What holds a narrative together? The linguistic encoding of episode boundaries

Previous research has shown that both native English and native Japanese speakers have great difficulty distinguishing the dental and retroflex stop-consonants of the Hindi language. However, Japanese speakers perform much better than English speakers—particularly on voiced-unaspirated consonants. This differential performance is thought to be due to contrastive experience that Japanese have with /d/ versus flapped /r/. (While English does contain a flapped /r/, it is not contrasted with /d/.) This research further compared English and Japanese speakers’ ability to distinguish the Hindi contrast by providing laboratory training and generalization tests for both language groups. Twenty native speakers from each language group were pretested and post-tested on voiced-aspirated, voiced-unaspirated, voiceless-aspirated, and voiceless-unaspirated dental and retroflex consonant-vowel syllables produced by 2 native Hindi speakers in 3 vowel contexts (/a/, /e/, /o/). Training consisted of 12, 30-min sessions in which only voiced-aspirated tokens produced by 6 Hindi speakers in 2 vowel contexts (/a/ and /o/) were presented in a self-paced, self-selected fashion. While Japanese speakers performed at much higher levels than English speakers, both groups improved markedly and showed generalization to new speakers, new vowel contexts, and new voicing/manner contexts. [Work supported by NIDCD and Applied Telecommunications Research, Kyoto, Japan.]

Introduction: The earlier acute stroke patients receive intravenous (IV) tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the better the chance of recovery. Nearly half the patients at our medical center speak Spanish, Vietnamese, or other languages. Language may be a barrier to timely acute stroke therapy. Objective: To determine if primary language influences evaluation and door-to-needle time for IV tPA. Methods: This is a single center retrospective study of all acute stroke patients who received IV tPA at our center from January 2013 to December 2016. Primary language, last known well-to-door time, door-to-imaging time, and door-to-needle time were abstracted from chart review. The patients were divided into English and non-English speaking groups. Non-English speaking patients were further divided into Spanish, Vietnamese, and an Other language group (including Korean, Punjabi, Romanian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tagalog and Arabic). Student’s t-test and an ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc test were used to analyze differences between groups. Results: During the 4-year study period, 190 patients received IV tPA for acute ischemic stroke. Among them, 120 were English speaking and 70 non-English speaking. The non-English speaking patients included 35 Spanish, 22 Vietnamese, and 13 other language-speaking minorities. Between the non-English and English speaking groups there was no significant difference in average last known well-to-door-time (70.2 minutes vs 65.8 minutes, p=0.42), door-to-imaging time (14.3 minutes vs 16.5 minutes, p=0.07), and door-to-needle time for IV tPA (47.5 minutes vs 50.3 minutes, p=0.42). Subgroup analyses comparing English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Other language groups also showed no significant differences between the groups. Conclusions: Primary language had no effect on timely acute stroke management for IV tPA recipients in our center. This was likely due to physician/staff diversity, the availability of interpreters, and English-speaking family members or friends. While our study focused on patients that received tPA, we suspect that primary language may influence the last known well-to-door time for all ischemic stroke patients, thereby limiting the number of non-English speaking patients eligible to receive tPA.

Assessing intentions, attitudes, and knowledge about breastfeeding among different language groups is important because the languages reflect cultural differences. We compared attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, intentions, and knowledge of breastfeeding among mothers with the five most common preferred languages spoken at a New York City hospital. This cross-sectional study surveyed women (n = 448) in the prenatal clinic and the post-partum unit of a New York City hospital. The survey questions were about breastfeeding attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and intentions, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. We also administered the Iowa Infant Feeding and Attitude Scale and measured the knowledge of the mothers about breastfeeding. The preferred language spoken by the mother was the main predictor variable. English, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek were the languages studied. Multivariate linear regression analyses showed that Russian (B = 2.24, SE = 1.09, p = 0.04), Urdu (B = 2.90, SE = 1.45, p = 0.046), and Uzbek (B = 4.21, SE = 1.35, p = 0.002) speakers all had significantly more positive attitudes toward breastfeeding than did English speakers. Spanish and English language speakers did not differ from each other in their attitudes towards breastfeeding. The language groups did not differ significantly for subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, intention to breastfeed, the Iowa Infant Feeding and Attitude Scale, nor in knowledge regarding breastfeeding. Urdu, Uzbek, and Russian speakers had significantly more positive attitudes towards breastfeeding than did English speakers. To the extent that preferred language is a proxy for culture, clinicians can use this parameter as a basis for directing approaches toward lactation education.

Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to identify, reflect upon, and manipulate linguistic units. It plays a critical role in reading development. The present study investigated Chinese- and English-speaking preschoolers’ metalinguistic awareness development and the role of cognitive and linguistic abilities in its development. Forty-two Chinese-speaking and 36 English-speaking monolingual children completed a series of metalinguistic awareness, false belief, inhibitory control, and receptive vocabulary tasks. The results revealed distinct pathways for the two language groups. English speakers had a more advanced level of rhyme awareness. Chinese speakers developed homonym understanding faster during the preschool years. Inhibitory control was more important for Chinese speakers to develop synonym and homonym understanding, whereas receptive vocabulary was crucial for English speakers to develop rhyme awareness. These differences may be attributable to the characteristics of the Chinese and English languages, as well as the patterns of cognitive development in the two populations.

Medical mistrust can be a barrier to health care utilization. While the Group-Based Medical Mistrust Scale (GBMMS) has been validated among diverse populations, we know little about its psychometric performance among English-Speaking (ES) and Spanish-Speaking (SS) Latinos. We aim to examine the factor structure of GBMMS among Latino parents and explore whether scale latent factor structures would be different across preferred languages. Parents of adolescents participating in an urban academic enrichment program for low-income students completed an online survey as part of a cross-sectional study about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) prevention. We tested the validity of the GBMMS in ES and SS respondents and performed exploratory factor analysis to identify latent factors. We examined scale scores, item means, item endorsement, and residual variance across language groups. 2-factor latent structure was identified for both ES and SS groups; factors were labeled as 'Suspicion' and 'System-wide discrimination.' Scale validity was better among SS (α = 0.76). Medical mistrust scores did not vary across language groups, but variation emerged in item endorsement by language. Our results suggest that the factor structures of the medical mistrust construct, measured by the GBMMS, are similar across ES and SS Latinos and that the GBMMS is valid for both populations. High factor pattern loading reflects a shared mistrust of how health care systems view and treat people of their racial/ethnic background, independent of their preferred languages. Measurement of medical mistrust and identifying its underlying causes are needed within diverse populations to fully address structural- and community-level influences on health inequities.

A recent study [Radhakrishnan and Schmidt (2001)] on the perception of fricative/vowel syllables by English and Mandarin speakers demonstrated that English speakers use the fricative noise while Mandarin speakers use both the fricative noise and vowel transitions in categorizing syllable initial fricatives in their native languages. In this study, cross-language mappings for fricative/vowel syllables were obtained from native English and Mandarin speakers. Native English and Mandarin speakers labeled and rated three sets of tokens from L2. These tokens were (1) fricative noises from four different vowel environments, (2) natural fricative vowel syllables, and (3) F+V combinations in which the fricative noise from one language was combined with vowel transition from the other language. Vowel length was manipulated in the third set of stimuli. Results indicate differences in the cross-language mappings by the two language groups.

Objective: To determine if primary language affects acute ischemic stroke evaluation and door-to-needle time for intravenous (IV) tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Methods: This is a retrospective study of acute ischemic stroke patients at our center from January 2013 to December 2016. Charts were reviewed to identify preferred language. Data were collected from the Get With the Guidelines Database, including last known well (LKW)-to-door time, door-to-imaging time and door-to-needle time. Patients were divided into English and non-English speaking groups. The non-English speaking group was further divided into Spanish, Vietnamese, and Other groups. Mann Whitney test was used to assess differences between the English and Non-English groups for LKW-to-door time and door-to-imaging time. A chi-squared test was used for pairwise comparisons of English, Non-English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Other language groups to assess whether language affects likelihood of receiving tPA. Results: The study included 1,118 ischemic stroke patients; 188 received IV tPA. Among them 758 were English speaking and 360 non-English speaking patients (196 Spanish, 101 Vietnamese and 63 other language speaking minorities). Between the non-English and English speaking groups there was no significant difference in the average last known well-to-door time (275 minutes vs. 224 minutes p=0.29), door-to-imaging time (23 minutes vs. 22 minutes, p=0.47) and door-to-needle time (51 minutes vs. 55 minutes, p=0.37). In subgroup analyses primary language was not found to have a significant effect on LKW-to-door time for language groups when compared to English. Also, there is no a significant difference for non-English groups when compared to English who present to the hospital within 24 hours of symptom onset. Conclusions: Primary language had no significant effect on door-to-needle time for IV tPA or LKW-to-door time. Yet, about one fourth of all patients arrived greater than 24 hours of symptom onset which excludes them from receiving treatment. Increasing targeted community stroke education is essential to help improve recognition of stroke symptoms and timely presentation to stroke centers.

The influence of a gender system in a language on perception was examined in a cross-cultural study. Participants were from two language groups, one with a gender system, Spanish, and the other with a limited gender system, English. In each language group, participants were from three age groups: 5-7 years old, 8-10 years old, and adult. In one experiment, participants were asked to put a typical male or female name to 20 objects. In another experiment, participants were asked to assign attributes to the objects. Language gender tags influenced the Spanish adults and the 8- to 10-year-olds in their choice of gender assignment, whereas perceived attributes influenced the younger Spanish children and English speakers (both adults and children). It appears that in a language with a grammatical gender system, such as Spanish, the gender system creeps into perception after the gender tags have been acquired.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether neuropsychological tests translated into Spanish measure the same cognitive constructs as the original English versions. Older adult participants (N = 2,664), who did not exhibit dementia from the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP), a community-based cohort from northern Manhattan, were evaluated with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The study cohort includes both English (n = 1,800) and Spanish speakers (n = 864) evaluated in their language of preference. Invariance analyses were conducted across language groups on a structural equation model comprising four neuropsychological factors (memory, language, visual-spatial ability, and processing speed). The results of the analyses indicated that the four-factor model exhibited partial measurement invariance, demonstrated by invariant factor structure and factor loadings but nonequivalent observed score intercepts. The finding of invariant factor structure and factor loadings provides empirical evidence to support the implicit assumption that scores on neuropsychological tests are measuring equivalent psychological traits across these two language groups. At the structural level, the model exhibited invariant factor variances and covariances.

The influence of varying vowel phonation and duration on rhythmic grouping biases among Spanish and English speakers

Language-disordered children (chronological ages [CA] 7:6 [years:months] to 10:6) were compared with children who have normal language skills in their ability to cohere episode units in verbally produced narratives following a movie viewing. Cohesion across the episode boundaries was measured by judging the accuracy of conjunctives used to conjoin sentences. Each story was presented twice, once to an adult who had shared the movie viewing with the child, and once to an adult who had not seen the movie. Results indicated that age correlated with the frequency of complete episodes in both groups of children, only the children with normal language skills changed the number of complete episodes as a function of the listener's shared information, neither group altered the accuracy of conjunctive use as a function of the listener, and both groups used a higher frequency of accurate conjunctives to conjoin sentences within an episode than to conjoin sentences across episodes. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of age, language disorder, and listener context on the varying levels of narrative organization.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare masked English speech recognition thresholds between Spanish-English bilingual and English monolingual children and to evaluate effects of age, maternal education, and English receptive language abilities on individual differences in masked speech recognition. Method Forty-three Spanish-English bilingual children and 42 English monolingual children completed an English sentence recognition task in 2 masker conditions: (a) speech-shaped noise and (b) 2-talker English speech. Two age groups of children, younger (5-6 years) and older (9-10 years), were tested. The predictors of masked speech recognition performance were evaluated using 2 mixed-effects regression models. In the 1st model, fixed effects were age group (younger children vs. older children), language group (bilingual vs. monolingual), and masker type (speech-shaped noise vs. 2-talker speech). In the 2nd model, the fixed effects of receptive English vocabulary scores and maternal education level were also included. Results Younger children performed more poorly than older children, but no significant difference in masked speech recognition was observed between bilingual and monolingual children for either age group when English proficiency and maternal education were also included in the model. English language abilities fell within age-appropriate norms for both groups, but individual children with larger receptive vocabularies in English tended to show better recognition; this effect was stronger for younger children than for older children. Speech reception thresholds for all children were lower in the speech-shaped noise masker than in the 2-talker speech masker. Conclusions Regardless of age, similar masked speech recognition was observed for Spanish-English bilingual and English monolingual children tested in this study when receptive English language abilities were accounted for. Receptive English vocabulary scores were associated with better masked speech recognition performance for both bilinguals and monolinguals, with a stronger relationship observed for younger children than older children. Further investigation involving a Spanish-dominant bilingual sample is warranted given the high English language proficiency of children included in this study.

Within the study of sociolinguistic variation and change, two approaches have been developed that attempt to link individual speaker behavior with the study of the community. One approach makes use of “linguistic grouping,” examining the linguistic conditioning of individual speakers and looking for social correlates of the resulting groups. Another approach is the detailed analysis of individual speakers in different social situations. This chapter presents an overview of these two research traditions. It provides analyses across groups and individuals in the English spoken on the island of Bequia. Two well-studied grammatical variables constitute the linguistic focus of this research: The absence of copula/auxiliary be and existential constructions. The discussion compares the linguistic conditioning of these features in the speech of individuals who have left Bequia for long periods of time with that of their stay-at-home peers.

In this study, the factor structure and psychometric properties of a French adaptation of the well-established Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LACA) was investigated in a French-speaking sample of Belgian adolescents (N = 641; Mage = 14.35, SD = 2.03; 53.4% girls). In addition, measurement invariance analyses across the two main language groups in Belgium (i.e., Dutch-speaking and French-speaking) and across age and gender were conducted on a combined sample of French-speaking and Dutch-speaking Belgian adolescents (N = 1282; Mage = 14.36 years, SD = 2.03; 53.6% female). Subsequently, group mean differences across language, age, and gender groups were investigated. Convincing support was found for the expected four-factor structure of the French adaptation of the LACA and the measure showed good reliability. Results further indicated that Belgian adolescents from the two principal language groups and from different age and gender groups interpreted the items of the LACA similarly. Therefore, analyses of group mean differences could be compared. Given the small effect sizes that accompanied the obtained effects, replication research is needed to further investigate these group mean differences.

Previous research has shown that English speakers have great difficulty distinguishing dental and retroflex stop consonants of the Hindi language (which occur in five pairs of stop consonants in Hindi). While both dental and retroflex consonants, in almost all of the manner/voicing contexts of Hindi, occur as allophones in English, they do not occur phonemically. Unlike English, Japanese includes an alveolar-retroflex distinction (the Japanese /d/ versus the flapped /r/). However, no research has determined whether Japanese speakers can distinguish the Hindi contrast. This research compared English and Japanese speakers’ ability to distinguish these Hindi stop consonants in four of the five manner/voicing contexts (breathy-voiced, prevoiced, voiceless-aspirated, and voiceless-unaspirated). Subjects were presented consonant-vowel syllables in three vowel contexts (/a/, /e/, /o/) that were produced by two native Hindi speakers. Marked differences were found between these two language groups that were dependent upon the manner/voicing context of the consonants. This research contributes to our understanding of the role of native language experience (phonemic versus phonetic) in the perception of non-native speech contrasts. [Work supported by NIDCD.]