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The visual cues of lexical tones are more implicit and much less investigated than consonants and vowels, and it is still unclear what facial areas contribute to facial tones identification. This study investigated Chinese and English speakers’ eye movements when they were asked to identify audiovisual Mandarin lexical tones. The Chinese and English speakers were presented with an audiovisual clip of Mandarin monosyllables (for instance, /ă/, /à/, /ĭ/, /ì/) and were asked to identify whether the syllables were a dipping tone (/ă/, / ĭ/) or a falling tone (/ à/, /ì/). These audiovisual syllables were presented in clear, noisy and silent (absence of audio signal) conditions. An eye-tracker recorded the participants’ eye movements. Results showed that the participants gazed more at the mouth than the eyes. In addition, when acoustic conditions became adverse, both the Chinese and English speakers increased their gaze duration at the mouth rather than at the eyes. The findings suggested that the mouth is the primary area that listeners utilise in their perception of audiovisual lexical tones. The similar eye movements between the Chinese and English speakers imply that the mouth acts as a perceptual cue that provides articulatory information, as opposed to social and pragmatic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Today, English and its use as an international language is agreed upon by all, and a wealth of scientific articles written every day in the whole world is in English. The purpose of this study is to project some commonly used grammatical points that native speakers of Persian, unfortunately, do not follow or do not have adequate knowledge to use when writing in English, but this style of writing in the scientific articles by authors whose mother tongue is English is quite obvious. Methods: In a retrospective study, the author has tried, by drawing on three decades of experience in editing English articles, to provide intriguing points needed to improve the quality of the English articles couched by researchers and authors through exemplification. Results: A review of English articles written by those whose mother tongue is English or Persian shows a noticeable difference, both structurally and lexically, between the two writing styles. Conclusion: Heading off this major problem requires holding numerous meetings and workshops on how to write English articles for Persian speakers to familiarize them with style and features of metadiscourse in research articles jenre.

In Japanese sentences, the default word order is 'subject-object-verb' (SOV). However, Japanese allows scrambling of noun phrases (NPs), for example 'object-subject-verb' (OSV) as opposed to the unscrambled default order. Two self-paced reading experiments in the moving window paradigm were conducted to test the effects of syntax, semantics and discourse in native Japanese and native English speakers' processing of scrambled Japanese sentences. The first experiment examined how the syntactic factor (NP order) and semantic factor (NP animacy) affect processing of Japanese sentences. Results revealed that animacy difference between the subject-NP and object-NP contributes more to native English speakers' processing than default SOV word order, whereas no such difference was found for native Japanese speakers. The second experiment examined the discourse effect in processing of scrambled OSV sentences. The experiment revealed that the processing of Japanese scrambled sentences is facilitated by the preceding context for both native Japanese and English speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Today, English and its use as an international language is agreed upon by all, and a wealth of scientific articles written every day in the whole world is in English. The purpose of this study is to project some commonly used grammatical points that native speakers of Persian, unfortunately, do not follow or do not have adequate knowledge to use when writing in English, but this style of writing in the scientific articles by authors whose mother tongue is English is quite obvious. Methods: In a retrospective study, the author has tried, by drawing on three decades of experience in editing English articles, to provide intriguing points needed to improve the quality of the English articles couched by researchers and authors through exemplification. Results: A review of English articles written by those whose mother tongue is English or Persian shows a noticeable difference, both structurally and lexically, between the two writing styles. Conclusion: Heading off this major problem requires holding numerous meetings and workshops on how to write English articles for Persian speakers to familiarize them with style and features of metadiscourse in research articles jenre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sound symbolism, systematic associations between sounds and meanings, is receiving increasing attention in linguistics, psychology and related disciplines. One general question that is currently explored in this research is what sorts of semantic properties can be symbolically represented. Against this background, within the general research paradigm which explores the nature of sound symbolism using Pokémon names, several recent studies have shown that Japanese speakers associate certain classes of sounds with notions that are as complex as Pokémon types. Specifically, Japanese speakers associate (1) sibilants with the flying type, (2) voiced obstruents with the dark type, and (3) labial consonants with the fairy type. These sound symbolic effects arguably have their roots in the phonetic properties of the sounds at issue, and hence are not expected to be specific to Japanese. The current study thus addressed the question whether these sound symbolic associations hold with native speakers of English. Two experiments show that these sound symbolic patterns were very robustly observed when the stimuli were presented in pairs; when the stimuli were presented in isolation, the effects were also tangible, although not as robust. We conclude that English speakers can associate certain types of sounds with particular Pokémon types, with an important caveat that we observed a clear task effect. Overall the current results lend some credibility to the hypothesis that those attributes that play a role in Pokémons' survival are actively signaled by sound symbolism.

Sound symbolism, systematic associations between sounds and meanings, is receiving increasing attention in linguistics, psychology and related disciplines. One general question that is currently explored in this research is what sorts of semantic properties can be symbolically represented. Against this background, within the general research paradigm which explores the nature of sound symbolism using Pokémon names, several recent studies have shown that Japanese speakers associate certain classes of sounds with notions that are as complex as Pokémon types. Specifically, Japanese speakers associate (1) sibilants with the flying type, (2) voiced obstruents with the dark type, and (3) labial consonants with the fairy type. These sound symbolic effects arguably have their roots in the phonetic properties of the sounds at issue, and hence are not expected to be specific to Japanese. The current study thus addressed the question whether these sound symbolic associations hold with native speakers of English. Two experiments show that these sound symbolic patterns were very robustly observed when the stimuli were presented in pairs; when the stimuli were presented in isolation, the effects were also tangible, although not as robust. We conclude that English speakers can associate certain types of sounds with particular Pokémon types, with an important caveat that we observed a clear task effect. Overall the current results lend some credibility to the hypothesis that those attributes that play a role in Pokémons' survival are actively signaled by sound symbolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of compliment speech act has been under investigation on many occasions in recent years. In this study, an attempt is made to explore appraisals performed by native English speakers and Iranian EFL learners to find out how these two groups diverge or converge from each other with regard to complimenting patterns and norms. The participants of the study were 60 advanced Iranian EFL learners who were speaking Persian as their first language and 60 native English speakers. Through a written Discourse Completion Task comprised of eight different scenarios, compliments were analyzed with regard to topics (performance, personality, possession, and skill), functions (explicit, implicit, and opt-out), gender differences and the common positive adjectives used by two groups of native and nonnative participants. The findings suggested that native English speakers praised individuals more implicitly in comparison with Iranian EFL learners and native speakers provided opt-outs more frequently than Iranian EFL learners did. The analysis of data by Chi-square showed that gender and macro functions are independent of each other among Iranian EFL learners’ compliments while for native speakers, gender played a significant role in the distribution of appraisals. Iranian EFL learners’ complimenting patterns converge more towards those of native English speakers. Moreover, both groups favored explicit compliments. However, Iranian EFL learners were more inclined to provide explicit compliments. It can be concluded that there were more similarities rather than differences between Iranian EFL learners and native English speakers regarding compliment speech act. The results of this study can benefit researchers, teachers, material developers, and EFL learners.

The South African life assurance company, Sanlam, was established in 1918 as a direct result of Afrikaner ambitions. This ethnic nationalism was inspired by the advances of the Afrikaans language movement and the formation of the National Party (NP) in 1914 as a political home to many Afrikaners. An objective with the establishment of Sanlam as a life assurance company was the economic empowerment of Afrikaners in South Africa. Economic upliftment was the goal. From the beginning, the company was known principally as an Afrikaans institution focusing on Afrikaner interests. Sanlam wanted to establish itself as a South African establishment rendering a service to the entire South African community. That vision made business sense - a successful enterprise in the South African market that also contributed to Afrikaner empowerment. The question is whether that focus resulted in the company relying on an exclusive Afrikaansspeaking NP supporter base in its staff composition. This question is raised especially in view of Sanlam's Afrikaans slogan at that time: "Uit die volk gebore om die volk te dien". The interpretation of the meaning of the word "volk" is contrasting. Afrikaners of that period understood the word as referring to the Afrikaner people. "Volk" is translated into English as "people" or "nation". The slogan therefore reads as follows in English: "Born from the people to serve the people" - implying a wider involvement than only the Afrikaners. Pronouncements of Afrikaner politicians contributed to this confusion of tongues. The Afrikaner leader JBM Hertzog, for instance, on the one hand considered the concept "Afrikaners" to include Afrikaans and English speakers. On the other hand, he maintained that the two groups perhaps will be united somewhere in the future. Sanlam leaders' views in this regard varied between a reference to the "Afrikaans-speaking section" of the "Afrikanervolk" and a statement that the company is a truly Afrikaans national institution in the broadest interpretation of the word. Another reference in this regard is the view that Sanlam had developed from service to the section of the population from which it originated and that the staff members are in the service of the Afrikanervolk. Regardless of all the rhetoric, business sense played the determining role eventually. The company indeed saw the light of day with three non-Afrikaners as staff members in its midst. Two Scotsmen occupied senior positions in the new company and a Jewish woman assisted the personnel in the correct use of business Afrikaans. During the establishment years, a number of English-speakers were appointed. However, the staff overwhelmingly remained Afrikaans-speaking. Despite or perhaps as a result of the disparate interpretation of the company slogan, non-Afrikaners were involved in the company from the beginning as well as a senior Afrikaans staff member who openly exhibited his support for a party other than the NP. Although a minority by far, they were accepted as normal staff members. From the preceding analysis it turns out that the Sanlam slogan retrospectively can be rephrased as "Mainly, but not completely born from the Afrikaner people to serve the South African nation". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent findings have re-examined the linguistic influence on cognition and perception, while identifying evidence that supports the Whorfian hypothesis. We examine how English and Japanese speakers perceive similarity of pairs of objects, by using two sets of stimuli: one in which two distinct linguistic categories apply to respective object images in English, but only one linguistic category applies in Japanese; and another in which two distinct linguistic categories apply to respective object images in Japanese, but only one applies in English. We conducted four studies and tested different groups of participants in each of them. In Study 1, we asked participants to name the two objects before engaging in the similarity judgment task. Here, we expected a strong linguistic effect. In Study 2, we asked participants to engage in the same task without naming, where we assumed that the condition is close enough to our daily visual information processing where language is not necessarily prompted. We further explored whether the language still influences the similarity perception by asking participants to engage in the same task basing on the visual similarity (Study 3) and the functional similarity (Study 4). The results overall indicated that English and Japanese speakers perceived the two objects to be more similar when they were in the same linguistic categories than when they were in different linguistic categories in their respective languages. Implications for research testing the Whorfian hypothesis and the requirement for methodological development beyond behavioral measures are discussed.

Three eye-movement experiments were conducted to examine how the complexity of characters in Chinese words (i.e., number of strokes per character) influences their processing and eye-movement behaviour. In Experiment 1, English speakers with no significant knowledge of Chinese searched for specific low-, medium-, and high-complexity target characters in a multi-page narrative containing characters of varying complexity (3-16 strokes). Fixation durations and skipping rates were influenced by the visual complexity of both the target characters and the characters being searched even though participants had no knowledge of Chinese. In Experiment 2, native Chinese speakers performed the same character-search task, and a similar pattern of results was observed. Finally, in Experiment 3, a second sample of native Chinese speakers read the same text used in Experiments 1 and 2, with text characters again exhibiting complexity effects. These results collectively suggest that character-complexity effects on eye movements may not be due to lexical processing per se but may instead reflect whatever visual processing is required to know whether or not a character corresponds to an episodically represented target. The theoretical implications of this for our understanding of normal reading are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the field of research on Spanish as a Foreign Language. Our objective is to analyze the acquisition and use of object pronouns by learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language who are either American English or Brazilian Portuguese native speakers. Based on error analysis, this interlanguage study aims to analyze whether there is transference from the informants' native languages and, if so, how this transference manifests. Our work also examines the influence of formal instruction on the learning and acquisition of pronouns in Spanish as a Second Language through the application of a learning module, a pre-test, corrective feedback, and a post-test. By means of a periodical evaluation of complex grammar structures, this article offers a pedagogical perspective regarding the treatment of errors, the development of teaching modules, and the application of feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to investigate the acquisition of Chinese modals by native English speakers based on the production materials in written discourse. The results show that the functional category is accessible to the L2 learners. Their knowledge of the semantic properties of the modals is impaired, as exemplified by the errors: omission, redundancy, word order and misuse. The finding is in conformity with the Interface Hypothesis (Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006). Finally, the article explores the implications of this study for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpreters are expected to have an advanced command of not only the vocabulary and grammar of their working languages, but also the pragmatic norms that speakers of their working languages employ in communicative interactions. The aim of this paper is to explore the perceptions and practices of interpreters in relation to intercultural pragmatics at work in healthcare interactions. The paper employs two theoretical frameworks: the first is based on interpretations of behavior according to speakers' discourse-pragmatic features as representative of 'high' or 'low' context cultures (cf. Hall 1976); the second applies Celce-Murcia's (2007) more refined notion of 'communicative competence.' The data sample of this paper focuses on cultural-pragmatic features of two linguistic and cultural groups - 25 Chinese speakers and 24 English speakers - and contrasts their selected responses to five features of Chinese-English interpreted healthcare interactions. Responses from 33 Chinese-English interpreters are matched against those from speakers of the two groups to examine the degree of congruence that interpreters have with the self-reported (para-)linguistic behavior of the two groups of speakers, for whom they interpret. This study shows that the self-reported (para-)linguistic behavior of both groups is determined by their adoption of a particular approach (doctor- vs. patient-centered approach) and other micro-level features (perceived time constraints, different notions of 'small talk') that limit elaborate pragmatic enactments. Over-arching cultural-pragmatic models based on 'high' (or 'low') context communication, or 'vertical' (vs. 'horizontal') hierarchical perceptions of role and status appear to have limited application to the data. Instead, local features specific to the healthcare situation co-determine both English and Chinese speakers' responses to questions about their use of pragmatics. Findings indicate that interpreters attend to each group's enactment of pragmatic features and, as expert language users, are able to recognize features and components of interactions and their functions to a greater degree than the Chinese and English speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop a framework for further study of pragmatic behavior in young children from African American English (AAE) speaking backgrounds, one aspect of pragmatic behavior is explored in this article, specifically, speech acts. The aims of this article are to (1) examine examples of how external taxonomies (i.e., an “etic” or “outside-in” approach) have been applied to the speech act behavior of AAE child speakers and to note that etic approaches alone do not identify cultural characteristics that influence the presentation of speech acts in this population; (2) conceptualize a culture-sensitive framework where components of AAE speech act behaviors can be identified as gleaned from existing linguistic research; and (3) explain the utility of analyses of speech act behavior using taxonomies that have emerged from the cultural language style of AAE speakers, that is, an “emic” or “inside-out” approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este estudio se analizan los usos del artículo definido que se suelen deslindar en la mayoría de libros de texto de español de nivel inicial publicados en los Estados Unidos. De acuerdo a los errores de uso del articulo definido por parte del aprendiz de español, reelaboramos las explicaciones que dan los libros de texto a través de reglas presentadas con ilustraciones contextualizadas. Deseamos recalcar la necesidad de que cualquier elemento gramatical debe presentarse contextualizado para que así el aprendiz pueda entrever su uso con mayor facilidad.

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Abstract: The study on which this article is based investigated reasons for learning a foreign language at university in a predominantly English-speaking environment (the UK). It examined the relative importance of motivational variables as theorised in the field of second language (L2) motivation, and the effect of first language (L1) and linguistic background (English only versus other), country of birth (the UK versus other), choice of target language (French versus Spanish) and centre of study (specialist language department versus language centre). Despite the ‘monoglot culture’ that prevails in many English-speaking countries, having an English-only profile and especially being born in the UK proved to be important motivating factors in the participants'' decision to learn a foreign language. Few significant differences were found between learners of French and Spanish, which were both deemed to have continued instrumental value despite the dominance of English in the world today. The notion of ideal L2 self proved potentially more useful than traditional motivational constructs. However, it is argued that the concept would benefit from further research in particular amongst non-specialist language learners, who appear to have been largely neglected by L2 motivation theory to date, despite possibly representing the future of foreign language learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A critical challenge for military personnel when operating in foreign countries is effective communication with the local population. To address this issue, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created the Spoken Language Communication and Translation Systems for Tactical Use (TRANSTAC) program. The program's goal is to develop speech-to-speech translation technologies enabling English speakers to quickly communicate with the local population without an interpreter. DARPA has funded the National Institutes of Standards and Technology to lead the design and implementation of the TRANSTAC performance evaluations. This article presents these evaluations that enabled the collection of rich quantitative and qualitative metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The intent of the study was to develop and validate a comparable health literacy test for Spanish-speaking and English-speaking populations. Study Design. The design of the instrument, named the Short Assessment of Health Literacy—Spanish and English ( SAHL-S&E), combined a word recognition test, as appearing in the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine ( REALM), and a comprehension test using multiple-choice questions designed by an expert panel. We used the item response theory (IRT) in developing and validating the instrument. Data Collection. Validation of SAHL-S&E involved testing and comparing the instrument with other health literacy instruments in a sample of 201 Spanish-speaking and 202 English-speaking subjects recruited from the Ambulatory Care Center at the University of North Carolina Healthcare System. Principal Findings. Based on IRT analysis, 18 items were retained in the comparable test. The Spanish version of the test, SAHL-S, was highly correlated with other Spanish health literacy instruments, Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish-Speaking Adults ( r=0.88, p<.05) and the Spanish Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults ( TOFHLA) ( r=0.62, p<.05). The English version, SAHL-E, had high correlations with REALM ( r=0.94, p<.05) and the English TOFHLA ( r=0.68, p<.05). Significant correlations were found between SAHL-S&E and years of schooling in both Spanish- and English-speaking samples ( r=0.15 and 0.39, respectively). SAHL-S&E displayed satisfactory reliability of 0.80 and 0.89 in the Spanish- and English-speaking samples, respectively. IRT analysis indicated that the SAHL-S&E score was highly reliable for individuals with a low level of health literacy. Conclusions. The new instrument, SAHL-S&E, has good reliability and validity. It is particularly useful for identifying individuals with low health literacy and could be used to screen for low health literacy among Spanish and English speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how English speakers address, and are addressed by, their Japanese colleagues in Japan, and the deciding factors and motivation for the choice of address-forms in a given context. The local norms of English and Japanese are also examined through interviews with 15 British and 15 Japanese office workers in their home countries, to investigate the differences between the two norms that may cause English speakers and Japanese difficulty when showing familiarity in cross-cultural interaction. For the actual analysis of the interaction in English between English speakers and Japanese, I examined two English language teaching TV programmes, and interviewed seven English speakers and four Japanese speakers working in Japan. The main analysis focuses on how English speakers employ address-forms with their Japanese colleagues at work, in English in Japan. The analysis shows that speaking in English does not always mean following English norms, and that English speakers often accommodate the address-form of their Japanese colleagues to local norms, i.e. last name + san. This decision seems to be heavily influenced by not only the local context, but the Japanese speakers' English proficiency level. When Japanese colleagues are not ready to accept the use of their first name, then English speakers' adoption of the local norms seems to be an effective approach to establishing solidarity, which seems to be crucial in a cross-cultural business context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]