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The question of what makes a good teacher of English has aroused researchers' interest for many years, and the existing studies comparing NESTs (native English-speaking teachers) and NNESTs (non-native English-speaking teachers) have focused mostly on students' perceptions of these teachers. The current study aims to explore in the first phase if there is a meaningful difference between Turkish EFL learners' perceptions of NESTs and NNESTs on their first encounter with them. The second phase explores whether any changes have occurred in students' preconceptions regarding NESTs within the course of time. The participants are 120 Turkish monolinguals from a private university. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires consisting of Likert-scale items in both phases. An interview session was added to the second phase to obtain more in-depth insights into students' perceptions. The findings showed that students had neutral perceptions of NESTs and NNESTs. However, in the second phase, the data analysed via qualitative content analysis demonstrated that students' perceptions were found to have positively changed for NESTs, particularly in terms of personality dimension. In both phases, students perceived NESTs in linguistic and professional dimensions, and NNESTs in pedagogical dimension rather positively.

It is controversial whether the linguistic distinction between nouns and verbs is reflected in the cortical organization of the lexicon. Neuropsychological studies of aphasia and neuroimaging studies have associated the left prefrontal cortex, particularly Broca’s area, with verbs/actions, and the left posterior temporal cortex, particularly Wernicke’s area, with nouns/objects. However, more recent research has revealed that evidence for this distinction is inconsistent. Against this background, the present study employed low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to investigate the dissociation of action and object naming in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas in Turkish. Thirty-six healthy adult participants took part in the study. In two experiments, low-frequency (1 Hz) inhibitory rTMS was administered at 100% of motor threshold for 10 minutes to suppress the activity of the left prefrontal cortex spanning Broca’s area or the left posterior temporal cortex spanning Wernicke’s area. A picture naming task involving objects and actions was employed before and after the stimulation sessions to examine any pre-to post-stimulation changes in naming latencies. Linear mixed models that included various psycholinguistic covariates including frequency, visual and conceptual complexity, age of acquisition, name agreement and word length were fitted to the data. The findings showed that conceptual complexity, age of acquisition of the target word and name agreement had a significant effect on naming latencies, which was consistent across both experiments. Critically, the findings significantly associated Broca’s area, but not Wernicke’s area, in the distinction between naming objects and actions. Suppression of Broca’s area led to a significant and robust increase in naming latencies (or slowdown) for objects and a marginally significant, but not robust, reduction in naming latencies (or speedup) for actions. The findings suggest that actions and objects in Turkish can be dissociated in Broca’s area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Despite abundant research on the role of Broca's area in language processing, there is still no consensus on language specificity of this region and its connectivity network. Methods: The present study employed the meta‐analytic connectivity modeling procedure to identify and compare domain‐specific (language‐specific) and domain‐general (shared between language and other domains) functional connectivity patterns of three subdivisions within the broadly defined Broca's area: pars opercularis (IFGop), pars triangularis (IFGtri), and pars orbitalis (IFGorb) of the left inferior frontal gyrus. Results: The findings revealed a left‐lateralized frontotemporal network for all regions of interest underlying domain‐specific linguistic functions. The domain‐general network, however, spanned frontoparietal regions that overlap with the multiple‐demand network and subcortical regions spanning the thalamus and the basal ganglia. Conclusions: The findings suggest that language specificity of Broca's area emerges within a left‐lateralized frontotemporal network, and that domain‐general resources are garnered from frontoparietal and subcortical networks when required by task demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

A consistent finding across head-initial languages, such as English, is that subject relative clauses (SRCs) are easier to comprehend than object relative clauses (ORCs). However, several studies in Mandarin Chinese, a head-final language, revealed the opposite pattern, which might be modulated by working memory (WM) as suggested by recent results from self-paced reading performance. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants with high and low WM spans (measured by forward digit span and operation span tests) read Chinese ORCs and SRCs. The results revealed an N400-P600 complex elicited by ORCs on the relativizer, whose magnitude was modulated by the WM span. On the other hand, a P600 effect was elicited by SRCs on the head noun, whose magnitude was not affected by the WM span. These findings paint a complex picture of relative clause processing in Chinese such that opposing factors involving structural ambiguities and integration of filler-gap dependencies influence processing dynamics in Chinese relative clauses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentence reading involves multiple linguistic operations including processing of lexical and compositional semantics, and determining structural and grammatical relationships among words. Previous studies on Indo-European languages have associated left anterior temporal lobe (aTL) and left interior frontal gyrus (IFG) with reading sentences compared to reading unstructured word lists. To examine whether these brain regions are also involved in reading a typologically distinct language with limited morphosyntax and lack of agreement between sentential arguments, an FMRI study was conducted to compare passive reading of Chinese sentences, unstructured word lists and disconnected character lists that are created by only changing the order of an identical set of characters. Similar to previous findings from other languages, stronger activation was found in mainly left-lateralized anterior temporal regions (including aTL) for reading sentences compared to unstructured word and character lists. On the other hand, stronger activation was identified in left posterior temporal sulcus for reading unstructured words compared to unstructured characters. Furthermore, reading unstructured word lists compared to sentences evoked stronger activation in left IFG and left inferior parietal lobule. Consistent with the literature on Indo-European languages, the present results suggest that left anterior temporal regions subserve sentence-level integration, while left IFG supports restoration of sentence structure. In addition, left posterior temporal sulcus is associated with morphological compounding. Taken together, reading Chinese sentences engages a common network as reading other languages, with particular reliance on integration of semantic constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in linguistic theorizing in the second half of the 20th century motivated many psychologists to become interested in language processing. This interest at times turned into frustration due to lack of empirical evidence for the asserted linguistic postulates. This article briefly reviews some of the major interactions between Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, and other domains of cognitive science with respect to language processing. Specifically, perspectives of Chomsky's Generative Grammar framework on language processing are discussed, with a focus on some of its key constructs and postulates such as derivation, traces and movement, which have been put to empirical test by psycholinguists. Additionally, the overemphasis placed by Generative Grammar on syntax is discussed, as it has been challenged by other linguists, who put forward new approaches to understand language processing. Particular emphasis is put on the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis, as it has been shown that this approach attempts to balance the division of labor between syntax and semantics, striving to incorporate findings from other cognitive sciences in linguistic research. It is argued that in spite of apparent discontent of psycholinguists with Linguistics, the latter domain has provided valuable insights into our understanding of language. It is concluded that more realistic and promising insights into language processing are expected from future research due to greater openness of the linguistic and psycholinguistic fields to findings from other cognitive science domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]