document the…

Further developments in generating type-safe messaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neswold, R.; King, C.; /Fermilab

2011-11-01

At ICALEPCS 09, we introduced a source code generator that allows processes to communicate safely using data types native to each host language. In this paper, we discuss further development that has occurred since the conference in Kobe, Japan, including the addition of three more client languages, an optimization in network packet size and the addition of a new protocol data type. The protocol compiler is continuing to prove itself as an easy and robust way to get applications written in different languages hosted on different computer architectures to communicate. We have two active Erlang projects that are using themore » protocol compiler to access ACNET data at high data rates. We also used the protocol compiler output to deliver ACNET data to an iPhone/iPad application. Since it takes an average of two weeks to support a new language, we're willing to expand the protocol compiler to support new languages that our community uses.« less

Sex and cultural differences in spatial performance between Japanese and North Americans.

PubMed

Sakamoto, Maiko; Spiers, Mary V

2014-04-01

Previous studies have suggested that Asians perform better than North Americans on spatial tasks but show smaller sex differences. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between long-term experience with a pictorial written language and spatial performance. It was hypothesized that native Japanese Kanji (a complex pictorial written language) educated adults would show smaller sex differences on spatial tasks than Japanese Americans or North Americans without Kanji education. A total of 80 young healthy participants (20 native Japanese speakers, 20 Japanese Americans-non Japanese speaking, and 40 North Americans-non Japanese speaking) completed the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), and customized 2D and 3D spatial object location memory tests. As predicted, main effects revealed men performed better on the MRT and RCFT and women performed better on the spatial object location memory tests. Also, as predicted, native Japanese performed better on all tests than the other groups. In contrast to the other groups, native Japanese showed a decreased magnitude of sex differences on aspects of the RCFT (immediate and delayed recall) and no significant sex difference on the efficiency of the strategy used to copy and encode the RCFT figure. This study lends support to the idea that intensive experience over time with a pictorial written language (i.e., Japanese Kanji) may contribute to increased spatial performance on some spatial tasks as well as diminish sex differences in performance on tasks that most resemble Kanji.

Do grammatical-gender distinctions learned in the second language influence native-language lexical processing?

PubMed Central

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Smith, Samantha

2015-01-01

How does learning a second language influence native language processing? In the present study, we examined whether knowledge of Spanish – a language that marks grammatical gender on inanimate nouns – influences lexical processing in English – a language that does not mark grammatical gender. We tested three groups of adult English native speakers: monolinguals, emergent bilinguals with high exposure to Spanish, and emergent bilinguals with low exposure to Spanish. Participants engaged in an associative learning task in English where they learned to associate names of inanimate objects with proper names. For half of the pairs, the grammatical gender of the noun’s Spanish translation matched the gender of the proper name (e.g., corn-Patrick). For half of the pairs, the grammatical gender of the noun’s Spanish translation mismatched the gender of the proper noun (e.g., beach-William). High-Spanish-exposure bilinguals (but not monolinguals or low-Spanish-exposure bilinguals) were less accurate at retrieving proper names for gender-incongruent than for gender-congruent pairs. This indicates that second-language morphosyntactic information is activated during native-language processing, even when the second language is acquired later in life. PMID:26977134

The perception of phonological quantity based on durational cues by native speakers, second-language users and nonspeakers of Finnish.

PubMed

Ylinen, Sari; Shestakova, Anna; Alku, Paavo; Huotilainen, Minna

2005-01-01

Some languages, such as Finnish, use speech-sound duration as the primary cue for a phonological quantity distinction. For second-language (L2) learners, quantity is often difficult to master if speech-sound duration plays a less important role in the phonology of their native language (L1). By comparing the categorization performance of native speakers of Finnish, Russian L2 users of Finnish, and non-Finnish-speaking Russians, the present study aimed to determine whether the L2 users, whose native language does not have a quantity distinction, have been able to establish categories for Finnish quantity. The results suggest that the native speakers and some of the L2 users that have been exposed to Finnish for a longer time have access to phonological quantity categories, whereas the L2 users with shorter exposure and the non-Finnish-speaking subjects do not. In addition, by comparing categorization and discrimination tasks it was found that the native speakers show a phoneme-boundary effect for quantity that is cued by duration only, whereas the non-Finnish-speaking subjects and the subjects with low proficiency in Finnish do not.

Speech-Sound Duration Processing in a Second Language is Specific to Phonetic Categories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nenonen, Sari; Shestakova, Anna; Huotilainen, Minna; Naatanen, Risto

2005-01-01

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event-related potential was used to determine the effect of native language, Russian, on the processing of speech-sound duration in a second language, Finnish, that uses duration as a cue for phonological distinction. The native-language effect was compared with Finnish vowels that either can…

Ways of Talking (and Acting) about Language Reclamation: An Ethnographic Perspective on Learning Lenape in Pennsylvania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H.; De Korne, Haley; Weinberg, Miranda

2016-01-01

The experiences of a community of people learning and teaching Lenape in Pennsylvania provide insights into the complexities of current ways of talking and acting about language reclamation. We illustrate how Native and non-Native participants in a university-based Indigenous language class constructed language, identity, and place in nuanced ways…

Omaha Language Preservation in the Macy, Nebraska Public School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudin, Catherine

A native language renewal program at the Macy, Nebraska Public School is described that is designed to preserve Omaha, a native American Indian language that is only a generation away from extinction. At the time of this research, only about 100 fluent Omaha speakers lived on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska. The language and culture program,…

Adaptive Communication: Languages with More Non-Native Speakers Tend to Have Fewer Word Forms

PubMed Central

Bentz, Christian; Verkerk, Annemarie; Kiela, Douwe; Hill, Felix; Buttery, Paula

2015-01-01

Explaining the diversity of languages across the world is one of the central aims of typological, historical, and evolutionary linguistics. We consider the effect of language contact-the number of non-native speakers a language has-on the way languages change and evolve. By analysing hundreds of languages within and across language families, regions, and text types, we show that languages with greater levels of contact typically employ fewer word forms to encode the same information content (a property we refer to as lexical diversity). Based on three types of statistical analyses, we demonstrate that this variance can in part be explained by the impact of non-native speakers on information encoding strategies. Finally, we argue that languages are information encoding systems shaped by the varying needs of their speakers. Language evolution and change should be modeled as the co-evolution of multiple intertwined adaptive systems: On one hand, the structure of human societies and human learning capabilities, and on the other, the structure of language. PMID:26083380

Noise reduction improves memory for target language speech in competing native but not foreign language speech.

PubMed

Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Rudner, Mary; Lunner, Thomas; Rönnberg, Jerker

2015-01-01

A hearing aid noise reduction (NR) algorithm reduces the adverse effect of competing speech on memory for target speech for individuals with hearing impairment with high working memory capacity. In the present study, we investigated whether the positive effect of NR could be extended to individuals with low working memory capacity, as well as how NR influences recall performance for target native speech when the masker language is non-native. A sentence-final word identification and recall (SWIR) test was administered to 26 experienced hearing aid users. In this test, target spoken native language (Swedish) sentence lists were presented in competing native (Swedish) or foreign (Cantonese) speech with or without binary masking NR algorithm. After each sentence list, free recall of sentence final words was prompted. Working memory capacity was measured using a reading span (RS) test. Recall performance was associated with RS. However, the benefit obtained from NR was not associated with RS. Recall performance was more disrupted by native than foreign speech babble and NR improved recall performance in native but not foreign competing speech. Noise reduction improved memory for speech heard in competing speech for hearing aid users. Memory for native speech was more disrupted by native babble than foreign babble, but the disruptive effect of native speech babble was reduced to that of foreign babble when there was NR.

Sign Perception and Recognition in Non-Native Signers of ASL

PubMed Central

Morford, Jill P.; Carlson, Martina L.

2011-01-01

Past research has established that delayed first language exposure is associated with comprehension difficulties in non-native signers of American Sign Language (ASL) relative to native signers. The goal of the current study was to investigate potential explanations of this disparity: do non-native signers have difficulty with all aspects of comprehension, or are their comprehension difficulties restricted to some aspects of processing? We compared the performance of deaf non-native, hearing L2, and deaf native signers on a handshape and location monitoring and a sign recognition task. The results indicate that deaf non-native signers are as rapid and accurate on the monitoring task as native signers, with differences in the pattern of relative performance across handshape and location parameters. By contrast, non-native signers differ significantly from native signers during sign recognition. Hearing L2 signers, who performed almost as well as the two groups of deaf signers on the monitoring task, resembled the deaf native signers more than the deaf non-native signers on the sign recognition task. The combined results indicate that delayed exposure to a signed language leads to an overreliance on handshape during sign recognition. PMID:21686080

The Influence of Language Anxiety on English Reading and Writing Tasks among Native Hebrew Speakers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Argaman, Osnat; Abu-Rabia, Salim

2002-01-01

Examined the influence of language anxiety as measured by a questionnaire on achievements in English writing and reading comprehension tasks. Subjects were native speakers of Hebrew, aged 12-13 years, learning English as a second language.(Author/VWL)

Native Reactions to Non-Native Speech: A Review of Empirical Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenstein, Miriam

1983-01-01

Recent research on native speakers' reactions to nonnative speech that views listeners, speakers, and language from a variety of perspectives using both objective and subjective research paradigms is reviewed. Studies of error gravity, relative intelligibility of language samples, the role of accent, speakers' characteristics, and context in which…

Can Experience with Co-Speech Gesture Influence the Prosody of a Sign Language? Sign Language Prosodic Cues in Bimodal Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brentari, Diane; Nadolske, Marie A.; Wolford, George

2012-01-01

In this paper the prosodic structure of American Sign Language (ASL) narratives is analyzed in deaf native signers (L1-D), hearing native signers (L1-H), and highly proficient hearing second language signers (L2-H). The results of this study show that the prosodic patterns used by these groups are associated both with their ASL language experience…

Effects of Language Context on Ratings of Shy and Unsociable Behaviors in English Language Learning Children

PubMed Central

Ash, Andrea C.; Rice, Mabel L.; Redmond, Sean M.

2014-01-01

Purpose The primary goal of this study was to explore the effect of the language context on the socially withdrawn behaviors of school aged-children who are English Language Learners (ELLs) from middle to high SES backgrounds. This is one of the first studies to address the frequently confused concepts of shyness and unsociability as independent constructs within the ELL population. This study also investigated the feasibility of an experimental parent and child questionnaire that examines shyness and unsociability across native and English speaking contexts. Method Children and parents (34 ELL and 37 native English speaking) were administered an experimental questionnaire examining shy and unsociable behavior in native language and English-speaking contexts. Results Parents and children from the ELL group reported significantly higher ratings of shy behavior in English versus native language contexts, whereas unsociable ratings did not differ across language contexts. Conclusions Shyness and unsociability are distinguishable behaviors in ELL children and these constructs should be considered when examining withdrawal. Additionally, examining ELL children’s behavior across language contexts provides a valuable method for investigating language influenced behavioral problems. This study demonstrates the need for service providers to evaluate behavior across subtype and language context before pathologizing withdrawal in ELL children. PMID:24687767

Constraints on Negative Prefixation in Polish Sign Language.

PubMed

Tomaszewski, Piotr

2015-01-01

The aim of this article is to describe a negative prefix, NEG-, in Polish Sign Language (PJM) which appears to be indigenous to the language. This is of interest given the relative rarity of prefixes in sign languages. Prefixed PJM signs were analyzed on the basis of both a corpus of texts signed by 15 deaf PJM users who are either native or near-native signers, and material including a specified range of prefixed signs as demonstrated by native signers in dictionary form (i.e. signs produced in isolation, not as part of phrases or sentences). In order to define the morphological rules behind prefixation on both the phonological and morphological levels, native PJM users were consulted for their expertise. The research results can enrich models for describing processes of grammaticalization in the context of the visual-gestural modality that forms the basis for sign language structure.

The prevalence of synaesthesia depends on early language learning.

PubMed

Watson, Marcus R; Chromý, Jan; Crawford, Lyle; Eagleman, David M; Enns, James T; Akins, Kathleen A

2017-02-01

According to one theory, synaesthesia develops, or is preserved, because it helps children learn. If so, it should be more common among adults who faced greater childhood learning challenges. In the largest survey of synaesthesia to date, the incidence of synaesthesia was compared among native speakers of languages with transparent (easier) and opaque (more difficult) orthographies. Contrary to our prediction, native speakers of Czech (transparent) were more likely to be synaesthetes than native speakers of English (opaque). However, exploratory analyses suggested that this was because more Czechs learned non-native second languages, which was strongly associated with synaesthesia, consistent with the learning hypothesis. Furthermore, the incidence of synaesthesia among speakers of opaque languages was double that among speakers of transparent languages other than Czech, also consistent with the learning hypothesis. These findings contribute to an emerging understanding of synaesthetic development as a complex and lengthy process with multiple causal influences. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Social cohesion, social support, and health among Latinos in the United States.

PubMed

Mulvaney-Day, Norah E; Alegría, Margarita; Sribney, William

2007-01-01

The role of individual versus community level social connections in promoting health is an important factor to consider when addressing Latino health. This analysis examines the relationships between social support, social cohesion, and health in a sample of Latinos in the United States. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study, the analysis uses ordered logistic regression to explore the relationships of family support, friend support, family cultural conflict, and neighborhood social cohesion with self-rated physical and mental health, taking into account language proficiency and use, nativity, and sociodemographic variables. Family support, friend support, and neighborhood social cohesion were positively related to self-rated physical and mental health, and family cultural conflict was negatively related when controlled only for sex and age. After controlling for education, income, and other demographic measures, only family support was found to have a weak association with self-rated physical health; however, the relationship seemed to be mediated by language. In contrast, family support and family cultural conflict were strongly associated with self-rated mental health, after controlling for language, education, income, and other demographic measures. The study did not find neighborhood social cohesion to be significantly related to either self-rated physical or mental health, after accounting for the effects of the other social connection variables. Language of interview did not explain the highly significant effects of language proficiency and use. Social connections are important for health and mental health, but language and other sociodemographic factors seem to be related to how Latinos establish these social linkages. Further investigation into the role of language in the development and maintenance of social connections may help unravel the mechanisms by which they promote or decrease health.

The influence of acculturation on breast-feeding initiation and duration in low-income women in the US.

PubMed

Sussner, Katarina M; Lindsay, Ana C; Peterson, Karen E

2008-09-01

While the 'immigrant health paradox' posits better health behaviours and outcomes for immigrants upon arrival to the US, research suggests that this advantage may deteriorate over time. This study analysed the relationship of acculturation and breast-feeding initiation and duration among a sample of predominantly Latina, low-income women in the US. The four measures of acculturation included: mother's nativity (foreign born vs US born), mother's parents' nativity (foreign born vs US born), years of US residence (<8 years vs > or =8 years) and a dichotomous measure of language acculturation adapted from three items on Marin's acculturation scale (preferred language spoken at home, reading language and writing language) as exclusive use of native language versus non-exclusive use (mixed or English only) (Marin et al., 1987; Marin & Gamba, 1996). Final multivariable models showed that mothers who exclusively used their native language were more likely to initiate breast-feeding as well as breast-feed for longer duration compared with mothers with non-exclusive use, whereas years of US residence and mother's nativity were not significantly associated with breast-feeding initiation or duration. Mother's parents' nativity also emerged as a significant predictor of breast-feeding duration, both within final models for immigrants and across study participants. Programmes providing nutrition education to low-income women may wish to consider the role of language as an important determinant of breast-feeding. The role of mother's parents' nativity on breast-feeding practices deserves exploration in future studies, as the cultural practices taught by family members born outside the US may exert strong pressure within immigrant families now living in the US.

Polish Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Defense Language Inst., Washington, DC.

These 15 volumes of the Basic Polish Course, prepared for use in the Defense Language Institute's intensive language program, comprise Lessons 1-124. They are disigned to train native English language speakers to Level 3 proficiency in comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing Polish. (Level 5 is native-speaker fluency.) The phonological…

Indigenous Education and Grassroots Language Planning in the USA.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Watahomigie, Lucille J.

1999-01-01

Indigenous literacy affirms indigenous identity; connects native speakers to the culture and each other; and stimulates other, more diffuse forces for language maintenance. Collaborative, grassroots Native language programs in the United States, New Zealand, Hawaii, Canada, and Puerto Rico are described. Immersion and literacy programs include…

The Survival of Native American Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Jack D.

1981-01-01

Before the white invasion, Native American peoples possessed an extremely rich and varied heritage with highly developed oral literatures, and constant development of new phrases, expressions, and patterns of pronunciation. Examples of Indian people's adeptness with language include: many learned to speak more than two languages fluently;…

HAPPEN CAN'T HEAR: An Analysis of Code-Blends in Hearing, Native Signers of American Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Michele

2011-01-01

Hearing native signers often learn sign language as their first language and acquire features that are characteristic of sign languages but are not present in equivalent ways in English (e.g., grammatical facial expressions and the structured use of space for setting up tokens and surrogates). Previous research has indicated that bimodal…

Training Pre-Service Chinese Language Teachers to Create Instructional Video to Enhance Classroom Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Lih-Ching Chen; Wang, Ming-Chian Ken

2014-01-01

Foreign language instruction is a complex and challenging task made even more so by situations in which the learner's native language is radically different from the foreign language being mastered. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of native English speakers seeking to learn Mandarin Chinese. The rapid increase in the availability and…

Of Hating, Hurting, and Coming to Terms with the English Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keeshig-Tobias, Lenore

2003-01-01

For Canada Natives, storytelling and describing dreams are the beginnings of literacy. Many elders survived abuse in residential schools because of language, and claim that one cannot be Indian without the language. This author works in English, yet her writings are informed by Native culture. Language can be a tool or a weapon; it depends on how…

Word order processing in a second language: from VO to OV.

PubMed

Erdocia, Kepa; Zawiszewski, Adam; Laka, Itziar

2014-12-01

Event-related potential studies on second language processing reveal that L1/L2 differences are due either to proficiency, age of acquisition or grammatical differences between L1 and L2 (Kotz in Brain Lang 109(2-3):68-74, 2009). However, the relative impact of these and other factors in second language processing is still not well understood. Here we present evidence from behavioral and ERP experiments on Basque sentence word order processing by L1Spanish-L2Basque early bilinguals (Age of Aquisition [Formula: see text] 3 years) with very high proficiency in their L2. Results reveal that these L2 speakers have a preference towards canonical Subject-Object-Verb word order, which they processed faster and with greater ease than non-canonical Object-Subject-Verb. This result converges with the processing preferences shown by natives and reported in Erdocia et al. (Brain Lang 109(1):1-17, 2009). However, electrophysiological measures associated to canonical (SOV) and non-canonical (OSV) sentences revealed a different pattern in the non-natives, as compared to that reported previously for natives. The non-native group elicited a P600 component that native group did not show when comparing S and O at sentence's second position. This pattern of results suggests that, despite high proficiency, non-native language processing recruits neural resources that are different from those employed in native languages.

Using Audiovisual TV Interviews to Create Visible Authors that Reduce the Learning Gap between Native and Non-Native Language Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inglese, Terry; Mayer, Richard E.; Rigotti, Francesca

2007-01-01

Can archives of audiovisual TV interviews be used to make authors more visible to students, and thereby reduce the learning gap between native and non-native language speakers in college classes? We examined students in a college course who learned about one scholar's ideas through watching an audiovisual TV interview (i.e., visible author format)…

A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers.

PubMed

Hartshorne, Joshua K; Tenenbaum, Joshua B; Pinker, Steven

2018-08-01

Children learn language more easily than adults, though when and why this ability declines have been obscure for both empirical reasons (underpowered studies) and conceptual reasons (measuring the ultimate attainment of learners who started at different ages cannot by itself reveal changes in underlying learning ability). We address both limitations with a dataset of unprecedented size (669,498 native and non-native English speakers) and a computational model that estimates the trajectory of underlying learning ability by disentangling current age, age at first exposure, and years of experience. This allows us to provide the first direct estimate of how grammar-learning ability changes with age, finding that it is preserved almost to the crux of adulthood (17.4 years old) and then declines steadily. This finding held not only for "difficult" syntactic phenomena but also for "easy" syntactic phenomena that are normally mastered early in acquisition. The results support the existence of a sharply-defined critical period for language acquisition, but the age of offset is much later than previously speculated. The size of the dataset also provides novel insight into several other outstanding questions in language acquisition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Memory for non-native language: the role of lexical processing in the retention of surface form.

PubMed

Sampaio, Cristina; Konopka, Agnieszka E

2013-01-01

Research on memory for native language (L1) has consistently shown that retention of surface form is inferior to that of gist (e.g., Sachs, 1967). This paper investigates whether the same pattern is found in memory for non-native language (L2). We apply a model of bilingual word processing to more complex linguistic structures and predict that memory for L2 sentences ought to contain more surface information than L1 sentences. Native and non-native speakers of English were tested on a set of sentence pairs with different surface forms but the same meaning (e.g., "The bullet hit/struck the bull's eye"). Memory for these sentences was assessed with a cued recall procedure. Responses showed that native and non-native speakers did not differ in the accuracy of gist-based recall but that non-native speakers outperformed native speakers in the retention of surface form. The results suggest that L2 processing involves more intensive encoding of lexical level information than L1 processing.

Early Mathematics Achievement Trajectories: English-Language Learner and Native English-Speaker Estimates, Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey

PubMed Central

Roberts, Greg; Bryant, Diane

2012-01-01

This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten Class of 1998 –1999, to (a) estimate mathematics achievement trends through 5th grade in the population of students who are English-language proficient by the end of kindergarten, (b) compare trends across primary language groups within this English-language proficient group, (c) evaluate the effect of low socioeconomic status (SES) for English-language proficient students and within different primary language groups, and (d) estimate language-group trends in specific mathematics skill areas. The group of English-language proficient English-language learners (ELLs) was disaggregated into native Spanish speakers and native speakers of Asian languages, the 2 most prevalent groups of ELLs in the United States. Results of multilevel latent variable growth modeling suggest that primary language may be less salient than SES in explaining the mathematics achievement of English-language proficient ELLs. The study also found that mathematics-related school readiness is a key factor in explaining subsequent achievement differences and that the readiness gap is prevalent across the range of mathematics-related skills. PMID:21574702

Indigenous Language Education and Literacy: Introduction to the Theme Issue.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Zepeda, Ofelia

1995-01-01

Discusses the 13 papers in this special issue on American Indian and Alaska Native language education and literacy, the object of which is to critically examine the relationship of pedagogical change to larger sociopolitical and cultural processes affecting native language, bilingual, and bicultural programs. (three references) (MDM)

Navigating Native-Speaker Ideologies as FSL Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wernicke, Meike

2017-01-01

Although a well-established domain of research in English language teaching, native-speaker ideologies have received little attention in French language education. This article reports on a study that examined the salience of "authentic French" in the identity construction of French as a second language (FSL) teachers in English-speaking…

A Comparative Study of Vygotsky's Perspectives on Child Language Development with Nativism and Behaviorism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dastpak, Mehdi; Behjat, Fatemeh; Taghinezhad, Ali

2017-01-01

This study aimed at investigating the similarities and differences between Vygotsky's perspectives on child language development with nativism and behaviorism. Proposing the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, Vygotsky emphasized the role of collaborative interaction, scaffolding, and guided participation in language learning. Nativists, on…

34 CFR 303.403 - Prior notice; native language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... services to the child and the child's family. (b) Content of notice. The notice must be in sufficient... mode of communication of the parent is not a written language, the public agency, or designated service... parent in the parent's native language or other mode of communication; (ii) The parent understands the...

Perception of English Intonation by English, Spanish, and Chinese Listeners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grabe, Esther; Rosner, Burton S.; Garcia-Albea, Jose E.; Zhou, Xiaolin

2003-01-01

Native language affects the perception of segmental phonetic structure, of stress, and of semantic and pragmatic effects of intonation. Similarly, native language might influence the perception of similarities and differences among intonation contours. To test this hypothesis, a cross-language experiment was conducted. An English utterance was…

Chinese Students' Perceptions of Native English-Speaking Teachers in EFL Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rao, Zhenhui

2010-01-01

The article reports the views of 20 Chinese English as a foreign Language (EFL) students on the strengths and weaknesses of native English-speaking (NES) teachers in EFL teaching. Responding to an open-ended questionnaire and in-depth interviews, EFL students named the following as NES teachers' strengths: native language authenticity, cultural…

Initial Exploration of a Construct Representing Native Language and Culture (NLC) in Elementary and Middle School Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Ryzin, Mark J.; Vincent, Claudia G.; Hoover, Joseph

2016-01-01

Students from American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) backgrounds have typically experienced poor academic and behavioral outcomes. In response, the educational community has recommended that teachers integrate Native Language and Culture (NLC) into instruction to create a welcoming and culturally relevant classroom environment. However, translating…

Effects of Lips and Hands on Auditory Learning of Second-Language Speech Sounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirata, Yukari; Kelly, Spencer D.

2010-01-01

Purpose: Previous research has found that auditory training helps native English speakers to perceive phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, but their performance did not reach native levels after training. Given that multimodal information, such as lip movement and hand gesture, influences many aspects of native language processing, the…

The Native Speaker, Identity, and the Authenticity Hierarchy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myhill, John E.

2003-01-01

Discusses an ideology of native language and identity, which holds that native language is seen as a central element of individual identity. Argues that although this ideology can be very valuable in certain circumstances, it can also create an atmosphere of suspicion toward members of certain ethnicities who choose not to use their ancestral…

Effects of First and Second Language on Segmentation of Non-Native Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanulikova, Adriana; Mitterer, Holger; McQueen, James M.

2011-01-01

Do Slovak-German bilinguals apply native Slovak phonological and lexical knowledge when segmenting German speech? When Slovaks listen to their native language, segmentation is impaired when fixed-stress cues are absent (Hanulikova, McQueen & Mitterer, 2010), and, following the Possible-Word Constraint (PWC; Norris, McQueen, Cutler & Butterfield,…

University Students' Perceptions of Native and Non-Native Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ustunluoglu, Evrim

2007-01-01

The employment of native teachers of English in countries where English is a foreign language, coupled with a growing concern over teaching effectiveness, has led to collecting data about teachers' performance through student feedback. Not much research has been carried out in Turkey to evaluate the process and output of language teaching by…

Multicompetence and Native Speaker Variation in Clausal Packaging in Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Amanda; Gullberg, Marianne

2012-01-01

Native speakers show systematic variation in a range of linguistic domains as a function of a variety of sociolinguistic variables. This article addresses native language variation in the context of multicompetence, i.e. knowledge of two languages in one mind (Cook, 1991). Descriptions of motion were elicited from functionally monolingual and…

The Construction of Collective Identity in Malaysian ESL Secondary Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Idrus, Faizah; Nazri, Nas Idayu Mohd

2016-01-01

This study seeks to identify the construction of collective identity in ESL classroom among students in a secondary school in Selangor, Malaysia. Identity construction can be helpful in supporting students academically and socially, especially in the English language classrooms. Being non-native speakers, students may have the tendency to feel…

Chinese-French Case Study of English Language Learning via Wikispaces, Animoto and Skype

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartwell, Laura M.; Zou, Bin

2013-01-01

This paper reports on the learning experience of Chinese and French students participating in a computer mediated communication (CMC) collaboration conducted in English and supported by Wikispaces, Animoto, and Skype. Several studies have investigated CMC contexts in which at least some participants were native speakers. Here, we address the…

Learning to Pronounce First Words in Three Languages: An Investigation of Caregiver and Infant Behavior Using a Computational Model of an Infant

PubMed Central

Howard, Ian S.; Messum, Piers

2014-01-01

Words are made up of speech sounds. Almost all accounts of child speech development assume that children learn the pronunciation of first language (L1) speech sounds by imitation, most claiming that the child performs some kind of auditory matching to the elements of ambient speech. However, there is evidence to support an alternative account and we investigate the non-imitative child behavior and well-attested caregiver behavior that this account posits using Elija, a computational model of an infant. Through unsupervised active learning, Elija began by discovering motor patterns, which produced sounds. In separate interaction experiments, native speakers of English, French and German then played the role of his caregiver. In their first interactions with Elija, they were allowed to respond to his sounds if they felt this was natural. We analyzed the interactions through phonemic transcriptions of the caregivers' utterances and found that they interpreted his output within the framework of their native languages. Their form of response was almost always a reformulation of Elija's utterance into well-formed sounds of L1. Elija retained those motor patterns to which a caregiver responded and formed associations between his motor pattern and the response it provoked. Thus in a second phase of interaction, he was able to parse input utterances in terms of the caregiver responses he had heard previously, and respond using his associated motor patterns. This capacity enabled the caregivers to teach Elija to pronounce some simple words in their native languages, by his serial imitation of the words' component speech sounds. Overall, our results demonstrate that the natural responses and behaviors of human subjects to infant-like vocalizations can take a computational model from a biologically plausible initial state through to word pronunciation. This provides support for an alternative to current auditory matching hypotheses for how children learn to pronounce. PMID:25333740

Publication Ethics and the Emerging Scientific Workforce: Understanding ‘Plagiarism’ in a Global Context

PubMed Central

Cameron, Carrie; Zhao, Hui; McHugh, Michelle K.

2013-01-01

Scientific publication has long been dominated by the English language and is rapidly moving towards near complete hegemony of English, while the majority of the world’s publishing scientists are not native English speakers. This imbalance has important implications for training in and enforcement of publication ethics, particularly with respect to plagiarism. A lack of understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and the use of a linguistic support strategy known as patchwriting can lead to inadvertent misuse of source material by non-native speakers writing in English as well as to unfounded accusations of intentional scientific misconduct on the part of these authors. A rational and well-informed dialogue about this issue is needed among both native English speaking and non-native English speaking writers, editors, educators, and administrators. Recommendations for educating and training are provided. PMID:22104051

The effects of late acquisition of L2 and the consequences of immigration on L1 for semantic and morpho-syntactic language aspects.

PubMed

Scherag, André; Demuth, Lisa; Rösler, Frank; Neville, Helen J; Röder, Brigitte

2004-10-01

It has been hypothesized that some aspects of a second language (L2) might be learned easier than others if a language is learned late. On the other hand, non-use might result in a loss of language skills in one's native, i.e. one's first language (L1) (language attrition). To study which, if any, aspects of language are affected by either late acquisition or non-use, long-term German immigrants to the US and English native speakers who are long-term immigrants to Germany as well as two additional control groups of native German speakers were tested with an auditory semantic and morpho-syntactic priming paradigm. German adjectives correctly or incorrectly inflected for gender and semantically associated or not associated with the target noun served as primes. Participants made a lexical decision on the target word. All groups of native German speakers gained from semantically and morpho-syntactically congruent primes. Evidence for language attrition was neither found for semantic nor morpho-syntactic priming effects in the German immigrants. In contrast, English native speakers did not gain from a morpho-syntactic congruent prime, whereas semantic priming effects were similar as for the remaining groups. The present data suggest that the full acquisition of at least some syntactic functions may be restricted to limited periods in life while semantic and morpho-syntactic functions seem to be relatively inured to loss due to non-use.

How and When Does the Second Language Influence the Production of Native Speech Sounds: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartushina, Natalia; Frauenfelder, Ulrich H.; Golestani, Narly

2016-01-01

In bilinguals and second language learners, the native (L1) and nonnative (L2) languages coexist and interact. The L1 influences L2 production via forward transfer, as is seen with foreign accents. However, language transfer is bidirectional: even brief experience with an L2 can affect L1 production, via backward transfer. Here, we review the…

The Use of English as Medium of Instruction at the Upper Basic Level (Primary Four to Junior High School) in Ghana: From Theory to Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owu-Ewie, Charles; Eshun, Emma Sarah

2015-01-01

The language of education is crucial to learners' academic success. As a result, nations whose native languages are not the languages of education have promulgated language policies to solve communication problems in their school systems. Most multilingual nations have adopted bilingual education systems that recognize the child's native language…

A Longitudinal Study of the Use of the First Language (L1) in French Foreign Language (FL) Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Erin; Storch, Neomy

2012-01-01

This longitudinal study investigated teachers' use of the first language (L1) in two French foreign language (FL) intermediate level classes at two Australian universities. A native French-speaking teacher (NS) and a non-native French-speaking teacher (NNS) were observed and audio-recorded approximately every two weeks over a 12- week semester.…

Exploring US Mainstream Teachers' Perspectives on Use of the Native Language in Instruction with English Language Learner Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karathanos, Katya

2009-01-01

In the US, public school teachers are currently experiencing an unprecedented increase in the number of English language learner (ELL) students with whom they work. Research shows the practice of incorporating ELL students' native languages (L1) into instruction to be a major factor enhancing their success in school. In this study, 327 pre-service…

How much does language proficiency by non-native listeners influence speech audiometric tests in noise?

PubMed

Warzybok, Anna; Brand, Thomas; Wagener, Kirsten C; Kollmeier, Birger

2015-01-01

The current study investigates the extent to which the linguistic complexity of three commonly employed speech recognition tests and second language proficiency influence speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) in noise in non-native listeners. SRTs were measured for non-natives and natives using three German speech recognition tests: the digit triplet test (DTT), the Oldenburg sentence test (OLSA), and the Göttingen sentence test (GÖSA). Sixty-four non-native and eight native listeners participated. Non-natives can show native-like SRTs in noise only for the linguistically easy speech material (DTT). Furthermore, the limitation of phonemic-acoustical cues in digit triplets affects speech recognition to the same extent in non-natives and natives. For more complex and less familiar speech materials, non-natives, ranging from basic to advanced proficiency in German, require on average 3-dB better signal-to-noise ratio for the OLSA and 6-dB for the GÖSA to obtain 50% speech recognition compared to native listeners. In clinical audiology, SRT measurements with a closed-set speech test (i.e. DTT for screening or OLSA test for clinical purposes) should be used with non-native listeners rather than open-set speech tests (such as the GÖSA or HINT), especially if a closed-set version in the patient's own native language is available.

Relative Weighting of Semantic and Syntactic Cues in Native and Non-Native Listeners' Recognition of English Sentences.

PubMed

Shi, Lu-Feng; Koenig, Laura L

2016-01-01

Non-native listeners do not recognize English sentences as effectively as native listeners, especially in noise. It is not entirely clear to what extent such group differences arise from differences in relative weight of semantic versus syntactic cues. This study quantified the use and weighting of these contextual cues via Boothroyd and Nittrouer's j and k factors. The j represents the probability of recognizing sentences with or without context, whereas the k represents the degree to which context improves recognition performance. Four groups of 13 normal-hearing young adult listeners participated. One group consisted of native English monolingual (EMN) listeners, whereas the other three consisted of non-native listeners contrasting in their language dominance and first language: English-dominant Russian-English, Russian-dominant Russian-English, and Spanish-dominant Spanish-English bilinguals. All listeners were presented three sets of four-word sentences: high-predictability sentences included both semantic and syntactic cues, low-predictability sentences included syntactic cues only, and zero-predictability sentences included neither semantic nor syntactic cues. Sentences were presented at 65 dB SPL binaurally in the presence of speech-spectrum noise at +3 dB SNR. Listeners orally repeated each sentence and recognition was calculated for individual words as well as the sentence as a whole. Comparable j values across groups for high-predictability, low-predictability, and zero-predictability sentences suggested that all listeners, native and non-native, utilized contextual cues to recognize English sentences. Analysis of the k factor indicated that non-native listeners took advantage of syntax as effectively as EMN listeners. However, only English-dominant bilinguals utilized semantics to the same extent as EMN listeners; semantics did not provide a significant benefit for the two non-English-dominant groups. When combined, semantics and syntax benefitted EMN listeners significantly more than all three non-native groups of listeners. Language background influenced the use and weighting of semantic and syntactic cues in a complex manner. A native language advantage existed in the effective use of both cues combined. A language-dominance effect was seen in the use of semantics. No first-language effect was present for the use of either or both cues. For all non-native listeners, syntax contributed significantly more to sentence recognition than semantics, possibly due to the fact that semantics develops more gradually than syntax in second-language acquisition. The present study provides evidence that Boothroyd and Nittrouer's j and k factors can be successfully used to quantify the effectiveness of contextual cue use in clinically relevant, linguistically diverse populations.

Linguistic Phylogenies Support Back-Migration from Beringia to Asia

PubMed Central

Sicoli, Mark A.; Holton, Gary

2014-01-01

Recent arguments connecting Na-Dene languages of North America with Yeniseian languages of Siberia have been used to assert proof for the origin of Native Americans in central or western Asia. We apply phylogenetic methods to test support for this hypothesis against an alternative hypothesis that Yeniseian represents a back-migration to Asia from a Beringian ancestral population. We coded a linguistic dataset of typological features and used neighbor-joining network algorithms and Bayesian model comparison based on Bayes factors to test the fit between the data and the linguistic phylogenies modeling two dispersal hypotheses. Our results support that a Dene-Yeniseian connection more likely represents radiation out of Beringia with back-migration into central Asia than a migration from central or western Asia to North America. PMID:24621925

Acquisition of English word stress patterns in early and late bilinguals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guion, Susan G.

2004-05-01

Given early acquisition of prosodic knowledge as demonstrated by infants' sensitivity to native language accentual patterns, the question of whether learners can acquire new prosodic patterns across the life span arises. Acquisition of English stress by early and late Spanish-English and Korean-English bilinguals was investigated. In a production task, two-syllable nonwords were produced in noun and verb sentence frames. In a perception task, preference for first or last syllable stress on the nonwords was indicated. Also, real words that were phonologically similar to the nonwords were collected. Logistic regression analyses and ANOVAs were conducted to determine the effect of three factors (syllable structure, lexical class, and stress patterns of phonologically similar words) on the production and perception responses. In all three groups, stress patterns of phonologically similar real words predicted stress on nonwords. For the two other factors, early bilinguals patterned similarly to the native-English participants. Late Spanish-English bilinguals demonstrated less learning of stress patterns based on syllabic structure, and late Korean-English bilinguals demonstrated less learning of stress patterns based on lexical class than native-English speakers. Thus, compared to native speakers, late bilinguals' ability to abstract stress patterns is reduced and affected by the first language. [Work supported by NIH.

"I might not have cancer if you didn't mention it": a qualitative study on information needed by culturally diverse cancer survivors.

PubMed

O'Callaghan, Clare; Schofield, Penelope; Butow, Phyllis; Nolte, Linda; Price, Melanie; Tsintziras, Spiri; Sze, Ming; Thein, Thida; Yiu, Dorothy; Mireskandari, Shab; Goldstein, David; Jefford, Michael

2016-01-01

Immigrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds diagnosed with cancer face multiple challenges with health systems foreign to them. There is scarce understanding about their needs following cancer treatment in the survivorship phase. Unmet needs were examined in immigrant Chinese and Greek cancer survivors in order to assist development of relevant and useful information resources for these CALD groups. Qualitative descriptive design was used. Adult cancer survivors, whose native language was Mandarin, Cantonese or Greek, were recruited through ethnic cancer support groups and cancer specialists in two Australian cities. Six focus groups were conducted, two in each native language group. Recorded responses were transcribed, translated into English, and thematically analysed. Thirty-nine CALD cancer survivors participated from Greek (11), Cantonese (14) and Mandarin (14) backgrounds. Thematic findings included as follows: ongoing cancer-related stressors, cancer misunderstandings, coping strategies, 'survivor' seldom reflects self-appraisal, and additional CALD survivorship information needed. Immigrant cancer survivors may prefer 'recovery' to 'survivorship' descriptors and need information similar to Caucasian cancer survivors alongside as follows: resources for navigating health care, financial and community entitlements; caregiver-directed information to enhance their support; explanations about differences in health care approaches between survivors' original and adopted countries; and acknowledgment of survivorship diversity within CALD groups. Immigrant cancer survivors' additional requirements to native survivors likely reflect challenges in dealing with foreign environments and varied levels of acculturation within group members. Identification of immigrant cancer survivorship issues may support development of targeted resources for promoting survivors' self-care and capacity for finding, choosing, and using existing support options.

The Influence of a Foreign versus Native Language on Creativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephan, Elena

2017-01-01

Creativity may be enhanced by contextual factors that contribute to a divergence from conventional and habitual modes of thought. Two studies tested the prediction that a foreign language (that is frequently associated with moving away from the routine experiences) will contribute to originality of solutions, compared to one's native language.…

Non-Native Speakers of the Language of Instruction: Self-Perceptions of Teaching Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samuel, Carolyn

2017-01-01

Given the linguistically diverse instructor and student populations at Canadian universities, mutually comprehensible oral language may not be a given. Indeed, both instructors who are non-native speakers of the language of instruction (NNSLIs) and students have acknowledged oral communication challenges. Little is known, though, about how the…

Usage of Mother Tongue in Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tosuncuoglu, Irfan

2012-01-01

In Turkey, where English is a foreign language and where learners share the same native language, teachers are often reluctant to use small group speaking activities because the learners do the ranking, bridge the information gap, or find an answer activities using their first (native) language. This article studies the problem and suggests a…

Bilingual Academic Computer and Technology Oriented Program: Project COM-TECH. Evaluation Section Report. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

Project COM-TECH offered bilingual individualized instruction, using an enrichment approach, to Spanish- and Haitian Creole-speaking students with varying levels of English and native language proficiency and academic preparation. The program provided supplementary instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL); Native Language Arts (NLA); and…

Why Segmentation Matters: Experience-Driven Segmentation Errors Impair "Morpheme" Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finn, Amy S.; Hudson Kam, Carla L.

2015-01-01

We ask whether an adult learner's knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners' ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically…

Pitch jnd and the tritone paradox: The linguistic nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safari, Kourosh

2002-11-01

Previous research has shown a connection between absolute pitch (the ability to name a specific pitch in the absence of any reference) and native competence in a tone language (Deutsch, 1990). In tone languages, tone is one of the features which determines the lexical meaning of a word. This study investigates the relationship between native competence in a tone language and the just noticeable difference of pitch. Furthermore, the tritone paradox studies have shown that subjects hear two tritones (with bell-shaped spectral envelopes) as either ascending or descending depending on their linguistic backgrounds (Deutsch, 1987). It is hypothesized that the native speakers of tone languages have a higher JND for pitch, and hear the two tones of the tritone paradox as ascending, whereas, native speakers of nontone languages hear them as descending. This study will indicate the importance of early musical training for the development of acute tone sensitivity. It will also underline the importance of language and culture in the way it shapes our musical understanding. The significance of this study will be in the areas of music education and pedagogy.

A Race to Rescue Native Tongues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashburn, Elyse

2007-01-01

Of the 300 or so native languages once spoken in North America, only about 150 are still spoken--and the majority of those have just a handful of mostly elderly speakers. For most Native American languages, colleges and universities are their last great hope, if not their final resting place. People at a number of institutions across the country…

Attitude towards Azeri Language in Iran: A Large-Scale Survey Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rezaei, Saeed; Latifi, Ashkan; Nematzadeh, Arash

2017-01-01

This survey research investigated the attitude of Iranian Azeri native speakers towards Azeri language. A questionnaire was developed and its reliability was estimated (r = 0.74) through a piloting phase on 54 Azeri native speakers. The participants, for the main phase of this study, were 400 Azeri native speakers with different social and…

A Study of Jordanian University Students' Perceptions of Using Email Exchanges with Native English Keypals for Improving Their Writing Competency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahfouz, Safi Mahmoud

2010-01-01

English foreign language learners generally tend to consider email exchanges with native speakers (NSs) as an effective tool for improving their foreign language proficiency. This study investigated Jordanian university students' perceptions of using email exchanges with native English keypals (NEKs) for improving their writing competency. A…

Vowel space development in a child acquiring English and Spanish from birth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andruski, Jean; Kim, Sahyang; Nathan, Geoffrey; Casielles, Eugenia; Work, Richard

2005-04-01

To date, research on bilingual first language acquisition has tended to focus on the development of higher levels of language, with relatively few analyses of the acoustic characteristics of bilingual infants' and childrens' speech. Since monolingual infants begin to show perceptual divisions of vowel space that resemble adult native speakers divisions by about 6 months of age [Kuhl et al., Science 255, 606-608 (1992)], bilingual childrens' vowel production may provide evidence of their awareness of language differences relatively early during language development. This paper will examine the development of vowel categories in a child whose mother is a native speaker of Castilian Spanish, and whose father is a native speaker of American English. Each parent speaks to the child only in her/his native language. For this study, recordings made at the ages of 2;5 and 2;10 were analyzed and F1-F2 measurements were made of vowels from the stressed syllables of content words. The development of vowel space is compared across ages within each language, and across languages at each age. In addition, the child's productions are compared with the mother's and father's vocalic productions, which provide the predominant input in Spanish and English respectively.

Age of language acquisition and cortical language organization in multilingual patients undergoing awake brain mapping.

PubMed

Fernández-Coello, Alejandro; Havas, Viktória; Juncadella, Montserrat; Sierpowska, Joanna; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Gabarrós, Andreu

2017-06-01

OBJECTIVE Most knowledge regarding the anatomical organization of multilingualism is based on aphasiology and functional imaging studies. However, the results have still to be validated by the gold standard approach, namely electrical stimulation mapping (ESM) during awake neurosurgical procedures. In this ESM study the authors describe language representation in a highly specific group of 13 multilingual individuals, focusing on how age of acquisition may influence the cortical organization of language. METHODS Thirteen patients who had a high degree of proficiency in multiple languages and were harboring lesions within the dominant, left hemisphere underwent ESM while being operated on under awake conditions. Demographic and language data were recorded in relation to age of language acquisition (for native languages and early- and late-acquired languages), neuropsychological pre- and postoperative language testing, the number and location of language sites, and overlapping distribution in terms of language acquisition time. Lesion growth patterns and histopathological characteristics, location, and size were also recorded. The distribution of language sites was analyzed with respect to age of acquisition and overlap. RESULTS The functional language-related sites were distributed in the frontal (55%), temporal (29%), and parietal lobes (16%). The total number of native language sites was 47. Early-acquired languages (including native languages) were represented in 97 sites (55 overlapped) and late-acquired languages in 70 sites (45 overlapped). The overlapping distribution was 20% for early-early, 71% for early-late, and 9% for late-late. The average lesion size (maximum diameter) was 3.3 cm. There were 5 fast-growing and 7 slow-growing lesions. CONCLUSIONS Cortical language distribution in multilingual patients is not homogeneous, and it is influenced by age of acquisition. Early-acquired languages have a greater cortical representation than languages acquired later. The prevalent native and early-acquired languages are largely represented within the perisylvian left hemisphere frontoparietotemporal areas, and the less prevalent late-acquired languages are mostly overlapped with them.

Motor excitability during visual perception of known and unknown spoken languages.

PubMed

Swaminathan, Swathi; MacSweeney, Mairéad; Boyles, Rowan; Waters, Dafydd; Watkins, Kate E; Möttönen, Riikka

2013-07-01

It is possible to comprehend speech and discriminate languages by viewing a speaker's articulatory movements. Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies have shown that viewing speech enhances excitability in the articulatory motor cortex. Here, we investigated the specificity of this enhanced motor excitability in native and non-native speakers of English. Both groups were able to discriminate between speech movements related to a known (i.e., English) and unknown (i.e., Hebrew) language. The motor excitability was higher during observation of a known language than an unknown language or non-speech mouth movements, suggesting that motor resonance is enhanced specifically during observation of mouth movements that convey linguistic information. Surprisingly, however, the excitability was equally high during observation of a static face. Moreover, the motor excitability did not differ between native and non-native speakers. These findings suggest that the articulatory motor cortex processes several kinds of visual cues during speech communication. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Perspective: publication ethics and the emerging scientific workforce: understanding "plagiarism" in a global context.

PubMed

Cameron, Carrie; Zhao, Hui; McHugh, Michelle K

2012-01-01

English has long been the dominant language of scientific publication, and it is rapidly approaching near-complete hegemony. The majority of the scientists publishing in English-language journals are not native English speakers, however. This imbalance has important implications for training concerning ethics and enforcement of publication standards, particularly with respect to plagiarism. The authors suggest that lack of understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and the use of a linguistic support strategy known as "patchwriting" can lead to inadvertent misuse of source material by nonnative speakers writing in English as well as to unfounded accusations of intentional scientific misconduct on the part of these authors. They propose that a rational and well-informed dialogue about this issue is needed among editors, educators, administrators, and both native-English-speaking and nonnative-English-speaking writers. They offer recommendations for creating environments in which such dialogue and training can occur.

Refusal Strategies of Iranian University English as a Foreign Language and Non-English Learners in Native Language: A Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sa'd, Seyyed Hatam Tamimi; Qadermazi, Zohre

2014-01-01

This study is an attempt to examine the possible effect that exposure to English has had on the use of refusal strategies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners compared with those of non-English learners when refusing in their native language, Persian. The sample included 12 EFL learners and 12 learners of other academic majors including…

Mother-Tongue Diversity in the Foreign Language Classroom: Perspectives on the Experiences of Non-Native Speakers of English Studying Foreign Languages in an English-Medium University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruen, Jennifer; Kelly, Niamh

2017-01-01

This paper considers the position of university language students whose mother tongue is other than the medium of instruction. Specifically, it investigates the attitudes and experiences of non-native English speakers studying either German or Japanese as foreign languages at an English-medium university. The findings indicate that the non-native…

Latin American students and language learning in Catalonia: what does the linguistic interdependence hypothesis show us?

PubMed

Huguet, Ángel

2014-01-01

The massive arrival in Spain of students of immigrant origin has visibly altered the traditional configuration of schools, where ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity is becoming increasingly manifest. This situation is worth being mentioned insofar as it affects all the different autonomous communities in the country, even more clearly Catalonia, where the educational system is organized under the parameters of bilingual education. One of the theoretical constructs supporting this educational model is the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, developed by Jim Cummins at the beginning of the 1980s. According to the author, whenever the instruction in a given language (Lx) takes place under certain conditions, competence acquired in this language can be transferred onto another (Ly). Bearing this theoretical construct in mind, our study focuses on a sample of 237 Spanish-speaking subjects (123 native and 114 immigrant students) who completed a series of parallel tests evaluating their skills in Catalan and Spanish. Drawing on the data analyzed we can conclude that the Hypothesis accounts for the results in both native and immigrant students with the same L1.

Verbal redundancy aids memory for filmed entertainment dialogue.

PubMed

Hinkin, Michael P; Harris, Richard J; Miranda, Andrew T

2014-01-01

Three studies investigated the effects of presentation modality and redundancy of verbal content on recognition memory for entertainment film dialogue. U.S. participants watched two brief movie clips and afterward answered multiple-choice questions about information from the dialogue. Experiment 1 compared recognition memory for spoken dialogue in the native language (English) with subtitles in English, French, or no subtitles. Experiment 2 compared memory for material in English subtitles with spoken dialogue in English, French, or no sound. Experiment 3 examined three control conditions with no spoken or captioned material in the native language. All participants watched the same video clips and answered the same questions. Performance was consistently good whenever English dialogue appeared in either the subtitles or sound, and best of all when it appeared in both, supporting the facilitation of verbal redundancy. Performance was also better when English was only in the subtitles than when it was only spoken. Unexpectedly, sound or subtitles in an unfamiliar language (French) modestly improved performance, as long as there was also a familiar channel. Results extend multimedia research on verbal redundancy for expository material to verbal information in entertainment media.

The foreign-language effect: thinking in a foreign tongue reduces decision biases.

PubMed

Keysar, Boaz; Hayakawa, Sayuri L; An, Sun Gyu

2012-06-01

Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue? It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic. We discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. Four experiments show that the framing effect disappears when choices are presented in a foreign tongue. Whereas people were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses when choices were presented in their native tongue, they were not influenced by this framing manipulation in a foreign language. Two additional experiments show that using a foreign language reduces loss aversion, increasing the acceptance of both hypothetical and real bets with positive expected value. We propose that these effects arise because a foreign language provides greater cognitive and emotional distance than a native tongue does.

Clitic pronouns reveal the time course of processing gender and number in a second language

PubMed Central

Rossi, Eleonora; Kroll, Judith F.; Dussias, Paola E.

2014-01-01

This study investigates grammatical gender and number processing marked on clitic pronouns in native Spanish speakers and in late English-Spanish bilinguals using ERPs. Spanish clitic pronouns were chosen as a critical grammatical structure which is absent in English, and which encodes both grammatical gender and number. Number, but not grammatical gender, is present in English, making this structure a prime one to investigate second language processing. Results reveal a P600 effect in native speakers for violations of both gender and number. Late but relatively proficient English-Spanish bilinguals show a P600 effect only for number violations occurring at the clitic pronoun, but not for gender violations. However a post-hoc analysis reveals that a subset of highly proficient late bilinguals does reveal sensitivity to violations of grammatical gender marked on clitic pronouns. Taken together these results suggest that native-like processing is possible for highly proficient late second language learners for grammatical features that are not present in the speakers' native language, even when those features are encoded on a grammatical morpheme which itself is absent in the speakers' native language. PMID:25036762

New insights from Thailand into the maternal genetic history of Mainland Southeast Asia.

PubMed

Kutanan, Wibhu; Kampuansai, Jatupol; Brunelli, Andrea; Ghirotto, Silvia; Pittayaporn, Pittayawat; Ruangchai, Sukhum; Schröder, Roland; Macholdt, Enrico; Srikummool, Metawee; Kangwanpong, Daoroong; Hübner, Alexander; Arias, Leonardo; Stoneking, Mark

2018-02-26

Tai-Kadai (TK) is one of the major language families in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), with a concentration in the area of Thailand and Laos. Our previous study of 1234 mtDNA genome sequences supported a demic diffusion scenario in the spread of TK languages from southern China to Laos as well as northern and northeastern Thailand. Here we add an additional 560 mtDNA genomes from 22 groups, with a focus on the TK-speaking central Thai people and the Sino-Tibetan speaking Karen. We find extensive diversity, including 62 haplogroups not reported previously from this region. Demic diffusion is still a preferable scenario for central Thais, emphasizing the expansion of TK people through MSEA, although there is also some support for gene flow between central Thai and native Austroasiatic speaking Mon and Khmer. We also tested competing models concerning the genetic relationships of groups from the major MSEA languages, and found support for an ancestral relationship of TK and Austronesian-speaking groups.

Evaluating causes of foreign accent in English sentences spoken by native speakers of Italian differing in age of arrival (AOA) in Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flege, James; Mackay, Ian; Imai, Satomi

2003-04-01

This study evaluated potential causes of foreign accent (FA) by including native Italian (NI) speakers with a later age of arrival (AOA) in Canada than in previous studies. Three NI groups (n=18 each) differing in AOA (means=10, 18, and 26 years) participated. Listeners used a 9-point scale to rate sentences produced by the three NI groups and native English controls. The ratings obtained for all four groups differed significantly. The stronger foreign accents of the AOA-18 than AOA-10 group might be attributed to the passing of a critical period, or to stronger cross-language interference by more robust Italian phonetic categories. The difference might also be attributed to differences in language use. This is because the AOA-10 and AOA-18 groups (but not the AOA-18 and AOA-26 groups) differed significantly in percentage of English and Italian use, length of residence in Canada, and years of education in Canada. None of these explanations will apparently explain the stronger FAs of the AOA-26 than AOA-18 group. The difference between these groups might be attributed to cognitive aging [Hakuta et al., Appl. Psycholinguistics (in press)], which results in gradually less successful second-language acquisition across the adult life span. [Work supported by NIH.

Proficiency Differences in Syntactic Processing of Monolingual Native Speakers Indexed by Event-related Potentials

PubMed Central

Pakulak, Eric; Neville, Helen J.

2010-01-01

While anecdotally there appear to be differences in the way native speakers use and comprehend their native language, most empirical investigations of language processing study university students and none have studied differences in language proficiency which may be independent of resource limitations such as working memory span. We examined differences in language proficiency in adult monolingual native speakers of English using an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. ERPs were recorded to insertion phrase structure violations in naturally spoken English sentences. Participants recruited from a wide spectrum of society were given standardized measures of English language proficiency, and two complementary ERP analyses were performed. In between-groups analyses, participants were divided, based on standardized proficiency scores, into Lower Proficiency (LP) and Higher Proficiency (HP) groups. Compared to LP participants, HP participants showed an early anterior negativity that was more focal, both spatially and temporally, and a larger and more widely distributed positivity (P600) to violations. In correlational analyses, we utilized a wide spectrum of proficiency scores to examine the degree to which individual proficiency scores correlated with individual neural responses to syntactic violations in regions and time windows identified in the between-group analyses. This approach also employed partial correlation analyses to control for possible confounding variables. These analyses provided evidence for the effects of proficiency that converged with the between-groups analyses. These results suggest that adult monolingual native speakers of English who vary in language proficiency differ in the recruitment of syntactic processes that are hypothesized to be at least in part automatic as well as of those thought to be more controlled. These results also suggest that in order to fully characterize neural organization for language in native speakers it is necessary to include participants of varying proficiency. PMID:19925188

English Language Schooling, Linguistic Realities, and the Native Speaker of English in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen Edwards, Jette G.

2018-01-01

The study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students' English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants' English and Cantonese language use at…

An Experimental Study Comparing English-Only and Transitional Bilingual Education on Spanish-Speaking Preschoolers' Early Literacy Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duran, Lillian K.; Roseth, Cary J.; Hoffman, Patricia

2010-01-01

A longitudinal, experimental-control design was used to test the hypothesis that native language instruction enhances English language learner's (ELL's) native language and literacy development without significant cost to English development. In this study, 31 Spanish-speaking preschoolers (aged 38-48 months) were randomly assigned to two Head…

The Role of Native-Language Phonology in the Auditory Word Identification and Visual Word Recognition of Russian-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafiro, Valeriy; Kharkhurin, Anatoliy V.

2009-01-01

Abstract Does native language phonology influence visual word processing in a second language? This question was investigated in two experiments with two groups of Russian-English bilinguals, differing in their English experience, and a monolingual English control group. Experiment 1 tested visual word recognition following semantic…

Original Language Subtitles: Their Effects on the Native and Foreign Viewer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kruger, Jan-Louis; Doherty, Stephen; Soto-Sanfiel, María-T.

2017-01-01

This study investigates the impact of same-language subtitles on the immersion into audiovisual narratives as a function of the viewer's language (native or foreigner). Students from two universities in Australia and one in Spain were assigned randomly to one of two experimental groups, in which they saw a drama with the original English…

Native American Rhetoric and the Pre-Socratic Ideal of "Physis."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Bernard A.

"House Made of Dawn" by N. Scott Momaday is about language and the sacredness of the word and about what can be understood as a peculiarly Native American theory of rhetoric. All things are hinged to the physical landscape, nature, and the implications nature bears upon language. In Momaday's book, language does not represent external…

The Role of Native Language Instruction in Bilingual Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardenas, Jose A.

1984-01-01

In the context of increasing criticism of bilingual education and the use of native language instruction, it must be remembered that they are based on a sound rationale. First, they address the need for continued learning as the child moves from one language to the other. Second, they address the need to diminish the alienation which children feel…

34 CFR 303.401 - Definitions of consent, native language, and personally identifiable information.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... which consent is sought, in the parent's native language or other mode of communication; (2) The parent... proficiency, means the language or mode of communication normally used by the parent of a child eligible under... child's parent, or other family member; (2) The address of the child; (3) A personal identifier, such as...

Effects of Phonetic Similarity in the Identification of Mandarin Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Bin; Shao, Jing; Bao, Mingzhen

2017-01-01

Tonal languages differ in how they use phonetic correlates, e.g. average pitch height and pitch direction, for tonal contrasts. Thus, native speakers of a tonal language may need to adjust their attention to familiar or unfamiliar phonetic cues when perceiving non-native tones. On the other hand, speakers of a non-tonal language may need to…

Seven Hypotheses on Language Loss Causes and Cures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, James

Objective evidence indicates that despite public fears and the claims of those who would make English the official language of the United States, it is not English, but minority tongues that are threatened in this country today. In the last 5 years, educators have noticed a sharp decline in native language skills among Native American children.…

On the Problem of Choosing the Language of Instruction in a Multi-Lingual Setting--The Situation in Peru.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yabar-Dextre, Pompeyo

1978-01-01

After considering the linguistic, social, pedagogical and administrative rationale for using Spanish or native languages, particularly Quechua, as the educational medium, the author proposes a national system of bilingual schooling to be conducted in Spanish above the primary levels, but with continued native language course offerings. (SJL)

American Sign Language Comprehension Test: A Tool for Sign Language Researchers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauser, Peter C.; Paludneviciene, Raylene; Riddle, Wanda; Kurz, Kim B.; Emmorey, Karen; Contreras, Jessica

2016-01-01

The American Sign Language Comprehension Test (ASL-CT) is a 30-item multiple-choice test that measures ASL receptive skills and is administered through a website. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the test based on a sample of 80 college students including deaf native signers, hearing native signers, deaf…

Electrophysiological correlates of cross-linguistic semantic integration in hearing signers: N400 and LPC.

PubMed

Zachau, Swantje; Korpilahti, Pirjo; Hämäläinen, Jarmo A; Ervast, Leena; Heinänen, Kaisu; Suominen, Kalervo; Lehtihalmes, Matti; Leppänen, Paavo H T

2014-07-01

We explored semantic integration mechanisms in native and non-native hearing users of sign language and non-signing controls. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a semantic decision task for priming lexeme pairs. Pairs were presented either within speech or across speech and sign language. Target-related ERP responses were subjected to principal component analyses (PCA), and neurocognitive basis of semantic integration processes were assessed by analyzing the N400 and the late positive complex (LPC) components in response to spoken (auditory) and signed (visual) antonymic and unrelated targets. Semantically-related effects triggered across modalities would indicate a similar tight interconnection between the signers׳ two languages like that described for spoken language bilinguals. Remarkable structural similarity of the N400 and LPC components with varying group differences between the spoken and signed targets were found. The LPC was the dominant response. The controls׳ LPC differed from the LPC of the two signing groups. It was reduced to the auditory unrelated targets and was less frontal for all the visual targets. The visual LPC was more broadly distributed in native than non-native signers and was left-lateralized for the unrelated targets in the native hearing signers only. Semantic priming effects were found for the auditory N400 in all groups, but only native hearing signers revealed a clear N400 effect to the visual targets. Surprisingly, the non-native signers revealed no semantically-related processing effect to the visual targets reflected in the N400 or the LPC; instead they appeared to rely more on visual post-lexical analyzing stages than native signers. We conclude that native and non-native signers employed different processing strategies to integrate signed and spoken semantic content. It appeared that the signers׳ semantic processing system was affected by group-specific factors like language background and/or usage. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Significant Impact of Environment Regarding Eligibility of Native American and Alaskan Native Students for ESEA Title VII Regulations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Travis, Michael

Early Russian religious and educational influences on the 20 various Alaskan Native languages are described, followed by those of American origin in schools and religious groups after the American purchase in 1867, all of which show the development of diglossia and language shifts. The present dual educational system, which includes state schools…

Use of Native Language and Culture (NLC) in Elementary and Middle School Instruction as a Predictor of Mathematics Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Ryzin, Mark J.; Vincent, Claudia G.

2017-01-01

Because students from American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) backgrounds tend to lag behind their peers in academic achievement, researchers have recommended integrating Native Language and Culture (NLC) into instruction. However, existing evidence from large-scale studies finds a "negative" effect of the use of NLC on achievement,…

Listening with an Accent: Speech Perception in a Second Language by Late Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leikin, Mark; Ibrahim, Raphiq; Eviatar, Zohar; Sapir, Shimon

2009-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine functioning of late bilinguals in their second language. Specifically, we asked how native and non-native Hebrew speaking listeners perceive accented and native-accented Hebrew speech. To achieve this goal we used the gating paradigm to explore the ability of healthy late fluent bilinguals (Russian and…

Non-Arbitrariness in Mapping Word Form to Meaning: Cross-Linguistic Formal Markers of Word Concreteness.

PubMed

Reilly, Jamie; Hung, Jinyi; Westbury, Chris

2017-05-01

Arbitrary symbolism is a linguistic doctrine that predicts an orthogonal relationship between word forms and their corresponding meanings. Recent corpora analyses have demonstrated violations of arbitrary symbolism with respect to concreteness, a variable characterizing the sensorimotor salience of a word. In addition to qualitative semantic differences, abstract and concrete words are also marked by distinct morphophonological structures such as length and morphological complexity. Native English speakers show sensitivity to these markers in tasks such as auditory word recognition and naming. One unanswered question is whether this violation of arbitrariness reflects an idiosyncratic property of the English lexicon or whether word concreteness is a marked phenomenon across other natural languages. We isolated concrete and abstract English nouns (N = 400), and translated each into Russian, Arabic, Dutch, Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, Hebrew, and American Sign Language. We conducted offline acoustic analyses of abstract and concrete word length discrepancies across languages. In a separate experiment, native English speakers (N = 56) with no prior knowledge of these foreign languages judged concreteness of these nouns (e.g., Can you see, hear, feel, or touch this? Yes/No). Each naïve participant heard pre-recorded words presented in randomized blocks of three foreign languages following a brief listening exposure to a narrative sample from each respective language. Concrete and abstract words differed by length across five of eight languages, and prediction accuracy exceeded chance for four of eight languages. These results suggest that word concreteness is a marked phenomenon across several of the world's most widely spoken languages. We interpret these findings as supportive of an adaptive cognitive heuristic that allows listeners to exploit non-arbitrary mappings of word form to word meaning. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The challenge of regional accents for aviation English language proficiency standards: a study of difficulties in understanding in air traffic control-pilot communications.

PubMed

Tiewtrakul, T; Fletcher, S R

2010-02-01

Although English has been the international aviation language since 1951, formal language proficiency testing for key aviation personnel has only recently been implemented by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It aims to ensure minimum acceptable levels of English pronunciation and comprehension universally, but does not attend to particular regional dialect difficulties. However, evidence suggests that voice transmissions between air traffic controllers and pilots are a particular problem in international airspace and that pilots may not understand messages due to the influence of different accents when using English. This study explores the potential impact of 'non-native English' in pilot-air traffic control transmissions using a 'conversation analysis' technique to examine approach phase recordings from Bangkok International Airport. Results support that communication errors, defined by incidents of pilots not understanding, occur significantly more often when speakers are both non-native English, messages are more complex and when numerical information is involved. These results and their possible implications are discussed with reference to the development of ICAO's new language proficiency standards. Statement of Relevance: This study builds on previous work and literature, providing further evidence to show that the risks caused by language and linguistics in aviation must be explored more deeply. Findings are particularly contemporary and relevant today, indicating that recently implemented international standards would benefit from further exploratory research and development.

Developmental status and home environment among children born to immigrant women married to Taiwanese men.

PubMed

Chen, Chwen-Jen; Hsu, Chiung-Wen; Chu, Yu-Roo; Han, Kuo-Chiang; Chien, Li-Yin

2012-04-01

The aims of this cross-sectional study were to examine (a) the developmental status and home environments of children (6-24 months) of immigrant women married to Taiwanese men, and (b) the association of child developmental status with parental socio-demographics, maternal language abilities, and home environment qualities. Participants were 61 children and their mothers from China and Vietnam. Data were collected with interviews, home observations, and developmental testing. The children had lower cognitive and language but higher motor and social development scores compared with native norms. Home environment and maternal perceived language ability were positively associated with child development. The association of home environment and maternal language ability with early childhood development was supported for immigrant populations in Taiwan. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Native American Culture: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Troisi, Andrea

1995-01-01

Provides suggestions for a literature-based approach when integrating Native American culture into the middle school curriculum. Recommends resources in the following subjects: language arts, mathematics, physical education, health, home and career skills, technology, art, music, and second language. (AEF)

EFL Learners' Beliefs about Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers: Perceived Strengths, Weaknesses, and Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chun, Sun Young

2014-01-01

Although the number of native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts has increased in recent years with the emergence of English as an international language, only a few studies on NESTs and non-NESTs have extensively and directly examined students' beliefs about these two groups of teachers. To fill this…

First- and Final-Semester Non-Native Students in an English-Medium University: Judgments of Their Speech by University Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennedy, Sara; Trofimovich, Pavel

2014-01-01

By the end of their studies, non-native speakers of English studying at English-medium universities have had several years of exposure to English in that setting. Do non-native students, particularly those enrolled in non-language related programs, show different levels of second language (L2) speaking ability in their final semester of studies…

The language of mathematics: investigating the ways language counts for children's mathematical development.

PubMed

Vukovic, Rose K; Lesaux, Nonie K

2013-06-01

This longitudinal study examined how language ability relates to mathematical development in a linguistically and ethnically diverse sample of children from 6 to 9 years of age. Study participants were 75 native English speakers and 92 language minority learners followed from first to fourth grades. Autoregression in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework was used to evaluate the relation between children's language ability and gains in different domains of mathematical cognition (i.e., arithmetic, data analysis/probability, algebra, and geometry). The results showed that language ability predicts gains in data analysis/probability and geometry, but not in arithmetic or algebra, after controlling for visual-spatial working memory, reading ability, and sex. The effect of language on gains in mathematical cognition did not differ between language minority learners and native English speakers. These findings suggest that language influences how children make meaning of mathematics but is not involved in complex arithmetical procedures whether presented with Arabic symbols as in arithmetic or with abstract symbols as in algebraic reasoning. The findings further indicate that early language experiences are important for later mathematical development regardless of language background, denoting the need for intensive and targeted language opportunities for language minority and native English learners to develop mathematical concepts and representations. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Investigation of Filler-Gap Processing in Native and Second Language Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dallas, Andrea; DeDe, Gayle; Nicol, Janet

2013-01-01

The current study employed a neuro-imaging technique, Event-Related Potentials (ERP), to investigate real-time processing of sentences containing filler-gap dependencies by late-learning speakers of English as a second language (L2) with a Chinese native language background. An individual differences approach was also taken to examine the role of…

Self-Concept and Native Language Background: A Study of Measurement Invariance and Cross-Group Comparisons in Third Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niehaus, Kate; Adelson, Jill L.

2013-01-01

This study examined the measurement and interpretation of self-concept among the growing population of children who are English Language Learners (ELLs). More specifically, a 3-group analysis was conducted comparing native English-speaking children, Spanish-speaking ELLs, and ELLs from Asian language backgrounds. Data were drawn from the Early…

Using a Native American Language as a Classroom Teaching Tool: Teaching Shoshoni Poetry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crum, Beverly Lorene

Children responded enthusiastically to a program that used Shoshoni poetry songs to teach some concepts about human languages in general. Twelve children (four Caucasian, eight Native American) in grades 1-3 and their parents met for four 1-hour sessions. The lessons focused on the sound, meaning, and word order of the Shoshoni language; Shoshoni…

Teaching in the Foreign Language Classroom: How Being a Native or Non-Native Speaker of German Influences Culture Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghanem, Carla

2015-01-01

The study explores the complexities associated with graduate language instructors' NS/NNS identities and teaching of culture. Researchers, who work mainly in the English as a Second/Foreign Language field, have been discussing this divide and have examined the advantages and disadvantages each group brings to the profession, but not the influence…

Exploring How Non-Native Teachers Can Use Commonalities with Students to Teach the Target Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds-Case, Anne

2012-01-01

This article presents a qualitative study demonstrating how teachers who are non-native speakers (NNS) of the target language and who have learned the target language in a similar environment as their students can use their past learning experiences as pedagogical tools in their classes. An analysis of transcripts from classrooms with NNS and…

The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning.

PubMed

Cooper, Angela; Wang, Yue

2012-06-01

Adult non-native speech perception is subject to influence from multiple factors, including linguistic and extralinguistic experience such as musical training. The present research examines how linguistic and musical factors influence non-native word identification and lexical tone perception. Groups of native tone language (Thai) and non-tone language listeners (English), each subdivided into musician and non-musician groups, engaged in Cantonese tone word training. Participants learned to identify words minimally distinguished by five Cantonese tones during training, also completing musical aptitude and phonemic tone identification tasks. First, the findings suggest that either musical experience or a tone language background leads to significantly better non-native word learning proficiency, as compared to those with neither musical training nor tone language experience. Moreover, the combination of tone language and musical experience did not provide an additional advantage for Thai musicians above and beyond either experience alone. Musicianship was found to be more advantageous than a tone language background for tone identification. Finally, tone identification and musical aptitude scores were significantly correlated with word learning success for English but not Thai listeners. These findings point to a dynamic influence of musical and linguistic experience, both at the tone dentification level and at the word learning stage.

Talker- and language-specific effects on speech intelligibility in noise assessed with bilingual talkers: Which language is more robust against noise and reverberation?

PubMed

Hochmuth, Sabine; Jürgens, Tim; Brand, Thomas; Kollmeier, Birger

2015-01-01

Investigate talker- and language-specific aspects of speech intelligibility in noise and reverberation using highly comparable matrix sentence tests across languages. Matrix sentences spoken by German/Russian and German/Spanish bilingual talkers were recorded. These sentences were used to measure speech reception thresholds (SRTs) with native listeners in the respective languages in different listening conditions (stationary and fluctuating noise, multi-talker babble, reverberated speech-in-noise condition). Four German/Russian and four German/Spanish bilingual talkers; 20 native German-speaking, 10 native Russian-speaking, and 10 native Spanish-speaking listeners. Across-talker SRT differences of up to 6 dB were found for both groups of bilinguals. SRTs of German/Russian bilingual talkers were the same in both languages. SRTs of German/Spanish bilingual talkers were higher when they talked in Spanish than when they talked in German. The benefit from listening in the gaps was similar across all languages. The detrimental effect of reverberation was larger for Spanish than for German and Russian. Within the limitations set by the number and slight accentedness of talkers and other possible confounding factors, talker- and test-condition-dependent differences were isolated from the language effect: Russian and German exhibited similar intelligibility in noise and reverberation, whereas Spanish was more impaired in these situations.

Into the Curriculum: Art/Social Studies: The Arts and Native Americans [and] Reading/Language Arts/Social Studies: Haiku Poetry [and] Reading/Language Arts: Let's Make a Book [and] Science: The Microscope [and] Social Studies: Native American Life [and] Social Studies/Foreign Languages: Pasta Perfect.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheeler, Kathleen; Lane, Patricia J.; Yates, Marci Fletcher; Bikhazi, Cristi; Davis, Shirley; Cook, Sybilla A.

1998-01-01

Provides lesson plans for grades one to three science, grades two to six social studies/Italian, grade three reading/language arts, grade four and five reading/language arts/social studies, grade five art/social studies, and grades five and six social studies. Lists print and nonprint resources and discusses library media skills and subject area…

The irreversibility of sensitive period effects in language development: evidence from second language acquisition in international adoptees.

PubMed

Norrman, Gunnar; Bylund, Emanuel

2016-05-01

The question of a sensitive period in language acquisition has been subject to extensive research and debate for more than half a century. While it has been well established that the ability to learn new languages declines in early years, the extent to which this outcome depends on biological maturation in contrast to previously acquired knowledge remains disputed. In the present study, we addressed this question by examining phonetic discriminatory abilities in early second language (L2) speakers of Swedish, who had either maintained their first language (L1) (immigrants) or had lost it (international adoptees), using native speaker controls. Through this design, we sought to disentangle the effects of the maturational state of the learner on L2 development from the effects of L1 interference: if additional language development is indeed constrained by an interfering L1, then adoptees should outperform immigrant speakers. The results of an auditory lexical decision task, in which fine vowel distinctions in Swedish had been modified, showed, however, no difference between the L2 groups. Instead, both L2 groups scored significantly lower than the native speaker group. The three groups did not differ in their ability to discriminate non-modified words. These findings demonstrate that L1 loss is not a crucial condition for successfully acquiring an L2, which in turn is taken as support for a maturational constraints view on L2 acquisition. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/1J9X50aePeU. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Tuning in and tuning out: Speech perception in native- and foreign-talker babble

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Heukelem, Kristin; Bradlow, Ann R.

2005-09-01

Studies on speech perception in multitalker babble have revealed asymmetries in the effects of noise on native versus foreign-accented speech intelligibility for native listeners [Rogers et al., Lang Speech 47(2), 139-154 (2004)] and on sentence-in-noise perception by native versus non-native listeners [Mayo et al., J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res., 40, 686-693 (1997)], suggesting that the linguistic backgrounds of talkers and listeners contribute to the effects of noise on speech perception. However, little attention has been paid to the language of the babble. This study tested whether the language of the noise also has asymmetrical effects on listeners. Replicating previous findings [e.g., Bronkhorst and Plomp, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 92, 3132-3139 (1992)], the results showed poorer English sentence recognition by native English listeners in six-talker babble than in two-talker babble regardless of the language of the babble, demonstrating the effect of increased psychoacoustic/energetic masking. In addition, the results showed that in the two-talker babble condition, native English listeners were more adversely affected by English than Chinese babble. These findings demonstrate informational/cognitive masking on sentence-in-noise recognition in the form of linguistic competition. Whether this competition is at the lexical or sublexical level and whether it is modulated by the phonetic similarity between the target and noise languages remains to be determined.

The Representation and Execution of Articulatory Timing in First and Second Language Acquisition.

PubMed

Redford, Melissa A; Oh, Grace E

2017-07-01

The early acquisition of language-specific temporal patterns relative to the late development of speech motor control suggests a dissociation between the representation and execution of articulatory timing. The current study tested for such a dissociation in first and second language acquisition. American English-speaking children (5- and 8-year-olds) and Korean-speaking adult learners of English repeatedly produced real English words in a simple carrier sentence. The words were designed to elicit different language-specific vowel length contrasts. Measures of absolute duration and variability in single vowel productions were extracted to evaluate the realization of contrasts (representation) and to index speech motor abilities (execution). Results were mostly consistent with a dissociation. Native English-speaking children produced the same language-specific temporal patterns as native English-speaking adults, but their productions were more variable than the adults'. In contrast, Korean-speaking adult learners of English typically produced different temporal patterns than native English-speaking adults, but their productions were as stable as the native speakers'. Implications of the results are discussed with reference to different models of speech production.

Neural strategies for reading Japanese and Chinese sentences: a cross-linguistic fMRI study of character-decoding and morphosyntax.

PubMed

Huang, Koongliang; Itoh, Kosuke; Kwee, Ingrid L; Nakada, Tsutomu

2012-09-01

Japanese and Chinese share virtually identical morphographic characters invented in ancient China. Whereas modern Chinese retained the original morphographic functionality of these characters (hanzi), modern Japanese utilizes these characters (kanji) as complex syllabograms. This divergence provides a unique opportunity to systematically investigate brain strategies for sentence reading in Japanese-Chinese bi-literates. Accordingly, we investigated brain activation associated with Japanese and Chinese reading in 14 native Japanese speakers literate in Mandarin and 14 native Mandarin speakers literate in Japanese using functional magnetic resonance imaging performed on a 3T system. The activation pattern exhibited clearly distinct features specific for each language. Regardless of the subject's native language literacy, Chinese reading activated an area significantly larger than Japanese reading, suggesting that brain processes involved in Chinese reading were much more complex than Japanese reading. Significant recruitment of corresponding cortical areas in the right hemisphere with Chinese reading was also apparent. The activation patterns associated with Japanese reading by native Japanese literates was highly consistent with previous reports, and included the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left posterior temporal lobe (PTL), and left ventral premotor cortex (PMv). The activation pattern associated with Chinese reading by native Chinese literates was also highly consistent with previous reports, namely the left IFG, left PTL, left PMv, left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), and bilateral parieto occipital lobes (LPOL). The activation pattern associated with Chinese reading by native Japanese literates was virtually identical to that by native Chinese literates, whereas the activation pattern associated with Japanese reading by native Chinese literates was signified by additional activation of LPOL compared to that by native Japanese literate. The study indicated that IFG and PTL are universal language areas, while PMv is the area for decoding complex syllabograms. LPOL is the "Chinese language area," while ATL is essential for languages with analytic morphosyntax. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

English language use, health and mortality in older Mexican Americans.

PubMed

Salinas, Jennifer J; Sheffield, Kristin M

2011-04-01

The purpose of this study is to determine if English language use is associated with smoking, diabetes, hypertension, limitations in Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and 12-year mortality in older Mexican Americans. Using data from a cohort of 3,050 Mexican Americans aged 65 years and older, we examined prevalence of 4 health indicators and survival over 12 years of follow-up by English language use. English language use is associated with increased odds of hypertension in men, independent of nativity and sociodemographic control variables. Among women, English language use is associated with lower odds of ADL limitations and increased odds of smoking. The associations for women were partially explained by occupational status and nativity. After adjusting for health conditions, sociodemographics, and nativity, English language use was associated with increased mortality among men. Interaction terms revealed that for both men and women, higher English language use was associated with mortality for respondents with the highest level of income only. English language use is a predictor of health and mortality in older Mexican Americans separate from country of birth.

The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense/lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners.

PubMed

Kondaurova, Maria V; Francis, Alexander L

2008-12-01

Two studies explored the role of native language use of an acoustic cue, vowel duration, in both native and non-native contexts in order to test the hypothesis that non-native listeners' reliance on vowel duration instead of vowel quality to distinguish the English tense/lax vowel contrast could be explained by the role of duration as a cue in native phonological contrasts. In the first experiment, native Russian, Spanish, and American English listeners identified stimuli from a beat/bit continuum varying in nine perceptually equal spectral and duration steps. English listeners relied predominantly on spectrum, but showed some reliance on duration. Russian and Spanish speakers relied entirely on duration. In the second experiment, three tests examined listeners' use of vowel duration in native contrasts. Duration was equally important for the perception of lexical stress for all three groups. However, English listeners relied more on duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing than did native Spanish or Russian listeners, and Spanish listeners relied on duration more than did Russian listeners. Results suggest that, although allophonic experience may contribute to cross-language perceptual patterns, other factors such as the application of statistical learning mechanisms and the influence of language-independent psychoacoustic proclivities cannot be ruled out.

The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense∕lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners

PubMed Central

Kondaurova, Maria V.; Francis, Alexander L.

2008-01-01

Two studies explored the role of native language use of an acoustic cue, vowel duration, in both native and non-native contexts in order to test the hypothesis that non-native listeners’ reliance on vowel duration instead of vowel quality to distinguish the English tense∕lax vowel contrast could be explained by the role of duration as a cue in native phonological contrasts. In the first experiment, native Russian, Spanish, and American English listeners identified stimuli from a beat∕bit continuum varying in nine perceptually equal spectral and duration steps. English listeners relied predominantly on spectrum, but showed some reliance on duration. Russian and Spanish speakers relied entirely on duration. In the second experiment, three tests examined listeners’ use of vowel duration in native contrasts. Duration was equally important for the perception of lexical stress for all three groups. However, English listeners relied more on duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing than did native Spanish or Russian listeners, and Spanish listeners relied on duration more than did Russian listeners. Results suggest that, although allophonic experience may contribute to cross-language perceptual patterns, other factors such as the application of statistical learning mechanisms and the influence of language-independent psychoacoustic proclivities cannot be ruled out. PMID:19206820

pWeb: A High-Performance, Parallel-Computing Framework for Web-Browser-Based Medical Simulation.

PubMed

Halic, Tansel; Ahn, Woojin; De, Suvranu

2014-01-01

This work presents a pWeb - a new language and compiler for parallelization of client-side compute intensive web applications such as surgical simulations. The recently introduced HTML5 standard has enabled creating unprecedented applications on the web. Low performance of the web browser, however, remains the bottleneck of computationally intensive applications including visualization of complex scenes, real time physical simulations and image processing compared to native ones. The new proposed language is built upon web workers for multithreaded programming in HTML5. The language provides fundamental functionalities of parallel programming languages as well as the fork/join parallel model which is not supported by web workers. The language compiler automatically generates an equivalent parallel script that complies with the HTML5 standard. A case study on realistic rendering for surgical simulations demonstrates enhanced performance with a compact set of instructions.

Supporting English-Medium Pedagogy through an Online Corpus of Science and Engineering Lectures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunioshi, Nílson; Noguchi, Judy; Tojo, Kazuko; Hayashi, Hiroko

2016-01-01

As English-medium instruction (EMI) spreads around the world, university teachers and students who are non-native speakers of English (NNS) need to put much effort into the delivery or reception of content. Construction of scientific meaning in the process of learning is already complex when instruction is delivered in the first language of the…

The University of Edinburgh Test of English at Matriculation: Validation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lynch, Tony

1994-01-01

This paper reports on a two-part evaluation of the Test of English at Matriculation (TEAM) in use at the University of Edinburgh. TEAM has been used since 1987 to identify entering non-native speakers of English who are likely to be at risk linguistically and who should receive English language support. Separate samples of candidates' scores were…

Regards sur le Cinema (A Look at the Film Industry).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arroyo, Francine; Avelino, Cristina

1996-01-01

Examines the role of films as an instructional aid in class activities devoted to learning a foreign language as well as one's native tongue with the support of modern technology. One of the primary ways of using film to encourage learning is to interest the students in criticizing the film and then to expose them to published criticism of the…

DeWitt Clinton High School. Bilingual-Bicultural Program. O.E.E. Evaluation Report, 1981-1982.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keyes, Jose Luis; And Others

The Bilingual-Bicultural Program at DeWitt Clinton High School, Bronx, New York, was designed to provide support services to students with problems in reading and writing skills, and in linguistic, academic, and classroom adjustment. The program offered instruction in English as a Second language (ESL), Spanish for native speakers, Spanish as a…

Social Interaction Affects Neural Outcomes of Sign Language Learning As a Foreign Language in Adults.

PubMed

Yusa, Noriaki; Kim, Jungho; Koizumi, Masatoshi; Sugiura, Motoaki; Kawashima, Ryuta

2017-01-01

Children naturally acquire a language in social contexts where they interact with their caregivers. Indeed, research shows that social interaction facilitates lexical and phonological development at the early stages of child language acquisition. It is not clear, however, whether the relationship between social interaction and learning applies to adult second language acquisition of syntactic rules. Does learning second language syntactic rules through social interactions with a native speaker or without such interactions impact behavior and the brain? The current study aims to answer this question. Adult Japanese participants learned a new foreign language, Japanese sign language (JSL), either through a native deaf signer or via DVDs. Neural correlates of acquiring new linguistic knowledge were investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants in each group were indistinguishable in terms of their behavioral data after the instruction. The fMRI data, however, revealed significant differences in the neural activities between two groups. Significant activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were found for the participants who learned JSL through interactions with the native signer. In contrast, no cortical activation change in the left IFG was found for the group who experienced the same visual input for the same duration via the DVD presentation. Given that the left IFG is involved in the syntactic processing of language, spoken or signed, learning through social interactions resulted in an fMRI signature typical of native speakers: activation of the left IFG. Thus, broadly speaking, availability of communicative interaction is necessary for second language acquisition and this results in observed changes in the brain.

Korean ESL Parents' Perspectives and Maintenance of Mother Tongue: A Case Study of Two Korean Mothers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Jaeseok

2017-01-01

This case study explores the language attitudes and perceptions of Korean parents, with regard to their children's native language maintenance and ESL education in the US. The primary focuses are on (1) what aspects are held by Korean parents toward the maintenance of the native language in the US, and (2) how these perspectives operate in their…

Structure of the Second Language Mental Lexicon: How Does It Compare to Native Speakers' Lexical Organization?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zareva, Alla

2007-01-01

One of the questions frequently asked in second language (L2) lexical research is how L2 learners' patterns of lexical organization compare to those of native speakers (NSs). A growing body of research addresses this question by using word association (WA) tests. However, little research has been done on the role of language proficiency in the…

The Functional Unit in Phonological Encoding: Evidence for Moraic Representation in Native Japanese Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kureta, Yoichi; Fushimi, Takao; Tatsumi, Itaru F.

2006-01-01

Speech production studies have shown that the phonological form of a word is made up of phonemic segments in stress-timed languages (e.g., Dutch) and of syllables in syllable timed languages (e.g., Chinese). To clarify the functional unit of mora-timed languages, the authors asked native Japanese speakers to perform an implicit priming task (A. S.…

Factors Influencing Oral Corrective Feedback Provision in the Spanish Foreign Language Classroom: Investigating Instructor Native/Nonnative Speaker Status, SLA Education, & Teaching Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gurzynski-Weiss, Laura

2010-01-01

The role of interactional feedback has been a critical area of second language acquisition (SLA) research for decades and while findings suggest interactional feedback can facilitate SLA, the extent of its influence can vary depending on a number of factors, including the native language of those involved in communication. Although studies have…

Effects of Prosody While Disambiguating Ambiguous Japanese Sentences in the Brain of Native Speakers and Learners of Japanese: A Proposition for Pronunciation and Prosody Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naito-Billen, Yuka

2012-01-01

Recently, the significant role that pronunciation and prosody plays in processing spoken language has been widely recognized and a variety of teaching methodologies of pronunciation/prosody has been implemented in teaching foreign languages. Thus, an analysis of how similarly or differently native and L2 learners of a language use…

Language barriers and professional identity: A qualitative interview study of newly employed international medical doctors and Norwegian colleagues.

PubMed

Skjeggestad, Erik; Gerwing, Jennifer; Gulbrandsen, Pål

2017-08-01

To explore how language barriers influence communication and collaboration between newly-employed international medical doctors and Norwegian health personnel. Interviews were conducted with 16 doctors who had recently started working in Norway and 12 Norwegian born health personnel who had extensive experience working with international medical doctors. Analyses were consistent with principles of systematic text condensation. All participants experienced that language barriers caused difficulties in their everyday collaboration. Furthermore, the participants' descriptions of "language barriers" encompassed a wide range of topics, including semantics (e.g., specialized professional vocabulary, system knowledge), pragmatics (e.g., using language in doctor-patient and interprofessional interactions), and specific culturally sensitive topics. All participants described that language barriers provoked uncertainty about a doctor's competence. Newly employed international medical doctors and their colleagues are concerned by ineffective communication due to language barriers. Experiences of language barriers threaten professional identity as a competent and effective doctor. Newly employed doctors who are non-native speakers could benefit from support in understanding and handling the array of barriers related to language. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bidirectional clear speech perception benefit for native and high-proficiency non-native talkers and listeners: Intelligibility and accentednessa

PubMed Central

Smiljanić, Rajka; Bradlow, Ann R.

2011-01-01

This study investigated how native language background interacts with speaking style adaptations in determining levels of speech intelligibility. The aim was to explore whether native and high proficiency non-native listeners benefit similarly from native and non-native clear speech adjustments. The sentence-in-noise perception results revealed that fluent non-native listeners gained a large clear speech benefit from native clear speech modifications. Furthermore, proficient non-native talkers in this study implemented conversational-to-clear speaking style modifications in their second language (L2) that resulted in significant intelligibility gain for both native and non-native listeners. The results of the accentedness ratings obtained for native and non-native conversational and clear speech sentences showed that while intelligibility was improved, the presence of foreign accent remained constant in both speaking styles. This suggests that objective intelligibility and subjective accentedness are two independent dimensions of non-native speech. Overall, these results provide strong evidence that greater experience in L2 processing leads to improved intelligibility in both production and perception domains. These results also demonstrated that speaking style adaptations along with less signal distortion can contribute significantly towards successful native and non-native interactions. PMID:22225056

Late Bilinguals Are Sensitive to Unique Aspects of Second Language Processing: Evidence from Clitic Pronouns Word-Order

PubMed Central

Rossi, Eleonora; Diaz, Michele; Kroll, Judith F.; Dussias, Paola E.

2017-01-01

In two self-paced reading experiments we asked whether late, highly proficient, English–Spanish bilinguals are able to process language-specific morpho-syntactic information in their second language (L2). The processing of Spanish clitic pronouns’ word order was tested in two sentential constructions. Experiment 1 showed that English–Spanish bilinguals performed similarly to Spanish–English bilinguals and revealed sensitivity to word order violations for a grammatical structure unique to the L2. Experiment 2 replicated the pattern observed for native speakers in Experiment 1 with a group of monolingual Spanish speakers, demonstrating the stability of processing clitic pronouns in the native language. Taken together, the results show that late bilinguals can process aspects of grammar that are encoded in L2-specific linguistic constructions even when the structure is relatively subtle and not affected for native speakers by the presence of a second language. PMID:28367130

EFL Teachers' Responses to L2 Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Yuh-Fang

This study investigated differences in the product and process of evaluating second language compositions by Taiwanese speakers of English. It examined whether such factors as language background (native English speaker versus native Chinese speaker), academic discipline, and educational background affected raters' scoring outcomes; whether rating…

34 CFR 300.29 - Native language.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Native language. 300.29 Section 300.29 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ASSISTANCE TO STATES FOR THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH...

Acquisition of speech rhythm in a second language by learners with rhythmically different native languages.

PubMed

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

2015-08-01

The development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) acquisition was investigated. Speech rhythm was defined as durational variability that can be captured by the interval-based rhythm metrics. These metrics were used to examine the differences in durational variability between proficiency levels in L2 English spoken by French and German learners. The results reveal that durational variability increased as L2 acquisition progressed in both groups of learners. This indicates that speech rhythm in L2 English develops from more syllable-timed toward more stress-timed patterns irrespective of whether the native language of the learner is rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Although both groups showed similar development of speech rhythm in L2 acquisition, there were also differences: German learners achieved a degree of durational variability typical of the target language, while French learners exhibited lower variability than native British speakers, even at an advanced proficiency level.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Second-Language Syntactic Processes Are Related to Native and Second Language Distance Regardless of Age of Acquisition

PubMed Central

Díaz, Begoña; Erdocia, Kepa; de Menezes, Robert F.; Mueller, Jutta L.; Sebastián-Gallés, Núria; Laka, Itziar

2016-01-01

In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1). Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old) and 13 late (AoA = 18 years old) Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants' L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants' languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants' L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants' L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners' ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants' L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants' L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives' ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency. PMID:26903930

Voice Quality in Native and Foreign Languages Investigated by Inverse Filtering and Perceptual Analyses.

PubMed

Järvinen, Kati; Laukkanen, Anne-Maria; Geneid, Ahmed

2017-03-01

Language shift from native (L1) to foreign language (L2) may affect speaker's voice production and induce vocal fatigue. This study investigates the effects of language shift on voice source and perceptual voice quality. This is a comparative experimental study. Twenty-four subjects were recorded in L1 and L2. Twelve of the subjects were native Finnish speakers and 12 were native English speakers, and the foreign languages were English and Finnish. Two groups were created based on reports of fatigability. Group 1 had the subjects who did not report more vocal fatigue in L2 than in L1, and in group 2 those who reported more vocal fatigue in L2 than in L1. Acoustic analyses by inverse filtering were conducted in L1 and L2. Also, the subjects' voices were perceptually evaluated in both languages. Results show that language shift from L1 to L2 increased perceived pressedness of voice. Acoustic analyses correlated with the perceptual evaluations. Also, the subjects who reported more vocal loading had poorer voice quality, more strenuous voice production, more pressed phonation, and a higher pitch. Voice production was less optimal in L2 than in L1. Speech training given in L2 could be beneficial for people who need to use L2 extensively. Copyright © 2017 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Second Language Processing Shows Increased Native-Like Neural Responses after Months of No Exposure

PubMed Central

Morgan-Short, Kara; Finger, Ingrid; Grey, Sarah; Ullman, Michael T.

2012-01-01

Although learning a second language (L2) as an adult is notoriously difficult, research has shown that adults can indeed attain native language-like brain processing and high proficiency levels. However, it is important to then retain what has been attained, even in the absence of continued exposure to the L2—particularly since periods of minimal or no L2 exposure are common. This event-related potential (ERP) study of an artificial language tested performance and neural processing following a substantial period of no exposure. Adults learned to speak and comprehend the artificial language to high proficiency with either explicit, classroom-like, or implicit, immersion-like training, and then underwent several months of no exposure to the language. Surprisingly, proficiency did not decrease during this delay. Instead, it remained unchanged, and there was an increase in native-like neural processing of syntax, as evidenced by several ERP changes—including earlier, more reliable, and more left-lateralized anterior negativities, and more robust P600s, in response to word-order violations. Moreover, both the explicitly and implicitly trained groups showed increased native-like ERP patterns over the delay, indicating that such changes can hold independently of L2 training type. The results demonstrate that substantial periods with no L2 exposure are not necessarily detrimental. Rather, benefits may ensue from such periods of time even when there is no L2 exposure. Interestingly, both before and after the delay the implicitly trained group showed more native-like processing than the explicitly trained group, indicating that type of training also affects the attainment of native-like processing in the brain. Overall, the findings may be largely explained by a combination of forgetting and consolidation in declarative and procedural memory, on which L2 grammar learning appears to depend. The study has a range of implications, and suggests a research program with potentially important consequences for second language acquisition and related fields. PMID:22470434

Error Analysis of Students Essays: A Case of First Year Students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amoakohene, Benjamin

2017-01-01

Writing is considered as a daunting task in second language learning. It is argued by most scholars that this challenge is not only limited to second language speakers of English but even to those who speak English as their first language. Thus, the ability to communicate effectively in English by both native and non-native speakers requires…

Perceptions of Non-Native EFL Teachers' on L1 Use in L2 Classrooms: Implications for Language Program Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debreli, Emre

2016-01-01

The study of L1 (first language) use in L2 (second language) classrooms has long received attention in the literature. Despite the considerable amount of research that has been conducted on the phenomenon, the focus has often been on the advantages and disadvantages. Considerably, less research has been conducted regarding the non-native L2…

How I See What You're Saying: The Role of Gestures in Native and Foreign Language Listening Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dahl, Tove Irene; Ludvigsen, Susanne

2014-01-01

In what ways do native language (NL) speakers and foreign language (FL) learners differ in understanding the same messages delivered with or without gestures? To answer this question, seventh- and eighth-grade NL and FL learners of English in the United States and Norway were shown a video of a speaker describing, in English, a cartoon image that…

Arguing about innateness.

PubMed

Valian, Virginia

2014-07-01

This paper lays out the components of a language acquisition model, the interconnections among the components, and the differing stances of nativism and empiricism about syntax. After demonstrating that parsimony cannot decide between the two stances, the paper analyzes nine examples of evidence that have been used to argue for or against nativism, concluding that most pieces of evidence are either irrelevant or suggest that language is special but need not invoke innate ideas. Two pieces of evidence - the development of home sign languages and the acquisition of Determiners - do show not just that language is special but that the child has innate syntactic content. The existential claim that nativism makes - there is at least one innate syntactic idea - is an easier claim to verify than the universal claim that empiricism makes - there are no innate syntactic ideas.

Measures of native and non-native rhythm in a quantity language.

PubMed

Stockmal, Verna; Markus, Dace; Bond, Dzintra

2005-01-01

The traditional phonetic classification of language rhythm as stress-timed or syllable-timed is attributed to Pike. Recently, two different proposals have been offered for describing the rhythmic structure of languages from acoustic-phonetic measurements. Ramus has suggested a metric based on the proportion of vocalic intervals and the variability (SD) of consonantal intervals. Grabe has proposed Pairwise Variability Indices (nPVI, rPVI) calculated from the differences in vocalic and consonantal durations between successive syllables. We have calculated both the Ramus and Grabe metrics for Latvian, traditionally considered a syllable rhythm language, and for Latvian as spoken by Russian learners. Native speakers and proficient learners were very similar whereas low-proficiency learners showed high variability on some properties. The metrics did not provide an unambiguous classification of Latvian.

Word recognition and phonetic structure acquisition: Possible relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morgan, James

2002-05-01

Several accounts of possible relations between the emergence of the mental lexicon and acquisition of native language phonological structure have been propounded. In one view, acquisition of word meanings guides infants' attention toward those contrasts that are linguistically significant in their language. In the opposing view, native language phonological categories may be acquired from statistical patterns of input speech, prior to and independent of learning at the lexical level. Here, a more interactive account will be presented, in which phonological structure is modeled as emerging consequentially from the self-organization of perceptual space underlying word recognition. A key prediction of this model is that early native language phonological categories will be highly context specific. Data bearing on this prediction will be presented which provide clues to the nature of infants' statistical analysis of input.

Linguistic contributions to speech-on-speech masking for native and non-native listeners: language familiarity and semantic content.

PubMed

Brouwer, Susanne; Van Engen, Kristin J; Calandruccio, Lauren; Bradlow, Ann R

2012-02-01

This study examined whether speech-on-speech masking is sensitive to variation in the degree of similarity between the target and the masker speech. Three experiments investigated whether speech-in-speech recognition varies across different background speech languages (English vs Dutch) for both English and Dutch targets, as well as across variation in the semantic content of the background speech (meaningful vs semantically anomalous sentences), and across variation in listener status vis-à-vis the target and masker languages (native, non-native, or unfamiliar). The results showed that the more similar the target speech is to the masker speech (e.g., same vs different language, same vs different levels of semantic content), the greater the interference on speech recognition accuracy. Moreover, the listener's knowledge of the target and the background language modulate the size of the release from masking. These factors had an especially strong effect on masking effectiveness in highly unfavorable listening conditions. Overall this research provided evidence that that the degree of target-masker similarity plays a significant role in speech-in-speech recognition. The results also give insight into how listeners assign their resources differently depending on whether they are listening to their first or second language. © 2012 Acoustical Society of America

Linguistic contributions to speech-on-speech masking for native and non-native listeners: Language familiarity and semantic content

PubMed Central

Brouwer, Susanne; Van Engen, Kristin J.; Calandruccio, Lauren; Bradlow, Ann R.

2012-01-01

This study examined whether speech-on-speech masking is sensitive to variation in the degree of similarity between the target and the masker speech. Three experiments investigated whether speech-in-speech recognition varies across different background speech languages (English vs Dutch) for both English and Dutch targets, as well as across variation in the semantic content of the background speech (meaningful vs semantically anomalous sentences), and across variation in listener status vis-à-vis the target and masker languages (native, non-native, or unfamiliar). The results showed that the more similar the target speech is to the masker speech (e.g., same vs different language, same vs different levels of semantic content), the greater the interference on speech recognition accuracy. Moreover, the listener’s knowledge of the target and the background language modulate the size of the release from masking. These factors had an especially strong effect on masking effectiveness in highly unfavorable listening conditions. Overall this research provided evidence that that the degree of target-masker similarity plays a significant role in speech-in-speech recognition. The results also give insight into how listeners assign their resources differently depending on whether they are listening to their first or second language. PMID:22352516

Perceptual prothesis in native Spanish speakers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theodore, Rachel M.; Schmidt, Anna M.

2003-04-01

Previous research suggests a perceptual bias exists for native phonotactics [D. Massaro and M. Cohen, Percept. Psychophys. 34, 338-348 (1983)] such that listeners report nonexistent segments when listening to stimuli that violate native phonotactics [E. Dupoux, K. Kakehi, Y. Hirose, C. Pallier, and J. Mehler, J. Exp. Psychol.: Human Percept. Perform. 25, 1568-1578 (1999)]. This study investigated how native-language experience affects second language processing, focusing on how native Spanish speakers perceive the English clusters /st/, /sp/, and /sk/, which represent phonotactically illegal forms in Spanish. To preserve native phonotactics, Spanish speakers often produce prothetic vowels before English words beginning with /s/ clusters. Is the influence of native phonotactics also present in the perception of illegal clusters? A stimuli continuum ranging from no vowel (e.g., ``sku'') to a full vowel (e.g., ``esku'') before the cluster was used. Four final vowel contexts were used for each cluster, resulting in 12 sCV and 12 VsCV nonword endpoints. English and Spanish listeners were asked to discriminate between pairs differing in vowel duration and to identify the presence or absence of a vowel before the cluster. Results will be discussed in terms of implications for theories of second language speech perception.

Lexical representation of novel L2 contrasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayes-Harb, Rachel; Masuda, Kyoko

2005-04-01

There is much interest among psychologists and linguists in the influence of the native language sound system on the acquisition of second languages (Best, 1995; Flege, 1995). Most studies of second language (L2) speech focus on how learners perceive and produce L2 sounds, but we know of only two that have considered how novel sound contrasts are encoded in learners' lexical representations of L2 words (Pallier et al., 2001; Ota et al., 2002). In this study we investigated how native speakers of English encode Japanese consonant quantity contrasts in their developing Japanese lexicons at different stages of acquisition (Japanese contrasts singleton versus geminate consonants but English does not). Monolingual English speakers, native English speakers learning Japanese for one year, and native speakers of Japanese were taught a set of Japanese nonwords containing singleton and geminate consonants. Subjects then performed memory tasks eliciting perception and production data to determine whether they encoded the Japanese consonant quantity contrast lexically. Overall accuracy in these tasks was a function of Japanese language experience, and acoustic analysis of the production data revealed non-native-like patterns of differentiation of singleton and geminate consonants among the L2 learners of Japanese. Implications for theories of L2 speech are discussed.

Effects of lips and hands on auditory learning of second-language speech sounds.

PubMed

Hirata, Yukari; Kelly, Spencer D

2010-04-01

Previous research has found that auditory training helps native English speakers to perceive phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, but their performance did not reach native levels after training. Given that multimodal information, such as lip movement and hand gesture, influences many aspects of native language processing, the authors examined whether multimodal input helps to improve native English speakers' ability to perceive Japanese vowel length contrasts. Sixty native English speakers participated in 1 of 4 types of training: (a) audio-only; (b) audio-mouth; (c) audio-hands; and (d) audio-mouth-hands. Before and after training, participants were given phoneme perception tests that measured their ability to identify short and long vowels in Japanese (e.g., /kato/ vs. /kato/). Although all 4 groups improved from pre- to posttest (replicating previous research), the participants in the audio-mouth condition improved more than those in the audio-only condition, whereas the 2 conditions involving hand gestures did not. Seeing lip movements during training significantly helps learners to perceive difficult second-language phonemic contrasts, but seeing hand gestures does not. The authors discuss possible benefits and limitations of using multimodal information in second-language phoneme learning.

A Preliminary Investigation of Dynamic Assessment With Native American Kindergartners.

PubMed

Ukrainetz, Teresa A; Harpell, Stacey; Walsh, Chandra; Coyle, Catherine

2000-04-01

This study examined dynamic assessment as a lessbiased evaluation procedure for assessing the languagelearning ability of Native American children. Twenty-three Arapahoe/Shoshone kindergartners were identified as stronger (n = 15) or weaker (n = 8) language learners through teacher report and examiner classroom observation. Through a test-teach-test protocol, participants were briefly taught the principles of categorization. Participant responses to learning were measured in terms of an index of modifiability and post-test categorization scores. The modifiability index, determined during the teaching phase, was a combined score reflecting the child's learning strategies, such as ability to attend, plan, and self-regulate, and the child's responses to the learning situation. Post-test scores consisted of performance on expressive and receptive subtests from a standardized categorization test after partialling out pretest score differences. Effect sizes and confidence intervals were also determined. Group and individual results indicated that modifiability and post-test scores were significantly greater for stronger than for weaker language learners. The response to modifiability components was a better discriminator than was the learner strategies components. These results provide support for the further development of dynamic assessment as a valid measure of language learning ability in minority children.

Shuttle-Data-Tape XML Translator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barry, Matthew R.; Osborne, Richard N.

2005-01-01

JSDTImport is a computer program for translating native Shuttle Data Tape (SDT) files from American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format into databases in other formats. JSDTImport solves the problem of organizing the SDT content, affording flexibility to enable users to choose how to store the information in a database to better support client and server applications. JSDTImport can be dynamically configured by use of a simple Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. JSDTImport uses this XML file to define how each record and field will be parsed, its layout and definition, and how the resulting database will be structured. JSDTImport also includes a client application programming interface (API) layer that provides abstraction for the data-querying process. The API enables a user to specify the search criteria to apply in gathering all the data relevant to a query. The API can be used to organize the SDT content and translate into a native XML database. The XML format is structured into efficient sections, enabling excellent query performance by use of the XPath query language. Optionally, the content can be translated into a Structured Query Language (SQL) database for fast, reliable SQL queries on standard database server computers.

Reflections on Revitalizing and Reinforcing Native Languages and Cultures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Real Bird, Lanny

2017-01-01

The purpose of this essay is to introduce nativist expression, historic practices, and perceptions in describing an important approach to exercising language revitalization based on traditional fundamentals and operational ownership in Native organizations of these reflections. Information is presented to enhance the understanding of how Native…

Crosslinguistic Differences in Implicit Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leung, Janny H. C.; Williams, John N.

2014-01-01

We report three experiments that explore the effect of prior linguistic knowledge on implicit language learning. Native speakers of English from the United Kingdom and native speakers of Cantonese from Hong Kong participated in experiments that involved different learning materials. In Experiment 1, both participant groups showed evidence of…

Turkish Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Defense Language Inst., Washington, DC.

These 14 volumes of the Defense Language Institute's basic course in Turkish consist of 112 lesson units designed to train native English language speakers to Level 3 proficiency in comprehending, speaking, reading, and writing Turkish. (Native-speaker fluency is Level 5.) An introduction to the sound system, vowel harmony, and syllable division…

English as Cultural Action.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prodromou, Luke

1988-01-01

Discusses teaching and learning English as a foreign language in its cultural context, and the culture of the native speaker of English and its relation to the culture of the learner. Native-speaking teachers should recognize the international status of English and work from local varieties of the language. (Author/LMO)

Pronunciation difficulty, temporal regularity, and the speech-to-song illusion.

PubMed

Margulis, Elizabeth H; Simchy-Gross, Rhimmon; Black, Justin L

2015-01-01

The speech-to-song illusion (Deutsch et al., 2011) tracks the perceptual transformation from speech to song across repetitions of a brief spoken utterance. Because it involves no change in the stimulus itself, but a dramatic change in its perceived affiliation to speech or to music, it presents a unique opportunity to comparatively investigate the processing of language and music. In this study, native English-speaking participants were presented with brief spoken utterances that were subsequently repeated ten times. The utterances were drawn either from languages that are relatively difficult for a native English speaker to pronounce, or languages that are relatively easy for a native English speaker to pronounce. Moreover, the repetition could occur at regular or irregular temporal intervals. Participants rated the utterances before and after the repetitions on a 5-point Likert-like scale ranging from "sounds exactly like speech" to "sounds exactly like singing." The difference in ratings before and after was taken as a measure of the strength of the speech-to-song illusion in each case. The speech-to-song illusion occurred regardless of whether the repetitions were spaced at regular temporal intervals or not; however, it occurred more readily if the utterance was spoken in a language difficult for a native English speaker to pronounce. Speech circuitry seemed more liable to capture native and easy-to-pronounce languages, and more reluctant to relinquish them to perceived song across repetitions.

Narrative Comprehension Processes: A Study of Native and Non-Native Readers of Japanese.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horiba, Yukie

1990-01-01

Comparison of the reading strategies and resulting reading comprehension and recall of native and advanced non-native adult speakers of Japanese found that reading strategy significantly affected comprehension and recall, with non-native readers with limited language command paying more attention to vocabulary and grammar than native readers, who…

Podcasting: a new tool for student retention?

PubMed

Greenfield, Sue

2011-02-01

Emerging mobile technologies offer nursing faculty a broader armamentarium with which to support traditionally at-risk students. Podcasting, a type of mobile learning, uses technology that allows students to access and listen to recorded classroom audio files from a computer, MP3 player, or iPod. Podcasting also offers particular promise for non-native English speakers. This article describes how podcasting was used to offer academic support to students in a medical-surgical nursing course and to report the postimplementation test grade improvement among English as a second language nursing students. This article also discusses tips for implementing podcasting within the educational arena. Developing innovative ways to improve student retention is an ongoing process. Podcasting is one tool that should be considered for English as a second language nursing students. Copyright 2011, SLACK Incorporated.

The processing and comprehension of wh-questions among L2 German speakers

PubMed Central

Jackson, Carrie N.; Bobb, Susan C.

2009-01-01

Using the self-paced-reading paradigm, the present study examines whether highly proficient second language (L2) speakers of German (English L1) use case-marking information during the on-line comprehension of unambiguous wh-extractions, even when task demands do not draw explicit attention to this morphosyntactic feature in German. Results support previous findings, in that both the native and the L2 German speakers exhibited an immediate subject-preference in the matrix clause, suggesting they were sensitive to case-marking information. However, only among the native speakers did this subject-preference carry over to reading times in the complement clause. The results from the present study are discussed in light of current debates regarding the ability of L2 speakers to attain native-like processing strategies in their L2. PMID:20161006

Second Language Processing in Reading and Translation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Jung Hyun

2011-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the processing mechanisms of non-native English speakers at both the sentence level and the morphological level, addressing the issue of whether adult second language (L2) learners qualitatively differ from native speakers in processing linguistic input. Using psycholinguistic on-line techniques…

Using Instant Messaging for Collaborative Learning: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sotillo, Susana M.

2006-01-01

As recent second language acquisition (SLA) studies have shown, the negotiation of linguistic items such as vocabulary, verb tenses, and grammar rules with different types of interlocutors--native speakers (NSs) and advanced non-native speakers (NNSs) of English--seems to facilitate second language development among students. Findings from…

Combining Cognitive and Interactive Approaches to Lingua Receptiva

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bahtina, Daria; ten Thije, Jan D.; Wijnen, Frank

2013-01-01

This study takes an experimental approach to "lingua receptiva" (LaRa), a communication mode in which interlocutors each use their own--different--native language. In contrast to previous work on LaRa, this study investigates the phenomenon in genetically unrelated languages. Native speakers of Estonian and Russian were engaged in a…

La formacion de profesores de lengua materna (Native Language Teachers' Education).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez Chacon, Concepcion Elena

1980-01-01

Discusses the goals of native language instruction advocating a broadening of horizons, away from traditional grammar and literature teaching, and towards culturally based communication skills. Sociocultural awareness is stressed as the fundamental component of a teacher's background and the basis for mastering the relevant aspects of…

Discrimination of Arabic Contrasts by American Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Mahmoud, Mahmoud S.

2013-01-01

This article reports on second language perception of non-native contrasts. The study specifically tests the perceptual assimilation model (PAM) by examining American learners' ability to discriminate Arabic contrasts. Twenty two native American speakers enrolled in a university level Arabic language program took part in a forced choice AXB…

Examining Test Speededness by Native Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Talento-Miller, Eileen; Guo, Fanmin; Han, Kyung T.

2013-01-01

When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of speededness for examinees. Past research on differential speededness has examined gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. When considering the needs of a global audience, research regarding different native language speakers is…

Korean Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Defense Language Inst., Washington, DC.

These 11 volumes of the Korean Basic Course comprise 112 lesson units designed to train native English language speakers to Level 3 proficiency in comprehension and speaking and Level 2 proficiency in reading and writing Korean. (Level 5 on this scale is native-speaker level.) Intended for classroom use in the Defense Language Institute intensive…

Cross-language Perception of Non-native Tonal Contrasts: Effects of Native Phonological and Phonetic Influences

PubMed Central

SO, CONNIE K.; BEST, CATHERINE T.

2010-01-01

This study examined the perception of the four Mandarin lexical tones by Mandarin-naïve Hong Kong Cantonese, Japanese, and Canadian English listener groups. Their performance on an identification task, following a brief familiarization task, was analyzed in terms of tonal sensitivities (A-prime scores on correct identifications) and tonal errors (confusions). The A-prime results revealed that the English listeners' sensitivity to Tone 4 identifications specifically was significantly lower than that of the other two groups. The analysis of tonal errors revealed that all listener groups showed perceptual confusion of tone pairs with similar phonetic features (T1–T2, T1–T4 and T2–T3 pairs), but not of those with completely dissimilar features (T1–T3, T2–T4, and T3–T4). Language specific errors were also observed in their performance, which may be explained within the framework of the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM: Best, 1995; Best & Tyler, 2007). The findings imply that linguistic experience with native tones does not necessarily facilitate non-native tone perception. Rather, the phonemic status and the phonetic features (similarities or dissimilarities) between the tonal systems of the target language and the listeners' native languages play critical roles in the perception of non-native tones. PMID:20583732

The Role of the Native Language in the Use of the English Nongeneric Definite Article by L2 Learners: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrabaszcz, Anna; Jiang, Nan

2014-01-01

The study uses an elicited imitation (EI) task to examine the effect of the native language on the use of the English nongeneric definite article by highly proficient first-language (L1) Spanish and Russian speakers and to test the hierarchy of article difficulty first proposed by Liu and Gleason (2002). Our findings suggest that there is a clear…

Learning for Life, a Structured and Motivational Process of Knowledge Construction in the Acquisition/Learning of English as a Foreign Language in Native Spanish Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mino-Garces, Fernando

2009-01-01

As language learning theory has shifted from a highly guided to a more open learning process, this paper presents the teaching/learning philosophy called Learning for Life (L for L) as a great way to motivate native Spanish speaker students learning English as a foreign language, and to help them be the constructors of their own knowledge. The…

Parenting in an Individualistic Culture with a Collectivistic Cultural Background: The Case of Turkish Immigrant Families with Toddlers in the Netherlands

PubMed Central

Yaman, Ayşe; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H.; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J.; Linting, Mariëlle

2010-01-01

Expanding our knowledge on parenting practices of immigrant families is crucial for designing culturally sensitive parenting intervention programs in countries with high immigration rates. We investigated differences in patterns of parenting between second-generation immigrant and native families with young children. Authoritarian and authoritative control and sensitivity of second-generation Turkish immigrant mothers of 2-year-old children (n = 70) and native Dutch mothers (n = 70) were observed in the home and in the laboratory. Controlling for maternal age and education, Turkish immigrant mothers were less supportive, gave less clear instructions to their children, were more intrusive and were less authoritative in their control strategies than native Dutch mothers. No differences were found in authoritarian control. In both ethnic groups supportive presence, clarity of instruction, authoritative control, and low intrusiveness loaded on one factor. No differences between ethnic groups were found in gender-differentiated parenting. Maternal emotional connectedness to the Turkish culture was associated with less authoritative control, whereas more use of the Turkish language was related to more sensitivity. Even though mean level differences in parenting behaviors still exist between second-generation Turkish immigrant and native Dutch mothers, the patterns of associations between parenting behaviors were comparable for both groups. This suggests that existing parenting interventions for native families may be applicable to second-generation Turkish immigrants as well. PMID:20835387

Parenting in an Individualistic Culture with a Collectivistic Cultural Background: The Case of Turkish Immigrant Families with Toddlers in the Netherlands.

PubMed

Yaman, Ayşe; Mesman, Judi; van Ijzendoorn, Marinus H; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J; Linting, Mariëlle

2010-10-01

Expanding our knowledge on parenting practices of immigrant families is crucial for designing culturally sensitive parenting intervention programs in countries with high immigration rates. We investigated differences in patterns of parenting between second-generation immigrant and native families with young children. Authoritarian and authoritative control and sensitivity of second-generation Turkish immigrant mothers of 2-year-old children (n = 70) and native Dutch mothers (n = 70) were observed in the home and in the laboratory. Controlling for maternal age and education, Turkish immigrant mothers were less supportive, gave less clear instructions to their children, were more intrusive and were less authoritative in their control strategies than native Dutch mothers. No differences were found in authoritarian control. In both ethnic groups supportive presence, clarity of instruction, authoritative control, and low intrusiveness loaded on one factor. No differences between ethnic groups were found in gender-differentiated parenting. Maternal emotional connectedness to the Turkish culture was associated with less authoritative control, whereas more use of the Turkish language was related to more sensitivity. Even though mean level differences in parenting behaviors still exist between second-generation Turkish immigrant and native Dutch mothers, the patterns of associations between parenting behaviors were comparable for both groups. This suggests that existing parenting interventions for native families may be applicable to second-generation Turkish immigrants as well.

Native Speaker Dichotomy: Stakeholders' Preferences and Perceptions of Native and Non-Native Speaking English Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atamturk, Nurdan; Atamturk, Hakan; Dimililer, Celen

2018-01-01

Addressing the perceptions and the preferences of the upper-secondary school students, teachers, parents and administrators of the native speaking (NS) and non-native speaking (NNS) English teachers as well as investigating the variables affecting these preferences and perceptions, this study explores whether or not the native speaker myth is…

A language-familiarity effect for speaker discrimination without comprehension.

PubMed

Fleming, David; Giordano, Bruno L; Caldara, Roberto; Belin, Pascal

2014-09-23

The influence of language familiarity upon speaker identification is well established, to such an extent that it has been argued that "Human voice recognition depends on language ability" [Perrachione TK, Del Tufo SN, Gabrieli JDE (2011) Science 333(6042):595]. However, 7-mo-old infants discriminate speakers of their mother tongue better than they do foreign speakers [Johnson EK, Westrek E, Nazzi T, Cutler A (2011) Dev Sci 14(5):1002-1011] despite their limited speech comprehension abilities, suggesting that speaker discrimination may rely on familiarity with the sound structure of one's native language rather than the ability to comprehend speech. To test this hypothesis, we asked Chinese and English adult participants to rate speaker dissimilarity in pairs of sentences in English or Mandarin that were first time-reversed to render them unintelligible. Even in these conditions a language-familiarity effect was observed: Both Chinese and English listeners rated pairs of native-language speakers as more dissimilar than foreign-language speakers, despite their inability to understand the material. Our data indicate that the language familiarity effect is not based on comprehension but rather on familiarity with the phonology of one's native language. This effect may stem from a mechanism analogous to the "other-race" effect in face recognition.

Age and Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collard, Lucien

1977-01-01

An investigation of the differences between first and second language acquisition and the relationship between age and second language learning. The stages in native language acquisition and the advantages of an early start in second language learning are discussed. (AMH)

Malaysian University Students' Attitudes towards Six Varieties of Accented Speech in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed, Zainab Thamer; Abdullah, Ain Nadzimah; Heng, Chan Swee

2014-01-01

Previous language attitude studies indicated that in many countries all over the world, English language learners perceived native accents, either American or British, more positively than the non-native accents such as the Japanese, Korean, and Austrian accents. However, in Malaysia it is still unclear which accent Malaysian learners of English…

Native Chinese-Speaking K-12 Language Teachers' Beliefs and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lü, Chan; Lavadenz, Magaly

2014-01-01

This study investigated the relationships between the beliefs and practices of K-12 native Chinese teachers on Chinese language and literacy instruction. Using a descriptive-exploratory design, this study employed a mixed-methods approach consisting of three steps: (1) a teacher beliefs questionnaire, (2) classroom observations and videotaping,…

Liberia: Country Status Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robson, Barbara

A survey of the status of language usage in Liberia begins with an overview of the distribution of the 16 languages and dialects spoken natively there that are recognized by the government. These include, in order of number of native speakers: Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru, Mano, Lorma, Krahn, Gola, Mandingo, Kissi, Vai, English, Gbandi, Mende, Belle,…

Methodologies of Bilingual Instruction in Literacy Education. Project MOBILE, 1987-1988. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

The Methodologies of Bilingual Instruction in Literacy Education (MOBILE) project served 359 native Spanish- and Haitian Creole/French-speaking students at 2 high schools in its first year of funding. The project provided supplementary instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), native language arts (NLA), and bilingual mathematics,…

Language-Specificity in the Perception of Paralinguistic Intonational Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Aoju; Gussenhoven, Carlos; Rietveld, Toni

2004-01-01

This study examines the perception of paralinguistic intonational meanings deriving from Ohala's Frequency Code (Experiment 1) and Gussenhoven's Effort Code (Experiment 2) in British English and Dutch. Native speakers of British English and Dutch listened to a number of stimuli in their native language and judged each stimulus on four semantic…

Songs as Ambient Language Input in Phonology Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Au, Terry Kit-fong

2013-01-01

Children cannot learn to speak a language simply from occasional noninteractive exposure to native speakers' input (e.g., by hearing television dialogues), but can they learn something about its phonology? To answer this question, the present study varied ambient hearing experience for 126 5- to 7-year-old native Cantonese-Chinese speakers…

Teaching Low-Level Adult ESL Learners. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holt, Grace Massey

In recent years, the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching profession has made discoveries about teaching beginning or low-level adult learners (those with little or no schooling in their native languages, learners who may not be familiar with the Roman alphabet, those with learning disabilities, and those literate in their native languages…

3D Talking-Head Mobile App: A Conceptual Framework for English Pronunciation Learning among Non-Native Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Ahmad Zamzuri Mohamad; Segaran, Kogilathah

2013-01-01

One of the critical issues pertaining learning English as second language successfully is pronunciation, which consequently contributes to learners' poor communicative power. This situation is moreover crucial among non-native speakers. Therefore, various initiatives have been taken in order to promote effective language learning, which includes…

Agreement Mechanisms in Native and Nonnative Language Processing: Electrophysiological Correlates of Complexity and Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanner, Darren

2011-01-01

This dissertation investigates the neural and behavioral correlates of grammatical agreement computation during language comprehension in native English speakers and highly advanced L1 Spanish-L2 English bilinguals. In a series of electrophysiological (event-related brain potential (ERP)) and behavioral (acceptability judgment and self-paced…

A Cross-Language Study of Perception of Lexical Stress in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Vickie Y.; Andruski, Jean E.

2010-01-01

This study investigates the question of whether language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English. Thirty native English speakers and 30 native Chinese learners of English participated in a stressed-syllable identification task and a discrimination task involving three types of stimuli (real words/pseudowords/hums). The…

Acoustic Cues to Perception of Word Stress by English, Mandarin, and Russian Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrabaszcz, Anna; Winn, Matthew; Lin, Candise Y.; Idsardi, William J.

2014-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated how listeners' native language affects their weighting of acoustic cues (such as vowel quality, pitch, duration, and intensity) in the perception of contrastive word stress. Method: Native speakers (N = 45) of typologically diverse languages (English, Russian, and Mandarin) performed a stress identification…

Development of Hemispheric Specialization for Lexical Pitch-Accent in Japanese Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sato, Yutaka; Sogabe, Yuko; Mazuka, Reiko

2010-01-01

Infants' speech perception abilities change through the first year of life, from broad sensitivity to a wide range of speech contrasts to becoming more finely attuned to their native language. What remains unclear, however, is how this perceptual change relates to brain responses to native language contrasts in terms of the functional…

Methodologies of Bilingual Instruction in Literacy Education. Project Mobile, 1988-89. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

In its second year, Methodologies of Bilingual Instruction in Literacy Education (Project MOBILE) provided 373 students of limited English proficiency, native speakers of Spanish and Haitian Creole, with supplementary English as a Second Language (ESL), native language arts (NLA), and content-area instruction. Project MOBILE stressed the…

Computer-Assisted Bilingual/Bicultural Multiskills Project, 1987-1988. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Carey, Cecilia

The Computer-Assisted Bilingual/Bicultural Multiskills Project completed its first year of an extension grant. The program used computerized and non-computerized instruction to help 109 native speakers of Haitian Creole/French and Spanish, most of whom were recent immigrants, develop English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) native language, and content…

Aids to English Language Teaching: Information Guide No. 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

British Council, London (England). English-Teaching Information Centre.

This is an annotated guide to English language instructional materials useful for both native and non-native speakers of English at primary and secondary levels. Materials relate to and are available in Great Britain; prices and addresses of publishers and suppliers are included. The sections cover: (1) Visual aids specifically designed for…

Culture and Language Learning: Middle Eastern Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magrath, Douglas

Middle Eastern students face cultural conflicts in adapting to the western value system. While feeling obligated to maintain their native culture they also need to feel comfortable with the culture of their target language. In attempting to identify with a new group, ESL students may sense a loss of membership in their native group. Culture stress…

The Story of the Hawaiian Studies Center on the Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benham, Maenette K. P.

2002-01-01

With an advisory committee of native community members, elders, educators, and students, the Center for Hawaiian Language and Cultural Studies has successfully founded, within a mainstream institution with strong religious foundations, a cultural center that teaches native values and language. The center creates cultural/educational projects that…

From Language Learner to Language Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Don

2007-01-01

Today, there are about four nonnative-speaking English teachers for every teacher who is a native speaker. More English teachers work in non-English-speaking settings than in English-speaking settings, and most are natives of the countries in which they teach. This volume focuses on the challenges faced by English teachers for whom English is a…

A Qualitative Report on the Perceived Awareness of Pronunciation Instruction: Increasing Needs and Expectations of Prospective EFL Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hismanoglu, Murat; Hismanoglu, Sibel

2013-01-01

English has become an international language used for international and intercultural communication among non-native speakers of English which outnumbered monolingual native speakers Crystal (English as a global language, Cambridge: CUP 1997). With an advanced understanding of communicative competence Hymes ("Sociolinguistics,"…

L2 Processing of Plural Inflection in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Song, Yoonsang

2015-01-01

This study investigates (1) whether late second language (L2) learners can attain native-like knowledge of English plural inflection even when their first language (L1) lacks an equivalent and (2) whether they construct hierarchically structured representations during online sentence processing like native speakers. In a self-paced reading task,…

Toddlers learn words in a foreign language: The role of native vocabulary knowledge

PubMed Central

Koenig, Melissa A.; Woodward, Amanda L.

2013-01-01

The current study examined monolingual English-speaking toddlers’ (N=50) ability to learn word-referent links from native speakers of Dutch versus English and secondly, whether children generalized or sequestered their extensions when terms were tested by a subsequent speaker of English. Overall, children performed better in the English than in the Dutch condition; however, children with high native vocabularies successfully selected the target object for terms trained in fluent Dutch. Furthermore, children with higher vocabularies did not indicate their comprehension of Dutch terms when subsequently tested by an English speaker whereas children with low vocabulary scores responded at chance levels to both the original Dutch speaker and the second English speaker. These findings demonstrate that monolingual toddlers with proficiency in their native language are capable of learning words outside of their conventional system and may be sensitive to the boundaries that exist between language systems. PMID:22310327

Impact of Cyrillic on Native English Speakers' Phono-lexical Acquisition of Russian.

PubMed

Showalter, Catherine E

2018-03-01

We investigated the influence of grapheme familiarity and native language grapheme-phoneme correspondences during second language lexical learning. Native English speakers learned Russian-like words via auditory presentations containing only familiar first language phones, pictured meanings, and exposure to either Cyrillic orthographic forms (Orthography condition) or the sequence (No Orthography condition). Orthography participants saw three types of written forms: familiar-congruent (e.g., -[kom]), familiar-incongruent (e.g., -[rɑt]), and unfamiliar (e.g., <ФИЛ>-[fil]). At test, participants determined whether pictures and words matched according to what they saw during word learning. All participants performed near ceiling in all stimulus conditions, except for Orthography participants on words containing incongruent grapheme-phoneme correspondences. These results suggest that first language grapheme-phoneme correspondences can cause interference during second language phono-lexical acquisition. In addition, these results suggest that orthographic input effects are robust enough to interfere even when the input does not contain novel phones.

Syntactic learning by mere exposure - An ERP study in adult learners

PubMed Central

Mueller, Jutta L; Oberecker, Regine; Friederici, Angela D

2009-01-01

Background Artificial language studies have revealed the remarkable ability of humans to extract syntactic structures from a continuous sound stream by mere exposure. However, it remains unclear whether the processes acquired in such tasks are comparable to those applied during normal language processing. The present study compares the ERPs to auditory processing of simple Italian sentences in native and non-native speakers after brief exposure to Italian sentences of a similar structure. The sentences contained a non-adjacent dependency between an auxiliary and the morphologically marked suffix of the verb. Participants were presented four alternating learning and testing phases. During learning phases only correct sentences were presented while during testing phases 50 percent of the sentences contained a grammatical violation. Results The non-native speakers successfully learned the dependency and displayed an N400-like negativity and a subsequent anteriorily distributed positivity in response to rule violations. The native Italian group showed an N400 followed by a P600 effect. Conclusion The presence of the P600 suggests that native speakers applied a grammatical rule. In contrast, non-native speakers appeared to use a lexical form-based processing strategy. Thus, the processing mechanisms acquired in the language learning task were only partly comparable to those applied by competent native speakers. PMID:19640301

Syntactic learning by mere exposure--an ERP study in adult learners.

PubMed

Mueller, Jutta L; Oberecker, Regine; Friederici, Angela D

2009-07-29

Artificial language studies have revealed the remarkable ability of humans to extract syntactic structures from a continuous sound stream by mere exposure. However, it remains unclear whether the processes acquired in such tasks are comparable to those applied during normal language processing. The present study compares the ERPs to auditory processing of simple Italian sentences in native and non-native speakers after brief exposure to Italian sentences of a similar structure. The sentences contained a non-adjacent dependency between an auxiliary and the morphologically marked suffix of the verb. Participants were presented four alternating learning and testing phases. During learning phases only correct sentences were presented while during testing phases 50 percent of the sentences contained a grammatical violation. The non-native speakers successfully learned the dependency and displayed an N400-like negativity and a subsequent anteriorily distributed positivity in response to rule violations. The native Italian group showed an N400 followed by a P600 effect. The presence of the P600 suggests that native speakers applied a grammatical rule. In contrast, non-native speakers appeared to use a lexical form-based processing strategy. Thus, the processing mechanisms acquired in the language learning task were only partly comparable to those applied by competent native speakers.

Native-Speakerism and the Complexity of Personal Experience: A Duoethnographic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowe, Robert J.; Kiczkowiak, Marek

2016-01-01

This paper presents a duoethnographic study into the effects of native-speakerism on the professional lives of two English language teachers, one "native", and one "non-native speaker" of English. The goal of the study was to build on and extend existing research on the topic of native-speakerism by investigating, through…

A Selective Mutism Arising from First Language Attrition, Successfully Treated with Paroxetine-CBT Combination Treatment.

PubMed

Serra, Agostino; Di Mauro, Paola; Andaloro, Claudio; Maiolino, Luigi; Pavone, Piero; Cocuzza, Salvatore

2015-10-01

After immersion in a foreign language, speakers often have difficulty retrieving native-language words and may experience a decrease in its proficiency, this phenomenon, in the non-pathological form, is known as first language attrition. Self-perception of this low native-language proficiency and apprehension occurring when speaking is expected and, may sometimes lead these people to a state of social anxiety and, in extreme forms, can involve the withholding of speech as a primitive tool for self-protection, linking them to selective mutism. We report an unusual case of selective mutism arising from first language attrition in an Italian girl after attending a two-year "German language school", who successfully responded to a paroxetine-cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) combination treatment.

A Selective Mutism Arising from First Language Attrition, Successfully Treated with Paroxetine-CBT Combination Treatment

PubMed Central

Serra, Agostino; Di Mauro, Paola; Andaloro, Claudio; Maiolino, Luigi; Pavone, Piero

2015-01-01

After immersion in a foreign language, speakers often have difficulty retrieving native-language words and may experience a decrease in its proficiency, this phenomenon, in the non-pathological form, is known as first language attrition. Self-perception of this low native-language proficiency and apprehension occurring when speaking is expected and, may sometimes lead these people to a state of social anxiety and, in extreme forms, can involve the withholding of speech as a primitive tool for self-protection, linking them to selective mutism. We report an unusual case of selective mutism arising from first language attrition in an Italian girl after attending a two-year "German language school", who successfully responded to a paroxetine-cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) combination treatment. PMID:26508972

Perception of the Multisensory Coherence of Fluent Audiovisual Speech in Infancy: Its Emergence & the Role of Experience

PubMed Central

Lewkowicz, David J.; Minar, Nicholas J.; Tift, Amy H.; Brandon, Melissa

2014-01-01

To investigate the developmental emergence of the ability to perceive the multisensory coherence of native and non-native audiovisual fluent speech, we tested 4-, 8–10, and 12–14 month-old English-learning infants. Infants first viewed two identical female faces articulating two different monologues in silence and then in the presence of an audible monologue that matched the visible articulations of one of the faces. Neither the 4-month-old nor the 8–10 month-old infants exhibited audio-visual matching in that neither group exhibited greater looking at the matching monologue. In contrast, the 12–14 month-old infants exhibited matching and, consistent with the emergence of perceptual expertise for the native language, they perceived the multisensory coherence of native-language monologues earlier in the test trials than of non-native language monologues. Moreover, the matching of native audible and visible speech streams observed in the 12–14 month olds did not depend on audio-visual synchrony whereas the matching of non-native audible and visible speech streams did depend on synchrony. Overall, the current findings indicate that the perception of the multisensory coherence of fluent audiovisual speech emerges late in infancy, that audio-visual synchrony cues are more important in the perception of the multisensory coherence of non-native than native audiovisual speech, and that the emergence of this skill most likely is affected by perceptual narrowing. PMID:25462038

Perception of the multisensory coherence of fluent audiovisual speech in infancy: its emergence and the role of experience.

PubMed

Lewkowicz, David J; Minar, Nicholas J; Tift, Amy H; Brandon, Melissa

2015-02-01

To investigate the developmental emergence of the perception of the multisensory coherence of native and non-native audiovisual fluent speech, we tested 4-, 8- to 10-, and 12- to 14-month-old English-learning infants. Infants first viewed two identical female faces articulating two different monologues in silence and then in the presence of an audible monologue that matched the visible articulations of one of the faces. Neither the 4-month-old nor 8- to 10-month-old infants exhibited audiovisual matching in that they did not look longer at the matching monologue. In contrast, the 12- to 14-month-old infants exhibited matching and, consistent with the emergence of perceptual expertise for the native language, perceived the multisensory coherence of native-language monologues earlier in the test trials than that of non-native language monologues. Moreover, the matching of native audible and visible speech streams observed in the 12- to 14-month-olds did not depend on audiovisual synchrony, whereas the matching of non-native audible and visible speech streams did depend on synchrony. Overall, the current findings indicate that the perception of the multisensory coherence of fluent audiovisual speech emerges late in infancy, that audiovisual synchrony cues are more important in the perception of the multisensory coherence of non-native speech than that of native audiovisual speech, and that the emergence of this skill most likely is affected by perceptual narrowing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

American Sign Language Comprehension Test: A Tool for Sign Language Researchers.

PubMed

Hauser, Peter C; Paludneviciene, Raylene; Riddle, Wanda; Kurz, Kim B; Emmorey, Karen; Contreras, Jessica

2016-01-01

The American Sign Language Comprehension Test (ASL-CT) is a 30-item multiple-choice test that measures ASL receptive skills and is administered through a website. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the test based on a sample of 80 college students including deaf native signers, hearing native signers, deaf non-native signers, and hearing ASL students. The results revealed that the ASL-CT has good internal reliability (α = 0.834). Discriminant validity was established by demonstrating that deaf native signers performed significantly better than deaf non-native signers and hearing native signers. Concurrent validity was established by demonstrating that test results positively correlated with another measure of ASL ability (r = .715) and that hearing ASL students' performance positively correlated with the level of ASL courses they were taking (r = .726). Researchers can use the ASL-CT to characterize an individual's ASL comprehension skills, to establish a minimal skill level as an inclusion criterion for a study, to group study participants by ASL skill (e.g., proficient vs. nonproficient), or to provide a measure of ASL skill as a dependent variable. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Acoustic Properties Predict Perception of Unfamiliar Dutch Vowels by Adult Australian English and Peruvian Spanish Listeners

PubMed Central

Alispahic, Samra; Mulak, Karen E.; Escudero, Paola

2017-01-01

Research suggests that the size of the second language (L2) vowel inventory relative to the native (L1) inventory may affect the discrimination and acquisition of L2 vowels. Models of non-native and L2 vowel perception stipulate that naïve listeners' non-native and L2 perceptual patterns may be predicted by the relationship in vowel inventory size between the L1 and the L2. Specifically, having a smaller L1 vowel inventory than the L2 impedes L2 vowel perception, while having a larger one often facilitates it. However, the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model specifies that it is the L1–L2 acoustic relationships that predict non-native and L2 vowel perception, regardless of L1 vowel inventory. To test the effects of vowel inventory size vs. acoustic properties on non-native vowel perception, we compared XAB discrimination and categorization of five Dutch vowel contrasts between monolinguals whose L1 contains more (Australian English) or fewer (Peruvian Spanish) vowels than Dutch. No effect of language background was found, suggesting that L1 inventory size alone did not account for performance. Instead, participants in both language groups were more accurate in discriminating contrasts that were predicted to be perceptually easy based on L1–L2 acoustic relationships, and were less accurate for contrasts likewise predicted to be difficult. Further, cross-language discriminant analyses predicted listeners' categorization patterns which in turn predicted listeners' discrimination difficulty. Our results show that listeners with larger vowel inventories appear to activate multiple native categories as reflected in lower accuracy scores for some Dutch vowels, while listeners with a smaller vowel inventory seem to have higher accuracy scores for those same vowels. In line with the L2LP model, these findings demonstrate that L1–L2 acoustic relationships better predict non-native and L2 perceptual performance and that inventory size alone is not a good predictor for cross-language perceptual difficulties. PMID:28191001

A Japanese version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: translation and equivalence assessment.

PubMed

Mimura, Chizu; Griffiths, Peter

2007-05-01

A Japanese version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was developed through the forward-backward translation procedure. Married couples consisting of a native English speaker and a native Japanese speaker acted as translators to enhance the representativeness of language in the target population. Multiple translations were produced, and a panel of reviewers identified problems in conceptual and semantic equivalence between the original scale and the translated version. The Japanese version was altered accordingly with reference to alternate Japanese forms from the original English to Japanese translations. The altered translation was again retranslated into English, and problematic differences were checked. This forward-backward process was repeated until satisfactory agreement had been attained. The RSES was administered to 222 native English speakers, and the developed Japanese version (RSES-J) was administered to 1320 native Japanese speakers. Factor analysis revealed nearly identical factor structure and structural coefficients of the items between two sets of data. Target rotation confirmed the factorial agreement of the two scales in different cultural groups. High Cronbach's alpha coefficients supported the reliability of test scores on both versions. The equivalence between the RSES and the RSES-J was supported in this study. It is suggested that the RSES and the RSES-J are potential tools for comparative cross-cultural studies.

Language Learning and Control in Monolinguals and Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2012-01-01

Parallel language activation in bilinguals leads to competition between languages. Experience managing this interference may aid novel language learning by improving the ability to suppress competition from known languages. To investigate the effect of bilingualism on the ability to control native-language interference, monolinguals and bilinguals were taught an artificial language designed to elicit between-language competition. Partial activation of interlingual competitors was assessed with eye-tracking and mouse-tracking during a word recognition task in the novel language. Eye-tracking results showed that monolinguals looked at competitors more than bilinguals, and for a longer duration of time. Mouse-tracking results showed that monolinguals’ mouse-movements were attracted to native-language competitors, while bilinguals overcame competitor interference by increasing activation of target items. Results suggest that bilinguals manage cross-linguistic interference more effectively than monolinguals. We conclude that language interference can affect lexical retrieval, but bilingualism may reduce this interference by facilitating access to a newly-learned language. PMID:22462514

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-01-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts…

Direction Asymmetries in Spoken and Signed Language Interpreting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicodemus, Brenda; Emmorey, Karen

2013-01-01

Spoken language (unimodal) interpreters often prefer to interpret from their non-dominant language (L2) into their native language (L1). Anecdotally, signed language (bimodal) interpreters express the opposite bias, preferring to interpret from L1 (spoken language) into L2 (signed language). We conducted a large survey study ("N" =…

Endangered Languages: Language Loss and Community Response.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grenoble, Lenore A., Ed.; Whaley, Lindsay J., Ed.

This edited volume provides an overview of issues surrounding language loss from sociological, economic, and linguistic perspectives. Four parts cover general issues in language loss; language-community responses, including native language instruction in school, community, and home; the value of language diversity and what is lost when a language…

Advocating School-University Partnership for Responsive Teacher Education and Classroom-based Curricula: Evidence from Teachers' Cognitions about Principles of Curriculum Design and Their Own Roles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahimi, Muhammad; Zhang, Lawrence Jun; Esfahani, Nasim Nasr

2016-01-01

This study investigated the differences between novice and experienced non-native English-speaking English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers' cognitions about EFL curriculum design principles and their own roles in designing an EFL curriculum. The challenge these teachers faced in their roles and the support system they needed were also…

Language Transfer in Language Learning. Language Acquisition & Language Disorders 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gass, Susan M., Ed.; Selinker, Larry, Ed.

The study of native language influence in Second Language Acquisition has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. This book, which includes 12 chapters by distinguished researchers in the field of second language acquisition, traces the conceptual history of language transfer from its early role within a Contrastive Analysis…

Understanding native Russian listeners' errors on an English word recognition test: model-based analysis of phoneme confusion.

PubMed

Shi, Lu-Feng; Morozova, Natalia

2012-08-01

Word recognition is a basic component in a comprehensive hearing evaluation, but data are lacking for listeners speaking two languages. This study obtained such data for Russian natives in the US and analysed the data using the perceptual assimilation model (PAM) and speech learning model (SLM). Listeners were randomly presented 200 NU-6 words in quiet. Listeners responded verbally and in writing. Performance was scored on words and phonemes (word-initial consonants, vowels, and word-final consonants). Seven normal-hearing, adult monolingual English natives (NM), 16 English-dominant (ED), and 15 Russian-dominant (RD) Russian natives participated. ED and RD listeners differed significantly in their language background. Consistent with the SLM, NM outperformed ED listeners and ED outperformed RD listeners, whether responses were scored on words or phonemes. NM and ED listeners shared similar phoneme error patterns, whereas RD listeners' errors had unique patterns that could be largely understood via the PAM. RD listeners had particular difficulty differentiating vowel contrasts /i-I/, /æ-ε/, and /ɑ-Λ/, word-initial consonant contrasts /p-h/ and /b-f/, and word-final contrasts /f-v/. Both first-language phonology and second-language learning history affect word and phoneme recognition. Current findings may help clinicians differentiate word recognition errors due to language background from hearing pathologies.

Children show right-lateralized effects of spoken word-form learning

PubMed Central

Nora, Anni; Karvonen, Leena; Renvall, Hanna; Parviainen, Tiina; Kim, Jeong-Young; Service, Elisabet; Salmelin, Riitta

2017-01-01

It is commonly thought that phonological learning is different in young children compared to adults, possibly due to the speech processing system not yet having reached full native-language specialization. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of phonological learning in children are poorly understood. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to track cortical correlates of incidental learning of meaningless word forms over two days as 6–8-year-olds overtly repeated them. Native (Finnish) pseudowords were compared with words of foreign sound structure (Korean) to investigate whether the cortical learning effects would be more dependent on previous proficiency in the language rather than maturational factors. Half of the items were encountered four times on the first day and once more on the following day. Incidental learning of these recurring word forms manifested as improved repetition accuracy and a correlated reduction of activation in the right superior temporal cortex, similarly for both languages and on both experimental days, and in contrast to a salient left-hemisphere emphasis previously reported in adults. We propose that children, when learning new word forms in either native or foreign language, are not yet constrained by left-hemispheric segmental processing and established sublexical native-language representations. Instead, they may rely more on supra-segmental contours and prosody. PMID:28158201

Children show right-lateralized effects of spoken word-form learning.

PubMed

Nora, Anni; Karvonen, Leena; Renvall, Hanna; Parviainen, Tiina; Kim, Jeong-Young; Service, Elisabet; Salmelin, Riitta

2017-01-01

It is commonly thought that phonological learning is different in young children compared to adults, possibly due to the speech processing system not yet having reached full native-language specialization. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of phonological learning in children are poorly understood. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to track cortical correlates of incidental learning of meaningless word forms over two days as 6-8-year-olds overtly repeated them. Native (Finnish) pseudowords were compared with words of foreign sound structure (Korean) to investigate whether the cortical learning effects would be more dependent on previous proficiency in the language rather than maturational factors. Half of the items were encountered four times on the first day and once more on the following day. Incidental learning of these recurring word forms manifested as improved repetition accuracy and a correlated reduction of activation in the right superior temporal cortex, similarly for both languages and on both experimental days, and in contrast to a salient left-hemisphere emphasis previously reported in adults. We propose that children, when learning new word forms in either native or foreign language, are not yet constrained by left-hemispheric segmental processing and established sublexical native-language representations. Instead, they may rely more on supra-segmental contours and prosody.

Complete mitochondrial genomes of Thai and Lao populations indicate an ancient origin of Austroasiatic groups and demic diffusion in the spread of Tai-Kadai languages.

PubMed

Kutanan, Wibhu; Kampuansai, Jatupol; Srikummool, Metawee; Kangwanpong, Daoroong; Ghirotto, Silvia; Brunelli, Andrea; Stoneking, Mark

2017-01-01

The Tai-Kadai (TK) language family is thought to have originated in southern China and spread to Thailand and Laos, but it is not clear if TK languages spread by demic diffusion (i.e., a migration of people from southern China) or by cultural diffusion, with native Austroasiatic (AA) speakers switching to TK languages. To address this and other questions, we obtained 1234 complete mtDNA genome sequences from 51 TK and AA groups from Thailand and Laos. We find high genetic heterogeneity across the region, with 212 different haplogroups, and significant genetic differentiation among different samples from the same ethnolinguistic group. TK groups are more genetically homogeneous than AA groups, with the latter exhibiting more ancient/basal mtDNA lineages, and showing more drift effects. Modeling of demic diffusion, cultural diffusion, and admixture scenarios consistently supports the spread of TK languages by demic diffusion.

The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning.

PubMed

Ma, Tengfei; Chen, Ran; Dunlap, Susan; Chen, Baoguo

2016-01-01

This paper presents the results of an experiment that investigated the effects of number and presentation order of high-constraint sentences on semantic processing of unknown second language (L2) words (pseudowords) through reading. All participants were Chinese native speakers who learned English as a foreign language. In the experiment, sentence constraint and order of different constraint sentences were manipulated in English sentences, as well as L2 proficiency level of participants. We found that the number of high-constraint sentences was supportive for L2 word learning except in the condition in which high-constraint exposure was presented first. Moreover, when the number of high-constraint sentences was the same, learning was significantly better when the first exposure was a high-constraint exposure. And no proficiency level effects were found. Our results provided direct evidence that L2 word learning benefited from high quality language input and first presentations of high quality language input.

Clinical learning environment and supervision of international nursing students: A cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Mikkonen, Kristina; Elo, Satu; Miettunen, Jouko; Saarikoski, Mikko; Kääriäinen, Maria

2017-05-01

Previously, it has been shown that the clinical learning environment causes challenges for international nursing students, but there is a lack of empirical evidence relating to the background factors explaining and influencing the outcomes. To describe international and national students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment and supervision, and explain the related background factors. An explorative cross-sectional design was used in a study conducted in eight universities of applied sciences in Finland during September 2015-May 2016. All nursing students studying English language degree programs were invited to answer a self-administered questionnaire based on both the clinical learning environment, supervision and nurse teacher scale and Cultural and Linguistic Diversity scale with additional background questions. Participants (n=329) included international (n=231) and Finnish (n=98) nursing students. Binary logistic regression was used to identify background factors relating to the clinical learning environment and supervision. International students at a beginner level in Finnish perceived the pedagogical atmosphere as worse than native speakers. In comparison to native speakers, these international students generally needed greater support from the nurse teacher at their university. Students at an intermediate level in Finnish reported two times fewer negative encounters in cultural diversity at their clinical placement than the beginners. To facilitate a successful learning experience, international nursing students require a sufficient level of competence in the native language when conducting clinical placements. Educational interventions in language education are required to test causal effects on students' success in the clinical learning environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Migration of legacy mumps applications to relational database servers.

PubMed

O'Kane, K C

2001-07-01

An extended implementation of the Mumps language is described that facilitates vendor neutral migration of legacy Mumps applications to SQL-based relational database servers. Implemented as a compiler, this system translates Mumps programs to operating system independent, standard C code for subsequent compilation to fully stand-alone, binary executables. Added built-in functions and support modules extend the native hierarchical Mumps database with access to industry standard, networked, relational database management servers (RDBMS) thus freeing Mumps applications from dependence upon vendor specific, proprietary, unstandardized database models. Unlike Mumps systems that have added captive, proprietary RDMBS access, the programs generated by this development environment can be used with any RDBMS system that supports common network access protocols. Additional features include a built-in web server interface and the ability to interoperate directly with programs and functions written in other languages.

A Frequency and Error Analysis of the Use of Determiners, the Relationships between Noun Phrases, and the Structure of Discourse in English Essays by Native English Writers and Native Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean Learners of English as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gressang, Jane E.

2010-01-01

Second language (L2) learners notoriously have trouble using articles in their target languages (e.g., "a", "an", "the" in English). However, researchers disagree about the patterns and causes of these errors. Past studies have found that L2 English learners: (1) Predominantly omit articles (White 2003, Robertson 2000), (2) Overuse "the" (Huebner…

Spoken Language Activation Alters Subsequent Sign Language Activation in L2 Learners of American Sign Language.

PubMed

Williams, Joshua T; Newman, Sharlene D

2017-02-01

A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel language activation in M2L2 learners of sign language and to characterize the influence of spoken language and sign language neighborhood density on the activation of ASL signs. A priming paradigm was used in which the neighbors of the sign target were activated with a spoken English word and compared the activation of the targets in sparse and dense neighborhoods. Neighborhood density effects in auditory primed lexical decision task were then compared to previous reports of native deaf signers who were only processing sign language. Results indicated reversed neighborhood density effects in M2L2 learners relative to those in deaf signers such that there were inhibitory effects of handshape density and facilitatory effects of location density. Additionally, increased inhibition for signs in dense handshape neighborhoods was greater for high proficiency L2 learners. These findings support recent models of the hearing bimodal bilingual lexicon, which posit lateral links between spoken language and sign language lexical representations.

Language Learning and Control in Monolinguals and Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2012-01-01

Parallel language activation in bilinguals leads to competition between languages. Experience managing this interference may aid novel language learning by improving the ability to suppress competition from known languages. To investigate the effect of bilingualism on the ability to control native-language interference, monolinguals and bilinguals…

Language Proficiency Modulates the Recruitment of Non-Classical Language Areas in Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Leonard, Matthew K.; Torres, Christina; Travis, Katherine E.; Brown, Timothy T.; Hagler, Donald J.; Dale, Anders M.; Elman, Jeffrey L.; Halgren, Eric

2011-01-01

Bilingualism provides a unique opportunity for understanding the relative roles of proficiency and order of acquisition in determining how the brain represents language. In a previous study, we combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of word processing in a group of Spanish-English bilinguals who were more proficient in their native language. We found that from the earliest stages of lexical processing, words in the second language evoke greater activity in bilateral posterior visual regions, while activity to the native language is largely confined to classical left hemisphere fronto-temporal areas. In the present study, we sought to examine whether these effects relate to language proficiency or order of language acquisition by testing Spanish-English bilingual subjects who had become dominant in their second language. Additionally, we wanted to determine whether activity in bilateral visual regions was related to the presentation of written words in our previous study, so we presented subjects with both written and auditory words. We found greater activity for the less proficient native language in bilateral posterior visual regions for both the visual and auditory modalities, which started during the earliest word encoding stages and continued through lexico-semantic processing. In classical left fronto-temporal regions, the two languages evoked similar activity. Therefore, it is the lack of proficiency rather than secondary acquisition order that determines the recruitment of non-classical areas for word processing. PMID:21455315

Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories.

PubMed

Woolfe, Tyron; Herman, Rosalind; Roy, Penny; Woll, Bencie

2010-03-01

There is a dearth of assessments of sign language development in young deaf children. This study gathered age-related scores from a sample of deaf native signing children using an adapted version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI (Fenson et al., 1994). Parental reports on children's receptive and expressive signing were collected longitudinally on 29 deaf native British Sign Language (BSL) users, aged 8-36 months, yielding 146 datasets. A smooth upward growth curve was obtained for early vocabulary development and percentile scores were derived. In the main, receptive scores were in advance of expressive scores. No gender bias was observed. Correlational analysis identified factors associated with vocabulary development, including parental education and mothers' training in BSL. Individual children's profiles showed a range of development and some evidence of a growth spurt. Clinical and research issues relating to the measure are discussed. The study has developed a valid, reliable measure of vocabulary development in BSL. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between vocabulary acquisition in native and non-native signers.

Infants Show a Facilitation Effect for Native Language Phonetic Perception between 6 and 12 Months

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhl, Patricia K.; Stevens, Erica; Hayashi, Akiko; Deguchi, Toshisada; Kiritani, Shigeru; Iverson, Paul

2006-01-01

Patterns of developmental change in phonetic perception are critical to theory development. Many previous studies document a decline in nonnative phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months of age. However, much less experimental attention has been paid to developmental change in native-language phonetic perception over the same time period. We…

Word Order in Russian Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kimmelman, Vadim

2012-01-01

In this paper the results of an investigation of word order in Russian Sign Language (RSL) are presented. A small corpus of narratives based on comic strips by nine native signers was analyzed and a picture-description experiment (based on Volterra et al. 1984) was conducted with six native signers. The results are the following: the most frequent…

Culture and Place: A Legacy Darrell Kipp Helped Create

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conti, Gary J.

2013-01-01

Darrell Robes Kipp was a Blackfeet elder who was a national leader in the language immersion movement. He co-founded the Piegan Institute, and its schools have become a model for those seeking to preserve and promote their native language. In addition, he served as a Visiting Native American Scholar at Oklahoma State University. In that role, he…

Discrimination in the TESOL Profession in Mexico: Voices and Perspectives of English as a Foreign Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia-Ponce, Edgar Emmanuell; Lengeling, M. M.; Mora-Pablo, I.

2017-01-01

Over the last three decades, research has centred the attention on discrimination within TESOL motivated by issues concerning the distinction between native- and non-native English speaking teachers. However, based upon the authors' experience as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and researchers, it is claimed that discrimination in…

The Effects of Syntactically Parsed Text Formats on Intensive Reading in EFL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herbert, John C.

2014-01-01

Separating text into meaningful language chunks, as with visual-syntactic text formatting, helps readers to process text more easily and language learners to recognize grammar and syntax patterns more quickly. Evidence of this exists in studies on native and non-native English speakers. However, recent studies question the roll of VSTF in certain…

The Development of Sensitivity to Grammatical Violations in American Sign Language: Native versus Nonnative Signers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Novogrodsky, Rama; Henner, Jon; Caldwell-Harris, Catherine; Hoffmeister, Robert

2017-01-01

Factors influencing native and nonnative signers' syntactic judgment ability in American Sign Language (ASL) were explored for 421 deaf students aged 7;6-18;5. Predictors for syntactic knowledge were chronological age, age of entering a school for the deaf, gender, and additional learning disabilities. Mixed-effects linear modeling analysis…

Re-Emplacing Place in the "Global Here and Now"--Critical Ethnographic Case Studies of Native American Language Planning and Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, Teresa L.; Nicholas, Sheilah E.; Wyman, Leisy T.

2012-01-01

In Native American communities, the "global here and now" (Appadurai, 2001) is linked to twin movements for standardization and English supremacy, resulting in the decline of Indigenous languages and persistent educational disparities. This article takes up Appadurai's call to democratize research on globalization, juxtaposing theories that…

Hawaiian Language Immersion Adoption of an Innovation: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yong, D. Lilinoe

2012-01-01

This is a story about some Native Hawaiian people written by Native Hawaiian people of the Papahana Kaiapuni, or the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program (HLIP) of the Hawai`i public schools. Together they "talk story" and become the voice for the HLIP by painting a picture of their past, present, and future experiences with technology.…

And Gladly Teche: Notes on Instructing the Natives in the Native Tongue.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laird, Charlton

Twenty-three lectures by Charlton Laird, read at institutes and conventions over the past 25 years, deal with such areas in language, literature, and composition as "Trouble in Linguistic Paradise;""A Simpleminded Look at Grammar and Language;""Goldilocks and the Three or More Rhetorics;""More About Creative Writing;""The Case for Casebooks: One…

Learning to Teach English Language in the Practicum: What Challenges do Non-Native ESL Student Teachers Face?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gan, Zhengdong

2013-01-01

This study investigates the challenges sixteen non-native preservice ESL teachers in a Bachelor of Education (English Language) (BEdEL) programme from Hong Kong experienced in an eight-week teaching practicum. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were collected from all 16 participants to obtain a detailed…

Extending Talk on a Prescribed Discussion Topic in a Learner-Native Speaker eTandem Learning Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Emily

2017-01-01

Opportunities for language learners to access authentic input and engage in consequential interactions with native speakers of their target language abound in this era of computer mediated communication. Synchronous audio/video calling software represents one opportunity to access such input and address the challenges of developing pragmatic and…

American Indian Tribal Values: A Critical Consideration in the Education of American Indians/Alaska Natives Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tippeconnic, John W., III; Tippeconnic Fox, Mary Jo

2012-01-01

The education of American Indians and Alaska Natives has increasingly become more complex given the differences in tribal languages and cultures, especially as changing demographics and issues of Indian identity are considered. There are over 200 languages and vast cultural differences between and within the 565 federally recognized tribes in…

Higher Achievement and Improvement through Instruction with Computers and Scholarly Transition and Resource Systems Program. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

Project HAITI STARS served 360 students, native speakers of Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Chinese, in its first year through supplementary instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), native language arts (NLA), and bilingual mathematics, science, and social studies. The project provided students with academic and personal counseling,…

Encounters with "Strangers": Towards Dialogical Ethics in English Language Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kostogriz, Alex; Doecke, Brenton

2007-01-01

This article takes the inquiry into "nativeness" and "non-nativeness" to the level of developing an ethical framework for professional practice in English language education. In so doing, our aim is firstly to use the "sociology of the stranger" as a framework to problematize discourses on the Other and Othering. We shall argue that these…

What Does Low Proficiency in Literacy Really Mean? Adult Skills in Focus #2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2016

2016-01-01

In designing policies and programmes targeting populations with poor literacy skills, it is important to take into account differences in the level of these skills within and among these populations. For example, native speakers of the mainstream language may require different language-development training than non-native speakers; and most adults…

Auditory Training for Experienced and Inexperienced Second-Language Learners: Native French Speakers Learning English Vowels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iverson, Paul; Pinet, Melanie; Evans, Bronwen G.

2012-01-01

This study examined whether high-variability auditory training on natural speech can benefit experienced second-language English speakers who already are exposed to natural variability in their daily use of English. The subjects were native French speakers who had learned English in school; experienced listeners were tested in England and the less…

Conceptual Representation of Actions in Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobel, Christian; Enriquez-Geppert, Stefanie; Hummert, Marja; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Bolte, Jens

2011-01-01

The idea that knowledge of events entails a universal spatial component, that is conceiving agents left of patients, was put to test by investigating native users of German sign language and native users of spoken German. Participants heard or saw event descriptions and had to illustrate the meaning of these events by means of drawing or arranging…

"My Major Is English, Believe It or Not:)" -- Participant Orientations in Nonnative/Native Text Chat

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vandergriff, Ilona

2013-01-01

In their interactions with native speakers (NS), nonnative speakers (NNS) often position themselves as relative novices. For example, they may orient to the language expertise differential by apologizing for their linguistic ineptness or by making self-disparaging remarks about their second language (L2). This is true even for advanced learners in…

Biliterate Immigrants in a Community Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pacio-Lindin, Dino

Every immigrant has a right to literacy in his native language, but native language literacy alone does not guarantee success. The objective of a program begun in the 1970s in New York City was to develop biliteracy in immigrants so they could start and manage small businesses in the community. Despite a lack of political protection for the…

Ojibway Hockey CD ROM in the Making.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Shirley I.

A shortage of instructional materials and activities is a continual problem for Native language courses, as is making the material relevant to students. The Native way of teaching and learning has always been to have fun. In response to these concerns, a group of language experts at Trent University (Ontario) are developing a CD-ROM for high…

Investigating the ICT Use and Needs of "Digital Natives" in Learning English at a Taiwanese University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ko, Chao-Jung; Thang, Siew Ming; Ou, Shu-chen

2014-01-01

This article reports key findings of a study which investigated the use of technology by 569 "digital natives" students for English Language learning and recreational purposes. Their views on the applicability of technological tools such as Facebook, blogging and Skype for English Language teaching and learning were also investigated.…

Differences in the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies among Native and Non-Native Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheorey, R.; Mokhtari, K.

2001-01-01

Examines the differences in the reported use of reading strategies of native and non-native English speakers when reading academic materials. Participants were native English speaking and English-as-a-Second-Language college students who completed a survey of reading strategies aimed at discerning the strategies readers report using when coping…

Sciencepoetry and Language/Culture Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romano, James V.

1988-01-01

Examines Rafael Catala's notion of sciencepoetry and an application of modern scientific principles to the teaching of language and culture, the "Lange Process." This interactive language/culture learning process relates target and native languages, culture, and perceptions. (Author/LMO)

Foreign language affects the contribution of intentions and outcomes to moral judgment.

PubMed

Geipel, Janet; Hadjichristidis, Constantinos; Surian, Luca

2016-09-01

We examine whether the use of a foreign language, as opposed to the native language, influences the relative weight intentions versus outcomes carry in moral evaluations. In Study 1, participants were presented with actions that had positive outcomes but were motivated by dubious intentions, while in Study 2 with actions that had negative outcomes but were motivated by positive intentions. Participants received the materials either in their native or a foreign language. Foreign language prompted more positive moral evaluations in Study 1 and less positive evaluations in Study 2. These results show that foreign language reduces the relative weight placed on intentions versus outcomes. We discuss several theoretical accounts that are consistent with the results such as that foreign language attenuates emotions (triggered by intentions) or it depletes cognitive resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Negation in Near-Native French: Variation and Sociolinguistic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donaldson, Bryan

2017-01-01

This study investigated how adult second language (L2) speakers of French with near-native proficiency realize verbal negation, a well-known sociolinguistic variable in contemporary spoken French. Data included 10 spontaneous informal conversations between near-native speakers of French and native speakers (NSs) closely acquainted with them.…

Teaching Tribal Histories from a Native Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitford, Lea

1998-01-01

The Browning (Montana) school district on the Blackfeet reservation teaches Blackfeet studies, language, arts, and crafts. Discusses the benefits of Native studies for Native and non-Native students, the value of experiential learning and storytelling, and the importance of respecting elders' rights to impart certain knowledge at the right time…

The Development of Word Recognition in a Second Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muljani, D.; Koda, Keiko; Moates, Danny R.

1998-01-01

A study investigated differences in English word recognition in native speakers of Indonesian (an alphabetic language) and Chinese (a logographic languages) learning English as a Second Language. Results largely confirmed the hypothesis that an alphabetic first language would predict better word recognition in speakers of an alphabetic language,…

The Perception and Representation of Segmental and Prosodic Mandarin Contrasts in Native Speakers of Cantonese

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xujin; Samuel, Arthur G.; Liu, Siyun

2011-01-01

Previous research has found that a speaker’s native phonological system has a great influence on perception of another language. In three experiments, we tested the perception and representation of Mandarin phonological contrasts by Guangzhou Cantonese speakers, and compared their performance to that of native Mandarin speakers. Despite their rich experience using Mandarin Chinese, the Cantonese speakers had problems distinguishing specific Mandarin segmental and tonal contrasts that do not exist in Guangzhou Cantonese. However, we found evidence that the subtle differences between two members of a contrast were nonetheless represented in the lexicon. We also found different processing patterns for non-native segmental versus non-native tonal contrasts. The results provide substantial new information about the representation and processing of segmental and prosodic information by individuals listening to a closely-related, very well-learned, but still non-native language. PMID:22707849

Encoding, rehearsal, and recall in signers and speakers: shared network but differential engagement.

PubMed

Bavelier, D; Newman, A J; Mukherjee, M; Hauser, P; Kemeny, S; Braun, A; Boutla, M

2008-10-01

Short-term memory (STM), or the ability to hold verbal information in mind for a few seconds, is known to rely on the integrity of a frontoparietal network of areas. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to ask whether a similar network is engaged when verbal information is conveyed through a visuospatial language, American Sign Language, rather than speech. Deaf native signers and hearing native English speakers performed a verbal recall task, where they had to first encode a list of letters in memory, maintain it for a few seconds, and finally recall it in the order presented. The frontoparietal network described to mediate STM in speakers was also observed in signers, with its recruitment appearing independent of the modality of the language. This finding supports the view that signed and spoken STM rely on similar mechanisms. However, deaf signers and hearing speakers differentially engaged key structures of the frontoparietal network as the stages of STM unfold. In particular, deaf signers relied to a greater extent than hearing speakers on passive memory storage areas during encoding and maintenance, but on executive process areas during recall. This work opens new avenues for understanding similarities and differences in STM performance in signers and speakers.

Encoding, Rehearsal, and Recall in Signers and Speakers: Shared Network but Differential Engagement

PubMed Central

Newman, A. J.; Mukherjee, M.; Hauser, P.; Kemeny, S.; Braun, A.; Boutla, M.

2008-01-01

Short-term memory (STM), or the ability to hold verbal information in mind for a few seconds, is known to rely on the integrity of a frontoparietal network of areas. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to ask whether a similar network is engaged when verbal information is conveyed through a visuospatial language, American Sign Language, rather than speech. Deaf native signers and hearing native English speakers performed a verbal recall task, where they had to first encode a list of letters in memory, maintain it for a few seconds, and finally recall it in the order presented. The frontoparietal network described to mediate STM in speakers was also observed in signers, with its recruitment appearing independent of the modality of the language. This finding supports the view that signed and spoken STM rely on similar mechanisms. However, deaf signers and hearing speakers differentially engaged key structures of the frontoparietal network as the stages of STM unfold. In particular, deaf signers relied to a greater extent than hearing speakers on passive memory storage areas during encoding and maintenance, but on executive process areas during recall. This work opens new avenues for understanding similarities and differences in STM performance in signers and speakers. PMID:18245041

The Influence of Bilectalism and Non-standardization on the Perception of Native Grammatical Variants

PubMed Central

Leivada, Evelina; Papadopoulou, Elena; Kambanaros, Maria; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.

2017-01-01

Research in speakers of closely related varieties has shown that bilectalism and non-standardization affect speakers’ perception of the variants that exist in their native languages in a way that is absent from the performance of their monolingual peers. One possible explanation for this difference is that non-standardization blurs the boundaries of grammatical variants and increases grammatical fluidity. Affected by such factors, bilectals become less accurate in identifying the variety to which a grammatical variant pertains. Another explanation is that their differential performance derives from the fact that they are competent in two varieties. Under this scenario, the difference is due to the existence of two linguistic systems in the course of development, and not to how close or standardized these systems are. This study employs a novel variety-judgment task in order to elucidate which of the two explanations holds. Having administered the task to monolinguals, bilectals, and bilinguals, including heritage language learners and L1 attriters, we obtained a dataset of 16,245 sentences. The analysis shows differential performance between bilectal and bilingual speakers, granting support for the first explanation. We discuss the role of factors such as non-standardization and linguistic proximity in language development and flesh out the implications of the results in relation to different developmental trajectories. PMID:28265248

Language Revitalisation Processes and Prospects: Quichua in Equadorian Andes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Kendall A.

1999-01-01

Examines efforts to reverse language shift in two indigenous communities of southern Ecuador. Findings are presented from ethnographic work that investigated language use, language attitudes, and language instruction in two Andean communities that are attempting to revitalize their once-native Quechua.(Author/JL)

The role of primary caregiver vocabulary knowledge in the development of bilingual children’s vocabulary skills

PubMed Central

Buac, Milijana; Gross, Megan; Kaushanskaya, Margarita

2015-01-01

Purpose The current study examined the impact of environmental factors (SES, the percent of language exposure to English and to Spanish, and primary caregivers’ vocabulary knowledge) on bilingual children’s vocabulary skills. Method We measured vocabulary skills of 58 bilingual children between the ages of 5 and 7 who spoke Spanish as their native language and English as their second language. Data related to language environment in the home, specifically the percent of language exposure to each language and SES, were obtained from primary caregiver interviews. Primary caregivers’ vocabulary knowledge was measured directly using expressive and receptive vocabulary assessments in both languages. Results Multiple regression analyses indicated that primary caregivers’ vocabulary knowledge, the child’s percent exposure to each language, and SES were robust predictors of children’s English, but not Spanish, vocabulary skills. Conclusions These findings indicate that in the early school age, primary caregiver vocabulary skills have a stronger impact on bilingual children’s second-language than native-language vocabulary. PMID:24824882

Some cross-linguistic evidence for modulation of implicational universals by language-specific frequency effects in phonological development

PubMed Central

Edwards, Jan; Beckman, Mary E.

2009-01-01

While broad-focus comparisons of consonant inventories across children acquiring different language can suggest that phonological development follows a universal sequence, finer-grained statistical comparisons can reveal systematic differences. This cross-linguistic study of word-initial lingual obstruents examined some effects of language-specific frequencies on consonant mastery. Repetitions of real words were elicited from 2- and 3-year-old children who were monolingual speakers of English, Cantonese, Greek, or Japanese. The repetitions were recorded and transcribed by an adult native speaker for each language. Results found support for both language-universal effects in phonological acquisition and for language-specific influences related to phoneme and phoneme sequence frequency. These results suggest that acquisition patterns that are common across languages arise in two ways. One influence is direct, via the universal constraints imposed by the physiology and physics of speech production and perception, and how these predict which contrasts will be easy and which will be difficult for the child to learn to control. The other influence is indirect, via the way universal principles of ease of perception and production tend to influence the lexicons of many languages through commonly attested sound changes. PMID:19890438

Profiles of Native American and/or Alaska Native English Learners (ELs). Fast Facts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of English Language Acquisition, US Department of Education, 2015

2015-01-01

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on profiles of Native American and/or Alaska Native English Learners (ELs) include: (1) Largest Percentage of ELs Who Were Native American and/or…

Reanalysis and semantic persistence in native and non-native garden-path recovery.

PubMed

Jacob, Gunnar; Felser, Claudia

2016-01-01

We report the results from an eye-movement monitoring study investigating how native and non-native speakers of English process temporarily ambiguous sentences such as While the gentleman was eating the burgers were still being reheated in the microwave, in which an initially plausible direct-object analysis is first ruled out by a syntactic disambiguation (were) and also later on by semantic information (being reheated). Both participant groups showed garden-path effects at the syntactic disambiguation, with native speakers showing significantly stronger effects of ambiguity than non-native speakers in later eye-movement measures but equally strong effects in first-pass reading times. Ambiguity effects at the semantic disambiguation and in participants' end-of-trial responses revealed that for both participant groups, the incorrect direct-object analysis was frequently maintained beyond the syntactic disambiguation. The non-native group showed weaker reanalysis effects at the syntactic disambiguation and was more likely to misinterpret the experimental sentences than the native group. Our results suggest that native language (L1) and non-native language (L2) parsing are similar with regard to sensitivity to syntactic and semantic error signals, but different with regard to processes of reanalysis.

Teaching Formulaic Sequences in the Classroom: Effects on Spoken Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuire, Michael; Larson-Hall, Jenifer

2017-01-01

Formulaic sequences (FS) are frequently used by native speakers and have been found to help non-native speakers sound more fluent as well. We hypothesized that explicitly teaching FS to classroom ESL learners would increase the use of such language, which could further result in increased second language (L2) fluency. We report on a 5-week study…

Comparison of Native and Non-Native English Language Teachers' Evaluation of EFL Learners' Speaking Skills: Conflicting or Identical Rating Behaviour?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ekmekçi, Emrah

2016-01-01

Assessing speaking skills is regarded as a complex and hard process compared with the other language skills. Considering the idiosyncratic characteristics of EFL learners, oral proficiency assessment issue becomes even more important. Keeping this situation in mind, judgements and reliability of raters need to be consistent with each other. This…

Learner Agency and Non-Native Speaker Identity in Pedagogical Lingua Franca Conversations: Insights from Intercultural Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohn, Kurt; Hoffstaedter, Petra

2017-01-01

This article discusses insights gained from a case study on telecollaboration for intercultural communication in foreign language school contexts. Focus was on non-native English and German lingua franca conversations between pairs of students (aged 14-16, B1 level) from schools in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Telecollaboration…

Eye Gaze during Comprehension of American Sign Language by Native and Beginning Signers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emmorey, Karen; Thompson, Robin; Colvin, Rachael

2009-01-01

An eye-tracking experiment investigated where deaf native signers (N = 9) and hearing beginning signers (N = 10) look while comprehending a short narrative and a spatial description in American Sign Language produced live by a fluent signer. Both groups fixated primarily on the signer's face (more than 80% of the time) but differed with respect to…

Components and Context: Exploring Sources of Reading Difficulties for Language Minority Learners and Native English Speakers in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kieffer, Michael J.; Vukovic, Rose K.

2012-01-01

Drawing on the cognitive and ecological domains within the componential model of reading, this longitudinal study explores heterogeneity in the sources of reading difficulties for language minority learners and native English speakers in urban schools. Students (N = 150) were followed from first through third grade and assessed annually on…

Using Simplified English to Identify Potential Problems for Non-Native Speakers in the Language of Engineering Examination Papers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Sandra; Morgan, Roger

2012-01-01

There is an increasing sensitivity to the challenges posed by the language of examination papers and of instruction in scientific subjects, especially for non-native speakers of English. It has been observed that in addition to technical subject-specific vocabulary, non-technical words such as instructional verbs have been sources of difficulty,…

L2 Learners' Assessments of Accentedness, Fluency, and Comprehensibility of Native and Nonnative German Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brien, Mary Grantham

2014-01-01

In early stages of classroom language learning, many adult second language (L2) learners communicate primarily with one another, yet we know little about which speech stream characteristics learners tune into or the extent to which they understand this lingua franca communication. In the current study, 25 native English speakers learning German as…

ELF on a Mushroom: The Overnight Growth in English as a Lingua Franca

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sowden, Colin

2012-01-01

In an effort to curtail native-speaker dominance of global English, and in recognition of the growing role of the language among non-native speakers from different first-language backgrounds, some academics have been urging the teaching of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Although at first this proposal seems to offer a plausible alternative to…

Phonological Short-Term and Working Memory in Bilinguals' Native and Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon

2013-01-01

The goal of the current study was to examine bilinguals' phonological short-term and working memory performance in their native/first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Korean-English bilinguals were tested in both Korean (L1) and English (L2). Short-term memory (STM) was measured via a nonword repetition task, where participants repeated…