Showing papers on "Written language published in 2018"
TL;DR: It is found that intelligible and unintelligible inputs in both modalities activated the dorsal bank of the STS, and the posterior dorsal bank was able to discriminate between modalities based on distributed patterns of activity, pointing to a role in encoding of phonological and orthographic word forms.
60 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, cognitive demands on second language (L2) tasks, along with the provision of recasts and its effects on L2 development, have motivated recent inquiry within task-based research.
Abstract: Manipulating cognitive demands on second language (L2) tasks, along with the provision of recasts and its effects on L2 development, has motivated recent inquiry within task-based research However
55 citations
TL;DR: It is found that American English is the dominant form of English outside the UK and that its influence is felt even within the UK borders.
Abstract: As global political preeminence gradually shifted from the United Kingdom to the United States, so did the capacity to culturally influence the rest of the world. In this work, we analyze how the world-wide varieties of written English are evolving. We study both the spatial and temporal variations of vocabulary and spelling of English using a large corpus of geolocated tweets and the Google Books datasets corresponding to books published in the US and the UK. The advantage of our approach is that we can address both standard written language (Google Books) and the more colloquial forms of microblogging messages (Twitter). We find that American English is the dominant form of English outside the UK and that its influence is felt even within the UK borders. Finally, we analyze how this trend has evolved over time and the impact that some cultural events have had in shaping it.
53 citations
TL;DR: Results suggest that narrative instruction delivered exclusively in an oral modality had a positive effect on students' writing, and implications include the efficiency and inclusiveness of oral language instruction to improve writing quality, especially for young students.
Abstract: Purpose Despite literature showing a correlation between oral language and written language ability, there is little evidence documenting a causal connection between oral and written language skill...
43 citations
01 Jun 2018
TL;DR: Cross-cultural differences in depression expression in online language data of users with depression are revealed, particularly in relation to emotion expression, cognition, and functioning.
Abstract: Depression is a global mental health condition that affects all cultures. Despite this, the way depression is expressed varies by culture. Uptake of machine learning technology for diagnosing mental health conditions means that increasingly more depression classifiers are created from online language data. Yet, culture is rarely considered as a factor affecting online language in this literature. This study explores cultural differences in online language data of users with depression. Written language data from 1,593 users with self-reported depression from the online peer support community 7 Cups of Tea was analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), topic modeling, data visualization, and other techniques. We compared the language of users identifying as White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander. Exploratory analyses revealed cross-cultural differences in depression expression in online language data, particularly in relation to emotion expression, cognition, and functioning. The results have important implications for avoiding depression misclassification from machine-driven assessments when used in a clinical setting, and for avoiding inadvertent cultural biases in this line of research more broadly.
39 citations
TL;DR: The PACTE group is carrying out a research project on "Establishing Competence Levels in the Acquisition of Translation Competence in written Translation" as mentioned in this paper, which is a continuation of P...
Abstract: This paper presents the research project the PACTE group is carrying out on ‘Establishing Competence Levels in the Acquisition of Translation Competence in Written Translation’. A continuation of P...
36 citations
TL;DR: Findings indicate significant differences in the following components of written expression; length, legibility, handwriting size, speed, spelling, and overall structure, highlighting the need for future research to determine if the characteristics ofwritten expression in individuals with ASD are similar to other struggling writers.
Abstract: Although studies exist measuring the effectiveness of writing interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research assessing the writing skills for this group is sparse. The present study identified differences in the written expression of individuals with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) peers, using variables selected from 13 different studies. Using Pearson Product Moment-correlation the relationship between the quality of research studies and the magnitude of the effect sizes was examined. Findings indicate significant differences in the following components of written expression; length, legibility, handwriting size, speed, spelling, and overall structure, highlighting the need for future research to determine if the characteristics of written expression in individuals with ASD are similar to other struggling writers.
36 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an English-medium instructor's choice and combination of modes when instantiating a university interactive lecture pair work activity was analyzed, showing that a coordinated use of three to four complementary mode ensembles enables a teacher to textually organize and interpersonally involve students to elicit conceptual meaning.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this article, assessment plays the role of reporting students' learning summatively (assessment of learni cation of learn i cation) and assesses students' performance in the classroom.
Abstract: Classroom assessment has always been an indispensable and integral part of any curriculum. In particular, assessment plays the role of reporting students’ learning summatively (assessment of learni...
29 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that pronoun comprehension biases are related to the individual's linguistic exposure and found that people with higher ART scores assigned pronouns to the grammatical subject more consistently, but pronoun comprehension was not explained by working memory, theory of mind, or socioeconomic status.
29 citations
TL;DR: The extent to which these interventions are effective for children who struggle with early writing skills is determined, by calculating effect sizes for group and single-subject designs, and the overall quality of the research is examined.
Abstract: The purpose of this best evidence synthesis was to identify promising interventions that align with a theoretical model of early writing development, targeting three components of early writing: tr...
TL;DR: Four key points relating to the nature of statistical learning, the myriad of ways in which statistical learning can be measured, the authors' lack of understanding regarding the developmental trajectory of statisticallearning, and the role of individual differences are proposed.
Abstract: Statistical learning plays an important role in the acquisition of spoken and written language. It has been proposed that impaired or atypical statistical learning may be linked with language difficulties in developmental disabilities. However, research on statistical learning in individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and specific language impairment, and in individuals with cochlear implants, has produced divergent findings. It is unclear whether, and to what extent, statistical learning is impaired or atypical in each of these developmental disabilities. We suggest that these disparate findings point to several critical issues that must be addressed before we can evaluate the role of statistical learning in atypical child development. While the issues we outline are interrelated, we propose four key points relating to (a) the nature of statistical learning, (b) the myriad of ways in which statistical learning can be measured, (c) our lack of understanding regarding the developmental trajectory of statistical learning, and (d) the role of individual differences. We close by making suggestions that we believe will be helpful in moving the field forward and creating new synergies among researchers, clinicians, and educators to better support language learners.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors tested the effects of Tekster [Texter], a comprehensive strategy-focused writing instruction program, using a switching replication design with three measurement occassions.
Abstract: In this study, the authors tested the effects of Tekster [Texter], a comprehensive strategy-focused writing instruction program, using a switching replication design with three measurement occassions. The program was implemented by fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers (N = 76) in 60 general education classrooms in the Netherlands. Students (n = 688) and teachers (n = 31) in Group 1 worked with Tekster during the first 8-week period, between the first and second measurement occasion. Students (n = 732) and teachers (n = 45) in Group 2 implemented Tekster during the second 8-week period, between the second and third measurement occasion. The intervention led to statistically significant improvements in the quality of students’ writing. The effect size for the full sample was 0.32 and 0.40 for students who students who completed all 16 Tekster lessons. Gains shown by students in Group 1 were maintained after 8 weeks. Because writing quality was assessed in 3 genres, the findings are generalizable across students, classes, and writing tasks. Taken together, the results of this study demonstrate that a strategy-focused writing instruction program, such as Tekster, can be an effective way to improve upper-elementary students’ written language skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
TL;DR: Differences in literacy achievement between students with dyslexia and oral and written language learning disabilities were largely explained by the Block 1 predictors, and applications to identifying and teaching students with these SLDs are discussed.
Abstract: Sequential regression was used to evaluate whether language-related working memory components uniquely predict reading and writing achievement beyond cognitive-linguistic translation for students in Grades 4 through 9 ( N = 103) with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in subword handwriting (dysgraphia, n = 25), word reading and spelling (dyslexia, n = 60), or oral and written language (oral and written language learning disabilities, n = 18). That is, SLDs are defined on the basis of cascading level of language impairment (subword, word, and syntax/text). A five-block regression model sequentially predicted literacy achievement from cognitive-linguistic translation (Block 1); working memory components for word-form coding (Block 2), phonological and orthographic loops (Block 3), and supervisory focused or switching attention (Block 4); and SLD groups (Block 5). Results showed that cognitive-linguistic translation explained an average of 27% and 15% of the variance in reading and writing achievement, respectively, but working memory components explained an additional 39% and 27% of variance. Orthographic word-form coding uniquely predicted nearly every measure, whereas attention switching uniquely predicted only reading. Finally, differences in reading and writing persisted between dyslexia and dysgraphia, with dysgraphia higher, even after controlling for Block 1 to 4 predictors. Differences in literacy achievement between students with dyslexia and oral and written language learning disabilities were largely explained by the Block 1 predictors. Applications to identifying and teaching students with these SLDs are discussed.
TL;DR: Research shows that, from an early age, children use their statistical learning skills to learn about the visual characteristics of written words, which can help to explain why some aspects of spelling are more difficult to learn than others.
Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this article is to provide a tutorial on statistical learning and its role in learning to spell and to discuss the implications of the research for educators. Method The tuto...
TL;DR: This article investigated the cohesion of exposition texts written by eleven-year-old students of a school in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, using systemic functional linguistics (SFL), especially in terms of schematic structure and linguistic features, especially those contributing to cohesion of the texts such as Theme progression and cohesive devices.
Abstract: The paper reports on the results of a study aiming to investigate the cohesion of exposition texts written by eleventh graders of a school in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia The study used a qualitative case study research design, especially text analysis, involving 32 students In the interest of space, the paper will present the data obtained from six texts written by 6 students, representing low, mid, and high achievers The texts were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (SFL), especially in terms of schematic structure and linguistic features, especially those contributing to the cohesion of the texts, such as Theme progression and cohesive devices The results show that all texts show students’ grasp and understanding of the schematic structure of an exposition, including thesis, argument, and restatement of the thesis All texts also successfully use the zig-zag and the Theme reiteration patterns, which indicate the students’ emerging capacity to create a text with cohesion at the clause level However, only texts written by high achievers employ the multiple Theme pattern, indicating the students’ emerging capacity to create a text with better sense of connectedness, unity, and flow of information at the global level High achiever texts also employ discourse features which allow the reader to predict how the text will unfold and guide them to a line of understanding of a text as a whole Moreover, in terms of cohesive devices, all texts use some simple cohesive devices—reference, lexical cohesion, and conjunction It should be mentioned that all texts are rudimentary with some inappropriate word choices and grammatical problems This suggests that the students still needed more guidance and time to do research on the topic in focus, to go through the process of writing as professional do, to allow them to create a better text with more elaboration and characteristics of written language with consistency and accuracy It is recommended that further research on different perspectives and foci of analysis of different text types using systemic functional linguistics, with more representative samples, and studies on the teaching of writing be conducted
TL;DR: This paper evaluated a conceptual framework of the direct and indirect effects of typical writing instruction and student writing practice on reading achievement in first grade, using a 2-level, fixed effects structural equation model.
Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that writing instruction can support reading achievement (Graham & Hebert, 2011); however much of this work involved carefully designed interventions. In this study, we evaluated a conceptual framework of the direct and indirect effects of typical writing instruction and student writing practice on reading achievement in first grade. Fall reading, vocabulary, and writing data were collected from 391 students, and classroom writing instruction and student writing practice were observed in 50 classrooms. The effects of writing instruction on spring reading achievement were evaluated using a 2-level, fixed effects structural equation model. In a multiple mediator model, the total indirect effect of composing writing instruction through student writing practice on spring reading achievement was positive and statistically significant (β = .17, p = .029), with a modest effect of composing writing instruction mediated by generative writing practice (β = .15, p = .024). The final model explained 86% and 59% of the variability in spring reading achievement at the student and classroom levels, respectively. These results suggest that generative writing practice mediates the relationship between composing instruction and spring reading achievement. The results also highlight some potentially positive effects of typical writing instruction and student writing practice after controlling for reading instruction and fall reading achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
TL;DR: The authors examined how students use intertextual relationships in the context of student writing. But they did not examine how students used intertextuality in their own writing, and they focused only on the context-based studies of student essays.
Abstract: Writing studies scholarship has long understood the need for context-based studies of student writing. Few studies, however, have closely examined how students use intertextual relationships in the...
TL;DR: A distributional semantic analysis is reported that shows written language in fiction books varies appreciably between books from the different genres,Books from the same genre, and even books written by the same author.
TL;DR: New head-mounted eye-tracking methods are adapted to directly measure visual-motor coordination of preschool and early elementary school children as they copied familiar (English letters) and unfamiliar (Cyrillic symbols) letter-like forms in real time and revealed that younger children needed more time to visually process a letter or symbol and initiate a writing action.
TL;DR: It is demonstrated for the first time that children with dyslexia benefit from orthographic facilitation during spoken word learning and these findings have direct implications for teaching spoken vocabulary to children with Dyslexia.
Abstract: Purpose Orthographic facilitation describes the phenomenon in which a spoken word is produced more accurately when its corresponding written word is present during learning We examined the orthogr
TL;DR: This article showed that the use of Spanish grammatical aspect is biased by inherent aspect depending on the learner's first language (L1) at first stages of acquisition and showed that learners will have difficulties acquiring grammatical differences such as the contrast between the Preterit and the Imperfect.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to show that the use of Spanish grammatical aspect is biased by inherent aspect depending on the learner's first language (L1). It considers both the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (LAH; Andersen, 1986, and his followers) and the L1 Transfer Hypothesis (Izquierdo & Collins, 2008; McManus, 2015), and it compares the use of Spanish past tenses by L1 Dutch and L1 English learners at first stages of acquisition. Differences in grammatical aspect in both L1 and the second language (L2) predict that learners will have difficulties acquiring grammatical differences such as the contrast between the Preterit and the Imperfect. Recent studies claim that not all learners are biased by the traditional Vendlerian lexical aspect typology (Dominguez et al., 2013; Gonzalez, 2013), which may mean that refinement of the LAH is necessary. For our study, L1 English and Dutch learners of Spanish performed the same written production task, which involved the retelling of a story after watching a muted video. The results, based on an approximate binomial distribution analysis, show that the use of both the Preterit and the Imperfect by English‐speaking learners is biased by dynamicity contrasts. Furthermore, their overuse of Preterit to complete the written task shows L1 transfer from the English past tense, which can be uttered in perfective and imperfective contexts. On the other hand, the results of L1 Dutch speakers show that the use of Spanish grammatical aspect is biased by the terminative‐durative classification, and that they prefer the Present Perfect in perfective contexts, also showing L1 transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
TL;DR: The results stress the important role of the basal ganglia, within the language network, in the representation of the constituent structure of language, regardless of the input modality.
TL;DR: A systematic review of the extensive and diverse scientific literature on the relations between language outcome and underlying brain structures in school-aged preterm-born children concluded that not one single brain area is responsible for atypical language development, but several brain areas and their connections are essential.
Abstract: Preterm children often have language problems. This atypical language development is probably due to atypical brain development. We conducted a systematic review to provide an overview of the extensive and diverse scientific literature on the relations between language outcome and underlying brain structures in school-aged preterm-born children. Embase, Medline Ovid, Web of Science, Cochrane central and Google scholar were searched for relevant studies. Inclusion criteria were: cases are school-aged preterm children; structural MRI (T1- and T2-weighted sequences) or DTI used in combination with a neurocognitive language test; publication in an English-language peer-reviewed journal. Correlational measures between language scores and brain volume or fractional anisotropy of a brain structure were extracted. 23 studies were included. The relations between oral language, verbal fluency and/or written language and MRI/DTI measurements of white matter, gray matter, cerebellum, corpus callosum and/or the fasciculi are presented. Oral language skills and verbal fluency appear to be related to the corpus callosum. Oral language skills are also related to the uncinate fasciculus. There seems to be no clear relation between cerebellar development and verbal fluency skills. Not one single brain area is responsible for atypical language development, but several brain areas and their connections are essential. For future research it is recommended to relate brain areas to oral language skills on a microstructural level in preterm children. We also recommend to use language tests in which it is possible to distinguish between several language domains, such as perceptive and expressive language.
TL;DR: This paper investigated the perception of Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students towards the written and oral peer feedback they provided, received and observed in triads during an English writing course.
Abstract: This study aims to investigate the perception of Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students towards the written and oral peer feedback they provided, received and observed in triads during an English writing course. Sixty-nine sophomores in a Chinese university who participated in the course filled out a questionnaire; nine of them, whose oral peer feedback interaction was closely observed, attended a stimulated recall interview afterwards. Questionnaire results showed that students enjoyed providing and receiving oral and written feedback, as well as observing the peer feedback interaction between the other two peers in the group. However, they preferred to give positive oral feedback and receive negative written feedback. Receiving oral feedback was perceived as being more useful than offering it. Interview responses reveal the reasons behind these perceptions. Finally, pedagogical implications are drawn.
TL;DR: A universal model of reading development is needed that is sufficiently flexible to allow interplay in the processing of phonology, orthography, and meaning in response to the linguistic characteristics of the spoken and written forms of the language being acquired.
Abstract: Although spoken language in the form of meta-linguistic awareness is widely regarded as being involved in reading development, the extensive literature based on different experimental tasks, age groups, and languages makes it difficult to establish consensus about the type of awareness that is critical and the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The purpose of this review is to explore the links between reading and two specific aspects of meta-linguistic awareness, namely, phoneme awareness and morpheme awareness. Research has uncovered distinct levels of meta-linguistic awareness that stand in different relationships to learning to read. Empirical findings support the reciprocal involvement of an awareness of phonemes and morphemes in reading development but the precise nature of the relationship between spoken and written language is subject to cross-language variation. A universal model of reading development is needed that is sufficiently flexible to allow interplay in the processing of phonology, orthography, and meaning in response to the linguistic characteristics of the spoken and written forms of the language being acquired. The linguistic characteristics that influence the development of phoneme and morpheme awareness are compared for alphabetic and morphographic orthographies and related to typical and atypical patterns of reading acquisition.
19 Jan 2018
TL;DR: The task for the investigator is not to be blinded by the prediction but to be open to all potential outcomes; thus, asking neutral research questions is simply a way to help guard against those inherent biases.
Abstract: This chapter describes some of the standards for preparing technical documents and presents suggestions for helping readers acquire and use a scientific writing style. It provides information on reviewing the literature, stating research questions, writing research proposals for evaluation by others. The chapter deals with information on disseminating information from studies. The task for the investigator is not to be blinded by the prediction but to be open to all potential outcomes; thus, asking neutral research questions is simply a way to help guard against those inherent biases. Written language is a major way scientists establish a record of their work and communicate with one another and with practitioners. As in other writing forms, technical scientific writing has its own organization, style, and standards. Scientific writing is so important that Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf, and T. R. Risley, in their seminal article on applied behavior analysis, included it as a major dimension.
TL;DR: The findings indicate that reading even a very short text in gender-fair language can help people break their gender-stereotype habit and thus reduce male bias in thinking.
Abstract: This experimental online-survey study investigated if different written language forms in German have an effect on male bias in thinking. We used answers to the specialist riddle as an indicator for male bias in mental representations of expertise. The difficulty of this thinking task lies in the fact that a gender-unspecified specialist is often automatically assumed to be a man due to gender stereotypes. We expected that reading a text in gender-fair language before processing the specialist riddle helps readers achieve control over automatically activated gender stereotypes and thus facilitates the restructuring and reinterpretation of the problem, which is necessary to reach the conclusion that the specialist is a woman. We randomly assigned 517 native German speakers (68% women) to reading a text on expertise written either in gender-fair language or in masculine generics. Subsequently, participants were asked to solve the specialist riddle. The results show that reading a text in gender-fair language before processing the riddle led to higher rates of answers indicating that the specialist is a women compared to reading a text in masculine generics (44% vs. 33%) in women and men regardless of their self-stereotyping concerning agency and communion. The findings indicate that reading even a very short text in gender-fair language can help people break their gender-stereotype habit and thus reduce male bias in thinking. Our research emphasizes the importance of using gender-fair language in German-language texts for reducing gender stereotypes.
12 Mar 2018
TL;DR: This paper investigates Object Referring with Spoken Language (ORSpoken) by presenting two datasets and one novel approach, showing the efficacy of the proposed vision-language interaction methods in counteracting background noise.
Abstract: Object referring has important applications, especially for human-machine interaction. While having received great attention, the task is mainly attacked with written language (text) as input rather than spoken language (speech), which is more natural. This paper investigates Object Referring with Spoken Language (ORSpoken) by presenting two datasets and one novel approach. Objects are annotated with their locations in images, text descriptions and speech descriptions. This makes the datasets ideal for multi-modality learning. The approach is developed by carefully taking down ORSpoken problem into three sub-problems and introducing taskspecific vision-language interactions at the corresponding levels. Experiments show that our method outperforms competing methods consistently and significantly. The approach is also evaluated in the presence of audio noise, showing the efficacy of the proposed vision-language interaction methods in counteracting background noise.
TL;DR: The authors focus on the social nature of academic writing to refine an understanding of feedback interactions in higher education, and studies on the various sources of feedback -feedback networks, feedback netwo...
Abstract: Scholars focus on the social nature of academic writing to refine an understanding of feedback interactions in higher education. However, studies on the various sources of feedback – feedback netwo...