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Communicative competence is one of the primary aims of English language education, and it highlights the proper use of language functions in specific situations. This study aimed to determine the language functions used in ESL classrooms by Junior High School students. The identified underrepresented language functions became the point of departure in designing an enhancement program to improve the conversational English skills of the students. This study used qualitative research design as it employed audio recordings, classroom observations, and field notes as instruments to gather data from the six (6) ESL classrooms. This study used the model of Michael Halliday's Language Functions as a framework for the conversation analysis of verbatim transcriptions. The study found that the participants mostly used representational, heuristic, personal, and instrumental language functions during their conversational English sessions. However, imaginative, regulatory, and interactional language functions were recognized as underrepresented. A Conversational English Enhancement Program (CEEP) Framework and Modules focused on the identified underrepresented language functions were designed for the language learners. The study's concerns, such as the sparse use of imaginative language function in discussion, ineffective ways of employing regulatory function in communication, and maintaining dialogues, were specifically and contextually targeted by the modules. Thus, students in ESL classrooms should be given avenues to exercise their conversational English skills by giving them exposure to authentic situations where they can maximize language functions appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language has long attracted the attention many linguists and researchers, and many theories have emerged that examined its various species, including Roman Jakobson's theories verbal or linguistic communication. Roman Jakobson proposed communication theory based six functions of the language, the function verbal event achived only through them, poetic text among the literary genres related to language communication. Because they are communication tools of the poet and recipient. Relying on a descriptive-analytical approach, this research tries to study the theory of linguistic communication in the poetry of Omani poet Talāl al-Saltī, so it deals with six linguistic functions in the poet's poetry: emotional functions, Sympathetic, Exhortative, referential, Metalinguistic and literary functions. In the end, the results indicate that the poet's messages were not only for the reader, but also his Lord and his love. By examining the poet's poetry, we can see that he has used common words in the function of encouraging words away from complexity, and the function of Sympathetic appears in poems whose purpose is to influence the Almighty God and the poet's mistress, so it can be said that the recipient of the poet's messages is not the only reader. Poems with referential functions such as reports have emerged that convey the poet's concerns to the audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language difficulties exert profound negative effects on the cognitive and social development of autistic children. Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is a promising intervention for improving social communication in autistic children, but there is a lack of a comprehensive examination of language functions. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of PRT in promoting the primary language functions (requesting, labeling, repeating, responding) defined by (Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Martino Publishing.) theory of verbal behavior in autistic children. Thirty autistic children were randomly divided into the PRT group (Mage = 6.20, SDage = 1.21) and control group (Mage = 6.07, SDage = 1.49). The PRT group were provided with an 8-week training of the PRT motivation component in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) in their schools, whereas the control group only received TAU. Parents of the PRT group were also trained to practice the PRT motivation procedures at home. The PRT group demonstrated greater improvements in all four measured language functions compared to the control group. The improvement in language functions in the PRT group was generalized and maintained at the follow-up assessment. In addition, the PRT intervention enhanced untargeted social and communicative functioning, cognition, motor skills, imitation, and adaptive behaviors in the autistic children. In conclusion, language intervention using the motivation component of PRT is effective in promoting language functions as well as widespread untargeted cognitive and social functions in autistic children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Mother Tongue Education / Ana Dili Egitim Dergisi is the property of Journal of Mother Tongue Education / Ana Dili Egitim Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates the multifaceted functions of language in undergraduate classroom discourse, focusing on how students utilize various language functions to enhance learning and communication in diverse educational settings. Through a descriptive qualitative analysis of classroom interactions, it reveals that students actively engage with both formal and informal teaching methods, fostering social interaction and critical thinking. Judgmental functions dominate the discourse, indicating a prevalent use of evaluation and critical analysis in student talk. However, the study also uncovers that responses to questions are multifaceted, often involving argumentative and informative discourse for deeper engagement with content. The research highlights the integral role of instructors in facilitating a classroom environment that promotes robust student discourse and equitable participation. The findings emphasize the need for educators to be aware of and integrate both recognized and uncategorized language functions into instructional strategies to support student communication and learning. Conclusively, this study provides insights into the dynamic application of language functions within classroom discourse and the crucial role of educators in guiding and enhancing this discourse. It suggests the necessity of further research into oral discourse in educational contexts, particularly the types of student explanations and clarifications, to refine teaching and learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of INES Journal: The Journal of International Education Science / Uluslararası Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi is the property of INES Journal: The Journal of International Education Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Ahmet Kelesoglu Educational Faculty is the property of Journal of Ahmet Kelesoglu Educational Faculty and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research on the discursive features of graffiti in institutional settings is in its infancy and few studies have investigated the phenomenon and its implications in educational contexts. In this paper, we report on a study in which we employed systemic functional linguistics (Halliday in Learning how to mean, Edward Arnold, 1975). to probe communicative functions and gender differences in Iranian university student graffiti that appeared in all-male and all-female locations. The data comprised authentic instances of graffiti generated by students, analysis of which suggests that male and female university students each have their own distinctive motives for using graffiti, as realised in significant differences observed in the context-specific functions they perform. Graffiti pieces represented a distinctive and meaningful way of communicating, and its most salient features were creativity, simplicity and variation. Indications are that university students' graffiti reflects psychological and social challenges, and the thoughts, attitudes and feelings expressed through it serve students' personal and interactional purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written feedback is an essential communication between theses supervisors and postgraduate students. This study examines written assessments from academic supervisors from a master's program with no official assessment rubric or tool at a postgraduate level. The data from written feedback on five masters' theses underwent qualitative content analysis focused on identifying comments related to the foci; content, language, structure, and presentation; and directive, expressive, and referential language functions. The findings revealed that the dominant focus of the supervisors' written feedback was content, followed by language, then structure, and presentation. Supervisors strongly preferred directive language, followed by referential language, with a minimal representation of expressive language. This study concluded that the supervisors emphasized content-related feedback more, while language, structure, and presentation were secondary and tertiary concerns. The supervisors also preferred directives, such as clarifying questions and suggestions, over referential language functions, such as indirect corrections. They showed little interest in expressive language functions,such as giving praise or negative criticism when giving written feedback. Implications and recommendations were also provided in this study. It is concluded that the supervisors focused on the content of the thesis. In addition, they also looked at its overall aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interesting article by Hongbing Yu (Yu, Hongbing. 2019. Meaning generation. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15(3). 429–447) "Meaning generation" led me to reconsider an unpublished paper from 15 years ago on Roman Jakobson's much-criticized basic communication model, and the functions of language published in the Closing Statement of Style in language (Jakobson, Roman. 1960. Linguistics and poetics. In Thomas Sebeok (ed.), Style in language, 350–377. New York: MIT Press). In this article it is about using the semiotic nonagon operative model, derived from the three Peircean categories, to review Jakobson's model, and in turn, think about the limits of agency for the production of meaning in relation to three other authors like Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, and Charles S. Peirce himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have taken an interest to study the language of English materials that learners use in different contexts. One line of inquiry is to examine the pragmatic competence potential of such materials. This study aimed at examining the use of speech acts and language functions in the 21st Century English for Libya Secondary 1, 2, and 3 course books and workbooks. To achieve this aim, a frequency-based analysis of language functions and speech acts in the conversation sections in the five course books and five workbooks was followed. A data analysis revealed that the distribution of speech acts and language functions is highly skewed; in each analysis domain, a given category accounted for almost half of the data while other categories accounted for little or even none. Findings are used to argue that Libyan students need a more balanced and language-in-use informed distribution of English functions and speech acts to learn the pragmatic features of English; otherwise, they are less likely to become communicatively competent in speech acts and functions that have been not been treated adequately. The findings also highlight that the unequal frequency and distribution of these pragmatic variables are in line with previous studies and provide implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, material designers, and language practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Advanced Education Studies is the property of Journal of Advanced Education Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For last two decades, it has become possible to speak not only about massive lexical borrowing, but about the real anglicization of the Russian-speaking communicative space, and this has become a factor of serious linguistic conflict, since, on the one hand, the process can be considered as inevitable and even beneficial, and on the other hand, negative and even catastrophic. If language activity is considered to be not external to a person, but essential, forming a person as a social being, then it is obvious that the language code participates in this formation. Public language practice influences the peculiarities of human phylogeny, the system of existential guidelines and value parameters, individual and social cognition. Therefore, it is extremely important to define how the very concept of anglicization is correct in relation to the modern Russian language and to evaluate the impact of cultural and linguistic contacts on the modern Russian language. The purpose of the article is to study the phenomenon of Russian-speaking media space anglicization as a linguistic conflict, taking into account the functioning of anglicisms in various communicative spheres. The source of the language material was text fragments containing multilevel anglicisms. Since the article deals with the current state of the Russian language, relevant media texts were involved in the analysis. To solve this problem, the methods of linguopragmatic and sociolinguistic interpretation of linguistic facts were used. This article contains an attempt to answer these global questions (in the context of modern ecological linguistics). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of the article analyzes linguistic and methodological problems in the teaching of the Bulgarian language in the two modules for profiled preparation in the XI and XII grades of secondary school – “Language and Society” and “Language Uses”. The objective, content and technological characteristics of the learning process are interpreted, taking into account the role of Bulgarian language learning to be the basis for developing the linguistic, communicative and general culture of students in the final phases of high school education. In the second part of the article, ideas are proposed for specific pedagogical solutions for classes on profiled preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NCAR Command Language (NCL) is a popular scripting language used in the geoscience community for weather data analysis and visualization. Hundreds of years of data are analyzed daily using NCL to make accurate weather predictions. However, due to its sequential nature of execution, it cannot properly utilize the parallel processing power provided by High-Performance Computing systems (HPCs). Until now very few techniques have been developed to make use of the multi-core functionality of modern HPC systems on these functions. In the recent trend, open-source languages are becoming highly popular because they support major functionalities required for data analysis and parallel computing. Hence, developers of NCL have decided to adopt Python as the future scripting language for analysis and visualization and to enable the geosciences community to play an active role in its development and support. This study focuses on developing some of the widely used NCL routines in Python. To deal with the analysis of large datasets, parallel versions of these routines are developed to work within a single node and make use of multi-core CPUs to achieve parallelism. Results show high accuracy between NCL and Python outputs and the parallel versions provided good scaling compared to their sequential counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on automatically assessing language proficiency levels according to linguistic complexity in learner English. We implement a supervised learning approach as part of an automatic essay scoring system. The objective is to uncover Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) criterial features in writings by learners of English as a foreign language. Our method relies on the concept of microsystems with features related to learner-specific linguistic systems in which several forms operate paradigmatically. Results on internal data show that different microsystems help classify writings from A1 to C2 levels (82% balanced accuracy). Overall results on external data show that a combination of lexical, syntactic, cohesive and accuracy features yields the most efficient classification across several corpora (59.2% balanced accuracy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tonos Digital: Revista de Estudios Filológicos is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Antipsychotic treatment resistance affects up to a third of individuals with schizophrenia. Of those affected, 70–84% are reported to be treatment resistant from the outset. This raises the possibility that the neurobiological mechanisms of treatment resistance emerge before the onset of psychosis and have a neurodevelopmental origin. Neuropsychological investigations can offer important insights into the nature, origin and pathophysiology of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), but methodological limitations in a still emergent field of research have obscured the neuropsychological discriminability of TRS. We report on the first systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate neuropsychological differences between TRS patients and treatment-responsive controls across 17 published studies (1864 participants). Five meta-analyses were performed in relation to (1) executive function, (2) general cognitive function, (3) attention, working memory and processing speed, (4) verbal memory and learning, and (5) visual−spatial memory and learning. Small-to-moderate effect sizes emerged for all domains. Similarly to previous comparisons between unselected, drug-naïve and first-episode schizophrenia samples v. healthy controls in the literature, the largest effect size was observed in verbal memory and learning [dl = −0.53; 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.29 to −0.76; z = 4.42; p < 0.001]. A sub-analysis of language-related functions, extracted from across the primary domains, yielded a comparable effect size (dl = −0.53, 95% CI −0.82 to −0.23; z = 3.45; p < 0.001). Manipulating our sampling strategy to include or exclude samples selected for clozapine response did not affect the pattern of findings. Our findings are discussed in relation to possible aetiological contributions to TRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Socjolingwistyka is the property of Instytut Jezyka Polskiego PAN and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An overwhelming personality of the 20th century, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom was the spiritual head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain (1948-2003) who really raised the British people's awareness of what Orthodoxy meant. He provided the realm of religious discourse with a particular outlook on Christianity (mainly sprung from his own revelation of the risen Christ), which he expressed in a perfectly natural and unsophisticated manner. Interestingly enough, Anthony Bloom and C. S. Lewis can be viewed as "kindred spirits", as not only did they embrace Christianity after being nonbelievers, but their writing styles are also similar in that "both have an uncanny ability to explain difficult concepts with simple and engaging language" ("Beginning to Pray (A. Bloom)" [book review]). In Metropolitan Anthony's view, Christian life represents the personal encounter with God. His discourse is in fact a place of encounters; it is where Eastern Orthodoxy meets Western spirituality, where the sacred realm meets the secular realm and, perhaps most importantly, where the metropolitan's inner world meaningfully interacts with his addressees' spiritual searches. We hereby examine the ways in which adjectives contribute to creating an image of a particular world in the following books: Living Prayer (1999a), School for Prayer (1999b), Meditations on a Theme: A spiritual journey (2003). Our approach relies on the Jakobsonian model (1960/1987) of language functions, Kinneavy's (1980) Theory of Discourse, van Eemeren's (2002) pragmadialectical theory of argumentation and various studies on religious discourse. The current paper reveals such discourse constants as the triadic pattern of adjectival constructions, the abundant use of the adjectives "real" and "true", as well as the presence of adjectives in parallelism and repetition. All these expressive uses of adjectives contribute to the creation of a complex network in which the world of the Gospel, the discursive ethos (conveying the author's attitude in its diversity) and the reader's image intermingle in a most harmonious manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of this article concerns the names of intimate body parts that appear in the performances of Polish female stand-up comedians. The aim of the considerations is to show the dominant semantic forms of naming intimate parts of the body and to indicate their functions in speech and genre discourse. The article begins with theoretical findings on the genre features of stand-up and the specificity of the vocabulary relating to body parts considered taboo. Further considerations include an analysis of the material divided into the part concerning semantics and the part concerning the function of the studied vocabulary. The methodological approach used in the study is lexical semantics in terms of cognitive linguistics with elements of pragmalinguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adab Al-Basrah is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article reported a case study investigating small group interaction patterns in online collaborative writing tasks and factors influencing team collaborations. Participants included six Asian EFL university students who formed two small groups and were engaged in two online collaborative writing tasks via Google Docs. Data collection included the participants' use of writing change functions and language functions during the collaborative writing processes revealed through Google Docs archives and collaborative essays. Semi-structured interviews were employed to examine factors influencing small group collaborations. The findings revealed that the two teams exhibited divergent interaction patterns, but the patterns of interaction remained consistent within each group across both tasks. The qualitative content analysis showed factors that affected team collaborations were individual goals, learners' English proficiency, individual roles, and the use of collaborative agency. The findings may help elucidate the divergence of online collaborative writing and provide insightful information for instructors to design collaborative writing activities and assist EFL learners in the co-construction of writing tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the comparability between the video-conferencing and face-to-face modes of the IELTS Speaking Test in terms of scores and language functions generated by test-takers. Data were collected from 10 trained IELTS examiners and 99 test-takers who took two speaking tests under face-to-face and video-conferencing conditions. Many-facet Rasch Model (MFRM) analysis of test scores indicated that the delivery mode did not make any meaningful difference to test-takers' scores. An examination of language functions revealed that both modes equally elicited the same language functions except asking for clarification. More test-takers made clarification requests in the video-conferencing mode (63.3%) than in the face-to-face mode (26.7%). Drawing on the findings, as well as practical implications, we extend emerging thinking about video-conferencing speaking assessment and the associated features of this modality in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this article is to highlight the strong pragmalinguistic potential of language as a means of communication in social work and the potential problems of Czech-Russian translation of terminology in this field. Using the material of Russian-Czech terminological equivalents covering the semantic field of “social work”, the author attempts, on the one hand, to illustrate some functions of language in the field under study, on the other hand, to point out a certain interlingual asymmetry in the terminological apparatus of Russian and Czech languages. Last but not least, the author focuses on the growing tendency towards the observance of the ethical principles and correctness of expression in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study propounds a novel discourse-semantic approach that problematizes the social semiotic analysis of visual narrative in two respects: (i) the lack of a model that can explain the plurifunctional structure of visual acts of communication in general and (ii) the failure to provide the deep structure underlying the characters and/or objects in visual narrative in particular. Redressing these two shortcomings, the approach is methodologically geared towards analysing the visual narrative grammar that encodes the 2017 BBC image-enabled news story of Islamic State (IS). The proposed approach rests on two theoretical models: (i) Roman Jakobson's (1960) communication model of language functions; (ii) Algirdas Julien Greimas's (1966, 1987) structural-semantic model of actant grammar. The study has reached two major findings. First, theoretically, the visual narrative analysis of images demands the presence of both (1) a theory that can adequately explain the plurifunctional structure associated with the semiotic complexity of visual communication and (2) a structural-semantic model that reveals the deep structure of the actants that enable the dramatis personae to relate to the events featuring in the mono-/multimodal discourse of narrative. Second, on a practical level of the BBC's visual storyline, IS has been represented within three actant-based enunciation-spectacles: (a) victimhood with Subject versus Object, (b) beneficiariness with Sender versus Receiver, and (c) villainy (self-presented and other-presented) with Opponent/Victim versus Helper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis: Folia Litteraria Romanica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Language dysfunction is a crucial deficit in terms of cognitive functioning, quality of life and activities of daily living. Several studies have identified cognitive impairment in patients with cancer across several cognitive domains, including language. Methods: We investigated language functions among 182 patients with different types of cancer (not brain cancer) and compared them with the performance of Greek healthy adults with the same age and educational levels as the patients. The assessment included verbal fluency test, both semantic (animals) and phonological (X), and Boston Naming Test (BNT-60) among other neuropsychological measures. Results: Breast cancer patients performed worse compared to patients with prostate, colorectal and thyroid cancer in language tasks. In addition, breast cancer patients had a decreased performance compared with healthy adults, while patients with other types performed to the mean in two out of three language tasks. Conclusions: Semantic and phonological fluency requirements of cognitive processes in the brain are discussed. Implications for cancer survivors: Language dysfunction is a crucial deficit in terms of cognitive functioning, quality of life and activities of daily living, especially in brain cancer patients, but it can be crucial for patients with other types of cancer as stated in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on usage-based approaches this paper addresses the challenge of capturing EMI teachers' linguistic needs for the purposes of teacher training in international Medical Education. The focus is on EMI medical teachers in various instructional formats. Each format requires a specific linguistic repertoire resulting dynamic interactions of linguistic, didactic, and intercultural competence, which is difficult to define in linguistic modules such as syntax and lexicon. Moreover, a generic native speaker standard of language proficiency is questionable in this ELF context. Capturing the relevant EMI competence as linguistic units that can be taught in teacher training programs is therefore a challenge. The paper builds on central tenets shared by a number of usage-based approaches to propose that linguistic units of EMI competence can be conceptualized as highly specific language functions arising from a specific EMI instructional context and mapping onto suitable formulations in ELF. This conceptualization was applied in a local teacher training initiative. First, subject-specific language functions were identified through a combined analysis of the EMI instructional context and the teachers' instructional practices. Second, the identification procedure formed a starting point for a collaborative teacher training program. Third, a policy document was drafted, taking into account institutional limitations. Abbreviations: CDFs: Cognitive Discourse Functions; CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning; ELF: English as a lingua franca; EMI: English-Medium Instruction; IBMG: International Bachelor Medicine Groningen; PBL: Problem-Based Learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The frontal aslant tract (FAT) is a recently documented white matter tract that connects the inferior and superior frontal gyri with a tendency to be more pronounced in the left hemisphere. This tract has been found to play a role in language functions, particularly verbal fluency. However, it is not entirely clear to what extent FAT asymmetry is related to performance benefits in language-related tasks. In the present study, we aimed to fill this gap by examining the correlations between asymmetric micro- and macro-structural properties of the FAT and performance on verbal fluency and lexical decision tasks. The results showed no correlation between the FAT and verbal fluency; however, lexical decision was correlated with FAT laterality. Specifically, greater left lateralization in both micro- and macro-structural properties was related to faster lexical decision response times. The results were not due merely to motor or decision-making processes, as responses in a simple discrimination control task showed no correlation with laterality. These data are the first to suggest a role for the FAT in mediating processes underlying lexical decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim subjectivity is created and shaped by means of certain linguistic-rhetorical traits and techniques prevalent in the Qur'an. This hypothesis implies that rhetorical choices and strategies were crucial for the emergence and gestalt of the Qur'anic discourse, it oratorical Sitz im Leben. In terms of genre and speech register, Qur'anic discourse presents itself as an extrovert soliloquy: self-sufficient and introvert on one hand and extrovert and audience-orientated on the other. The present article focuses on the latter, that is, the pragmatic and functionalistic nature of Qur'anic rhetoric. Furthermore, it argues for the analytical application of Roman Jakobson's notion of language functions, especially one particular language function. This is the so-called conative or appellative language function, which I regard as a particularly salient Qur'anic one. Central here are linguistic-rhetorical features such as direct speech, imperatives, and vocatives. Moreover, I maintain that the Qur'an's appellative language must be coupled with the critical notion of interpellation, as provided by the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser (1918–1990). By means of regular interpallative addresses, such as the yā-ayyuhā vocatives, the Qur'an creates and shape an efficacious Muslim subjectivity: the subject, whether an individual person or a collective group, instantly and intuitively feels recognised and apprehended as a privileged addressee. As a result of this very recognition and apprehension, the subject in the same instant recognises itself as subordinate to a powerful divine voice. Seized by the Qur'anic address, a basic Muslim subjectivity—with a certain vision of the ultimate conditions of existence—is constituted. In other words, the appellative rhetoric is crucial to the appeal of the Qur'an: the appellative Qur'an is an appealing Qur'an. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adab Al-Kufa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the past 2 decades, there has been an increasing tendency to use scores from the TOEFL iBT® Speaking test for decisions regarding the certification of international graduate students as teaching assistants at North American universities. To obtain validity evidence in support of the usefulness of the speaking scores for this secondary use of the test, this study adopted the argument‐based approach to validation. Focusing on the domain description inference in the TOEFL interpretive argument, the study investigated whether the language functions elicited by TOEFL iBT Speaking tasks can be identified in authentic discourse produced by international teaching assistants (ITAs) with different instructional roles. We compiled and analyzed 2 corpora—a TOEFL iBT speech corpus and an ITA speech corpus. The TOEFL corpus contained 2,738 responses to integrated and independent tasks. The ITA corpus of 119 spoken texts included multiple disciplines and 3 instructional genres: lab, recitation, and lecture. The 2 corpora were manually annotated using the knowledge framework (Mohan, 1986), which is a heuristic in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) used to identify knowledge structures (KSs) and language functions based on how linguistic choices function in the discourse. Then, the following types of data were quantitatively analyzed: discourse units annotated per KS category, discourse units annotated per language function, KS categories occurring in each text, language functions occurring in each text, and KSs and functions from each component of the spoken corpora. The corpus data revealed how the language functions were realized and how they varied. Overall, the results indicated that TOEFL iBT Speaking tasks elicit most of the language functions identified in ITA discourse, suggesting that this test accounts for the functional language ability necessary for effective instructional performance as a teaching assistant in the target domain of language use. The discrepancy detected in the use of some functions pertaining to 2 KSs warrants further examination of the extent to which it may impact secondary test use and score interpretation. Report Number: ETS RR–18‐45 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of College of Education is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Language: Meaning & Form / Valoda: Nozime un Forma is the property of University of Latvia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the issue of reading literature in the present-day academic milieu, in particular, and in the deeply computerised contemporary public space, in general. After pointing out some of the key aspects that teachers and professors need to observe in order to help students develop their reading skills, the study highlights the specificity that narratives, poems and plays display in relation to the parameter investigated and the functions of language. While explaining the relationship of coordination between literature and linguistics, the paper defends the authenticity of the act of reading, which has suffered serious mutations since the advent of the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Synergies Europe is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The metonymy and metaphor functions in 'The Instance of the Letter' are a turning point in Lacan's thought. While he had sought to transform psychoanalysis into a science by providing formalizations laying out unconscious operative procedures in his works until the mid-1950s, this is no longer the case in 'The Instance of the Letter'. Yet Lacan insists we take the formulas literally, that is, as mathematical functions. This essay argues that taking Lacan's request seriously leads to a necessary breakdown in understanding that forces us to go through the split subject's disrupted constitutive process of metonymy and metaphor. Taking the language functions literally (and failing) engenders the effect they merely seem to signify. Disruption is a catalyst for the split subject's constitutive, self-formalizing process, and its role is crucial for understanding how Lacan reconceptualized the relation between psychoanalysis and science. Lacan does not provide a formalism for us to master, but puts it into operation. The language functions are mathemes avant la lettre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy aging is accompanied by a continuous decline in cognitive functions. For example, the ability to learn languages decreases with age, while the neurobiological underpinnings for the decline in learning abilities are not known exactly. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in combination with appropriate experimental paradigms, is a well-established technique to investigate the mechanisms of learning. Based on previous results in young adults, we tested the suitability of an associative learning paradigm for the acquisition of action- and object-related words in a cohort of older participants. We applied tDCS to the motor cortex (MC) and hypothesized an involvement of the MC in learning action-related words. To test this, a cohort of 18 healthy, older participants (mean age 71) engaged in a computer-assisted associative word-learning paradigm, while tDCS stimulation (anodal, cathodal, sham) was applied to the left MC. Participants' task performance was quantified in a randomized, cross-over experimental design. Participants successfully learned novel words, correctly translating 39.22% of the words after 1 h of training under sham stimulation. Task performance correlated with scores for declarative verbal learning and logical reasoning. Overall, tDCS did not influence associative word learning, but a specific influence was observed of cathodal tDCS on learning of action-related words during the NMDA-dependent stimulation period. Successful learning of a novel lexicon with associative learning in older participants can only be achieved when the learning procedure is changed in several aspects, relative to young subjects. Learning success showed large inter-individual variance which was dependent on non-linguistic as well as linguistic cognitive functions. Intriguingly, cathodal tDCS influenced the acquisition of action-related words in the NMDA-dependent stimulation period. However, the effect was not specific for the associative learning principle, suggesting more neurobiological fragility of learning in healthy aging compared with young persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notional-functional approach is one of the most influential theories in the field of foreign language teaching and almost all English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and even Arabic, Hebrew and Turkish language teaching resources, have considered the principles of this approach, in order to produce educational contents. The key principle of this approach is to create purposeful and communicative based balance between the language notions and functions and the real situations. Nevertheless, regretfully not much attention to this approach is paid in the authentic teaching Farsi to the foreigners' resources. In this study, first the notional-functional approach and the foremost language notions and functions in the framework of this approach are presented. Then, the representation rate of these notions and functions in let's learn Persian (Zolfaghari & Etal., 2002) and Persian language (Safarmoqadam, 2007) teaching series were evaluated. This evaluation have been made through a self-developed checklist. This checklist consists of 10 basic questions on the content of courses and 6 default responses: at all, very low, low, medium, high and very high with respectively 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points assigned to each question. According to the results, the let's learn Persian series gained 35 and the Persian language series gained 16 points out of 50. Although the overall result of this project suggests the superiority of the let's learn Persian series, but the rate of language notions and functions diversity and distribution in both series, lead us to purposeful planning for teaching Farsi based on language notions and functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of three science teachers’ lessons on heat and temperature seeks to characterise classroom talk that highlighted the ways language is used and to examine the nature of the language demands revealed in constructing, negotiating, arguing and communicating science ideas. The transcripts from the entire instructional units for these teachers’ four culturally and linguistically diverse Grade 4 classes (10 years old) with English as the language of instruction constitute the data for this investigation. Analysis of these transcripts focused on teachers’ talk that made explicit reference to the form or function of the language of science and led to the inductive development of the ‘Attending to Language Demands in Science’ analytical framework. This framework in turn revealed that the major foregrounding purposes of teachers’ talk include labelling, explaining, differentiating, selecting and constructing. Further classification of the instances within these categories revealed the extensive and contextualised nature of the language demands. The results challenge the conventional assumption that basic literacy skills dominate over disciplinary literacy skills in primary school science. Potential uses of the analytical framework that could further expand our understanding of the forms, functions and demands of language used in elementary school science are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of technical discourses imply an abundance of visual elements. From charts to diagrams and from graphs to technical drawings, the technical communication is overwhelmingly dependent on visuals. For engineering students, a good mastery of the English technical language inevitably implies a good command of the most common language structures used to describe the abovementioned elements. For an English language instructor, this requirement implies the need to update courses, seminars and other language learning-related activities with information related to describing specific technical visuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper approaches the verbal communication functions proposed by R. Jakobson, namely: the emotive, conative, phatic, metalinguistic, referential and poetic functions, which position the translation process and the core issues related to synonymy within the dynamic framework of communication. Each function instantiation through translation is illustrated via excerpts from Amintiri din copilarie by I.Creanga, translated by Yves Augé, and Povestiri by V.Voiculescu, translated by I.Badescu. Another objective of the present paper is to highlight some particular difficulties with which the translator is confronted, in his position of a receiver who is more "informed" than the average addressee. We will also examine the impact of the poetic function upon the synonymy phenomena at the translation level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare the verbal functions and language skills of male psychopathic individuals (in prison and outside) with non-psychopaths. The purpose was therefore to analyze phonological processing, reading and writing skills, the meaning of words and images, and the understanding of sentences. Ninety individuals with an average age of 38.19 (SD = 7.67) voluntarily participated in this study. The data were collected in different settings: prisons, a private charitable organization, and private clinics and health centers. All participants completed the Psychopathy Checklist Revised and the Psycholinguistic Assessment of Language Processing in Aphasia, to assess psychopathy traits and language skills, respectively. Participants were allocated into four different groups: incarcerated psychopathic offenders (n = 13), non-incarcerated psychopathic non-offenders living in the community (n = 13), incarcerated non-psychopathic offenders (n = 25), and non-psychopathic non-offenders living in the community (n = 39). The results showed that the verbal functions and language skills between psychopaths and non-psychopaths are very similar, showing a common profile. The data presented indicate the need for more specific work opportunities for both groups within the correctional setting, with the use of appropriate language and individualized programs as necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical framework which considers the verbal functions of the brain under a multivariate and comprehensive cognitive model was statistically analyzed. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to verify whether some recognized aphasia constructs can be hierarchically integrated as latent factors from a homogenously verbal test. The Brief Aphasia Evaluation was used. A sample of 65 patients with left cerebral lesions, and two supplementary samples comprising 35 patients with right cerebral lesions and 30 healthy participants were studied. A model encompassing an all inclusive verbal organizer and two successive organizers was validated. The two last organizers were: three factors of comprehension, expression and a 'complementary' verbal factor which included praxia, attention, and memory; followed by the individual (and correlated) factors of auditory comprehension, repetition, naming, speech, reading, writing, and the 'complementary' factor. By following this approach all the patients fall inside the classification system; consequently, theoretical improvement is guaranteed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Alzheimer's disease ( AD), the most common cause of dementia, typically shows a slow clinical progression over time. 'Rapidly progressive' AD, a variant of the disease characterized by an aggressive course, exhibits distinct clinical, biological, and neuropathological features. Here, we investigate neuropsychological predictors of rapid decline in a group of mild patients with AD. Methods One hundred fifty-three mild patients with AD admitted to a memory disorder clinic and followed for up to 3 years were included in this study. A comprehensive neuropsychological ( NP) battery was performed at the time of enrollment. Patients were defined as 'rapidly progressive' if they exhibited a drop of 6 or more points on the Mini Mental State Examination ( MMSE) between two consecutive annual visits. This event defined the main outcome in multiple analyses of variance and Cox proportional hazards models that investigated the impact of NP predictors. Categorical principal component analysis ( CATPCA) was also employed in order to delineate clusters of NP tests and to test their effect on the outcome. Results Of 153 subjects, thirty-seven (24%) were classified as 'rapidly progressive'; those subjects showed younger age of symptoms onset compared to slow decliners (68 vs 71.5 years old). Baseline lower performance on a neuropsychological test of naming predicted a rapid decline over the follow-up ( P = 0.001). Three clusters of NP were defined by CATPCA: (i) executive/language, (ii) visuospatial memory, and (iii) verbal memory. The executive/language component predicted a rapid decline over the follow-up ( P = 0.016). Conclusion Early executive/language impairment is highly predictive of a rapid progression of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Synergies Afrique des Grands Lacs is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article addresses the question of contact and its importance in journalistic communication from a pragmatic and linguistic perspective. Thus, the key concepts of this theoretical approach are the phatic function of language and phaticity, defined here as a property of language-in-use that allows individuals to establish, develop and maintain relationships through communication. The overall aims are to design a new research line in print journalism discourse analysis, and also to provide a discursive model based on the phatic dimension of language. In the light of the constant decline of print media audiences and of the rapid growth of online media audiences, this model could serve as a tool for print outlets to keep its readership close by strategically engage with it, using the discursive apparatus developed here. The main conclusion of this proposal refers to the necessary discursive turn in print journalism from referentiality (a context-centred approach) to phaticity (a contact-centred approach), a turn already embraced by other mass communication channels like radio, television and Internet. In other words, this study is an invitation for print media to lay more stress on how facts are expressed, along with what is communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]