573,303 results on '"linguistics"'
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2. REVIEW, EXPANSION OF TRANSITIVE VERBS, DETERMINERS, MORE ABOUT QUESTIONS, AND THE NEGATIVE. LANGUAGE CURRICULUM III, STUDENT VERSION.
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Oregon Univ., Eugene. and KITZHABER, ALBERT R.
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VARIOUS FORMS OF PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES AND EXPANSION, AND THE SINGLE-BASE AND DOUBLE-BASE TRANSFORMATIONS WERE INCLUDED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THIS GRAMMAR REVIEW GUIDE FOR NINTH-GRADERS. THE REVIEW COVERED INDIRECT OBJECT VERBS, TRANSITIVE VERBS, DETERMINERS, DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES, IMPERATIVES, NEGATIVES, AND CONTRACTIONS AND WAS BASED ON THE STRUCTURAL TECHNIQUES TAUGHT IN EARLIER COURSES. THE GUIDE INCLUDED WRITTEN EXERCISES AND EXPLANATIONS FOR ALL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW. THE TEACHER VERSION IS ED 010 830. RELATED REPORTS ARE ED 010 129 THROUGH ED 010 160 AND ED 010 803 THROUGH ED 010 832. (PM)
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- 2024
3. ONE DAY, ONE TIME, ONE PLACE, A UNIT ON EMPHASIS. IT'S ALL IN KNOWING HOW, A UNIT ON PROCESS. RHETORIC CURRICULUM III, STUDENT VERSION.
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Oregon Univ., Eugene. and KITZHABER, ALBERT R.
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THIS STUDY GUIDE, THE FIRST PART OF A NINTH-GRADE RHETORIC GUIDE, USED THE STUDENT'S PAST EXPERIENCE IN PREVIOUS RHETORIC COURSES AS A BASIS UPON WHICH TO EXPAND HIS KNOWLEDGE OF SEMANTICS AND EMPHASIS IN WRITING. EXAMPLES WERE PROVIDED OF THE WRITING OF MARK TWAIN AND CHARLES DICKENS AND DIRECTED THE STUDENT TO ANSWER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS IN WRITING USING HIS IMAGINATION TO FACTUALLY DESCRIBE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS. THE SECOND PART OF THE GUIDE EMPHASIZED THE CLARITY OF WRITING NECESSARY TO EXPLAIN A PROCESS OR AN EVENT. THE TEACHER VERSION IS ED 010 804. RELATED REPORTS ARE ED 010 129 THROUGH ED 010 160 AND ED 010 803 THROUGH ED 010 832. (PM)
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- 2024
4. Do Words Matter: Investigating the Association between Linguistic Features of Accounting Examinations and Marks
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Juan Mendelsohn Ontong
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The use of linguistic features in school assessments, as well as the impact of these factors on the outcome of assessments have received limited attention in the literature. With this study I aimed to analyse linguistic features of accounting examinations. A quantitative technique, using tests for correlation, was employed to analyse the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate accounting examinations from 2011 until 2021. Advanced textual analysis software was used to identify connections between specific linguistic features and the marks obtained in these examinations. The findings of this study suggest that increasing the levels of linguistic features associated with analytical thinking, emotional tone and big words, which may be assumed to promote comprehension, may in reality be counterproductive, consequently potentially resulting in poorer marks attained in assessments in the future. The findings of this study are important for the creators of assessment to consider when developing accounting assessment. Given the effect of linguistic features on assessment results as identified in this study, it contributes to the debate on the use of certain linguistic features in assessment.
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- 2024
5. Causal Language and Statistics Instruction: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
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Jennifer Hill, George Perrett, Stacey A. Hancock, Le Win, and Yoav Bergner
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Most current statistics courses include some instruction relevant to causal inference. Whether this instruction is incorporated as material on randomized experiments or as an interpretation of associations measured by correlation or regression coefficients, the way in which this material is presented may have important implications for understanding causal inference fundamentals. Although the connection between study design and the ability to infer causality is often described well, the link between the language used to describe study results and causal attribution typically is not well defined. The current study investigates this relationship experimentally using a sample of students in a statistics course at a large western university in the United States. It also provides (non-experimental) evidence about the association between statistics instruction and the ability to understand appropriate causal attribution. The results from our experimental vignette study suggest that the wording of study findings impacts causal attribution by the reader, and, perhaps more surprisingly, that this variation in level of causal attribution across different wording conditions seems to pale in comparison to the variation across study contexts. More research, however, is needed to better understand how to tailor statistics instruction to make students sufficiently wary of unwarranted causal interpretation.
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- 2024
6. Linguistic Technopreneurship in Business Success Digitalization for Small Medium Enterprises in West Java: Implication for Language Education
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Yogi Suprayogi, Senny Luckyardi, Dede Kurnia, and Mirza Abdi Khairusy
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The increase in borderless digital-based business competition shows how language education is impacted by neoliberalism in this global era. We explore how linguistic technopreneurship (LT) roles is increasingly constructed as a form of linguistic entrepreneurship to exploit language-related resources to enhance one's socioeconomic value strategically. This research aims to critically examine the influence of LT toward business success digitalization for Small Medium Enterprises in West Java and it's implication for Language Education. The research also focusing on the creation of novelty, namely linguistic technopreneurship (LT), which is a refinement of entrepreneurial linguistics (EL). LT is expected to be able to explain how linguistic entrepreneurship can be indexed from two different aspects, namely how to package language education and digital business success. We then discuss under what conditions the notion of linguistic technopreneurship can be applied to digital platform-based business settings and what kind of contradictions this gives rise to. The method used is quantitative, and it involves carrying out SEM analysis. A non-probability sampling technique was used to obtain a minimum of 250 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Industry owners who run their businesses through digital platforms in West Java province, which is the province with the most significant number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Industries in Indonesia. The research results show that LT significantly influences the success of business success and impact the language education practice. It can be concluded that language education is an added value for a person and influences socioeconomic success.
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- 2024
7. The Manifestation of Mythical Cognition in Toponyms: On the Material of the Turkic Languages
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Sadirova Kulzat Kanievna, Zhazykova Raushan Balgalievna, Yessenova Kalbike Umirbaevna, Sapina Sabira Minataevna, Mirov Mukhtar Orynbasaruly, and Abdirova Sholpan Gaidarovna
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In linguistics, onomastics is the science that studies the history and origin of toponyms, along with their structural aspects. This study aimed to determine the origin of toponyms by comparing their linguistic and ethnocultural, as well as mythical, information. A qualitative research design guided this study. A few toponyms were identified through random sampling method including Yrgyz (Irgiz), Burkanbulak, Esik (Yssyk), Auliesu, Zhaiyk (Ural) and Zher-Su, which were collected from etymological, explanatory and mythological dictionaries and collections of mythical texts. The etymological and component analysis methods were applied to study these names. The criteria to select these toponyms were that all should be names of rivers or hydronyms, since river-water was a mythological symbol (the source of life, death and disorder); and that they should occur not only in one language, but in several related languages. The findings revealed that the archetype of each word conformed to phonetic changes. There were also structural connections between these words. Besides, each word had symbolic connotations. This study would provide useful insights about ethnocultural and mythical information of these words and help in broader understanding of the cultural characteristics.
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- 2024
8. Preparing Future Teachers and Psychologists to Use Integrative Fairy Tale Therapy Techniques
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Akhmetova Aigul, Yerzhanova Feruza, Abisheva Onal, Garber Alena, Komekova Sandugash, Koralasbek Aktoty, and Mukazhanova Rysty
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The application of an integrative approach in fairy tale therapy is a cutting-edge method for safeguarding the mental well-being of the younger generation in the era of digital education. The unique aspect of integrative fairy tale therapy is the integration of various methodologies, pedagogical approaches, linguistic techniques, art history, and psychotherapeutic methods within a single fairy tale framework. These are then tailored to the individual psyches of children, with the aim of fostering a well-rounded and healthy personality. Utilising fairy tale therapy techniques in the spiritual and moral growth of students can provide valuable insights into the effective implementation of fairy tale therapy programmes for preschoolers and schoolchildren. These programmes are rooted in the rich oral folk art of the Kazakh people and encompass a harmonious blend of spiritual, national, and universal values. The article reveals theoretical and methodological, general cultural and educational, psychological aspects of the study of fairy tale therapy as an integrative technology. The literature review of the main types of fairy tale therapy is also carried out, the functions of fairy tales are reveale. The educational, developmental, and cognitive possibilities of fairy tales are extensively utilised in academic and correctional-developmental activities with students. The importance of preparing future philologists, art historians, social teachers, psychologists, and kindergarten teachers in utilising fairy tale therapy techniques as an integrative technology is emphasised. The article discusses the theoretical, methodological, cultural, educational, and psychological aspects of fairy tale therapy as an integrative technology. This research is funded by the State Institution "Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan" under the project IRN AP19679368, which aims to preserve the psychological health of the younger generation in the context of digitalization of education.
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- 2024
9. Influence of Foreign Language Anxiety on University Students' Cognitive Processing in English Language Classrooms
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Anna Stepanovna Borisova, Svetlana Alekseevna Moskvitcheva, Oksana Ivanovna Aleksandrova, and Muhammad Arif Soomro
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Foreign language anxiety (FLA), whose impact is often negative on learners' cognitive processing, happens when a learner pursues a foreign language as a non-native speaker. This study aimed to investigate anxiety in learning English as a foreign language and its influence on learners' cognitive processes. The sample comprised graduate and undergraduate students of RUDN university (n=306 respondents), who were asked to fill up an adapted Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The data was analyzed through SPSS v.20 and descriptive statistics were drawn. The findings indicate a statistically important anxiety influence on language performance among university students in classroom settings. Interestingly, the findings also confirmed that foreign language anxiety negatively affects cognitive processing in learning the English language. The study also identified some important affective factors with regard to English language classrooms. These findings would provide useful insights in the domain of foreign language anxiety while taking cognitive dimensions of students' classroom environments. The study also contributes to language education, teaching and learning of English as foreign language, educational psychology, and cognitive sciences. The study recommends to provide more exposure to the learners about the target language to reduce anxiety. Future studies should consider socio-biographical variables such as gender, socioeconomic status, educational background, and age differences as significant variables for a more comprehensive analysis of foreign language anxiety.
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- 2024
10. Unstable Statives -- An Observational Study: How British Popular Culture Reveals What Is Happening to a Specific Verb Class, and the Possible Reasons for This Development
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John E. Booth
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That a certain class of verb commonly known as 'statives' is undergoing change in terms of the way in which certain verbs of this type are being used in everyday speech is nothing new to the field of linguistics. Much has been written about it, and the author of this paper alone has been preoccupied with the subject for many years now. However, notwithstanding that this change has been fairly widely documented for well over half a century, the present paper has been motivated by the desire to capture the root cause of this change in writing and to establish the linguistic conditions that have enabled it to occur. This is not so much a reductionist venture, negatively conceived, as a quest to determine the primary factors involved in what can seem at times to be a most peculiar phenomenon. The method employed to delimit these causal factors proceeds by a process of elimination, while the provision of evidence adopts the traditional, tried-and-tested method of 'observation and collection'. The stative-specific research papers that examine the current variation constituting the focus of this paper are all from the present century.
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- 2024
11. Reimagining Education: Bridging Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism, and Critical Pedagogy
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Funda Nayir, Tamer Sari, and Aras Bozkurt
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From personalized advertising to economic forecasting, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important element of our daily lives. These advancements raise concerns regarding the transhumanist perspective and associated discussions in the context of technology-human interaction, as well as the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on education and critical pedagogy. In this regard, the purpose of this research paper was to investigate the intersection of AI and critical pedagogy by critically assessing the potential of AI to promote or hamper critical pedagogical practices in the context of transhumanism. The article provides an overview of the concepts of transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and critical pedagogy. In order to seek answers to research questions, qualitative research design was adopted, and GPT-3 was used as a data collection resource. Noteworthy findings include the similarity of the dialogue with the GPT-3 davinci model to a conversation between two human beings, as well as its difficulty in understanding some of the questions presented from a critical pedagogy perspective. GPT-3 draws attention to the importance of the relationship between humans in education and emphasizes that AI applications can be an opportunity to ensure equality in education. The research provides suggestions indicating the relationship between AI applications and critical pedagogy.
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- 2024
12. Lost in Statistics
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Malika Jmila
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The present paper investigates one aspect of questionable research practices relating to Arabic L1 learners of foreign languages, namely the use of statistics. The objective of the paper is to argue that reproducible research requires adopting wise practices in linguistics and that the excessive focus on quantification does not seem to serve this purpose. Statistical significance tests in quantitative research are routinely used in linguistic inquiry as well as language teaching and learning studies with a view to supporting the relevant explanatory insights in linguistics. In this article, I will expose the misuse of statistics by doctoral students in English departments of Morocco working on Arabic L1 learners' data, by highlighting some practices that are at odds with international good practices in academic research in linguistics. I will take stock of the current questionable practices in this regard to dispel some of the misunderstanding about the use of statistics which is now gaining grounds lest this becomes an orthodoxy. I will argue that research on Arabic L1 learners' data should be focused more on exploration and discovery, as well as the validation of epistemological insights than on mere descriptive quantification geared to hypothesis verification. These areas of focus constitute the crux of academic research in linguistics, but they seem to be lost in statistics in doctoral students' theses. Recommendations and solutions are provided for enhancing transparency and improving reproducibility of doctoral research outcomes to advance theory building and the delivery of new research lines in linguistics as well as to avoid the risk of research waste, in line with the requirements of open science.
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- 2024
13. Linguistics Study and Critical Thinking: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
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Nu Anh Vo and Stephen H. Moore
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From a linguistic perspective it seems intuitive that a strong link would exist between the study of linguistics and critical thinking (CT). After all, linguistics is about making sense of language analysis, which contributes to the enhancement of CT while CT, in reciprocation, enables meaningful analysis. Yet this link has virtually never been clearly defined or made explicit either in studies on linguistics teaching and learning or in those on CT development. This paper explores the relationship between linguistics study and CT in the Vietnamese context from the perspectives of undergraduate English Linguistics students and their lecturers, with a view to improving both students' linguistics study and their CT. Drawing on data collected in questionnaires and interviews at a public university in Vietnam, the findings of the study reveal a variety of aspects of linguistics tasks and classroom activities where the link is significant as well as a range of specific CT skills and dispositions that are related to linguistics teaching and learning. In general, the students and the lecturers showed a positive attitude towards the integration of CT into linguistics teaching and learning, but challenges and barriers to this integration were identified. The study suggests the use of problem-solving tasks and open-ended questions for fostering the reciprocal relationship between linguistics study and CT.
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- 2024
14. Teacher Perspectives on the Introduction of Linguistics in the Languages Classroom: Evidence from a Co-Creation Project on French, German and Spanish
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Michelle Sheehan, Anna D. Havinga, Jonathan R. Kasstan, Sascha Stollhans, Alice Corr, and Peter Gillman
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Linguistics is conspicuously absent from language teaching in UK schools. A-level cultural topics cover a range of themes such as cyber-society, cultural heritage and multiculturalism, but the approach taken to these topics is not informed by linguistics. In previous work, we have argued that this is an unfortunate omission not only because linguistics is appealing to many language students and perceived by them to be useful, but also because the existing cultural topics could be significantly enriched by the inclusion of the critical/analytical study of language itself. In this paper, we provide concrete examples of how linguistics can be integrated into the existing A-level curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) in England and Wales. Reporting on a project in which teachers trialled linguistics materials co-created by us (a group of academics) and experienced languages teachers, we present evidence that linguistics materials are perceived to be both highly novel and nonetheless compatible with the existing A-level curriculum. Data from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with participating teachers also show that: (i) these new materials can be taught with little or no prior experience of linguistics; and (ii) adding linguistics materials to the curriculum leads to significant impacts on teacher and pupil attitudes towards language(s). Despite some challenges, which we also discuss, the results highlight again the great potential of linguistics as a component of language teaching and the contribution that it can make to the enrichment of the discipline.
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- 2024
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15. A Systematic Narrative Synthesis Review of the Effectiveness of Genre Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics for Improving Reading and Writing Outcomes within K-10 Education
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Clarence Green, Iain Giblin, and Jean Mulder
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This paper reports a systematic narrative synthesis review conducted on the educational effectiveness of genre theory/systemic functional linguistics pedagogies for improving reading and writing outcomes in K-10 education within mainstream classrooms in Australia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand, and Canada. This framework has significant influence on reading and writing curriculum, teacher training, and literacy practices. However, its evidence base has never been systematically reviewed. An exhaustive database search sourced 7846 potentially relevant studies, which were screened according to guidelines for evaluating evidence through systematic narrative synthesis reviews and standardly applied criteria for educational evidence (e.g., The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, What Works Clearinghouse). Very few peer-reviewed intervention studies with control groups and quantitatively measured outcomes were found. A surprising result. Those studies showing positive effects had flaws in research design and quality that preclude their use as educational evidence. This systematic review indicates that there is insufficient rigorous evidence of the benefits, or lack thereof, of genre theory/systemic functional linguistics--based approaches to teaching reading and writing within K-10 education, at least in terms of measurable outcomes for students. More high-quality research needs to be undertaken as the current research record is not sufficient to prove or disprove the value of this approach.
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- 2024
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16. Metacognitive Mastery: Transformative Learning in EFL through a Generative AI Chatbot Fueled by Metalinguistic Guidance
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Mei-Rong Alice Chen
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The increase in popularity of Generative Artificial Intelligence Chatbots, or GACs, has created a potentially fruitful opportunity to enhance teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This study investigated the possibility of using GACs to give EFL students metalinguistic guidance (MG) in linguistics courses. Language competency gaps, a lack of individualized engagement, and low metacognitive abilities are common challenges EFL students face in linguistics courses. Feedback has been suggested as a potential solution to these issues in previous studies; nevertheless, conventional corrective feedback (CF) might not fully satisfy the demands of EFL students. In order to address these obstacles, the current study suggested a metalinguistic guiding (MG)-based GAC approach. Using a quasi-experimental approach with pretest and posttest setups, this study evaluated the learning achievement, reflective performance, perception, and metacognitive awareness of EFL students exposed to either CF-based GAC or MG-based GAC. According to the study's findings, the MG-based GAC group performed better than the CF-based GAC group in terms of learning achievement, reflective performance, and perceptual and metacognitive awareness. The GAC's immediate educational usefulness and potential as a pedagogical tool for shaping cognitive processes are highlighted by its successful application in helping EFL students gain metacognitive awareness. This study contributes significantly to the growing body of knowledge about the use of GAC in educational settings by providing empirical evidence of the effectiveness of GAC in terms of delivering MG to EFL students.
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- 2024
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17. Language as a Tool for Inclusive and Equitable School Education: A Critical Review of NEP 2020
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Shivani Nag
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The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 begins at the very outset by acknowledging education as the fundamental tool for achieving human potential and for achieving economic and social mobility, justice, equality and inclusion. It further recognises the need for education itself to be 'inclusive and equitable' for it to be able to become such a tool. The article drawing from socio-cultural learning perspectives examines the language perspective of NEP 2020. The present article aims to examine the commitment of NEP 2020 towards linguistic inclusion and multilingualism in school education by focusing on how the policy appears to understand the significance of languages and the pathway it suggests for the same.
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- 2024
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18. Children Extract a New Linguistic Rule More Quickly than Adults
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Sarah Berger and Laura J. Batterink
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Children achieve better long-term language outcomes than adults. However, it remains unclear whether children actually learn language "more quickly" than adults during real-time exposure to input--indicative of true superior language learning abilities--or whether this advantage stems from other factors. To examine this issue, we compared the rate at which children (8-10 years) and adults extracted a novel, hidden linguistic rule, in which novel articles probabilistically predicted the animacy of associated nouns (e.g., "gi lion"). Participants categorized these two-word phrases according to a second, explicitly instructed rule over two sessions, separated by an overnight delay. Both children and adults successfully learned the hidden animacy rule through mere exposure to the phrases, showing slower response times and decreased accuracy to occasional phrases that violated the rule. Critically, sensitivity to the hidden rule emerged much more quickly in children than adults; children showed a processing cost for violation trials from very early on in learning, whereas adults did not show reliable sensitivity to the rule until the second session. Children also showed superior generalization of the hidden animacy rule when asked to classify nonword trials (e.g., "gi badupi") according to the hidden animacy rule. Children and adults showed similar retention of the hidden rule over the delay period. These results provide insight into the nature of the critical period for language, suggesting that children have a true advantage over adults in the rate of implicit language learning. Relative to adults, children more rapidly extract hidden linguistic structures during real-time language exposure.
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- 2024
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19. Numbers in Context: Cardinals, Ordinals, and Nominals in American English
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Greg Woodin and Bodo Winter
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There are three main types of number used in modern, industrialized societies. Cardinals count sets (e.g., people, objects) and quantify elements of conventional scales (e.g., money, distance), ordinals index positions in ordered sequences (e.g., years, pages), and nominals serve as unique identifiers (e.g., telephone numbers, player numbers). Many studies that have cited number frequencies in support of claims about numerical cognition and mathematical cognition hinge on the assumption that most numbers analyzed are cardinal. This paper is the first to investigate the relative frequencies of different number types, presenting a corpus analysis of morphologically unmarked numbers (not, e.g., "eighth" or "21st") in which we manually annotated 3,600 concordances in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Overall, cardinals are dominant--both pure cardinals (sets) and measurements (scales)--except in the range 1,000-10,000, which is dominated by ordinal years, like 1996 and 2004. Ordinals occur less often overall, and nominals even less so. Only for cardinals do round numbers, associated with approximation, dominate overall and increase with magnitude. In comparison with other registers, academic writing contains a lower proportion of measurements as well as a higher proportion of ordinals and, to some extent, nominals. In writing, pure cardinals and measurements are usually represented as number words, but measurements--especially larger, unround ones--are more likely to be numerals. Ordinals and nominals are mostly represented as numerals. Altogether, this paper reveals how numbers are used in American English, establishing an initial baseline for any analyses of number frequencies and shedding new light on the cognitive and psychological study of number.
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- 2024
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20. The Influence of Ecolinguistic Discourse on Shaping the Product Relationship Management
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Zahra Sadat Roozafzai
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Ecolinguistic studies deal with the socio-ecological contexts, actors and factors involved in producing, perceiving, and practicing a language. Being supported by immense scholarship about the power of language in shaping the receivers' mind, culture, and lifestyles, including shopping, a shift toward sustainability can start by employing ecological linguistics in marketing communications to attain both profitabilities which is the end goal of marketing, and sustainability which is the ultimate condition of survival and living. Therefore, the present study addresses the question of what ecolinguistic discourse strategies can be proposed for developing marketing and product development contents in Product Relationship Management (PRM). To answer the question, a mixed method including an experiment, and a questionnaire survey was employed, to investigate the effectiveness of using a chosen rhetorical device in ads about preserving natural resources and re-commerce for selling selected products in retail businesses. Re-commerce is short for "reverse commerce," referring to the practice of selling previously owned or used products through online or physical marketplaces. In the experiment employed in the present study, an ecological ad containing the rhetorical question was given to the experimental group, and a purely commercial ad about the same customer good for the control group. The results gathered from 80 potential customers (participants) showed that using the rhetorical questions had a significant and distinctive effect on the purchase intention of the participants.
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- 2024
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21. Automatic Classification of Online Discussions and Other Learning Traces to Detect Cognitive Presence
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Verena Dornauer, Michael Netzer, Éva Kaczkó, Lisa-Maria Norz, and Elske Ammenwerth
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Cognitive presence is a core construct of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. It is considered crucial for deep and meaningful online-based learning. CoI-based real-time dashboards visualizing students' cognitive presence may help instructors to monitor and support students' learning progress. Such real-time classifiers are often based on the linguistic analysis of the content of posts made by students. It is unclear whether these classifiers could be improved by considering other learning traces, such as files attached to students' posts. We aimed to develop a German-language cognitive presence classifier that includes linguistic analysis using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool and other learning traces based on 1,521 manually coded meaningful units from an online-based university course. As learning traces, we included not only the linguistic features from the LIWC tool, but also features such as attaching files to a post, tagging, or using terms from the course glossary. We used the k-nearest neighbor method, a random forest model, and a multilayer perceptron as classifiers. The results showed an accuracy of up to 82% and a Cohen's K of 0.76 for the cognitive presence classifier for German posts. Including learning traces did not improve the predictive ability. In conclusion, we developed an automatic classifier for German-language courses based on a linguistic analysis of students' posts. This classifier is a step toward a teacher dashboard. Our work also provides the first fully CoI-coded German dataset for future research on cognitive presence.
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- 2024
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22. Nonword Repetition in Children with Developmental Language Disorder: Revisiting the Case of Cantonese
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Nga Ching Fu, Si Chen, Kamila Polišenská, Angel Chan, Rachel Kan, and Shula Chiat
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Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) has been described as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder (DLD), as NWR tasks consistently discriminate between DLD and typical development (TD) cross-linguistically, with Cantonese as the only reported exception. This study reexamines whether NWR is able to generate TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children by reporting on a novel set of NWR stimuli that take into account factors known to affect NWR performance and group differentiation, including lexicality, sublexicality, length, and syllable complexity. Method: Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and 16 age-matched children with TD repeated two sets of high-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are morphemic in Cantonese but meaningless when combined, and one set of low-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are nonmorphemic. Low-lexicality nonwords were further classified on sublexicality in terms of consonant-vowel (CV) combination attestedness (whether or not CV combinations in nonword syllables occur in real Cantonese words). Results: Children with DLD scored significantly below their peers with TD. Effect sizes showed that high-lexicality nonwords and nonword syllables with attested CV combinations offered the greatest TD/DLD group differentiation. Nonword length and syllable complexity did not affect TD/DLD group differentiation. Conclusions: NWR can capture TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children. Lexicality and sublexicality effects must be considered in designing NWR stimuli for TD/DLD group differentiation. Future studies should replicate the present study on a larger sample size and a younger population as well as examine the diagnostic accuracy of this NWR test.
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- 2024
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23. Theme and Thematic Progression in a Recount Text by an Advanced Student
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Mustofa, M. Ibnu and Kurniawan, Eri
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Recount text is included within the curriculum of English subjects in the Indonesian context, where students are expected to be well-informed and be able to compose a good recount text to express themselves. The current study aimed at analyzing the recount text written by an advanced (C1 level of English) student based on the concept of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Through a qualitative case study, the data on the text organization, language features, Theme system, and Theme progression of the text were obtained through systematic identification, calculation, and analysis. The findings show that the text fulfilled the text organization and language features of a recount text. Moreover, the types of Themes with the most occurrence were unmarked topical Themes (51,2%), followed by topical textual Themes (40%), marked topical Themes (8%), and interpersonal Themes (0,8%). Based on the Theme system, Theme reiteration occurred most frequently (88.20%), while the Zigzag Themes only represented 11,80% of the total. The dominant use of unmarked Themes demonstrates the writer's skill in keeping the focus of the readers on the central topic of the text, while the huge number of textual Themes is the implication of the student to maintain the text's cohesion and coherence.
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- 2023
24. Talk Debt to Me: An Applied Linguistics Approach to Exploring College Student Preferences for Student Loan Debt Letters
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Taylor, Zachary W., Rainey, Elizabeth A., Charran, Chelseaia, Holthaus, Gretchen, Eguiluz, Linda, Horne, Ada, Francisco, Myra, and Weber-Wandel, Karla
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Although student loan debt has been rigorously studied over the past several decades, scant research has investigated how institutions of higher education communicate debt to current and former student borrowers. As COVID-19 forced the United States Department of Education to cancel the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement as part of a student's signing of the master promissory note (MPN), there are no other mechanisms for students to be aware of their student loan debt beyond a debt letter from their institution or reviewing their National Student Loan Debt System (NSLDS) portal. This applied linguistics study surveyed 2,030 current student loan borrowers attending U.S. institutions of higher education to explore their preferences for receiving a student loan debt letter. Results suggest students of Color and first-generation in college students strongly prefer shorter, simpler letters, while there were no statistically significant preferences by gender. Implications for research and practice will be addressed.
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- 2023
25. Multidimensional IRT Analysis of Reading Comprehension in English as a Foreign Language
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Tatarinova, Galiya, Neamah, Nour Raheem, Mohammed, Aisha, Hassan, Aalaa Yaseen, Obaid, Ali Abdulridha, Ismail, Ismail Abdulwahhab, Maabreh, Hatem Ghaleb, Afif, Al Khateeb Nashaat Sultan, and Viktorovna, Shvedova Irina
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Unidimensionality is an important assumption of measurement but it is violated very often. Most of the time, tests are deliberately constructed to be multidimensional to cover all aspects of the intended construct. In such situations, the application of unidimensional item response theory (IRT) models is not justifieddue to poor model fit and misleading results. Multidimensional IRT (MIRT) models can handle several dimensions simultaneously and yield person ability parameters on several dimensions which is helpful for diagnostic purposes too. Furthermore, MIRT models use the correlation between the dimensions to enhance the precision of the measurement. In this study, a reading comprehension test is modeled with the multidimensional Rasch model. The findings showed that a correlated 2-dimensional model has the best fit to the data. The bifactor model revealed some interesting information about the structure of reading comprehension and the reading curriculum. Implications of the study for the testing and teaching of reading comprehension are discussed.
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- 2023
26. Linguistic Features in Narrative and Opinion Genres and Their Relations to Writing Quality in Fourth Grade Writing
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Jiali Wang, Young-Suk Grace Kim, and Minkyung Cho
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Background: We examined linguistic features in fourth graders' narrative and opinion writing and their relations to writing quality. We analysed narrative and opinion essays in terms of lexical sophistication and diversity as well as syntactic complexity, syntactic accuracy, and morphological complexity. Methods: Data were from English-speaking students in Grade 4 (N = 129; 50% female) in the United States, majority of whom were from low socioeconomic status background. Paired t tests were used to analyse differences of linguistic features between the two genres. Hierarchical regression models were run to examine how language features are related to writing quality. Results: Words in the narrative task were more diverse and included more diverse verbal inflectional morphemes than those in the opinion task; syntactic complexity was significantly greater in the opinion genre, manifested by longer T-units and the more frequent use of adverbial and relative clauses. Approximately 80% of T-units were grammatical and 20% were ungrammatical. Syntactic accuracy and verbal morphological complexity of words were positively related to writing quality in the narrative task. Additionally, syntactic complexity measured by clauses per T-unit, verbal and nominal morphological complexity of words were uniquely related to writing quality in the opinion genre. Conclusions: The findings highlight the limited extent to which Grade 4 students use complex syntax in their writing. The study also supports the critical role of linguistic features in writing quality and shows both similarities and differences in language use in two important writing genres, narrative and opinion, in elementary grades.
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- 2024
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27. Written Language: A Promising Gateway to Anxiety Disorders Assessment
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Luisa Avram, Mugur Daniel Ciumageanu, and Florin Alin Sava
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Currently, self-report measures are the primary assessment tool for anxiety disorders. Since they have some limitations, alternative measurements, such as language-based measures, are worth investigating. This paper explores which language markers signal anxiety in fictitious stories written in response to four Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cards. Participants (n = 492) from a non-probabilistic convenience sample were asked to write a short story next to each TAT card after completing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7. We used RoLIWC2015 to conduct the text analysis and applied the LASSO method to identify which language markers predict anxiety. The results showed that the respondents scoring high on anxiety also tend to use more words expressing negative emotions, and fewer words expressing positive emotions. Moreover, their language contained a higher frequency of words that implied semantic differentiation (i.e., but, else) and a lower frequency of words indicating leisure. In conclusion, this paper aims to shed new light on the multimethod assessment of anxiety, mainly focused on specific language signatures as reliable predictors of anxiety symptoms. Further research using more extensive text data is recommended to discover more linguistic markers and improve prediction accuracy.
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- 2024
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28. Modeling Effects of Linguistic Complexity on L2 Processing Effort: The Case of Eye Movement in Text Reading
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Xiaopeng Zhang and Nan Gong
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This study examined how linguistic complexity features contribute to second language (L2) processing effort by analyzing the Dutch English-L2 learners' eye movements from GECO and MECO, two eye-tracking corpora. Processing effort was operationalized as reading rate, mean fixation duration, regression rate, skipping rate, and mean saccade amplitude. In Study 1, the lexical, syntactic, and discoursal indices in 272 snippets of a novel in GECO were regressed against these eye-movement measures. The results showed that the one-component partial least square regression (PLS-R) models could explain 11%-37% of the variance in these eye-movement measures and outperformed eight readability formulas (six traditional and two recent cognitively inspired formulas based on the readers' perception on text difficulty) in predicting L2 processing effort. In Study 2, the eye-tracking data from MECO were used to evaluate whether the findings from Study 1 could be applied more broadly. The results revealed that although the predictability of these PLS-R components decreased, they still performed better than the readability formulas. These findings suggest that the linguistic indices identified can be used to predict L2 text processing effort and provide useful implications for developing systems to assess text difficulty for L2 learners.
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- 2024
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29. A Wide-Angle View of Prekindergarten through 12th-Grade Teachers' Beliefs about Language Correction
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Mike Metz, Matthew J. Gordon, and Thanh P. Nguyen
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This article explores patterns in teachers' reported correction of student language use in speech and writing. The authors use the concept of language correction in student writing and student speech as a proxy for prescriptive approaches to teaching about language. By conducting a large-scale survey of all language and literacy teachers from preschool through 12th grade across an entire state, the authors were able to identify patterns in teachers' approaches to teaching about language that smaller case studies and nuanced qualitative studies have not yet documented. They examine differences in teachers' self-reported correction of student language use across teacher characteristics and contexts such as grade levels taught, regions of the state, years of teaching experience, and whether teachers had taken a linguistics class. The authors identified marked differences in how elementary and secondary teachers report correcting student writing and speech. They found a small but significant difference in the impact of taking a linguistics class depending on grades taught. They note small but significant differences between reported correction of language for teachers in urban and rural contexts. They discuss implications for professional development on teaching about language targeted to the needs of teachers based on grade level, context, and experience.
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- 2024
30. Discourse Analysis of Female Identity Shaped by International Media through Systematic Functional Linguistics
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Wua, Lina and Fakhruddin, Wan Farah Wani Binti Wan
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A correlation between media, gender identity and society is central in this information era. Gender and sexuality has seen a paradigm shift in recent decades, making female representation a subject of several cultural studies. International media contributed to shaping women's identity and impacting social construction. The aim of this study was to analyse the role played by international media organisations like Netflix through the lens of Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL). In order to offer an in-depth analysis of the female identity, the study opted for a qualitative research method using discourse analysis and a systematic literature review to achieve the research objectives. The findings of the study demonstrated that Netflix, as an international media organisation, has been using a biased representation of female characters where the major focus has been led on the overt masculinity of white female characters. The study used contextuality to study two recently released Netflix original series "Sex Education" and "Ginny and Georgia." Further, to achieve the second objective of the study, semantics analysis was conducted to review the studies published by previous scholars. The findings of the study further demonstrated the stereotypical representation of the female protagonists portrayed by Netflix and other international media organisations. Additionally, the study offered a further analysis of Systematic Functional Linguistics to study the language used for shaping female identity on a global level.
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- 2023
31. Collaborative Learning and Skill Development for Educational Growth of Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Review
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Mena-Guacas, Andres F., Urueña Rodríguez, Jairo Alonso, Santana Trujillo, David Mauricio, Gómez-Galán, José, and López-Meneses, Eloy
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The diversity of topics in education makes it difficult for artificial intelligence (AI) to address them all in depth. Therefore, guiding to focus efforts on specific issues is essential. The analysis of competency development by fostering collaboration should be one of them because competencies are the way to validate that the educational exercise has been successful and because collaboration has proven to be one of the most effective strategies to improve performance outcomes. This systematic review analyzes the relationship between AI, competency development, and collaborative learning (CL). PRISMA methodology is used with data from the SCOPUS database. A total of 1,233 articles were found, and 30 passed the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The analysis of the selected articles identified three categories that deserve attention: the objects of study, the way of analyzing the results, and the types of AI that could be used. In this way, it has been possible to determine the relationship offered by the studies between skill development and CL and ideas about AI's contributions to this field. Overall, however, the data from this systematic review suggest that, although AI has great potential to improve education, it should be approached with caution. More research is needed to fully understand its impact and how best to apply this technology in the classroom, minimizing its drawbacks, which may be relevant, and making truly effective and productive use of it.
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- 2023
32. Role of System-Functional Linguistics in Revealing Gender Stereotypes in International Media Discourse
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Nie, Yaoying
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Gender stereotyping and perception of gender roles have been a pervasive issue in media discourse. Studies have shown that language plays a crucial role in shaping our perceptions and understanding of gender. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is a linguistic framework that analyzes the functional and social aspects of language use. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between SFL and gender stereotyping as well as the impact of SFL on gender stereotyping and perception of gender roles in international media discourse. Additionally, the study investigated whether language proficiency moderated the relationship between SFL and gender stereotyping. The study recruited 287 participants from colleges in Beijing and Shanghai cities of China. Participants were selected based on their language proficiency in English and Mandarin. Data were collected through a self-administered online questionnaire. The results indicated that SFL had a significant positive effect on both gender stereotyping and perception of gender roles in international media discourse. Furthermore, language proficiency was found to moderate the relationship between SFL and gender stereotyping, such that the effect of SFL on gender stereotyping was stronger for individuals with higher language proficiency. However, the mediating effect of perception of gender roles on the relationship between SFL and gender stereotyping was not significant. This study provided insights into the potential impact of SFL on gender stereotyping in international media discourse. It highlights the importance of language proficiency in shaping the perception and understanding of gender in media discourse. The study also provided directions for future research, such as investigating the role of other linguistic frameworks on gender stereotyping and exploring the impact of media literacy on gender perceptions.
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- 2023
33. Analysis of Linguistic Features in Startup Pitches
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Gambhir, Rittu and Tangkiengsirisin, Supong
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The aim of this study is to analyze spoken linguistic features of three-minute startup pitches. Linguistic features analyzed included discourse markers, dysfluency, modality, numeral phrases, pronouns, reduced forms, repetitions, rhetorical questions, vague expressions, and vocatives. The corpus is comprised of 92 startup pitches delivered in real time at a pitching competition as part of an international technology conference. The pitches were transcribed, and linguistic features were identified with the aid of concordance software. Results from the analysis of linguistic features show that startup pitches contain aspects typically found in spoken genres, reflecting orthographic transcription, real time, shared context, interactivity and style.
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- 2023
34. 'That's a Line That We Have to Draw': A Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) Perspective on World Language Teacher Ideologies
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Xinyue Lu and Francis John Troyan
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A deeper interpretation of world language (WL) teachers' ideologies toward language learning and students' languaging practices can provide us with a different lens through which to understand teachers' teaching practices in language classrooms. This study adopts the attitude system of systemic functional linguistics (e.g., Martin & White, 2005), specifically the features of affect, judgment, and appreciation, to explore one elementary Mandarin WL teacher's ideologies regarding language teaching and language use. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the teacher-participant from an ongoing ethnographic study. Findings indicate the Mandarin teacher's alignment with "the younger, the better" language acquisition stance and her multifaceted perspective on bilingualism. While she acknowledged the cultural capital of Chinese, she exhibited fluctuating views on students' home languages and home language use. Based on the findings, we suggest the need for future WL teacher training and professional development programs to guide teachers in identifying and reflecting upon their implicit ideologies about language teaching and learning, as well as students' linguistic resources.
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- 2023
35. Cross-Cultural Aspects of Fake News Literacy
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Lesley S. J. Farmer
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This paper reviews research "fake news" using a cultural lens to identify possible cross-cultural factors impacting how audiences react to misleading news. A cross-cultural communications cycle provides a framework for understanding the processes behind fake news and theconsequences of the resultant fake news. Linguistic and visual cross-cultural issues are discussed, and strategies for discerning fake news and its cross-cultural implications areprovided, culminating in an argument that fake news can serve as a motivating means to gain news literacy and cross-cultural competence.
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- 2023
36. A Move Analysis of Dissertation Introductions Written by Native English Speakers and Indonesian PhD Students across Disciplines
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Prasetyanti, Dian Candra and Tongpoon-Patanasorn, Angkana
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Dissertation introductions (DIs) have received on-going attention because they are considered to be the most challenging and difficult part of an academic text for graduate students, particularly for non-native English speakers (NNES). However, research that has investigated DIs written by native English speakers (NES) and by NNES, particularly Indonesian (IND) PhD students across various disciplines, is lacking. This paper presents an analysis of moves in the introductory section of 200 dissertations written by NES and IND PhD students in terms of move organization based on Bunton's (2002) adaptation of the CARS framework. The corpus consisted of 200 DIs from the disciplines of physics, linguistics, engineering, and education that were published online on the ProQuest Dissertation and Theses Database. The findings revealed that both NES and IND PhD students followed the moves and steps presented in the framework to create their introduction sections. However, it was also found that only 13 DIs (7%) followed Bunton's CARS in this research, but most of them were not constructed in the way assumed in CARS because a number of move reversals and recursives were found. There were both similarities and differences between NNES and NES writers in the introduction sections with regard to the frequency of move-step occurrences, move-step classifications, patterns, and new steps. Similar findings between the NNES and NES writers appeal for the need to make teachers and L2 learners as well as L1 Ph.D. writers aware of methods for writing precise and concise DIs.
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- 2023
37. Development of Digital Competence of Future Philologists: Case of Turkish and Ukrainian Universities
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Liliya Baranovska, Iryna Simkova, Erman Akilli, Tetyana Tarnavska, and Nataliia Glushanytsia
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The paper calls into question the development of the digital competence of future philologists, taking into account the Turkish and Ukrainian experiences. The study of digital competence development is attracting increasing interest due to a growing need for experts capable of processing the enormous streams of continuously transmitted information and experts willing to improve their digital skills for professional growth. The purpose of the study is to broaden the current knowledge about the ways of developing digital competence. In this respect, the paper investigates two systems of future philologists' training in Ukraine and Turkey in the Digital Tools for Translation course. The authors analyze the experience of the Turkish and Ukrainian higher education institutions regarding the use of appropriate ICT tools using theoretical and empirical methods. Fifty-two future philologists from Turkey and Ukraine took part in the research. The study presents the results from observing the training and interviews with Ukrainian and Turkish students. The Shapiro-Wilcoxon method (non-parametric criterion) was used to verify the results. An analysis has highlighted the positive experience of Turkish universities, which can be implemented in future philologists training in Ukrainian universities. The findings of this study support the idea that the insufficient level of digital competence development lengthens and complicates the period of adaptation of graduates to modern working conditions. The authors found that the integration of Ukrainian higher education into the European higher education area occurs in times of globalization and the digitalization of society, which radically changes the nature of many activities. This research has clearly shown that digital competence development is more effective with the implementation of a holistic approach when students enhance digital competence while acquiring all other competencies. Our research suggests that the digitalization of education reduces the gap between graduates' digital competence level and modern society's expectations.
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- 2023
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38. A Genre-Based Approach to Teaching Descriptive Report Writing to Japanese EFL University Students
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Nagao, Akiko
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This mixed-methods study explored the effects of employing a genre-based approach (GBA) to descriptive report writing on the understanding of text structure and ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings among Japanese university students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) over a 15-week course divided into three units. Applied within a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) framework, the GBA allowed micro- and macro-analyses of essays from 23 first-year university students with low/high proficiency in English and limited/extensive second-language writing experience. Quantitative analysis collected general impression scores from all students' essays at three time points using the SFL rubric. Qualitative investigation applied clause structure annotations to identify and analyse the functional parts of the clause from three metafunctional perspectives--ideational, interpersonal and textual--on descriptive genre essays by EFL learners. Lower-proficiency and novice EFL students demonstrated an improved understanding of the content, events and background information of the essay topics (ideational), and the social and power relationships between readers and writers (interpersonal). By comparison, high-proficiency and experienced students demonstrated a better understanding of the structure and coherence of the essay. This study was limited in developing an understanding of the use of pronouns and auxiliary verbs, which should be addressed in future studies.
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- 2022
39. Variation in Linguistic Stance: A Person-Centered Analysis of Student Writing
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Black, Kristin E.
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The present study offers an alternative methodological approach to the growing body of literature on stance--the linguistic arrangements that construe a writer's perspective on knowledge. A number of recent studies have concluded that control over linguistic stance tends to develop through college and that preferred markers of stance differ by discipline. We know relatively little, however, about how those patterns differ within and between individuals. This study uses a person-centered method, multilevel latent profile analysis, to determine how secondary students in the United States use typical markers of stance in their writing, and to what extent that use varies across texts. The analysis focuses on 338 informal responses produced by 27 rising high school seniors during a college access program. Findings point to wide variation in how students at this level use linguistic markers in their writing, and to the role of the larger instructional context in shaping stance in the informal response genre.
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- 2022
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40. Doing Open Science in a Research-Based Seminar: Students' Positioning towards Openness in Higher Education
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Truan, Naomi and Dressel, Dennis
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This study investigates undergraduate students' attitudes towards and experiences with open education practices (OEP) in a research-based linguistics seminar. Data was collected through written assignments in which two groups of students in subsequent terms were surveyed on their willingness to publish (a) academic posters in open access (OA); (b) teaching concepts as open educational resources (OER); and (c) personal reflections on the research process in OA. Through qualitative data analysis, we examine students' apprehensions and motivations to publish their artifacts. We find that key motivators are a sense of belonging, personal reward, and an active contribution to a culture of collaboration, whereas apprehensions are grounded in concerns about the quality of their work, uncertainties about licensing, and fear of vulnerability through visibility. We show that open science practices and OEP can be combined synergistically in process-oriented, research-based, and collaborative seminar concepts, and we formulate recommendations for lecturers on how to successfully address OEP in the classroom.
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- 2022
41. Building Literacy with Multilingual Learners: Insights from Linguistics. Third Edition
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Kristin Lems, Tenena M. Soro, Gareth Charles, Kristin Lems, Tenena M. Soro, and Gareth Charles
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Now in a revised and expanded third edition, this established course text and teacher guide explores the processes involved in second-language acquisition and translates the research into practical instructional strategies for PreK-12. Engaging classroom vignettes and personal reflections from the authors and other seasoned educators bring the teaching methods and linguistic concepts to life. Highlighting ways to draw on emergent bilingual and multilingual students' strengths, the book presents innovative learning activities, lesson-planning ideas, technology applications, downloadable reproducible forms, and other resources. Second edition title: "Building Literacy with English Language Learners." New to this edition: (1) Chapter on visual literacy; (2) Extensive updated coverage of literacy in the digital age, including gamification and video games, digital reading, and uses of ChatGPT in the classroom; (3) Increased attention to multimodal projects and activities; and (4) New or expanded discussions of translanguaging, dual-language instruction, English as a lingua franca as well as an academic language, and other timely topics. Pedagogical features: (1) "How Does This Look in the Classroom?" sections; (2) Study and discussion questions in every chapter; (3) Chapter-opening "Key Vocabulary" boxes; and (4) End-of-book glossary.
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- 2024
42. A Contrastive Study of Lexical Bundles Expressing Gratitude in Dissertation Acknowledgments Produced by Chinese and American PhD Students of Linguistics
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Kai Bao and Meihua Liu
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This study compared the five-word lexical bundles (LBs) expressing gratitude in acknowledgments of dissertations written by Chinese and American PhD students of linguistics. Two corpora were built: (1) The Chinese University Dissertation Acknowledgments Collection (CUC) which contained 700 acknowledgments with a total of 300,686 tokens, and (2) the American University Dissertation Acknowledgments Collection (AUC) which contained 700 acknowledgments with a total of 493,045 tokens. We then retrieved five-word LBs, of which LBs expressing gratitude in CUC and AUC were identified, categorized, and compared with respect to frequency, forms and structures. Major findings were: (1) the Chinese students used a substantially greater number of gratitude LBs than the American students; (2) the two groups used considerably different gratitude LBs; and (3) the two groups mainly relied on verb phrase-based LBs to express gratitude, but the Chinese students used a larger proportion of noun phrase- yet a smaller proportion of verb phrase-based items than the American students; and (4) the two groups used dissimilar structures and words to construct gratitude LBs. These findings enrich our knowledge of linguistic patterns in dissertation acknowledgments as a unique genre of academic prose, and provide corpus-based learning materials for students tasked with properly expressing gratitude in their theses or dissertations.
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- 2024
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43. Stylo-Linguistic Analysis of Structure in Niyi Osundare's Poem 'The Rainsong'
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Prisca O. Bob and Fidelis Awoke Nwokwu
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This study conducts a stylo-linguistic analysis of Niyi Osundare's poem "The Rainsong," examining the language, form, and structure used to convey meaning and impact. Through a detailed analysis of graphological, phonological, syntactic, and lexico-semantic features, the study reveals the poet's deliberate choices in crafting a powerful and impactful work of poetry. It highlights the use of repetition, personification, imagery, and defamiliarization to create a sense of urgency, hope, and optimism, demonstrating how the poet's use of language and form shapes our understanding of the world. Employing Halliday's Systemic Functional Language as its theoretical underpinning and adopting the methodology of close reading and text analysis, this study contributes to the field of literary analysis. It demonstrates the value of stylo-linguistic analysis in uncovering the intricacies of poetic language and informing teaching and learning practices to better appreciate the complexities of poetry.
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- 2024
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44. How to Learn 'Nothing': Negator Learning as a Mapping Problem
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Victor Almeida Rodrigues Gomes
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Given its complexity, abstractness, and central role in many logics, negation might be a conceptual accomplishment. Therefore, young children's gradual acquisition of negation words might be due to their undergoing a conceptual change that is necessary to represent logical meanings. However, it's also possible that expressing negation takes time because children are gradually getting a grasp of their language. To understand what no and not mean, children might first need to understand the rest of the sentences in which those words are used. We provide evidence that conceptually-equipped learners (adults) face the same acquisition challenges that children do when their access to linguistic information is restricted, which simulates how much language children understand at different points in acquisition. When watching a silenced video of parents using negators when speaking to their children, adults inferred when the parent was used negation to prohibit but struggled with logical negation. However, when provided with additional linguistic information, guessing that the parent had expressed logical negation became easy. Thus, previously noted patterns in negator learning can be explained as a result of information access (i.e., learning more about one's language). Despite the effect of language, the experiment suggests there is still a contribution of the context. As such, it becomes critical to determine what sorts of contexts are reliably likely to encourage "negative thoughts." Eliciting negators has been challenging and has often been assumed to require explicit contrast with affirmative alternatives. This would suggest that eliciting negators may require explicit contrast with an affirmative linguistic variant and therefore more contextual support. Yet, adults are known to naturally produce negation in null-discourse contexts ("It isn't raining!"), and learners obtain command of sentential negation fairly early (possibly by 18 months). Inspired by work on event perception, we explore the possibility that prediction failure in event perception is such a null-discourse context and provide evidence that this holds across development. Finally, connections are made to pre-linguistic research and it is argued that logical words face the same issues as non-logical words, and therefore nativist positions are warranted on the same grounds. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
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- 2024
45. Developing L2 Literacy in the Written Mode at the Introductory Level through Task- and Genre-Based Instruction: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach
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Shoshannah Brienz Jenni Lane
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The employment of genre-based pedagogy and Task-Based Language Teaching in second language education is representative of a paradigmatic shift towards a focus on meaning-making. Despite this shift, second language acquisition (SLA) research continues to predominantly rely on complexity, accuracy, and fluency metrics to assess learner production without considering if and how learners achieve their communicative goals and how they appropriate linguistic resources to do so. Though research has confirmed the benefit of textual borrowing from a model within genre-based pedagogy, scarce attention has been paid to the practice at the novice foreign language level. To fill these gaps, this mixed-methods study focused on 12 first-year foreign language learners of German who wrote personal emails after receiving a model text. Through textual analysis of their texts using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) frameworks and semi-structured interviews, I investigated their linguistic choices and the resources borrowed from the model in support of their communicative goals. Because building the relationship with the reader is one of these goals, I employed the SFL MOOD and ATTITUDE frameworks to assess dialogic interaction and how they appealed emotionally to their readers. The participants adhered closely to the model's generic structure, though 25% of the participants omitted up to two stages, and borrowed lexicogrammatical features characteristic of the genre, including words, word groups, and clauses. The interviews revealed that the students most appreciated the model for the structure, though they also confirmed appropriating vocabulary and grammatical structures. Two interviewees conveyed apprehension about borrowing too closely from the model, indicating that textual borrowing may require additional contextualization. The MOOD analysis showed that participants primarily produced declaratives to give information and only sparingly integrated interrogatives and imperatives to elicit a response from their readers. To connect with their readers emotionally, all expressed evaluations of judgment, affect, and appreciation. In addition to demonstrating assessment methods that focus on the linguistic choices that contribute to achieving a communicative goal, the findings of this study show a need to assist learners in making form-meaning connections to foster strategic borrowing and language development. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
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- 2024
46. Decoding the Puzzle of Perceptual Restoration: The Role of Higher Order Cognitive and Linguistic Processing and Cognitive Effort during Speech Repair
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Andrew Burleson
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Across three separate investigations, this dissertation documents work examining the role of higher-order processes and cognitive effort during the top-down compensatory repair of degraded speech, specifically perceptual restoration. Perceptual restoration is a phenomenon where a listener can perceptually restore or repair speech "missing" from an auditory signal. Because perceptual restoration improves speech intelligibility, this compensatory ability may allow some listeners to function better in challenging listening environments, such as a noisy restaurant. Prior investigations into perceptual restoration have found that there is considerable variability across individuals with regard to their ability to restore missing speech information. This work proposes that higher-order domain-general cognitive and domain-specific linguistic abilities may characterize unexplained variability during perceptual restoration tasks. This dissertation also characterizes cognitive resources devoted to task-related demands during perceptual restoration tasks, both during and after sentence listening. Understanding the role that cognitive effort plays in speech intelligibility and perceptual repair is important because two listeners can exert very different levels of effort at different times, even after listening has ended, while obtaining the same intelligibility score, highlighting aspects of speech recognition that are sometimes overlooked. This work employed speech interrupted by a gap of silence or a burst of noise to force listeners into perceptual restoration and repair. Because listeners with moderate or poorer hearing loss struggle with perceptual restoration tasks, these investigations recruited participants with normal hearing to mild sensorineural hearing loss. By asking listeners with a (near) normal auditory system to process a signal with only 50% of the original speech remaining reduces the impact of the peripheral auditory system and stresses higher-order reprocessing of speech information. The first investigation assessed a range of cognitive abilities as well as a participant's lexical knowledge and lexical access speed. Next, these abilities were related to a participant's ability to restore missing speech information across conditions that varied with regard to sentence predictability, interruption type, and linguistic complexity. This investigation found that a listener's complex working memory and lexical knowledge acted as the best predictor for perceptual restoration ability, followed next by inhibitory control and processing speed. These data suggest that domain-general cognitive processes such as working memory provide an avenue through which domain-specific linguistic mechanisms can repair and restore missing speech. Consistent with existing literature, listeners performed better when sentences were periodically interrupted by bursts of noise rather than gaps of silence, and performance was better for predictable/high context sentences than those where the last word was semantically unpredictable or not related to sentence context. The second investigation used well-validated neurocognitive measures that captured a participant's linguistic knowledge in greater detail. This study also investigated the role of other domain-general cognitive abilities, such as inhibitory control, processing speed, executive functioning, and problem-solving ability in addition to lexical knowledge and lexical access speed. Consistent with the results of the first investigation, complex working memory supported perceptual restoration regardless of condition, suggesting an important role of complex working memory regardless of interruption type, promoting the opportunity for speech recovery using linguistic processes. Notably, lexical knowledge and lexical access speed were important when speech was periodically interrupted by bursts of noise. This is consistent with data indicating that participants perceive the missing speech information as being continuous behind the noise burst, which may permit additional lexical activation and processing. While other domain general-cognitive abilities were not directly related to perceptual restoration, they were significantly correlated with complex working memory, suggesting a hierarchical relationship between these abilities and the role of more advanced cognitive processes. Finally, a third investigation characterized the level of cognitive effort required during perceptual restoration tasks using pupillometry, both during and after sentence listening. Cognitive effort during sentence listening has often been referred to as "listening effort" and reflects the time-course of effort devotion during the listening window. After the sentence has ended, ongoing cognitive effort may be devoted during a relatively short period of time known as the retention interval, which is thought to be when ongoing reprocessing and repair may occur. This investigation found that during the listening window, both interruption conditions resulted in additional pupil dilation, reflecting devotion of task-related cognitive resources compared to uninterrupted sentences. For a brief time near the end of the listening window however, the pupillary response was greatest for the noise burst interrupted sentences, which suggests additional processing occurring while the sentence is still playing. On the other hand, pupil dilation was greatest for the silent gap sentences near the end of the retention interval, which suggests sustained cognitive effort in attempting to resolve lexical or syntactic ambiguity. Taken together, these investigations offer valuable insight into the perceptual restoration process. These data provide clinicians and scientists with information regarding the cognitive and linguistic abilities that are key during perceptual restoration. This may allow for the development of auditory rehabilitation programs that emphasize perceptual restoration and cognitive training or the development of prediction algorithms for hearing aids or cochlear implants aimed at reducing cognitive load under certain listening conditions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
- Published
- 2024
47. Classifier Systems: A Quantitative Investigation of Their Distribution and Function in Mandarin Chinese
- Author
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Yamei Wang
- Abstract
Classifier systems constitute one of the most prominent features of East and South-East Asian languages (Li, 2013). Classifiers categorize referent nouns based on salient semantic features such as humanness, animacy, shape, or others (Aikhenvald and Mihas, 2019). The work described in this dissertation constitutes a thorough quantitative investigation of the distribution and function of classifiers in Mandarin Chinese and beyond. The results of the studies settle longstanding theoretical debates about the categorial nature of classifiers and contribute the first in-depth investigation of their communicative functions. Our main theoretical contribution is the development of a reliable methodology for objectively distinguishing between syntactic categories based on measurable differences in word distribution and functions. With this method, we settle the longstanding theoretical debate about the existence of multiple classifier types in Mandarin (Cheng and Sybesma, 1999; Li and Thompson, 1989; Li, 2013): we show that mensural classifiers should be distinguished from other types of classifiers based on their measurably distinctive distributions and functions. The thesis further investigates the cognitive and communicative functions of classifiers. We show that classifier-noun combinations are optimized to accommodate general communicative pressures (Blevins et al., 2017) of learning and processing, by balancing predictable and discriminative classifier-noun combinations. Previous work on noun classification implies that gender systems are inherently optimized to accommodate communicative pressures on human language learning and processing (Dye et al., 2018). The authors state that languages can make use of either grammatical (e.g., gender) or probabilistic (pre-nominal modifier sequences) noun classification to smooth the uncertainty (entropy (Shannon, 1948)) of nouns in context. We show that a genderless language like Mandarin can rely on nominal classifiers in a comparable way: classifiers appear to play the same functional role as gender markers. Noun-classifier combinations are sensitive to same frequency, similarity, and co-occurrence interactions that structure gender systems. We also present the first study of the interaction between grammatical and probabilistic noun classification. Finally, this work explores the role of classifiers in post-nominal positions in Mandarin. Previous work suggests that linguistic elements in different positions will contribute differently to human learning and processing. Based on an artificial noun learning experiment, Ramscar (2013) shows how humans will tend to rely on prefixed elements to categorize nouns while suffixed elements will help them specify noun meanings. For nouns, meaning specification is especially useful if they carry more general meanings, i.e., for nouns that occur more frequently and in a broader range of contexts. An investigation of the differences between nouns occurring with pre- vs. post-nominal classifiers confirms these findings on natural language data. We find significant differences in the frequencies of the two types of nouns: pre-nominal classifiers tend to pair with lower frequency nouns to aid prediction, while post-nominal classifiers are associated with higher frequency nouns to refine their meanings. Additionally, sortal classifiers, which emphasize the intrinsic features of nouns, are predominantly used in pre-nominal positions for categorization. In contrast, mensural classifiers, known for their flexibility in quantifying nouns, are more commonly found in post-nominal positions to aid in meaning refinement. The implications of this work extend beyond language specific findings. By elucidating the complex interplay between classifiers and communicative efficiency, our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the cognitive processes underlying noun processing and learning. It also provides a framework to further investigate the role of classifiers in other classifier languages and structures. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
- Published
- 2024
48. The Burden of Belonging: A Case Study of Black Students' Experiences with Linguistically Code-Switching between Discourse Communities
- Author
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Tanner Charles Slagle
- Abstract
This qualitative action research case study is focused on better understanding the complex and intricate nature of code-switching among Black students. In today's educational climate, many Black students find themselves speaking one way with their closest friends and family members in front of the swing set and television and another way with their classmates and teachers in front of the blackboard. Due to systemic racism, schools today tend to place the burden of belonging on the youngest children of color rather than on the seasoned, and often privileged, adults who work with them. This dissertation is largely rooted in Gee's (1990) idea that individuals speak different ways around different people and can belong to multiple Discourse communities. Membership in each Discourse community comes with an identity kit that individuals can adopt to fit in in multiple settings and with various crowds. These settings and other contextual factors are central to Halliday's (2004) work with functional linguistics which explores the complex nature of "field," "tenor," and "mode." Throughout this study, six Black fifth graders participated in various interviews, focus groups, and non-instructional and instructional field observations while at school. The goal was to better understand what contextual factors influence the way they code-switch between multiple Discourse communities and what they wish their teachers knew and would do to help schools become more linguistically affirming places for bilingual students who, as Boutte (2016) suggested, belong to multiple Discourse communities themselves. This study found that the six participants were highly receptive individuals who frequently relied on a myriad of contextual factors and a level of comfort when deciding how to show up linguistically. Their teachers, by and large, did not have this same level of tact when working with individuals who utilize a language other than Standard English. Furthermore, this study focuses on the negative impact of having one's speech corrected, the multiple reasons Black students code-switch, and the professional development that educators may need to help them legitimize African American Language's presence in the classroom, understand the complex nature of linguistic identity, and realize their role in removing the burden of code-switching from Black students by the way they engage with them. This dissertation was written by a White, middle-class, male teacher who works in a suburban school district in South Carolina. As a racial outsider to the actual problem, while simultaneously being an educator who is surrounded by this problem of practice daily, a primary goal of this dissertation was to demarginalize the marginalized and bring greater awareness to the frequently observed problem that many Black students face when revealing their true linguistic identity at school. Therefore, all data was gathered and all conclusions were drawn with an open mind, a listening ear, a true appreciation of student diversity, and an overarching goal of making schools more welcoming and inclusive spaces for all students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
- Published
- 2024
49. Developing Hispanic Pre-Service Elementary Bilingual Teachers' Teacher Identity and Cultural Competence through Mixed Reality Simulation
- Author
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Yajaira A. Flores
- Abstract
Due to the constant migration of diverse populations, multicultural communities are developing across North America. As a result, multi-culturally diverse classrooms are multiplying (Allen et al., 2017). Our pre-service teachers must be multi-culturally prepared to enter diverse classrooms and effectively teach students without implicit bias (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Banks, 2010; Paris, 2017). Pre-service teachers' identity and cultural competence should be prioritized in teacher preparation programs. Using Latino/a Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), Practice-Based Learning, and Teacher Identity as conceptual frameworks, this study will answer how Mixed Reality Simulation (MRS) may be used as a teacher preparation tool (Aguilar & Flores, 2022) to develop the cultural competence and teacher identity of Hispanic pre-service elementary bilingual teachers. The MRSs were also used to explore what pedagogical practices (i.e., translanguaging, translating) pre-service teachers naturally gravitate to when confronted with an emergent bilingual student. This study used a case study approach to understand the perspectives of these pre-service teachers on multicultural education and linguistic ideologies. This study content analysis to analyze participant interviews, reflection journals, and observations of MRS sessions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
- Published
- 2024
50. Predictors of Dual-Language Literacy Attainment in Irish-English Bilinguals
- Author
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Emily Barnes, Neasa Ní Chiaráin, and Ailbhe Ní Chasaide
- Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine which predictor variables are related to literacy attainment in Irish (Gaelic)-English bilinguals. The participants were in their second (n = 115) and third (n = 125) year of schooling in Ireland and were drawn from both native speaker and new speaker backgrounds. The constructs of phonemic awareness, verbal fluency (RAN) and verbal short-term memory were investigated as predictors of Irish word reading accuracy and spelling. The results indicate that the predictors of Irish and English literacy attainment differ, though phonemic awareness is the most effective predictor of literacy attainment in each language. Notably, the Irish predictor tasks were significant predictors of English literacy attainment, while the English predictor tasks were not significant predictors of Irish literacy attainment, supporting the unidirectional transfer of skills from Irish to English in this cohort. The implications of this study highlight the importance of developing bilingual screening and diagnostic assessments for literacy in the Irish-English context, something which is currently lacking.
- Published
- 2024
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