Auditory Reception Research Articles

Inference as a component of auditory reception: Linguistic and didactic aspects of preparing students of a language university for intercultural communication

Inference as a component of auditory reception: Linguistic and didactic aspects of preparing students of a language university for intercultural communication

Illusions of Auditory Reception and Paradoxes of Perception – Psychoacoustic EffectsGenerated by Sounds

Illusions of Auditory Reception and Paradoxes of Perception – Psychoacoustic EffectsGenerated by Sounds

Experiencing Literary Audiobooks: A Framework for Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of the Auditory Reception of Literature

Abstract While the act of listening to narratives has deep historical roots, it has gained renewed prominence in the contemporary literary landscape through the rise of audiobooks. Despite their resurgence, research on literary audiobooks, particularly within the realm of literary studies, remains notably limited. The audiobook has struggled to gain acceptance among the humanities as a legitimate aesthetic form, which can be attributed to the fact that it is often compared to the printed book as the leading medium for experiencing literature. By transforming a written text through the performativity of the voice into a spoken, analog, or digitally recorded, repeatable audio text, it becomes a completely different object of research that must be analyzed with different premises and approaches than the underlying written literary work. Nevertheless, literary analysis has predominantly focused on the visual and cognitive aspects of reading, thereby overlooking the auditory dimension. Especially in literary theory, there is a lack of both differentiated, proven descriptive criteria that take into account the specific auditory signification processes, including all the relevant paralinguistic features, and a theoretical foundation. This article aims to address this gap by developing a comprehensive framework for investigating the auditory reception of literature that seeks to elucidate the transition from reading to listening and its profound implications for the literary experience. By delving into the intricacies of auditory reception, literary theory can gain deeper insight into the cognitive and emotional facets of literary experiences, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of how individuals engage with literary works. Reviewing the still fragmented and nascent state of audiobook research, which barely focuses on the aspect of reception, the proposed framework explores five key dimensions: text, medium, listeners, situations and practices, and the resulting effects of auditory engagement with literature. Through a meticulous examination of these multifaceted factors, this article endeavors to provide a holistic understanding of the auditory reception of literary texts. Moreover, this avenue of research underscores the dynamic nature of literature, providing a richer perspective on the interplay between text, medium, recipients, situational context, and practices, thereby enriching the tapestry of literary theory. For example, a reexamination and customization of narratological categories is crucial, particularly concerning the incorporation of the physical voice, which is now actually present and independent of Genette’s category ›voice‹. Similarly, the transition into the auditory medium necessitates a reevaluation of situational context and its associated practices. This reassessment is driven by the temporal co-occurrence of cognitive processes and physical activities, facilitated by the liberation of hands and eyes from their prior engagement with printed books. This contribution does not solely aim to establish a theoretical foundation for the research field and identify essential factors related to literary listening; instead, the framework is substantiated with empirical evidence drawn from diverse academic disciplines. This synthesis of empirical data and theory sheds light on audiobooks, offering an approach that transcends conventional research paradigms. Moreover, it underscores the need for interdisciplinary collaboration in the investigation of audiobooks. Ultimately, the integrative framework presented here serves as a foundation for further research, offering a nuanced and comprehensive approach and terminology for exploring the evolving landscape of listening to literature.

Update and validation of the early word perception test in the Spanish language

IntroductionIt is extremely important to assess speech perception skills in children with hearing loss, since these skills are essential to guide the rehabilitation process. ObjectiveUpdate and validate the Early Speech Perception test in Spanish in normal-hearing children. MethodDifferent drawings were selected from children's books used daily in the work of teachers and speech therapists. 69 children aged between 3 and 8 years old participated in the study, divided into 6 groups by age (group 1, 3 years of age (n = 13); group 2, 4 years of age (n = 15); group 3, 5 years of age (n = 12); group 4, 6 years of age (n = 8); group 5, 7 years of age (n = 10); group 6, 8 years of age (n = 11)). For each category of the test, the children had to name and point to the corresponding drawing. ResultsThe difference between age and gender groups was statistically evaluated. For the naming phase, a significant difference was observed between groups 1 and group 5; and between group 1 and group 6. For the pointing phase there was no difference between the groups, and in all groups, there was a score greater than 98%. In relation to gender, there was no difference between the groups. ConclusionThe present study demonstrates that the material developed to assess auditory reception in normal-hearing children from 3 to 8 years old is appropriate.

Мультимитець у «Музагеті»: інтермедіальна домінанта творчості Михайла Жука

The article examines the literary legacy of the multi-artist Mykhailo Zhuk (1883–1964) as a member of the “Muzahet” group (1919) and an author who, navigating the bifurcation points of his time, influenced the development of Ukrainian culture in the first half of the 20th century. The paper outlines the specifics of the modernist society’s activities in the historical context at that time. It highlights the characteristic features of the publication process of the multi-genre almanack “Muzahet”. The author pays particular attention to M. Zhuk’s contribution to maintaining the association’s activities. His Muzahet poetry, particularly in the poem “Wings” (“Kryla”), decodes metalogical components through picturesque and musical reminiscences. The dramatic poem “Autumn Night” (“Nich Osinniia”) synthesises poetic, musical, and dramatic narratives and consists of several tonally distinct “musical” parts, being an example of a quasi-symphonic structure. The author explores the intertextual interaction of the “Autumn Night” text with Goethe’s “Faust”, which serves as its hermeneutic key. The impressionistic story “Etude” (“Etiud”) is interpreted through the depiction of the act of creation, the “introduction of dreaminess”, harmony through abstract imagery, and the metaphor of blindness in the dual world of the artist. The story “Melancholy” conceptualises the intermedial problem of harmony related to voice, sound, listening, dialogue, silence, and pauses based on the family relationship crisis theme. The author points out that the auditory reception of the character aligns with his internally defocused state. The paper also analyses M. Zhuk’s review of V. Yaroshenko’s book “Lighthadows” (“Svitotin”) (1918), highlights the critic’s primary criteria, including the preservation of one’s own identity (by avoiding the influence of the “other”), the title, and the genre-compositional organisation of the book. The portraits of P. Tychyna, D. Zahul, and Yu. Mezhenko in “Muzahet” are noted to not only reproduce the faces of artists but also capture the characteristics of their character, their distinctiveness, and idio-stylistic dominants in their work. In conclusion, the author argues that Mykhailo Zhuk’s creative method draws on cross-mediality and the synergy of arts, emerging not as a technique but as an inherent trait. The harmonious unity of various artistic components in the text often provokes synesthesia – the ability of the recipient to visualise, hear, and feel the texts simultaneously.

Syncretism and synaesthesia in music – unification of arts and perceptions

Archaeological and ethnological research has revealed that, since antiquity, music had a syncretic nature. Music, dance, and poetry made up a single whole, aiming at expressing human feelings, sensations and perceptions through melody, rhythm, words, and gestures, and accompanying everyday activities that had various functions. Artistic syncretism is doubled by another structural principle – synaesthesia. The brain process that unifies senses and perceptions, synaesthesia is defined as the spontaneous association of several senses and sensations, in response to the action of a single stimulus. People with the so-called colorful hearing associate auditory reception with the perception of colorful images. Many artists had this ability that was reflected in their artistic creation. Initially the fusion of music and color was researched by theorists, who tried to create musical instruments that would be able to radiate colours during the musical interpretation. The syncretic and synaesthetic relationship between sound and image is individualized at the beginning of the twentieth century. Starting with the Dadaist and futuristic trends, artists seek and discover new forms of expression that unite the audible and the visual in a single form of representation. At present, the interaction between arts is seen as a fact, common also due to multimedia technology that allows the creation of synthetic, syncretic and synaesthetic ambiances, in which perception takes place at a multisensory level, changing the listener's one-sided perception. The art of sounds plays an essential role in syncretism and synaesthesia in music: in the first case, music participates in defining complex forms of artistic manifestation, and in the second, music generates sensations at the level of several senses. The listener benefits from new forms of artistic expression through which the transfer of the states and feelings of the artist to the listener occurs.

Spectral interleaving by singing humpback whales: Signs of sonar

Singing humpback whales produce a wide variety of tonal and broadband units within their songs, usually organized into patterned sequences. Here, an extensive database of songs made available through Google's Pattern Radio website was analyzed to test the hypothesis that singers produce consecutive units in ways that minimize overlapping spectral content. Consistent with earlier analyses, singers maintained spectral separation across units within most repeating patterns (phrases and subphrases). Additionally, singers preserved the continuity of concentrated spectral energy, as well as the timing of units, as they cycled through different themes. Within songs, singers alternated between producing units that generated persistent reverberant tails tightly focused within narrow frequency bands and more impulsive, broadband units. By spectrally interleaving units, singing humpback whales can potentially avoid overlap between units that could interfere with auditory reception of the signals. By producing signals with broadband and narrowband elements that are spectrally and temporally segregated, singers may also maximize the distances at which they can detect and localize targets using echoes from those signals.

Effect of Intensity Level and Speech Stimulus Type on the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex.

Accurate vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) measurement requires control of extravestibular suppressive factors such as visual fixation. Although visual fixation is the dominant suppressor and has been extensively studied, the mechanisms underlying suppression from nonvisual factors of attention and auditory stimulation are less clear. It has been postulated that the nonvisual suppression of the VOR is the result of one of two mechanisms: (1) activation of auditory reception areas excites efferent pathways to the vestibular nuclei, thus inhibiting the VOR or (2) cortical modulation of the VOR results from directed attention, which implies a nonmodality-specific process. The purpose of this research was to determine if the VOR is affected by the intensity level and/or type of speech stimulus. A repeated measures design was used. The experiment was single-blinded. Participants included 17 adults (14 females, three males) between the ages of 18-34 years who reported normal oculomotor, vestibular, neurological, and musculoskeletal function. Each participant underwent slow harmonic acceleration testing in a rotational chair. VOR gain was assessed at 0.02, 0.08, and 0.32 Hz in quiet (baseline). VOR gain was also assessed at each frequency while a forward running speech stimulus (attentional) or a backward running speech stimulus (nonattentional) was presented binaurally via insert earphones at 42, 62, and 82 dBA. The order of the conditions was randomized across participants. VOR difference gain was calculated as VOR gain in the auditory condition minus baseline VOR gain. To evaluate auditory efferent function, the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) was assayed using transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (right ear) measured in the presence and absence of broadband noise (left ear). Contralateral acoustic reflex thresholds were also assessed using a broadband noise elicitor. A three-way repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted to evaluate the effect of frequency, intensity level, and speech type on VOR difference gain. Correlations were conducted to determine if difference gain was related to the strength of the MOCR and/or to the acoustic reflex threshold. The analysis of variance indicated that VOR difference gain was not significantly affected by the intensity level or the type of speech stimulus. Correlations indicated VOR difference gain was not significantly related to the strength of the MOCR or the acoustic reflex threshold. The results were in contrast to previous research examining the effect of auditory stimulation on VOR gain as auditory stimulation did not produce VOR suppression or enhancement for most of the participants. Methodological differences between the studies may explain the discrepant results. The removal of an acoustic target from space to attend to may have prevented suppression or enhancement of the VOR. Findings support the hypothesis that VOR gain may be affected by cortical modulation through directed attention rather than due to activation of efferent pathways to the vestibular nuclei.

Novel variant p.E269K confirms causative role of PLS1 mutations in autosomal dominant hearing loss.

Auditory reception relies on the perception of mechanical stimuli by stereocilia and its conversion to electrochemical signal. Mechanosensory stereocilia are abundant in actin, which provides them with structural conformity necessary for perception of auditory stimuli. Out of three major classes of actin-bundling proteins, plastin 1 encoded by PLS1, is highly expressed in stereocilia and is necessary for their regular maintenance. A missense PLS1 variant associated with autosomal dominant hearing loss (HL) in a small family has recently been reported. Here, we present another PLS1 missense variant, c.805G > A (p.E269K), in a Turkish family with autosomal dominant non-syndromic HL confirming the causative role of PLS1 mutations in HL. We propose that HL due to the p.E269K variant is from the loss of a stable PLS1-ACTB interaction.

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC AGE-PROFILES OF LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT: A COMPARISON BETWEEN CHILDREN WITH TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Background: Assessment of language is very important to detect atypically developed children. In this sense, psycholinguistic abilities are predictors of developmental functioning. The aim of this study was to compare ages of psycholinguistic processes between atypically and typically developed children. Material/Methods: In this cross-sectional study, six-, seven- and eight-year-old children from Cordoba (Argentina) (n= 28) were evaluated with the Spanish version of Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (S-ITPA). Statistical analysis included Student’s t-test in order to find differences between groups. Results: In the six-year-old sample, those with atypical language showed significantly lower psycholinguistic ages in: global psycholinguistic age, auditory association, and verbal expression, auditory reception, auditory sequential memory, grammatical closu re, and auditory closure, manual expression. In seven-year-old sample differences were found in grammatical closure and auditory closure. In eight-year-old group, atypical language sample showed lower psycholinguistic ages in auditory association, verbal expression and auditory sequential memory. Conclusions: This evidence establishes a limit stage corresponding to 6 years of age, which reflects the consolidation and integrity of language and the aptitudes involved. In later ages (e.g. seven and eight years), results may be biased by acquired formal learning abilities.

Kształcenie umiejętności efektywnego słuchania na lekcjach języka polskiego

The aim of this article is to verify the way in which authors of school textbooks propose develop listening comprehension in Polish language lessons. The author, after discussing the specifics of listening within an interpersonal communication and detailed perceptual skills, sets objectives of improving the auditory reception in Polish language education. Subsequently, she presents an analysis of didactic tasks that are classified according to a perceptual skill which are being developed. The article finishes with the presentation of a model of developing listening comprehension that emerges from selected school textbooks.

Simone Weil on Music: Listening with Tears of Prayerful Silence

does not reside in notes; resides in a relationship; and yet makes one weep. That how man made: Relationships touch him physically. (1) which unites Christ on the to his Father at an infinite distance dwells in every saintly soul.... In such a soul the of and the echoes perpetually in a perfect (2) I. Introduction essential character of music relational for Simone Weil (1909-1943). delimiting, distancing emotions evidenced through weeping are produced not merely by denoted sounds and their modulations, but rather by the artistically forged cosmos that constitutes an order, a unity, which apprehended by inwardness through the senses. That order, that unity, ultimately expresses for Weil the tacit spiritual or between God's original creative fiat that one with the re-creative in Christ abandoned on the Cross and the human soul as embodiment of that love. Weil considers the truly musical as an implicit dialogue [between] and the [as it] echoes perpetually in a perfect harmony. Thus central to an understanding of Weil's core and essential view on music not only Christ's cry or his suffering and death on the Cross, but also the Father's silence as pervasive tacit ground of the of the cosmos which underlies the phenomenal world of human experience. These two complementary notions lead me to examine how they open Weil to a communion with she calls a greater reality (GG, 34) that infinitely more real than the world of gravity, necessity, change, and time. (3) has left in (WR, 424), Weil writes, and thus time God's waiting for to return to him: The stars, the mountains, the sea, and all the things that speak to of convey God's supplication to us (WR, 424). It a function of music, says Weil, to give voice to this relationship between humanity by God and God's call to in the crucified Christ, inviting to pierce through so that we find eternity behind it (WR, 494). concerned with (4) yet for Weil a manifestation of beyond or of time: (5) Music unfolding in time captures the attention and bears away of time by bringing to bear at each instant on is. (6) Therefore, attention to music or to art or to things in general functions for Weil as the soul's movement into God. Stated differently, attention to music for Weil a form of prayer by those who open themselves to higher or newer levels of auditory reception, so that they become attentive in ways that they never listened or heard before. Attention, Weil writes, taken to its highest degree, the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love (GG, 105). (7) In musical attention as prayer, life passes from what is to outside of time, from reason to faith, and from speech to silence; music, by capturing our attention, leads to contemplate or to pray, and thus helps the soul to achieve contact or union with God. Weil's notion that music aids in our contact or union with God, or that music expresses religious ideas, in line with the musical aesthetics or philosophies of Pythagoras, Plato, Augustine, and Schopenhauer--to name but a few. Weil herself tells that the ideas of limit, measure, equilibrium, proportion, and harmony constitute the very soul of the Greeks--the Pythagoreans, Socrates, Plato (WR, 164). Greek mind, Weil goes on to say, could imagine a harmonious universe, because attached great importance to (WR, 299). This emphasis on numbers led Pythagoras to contemplate the relationship between the numerical relationships that permeate the universe and numerical ratios in musical But more than this, attracted Weil to Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans was their use of mathematics as a means of purification of the soul: (8) Purity of soul was their concern; to 'imitate God' was the secret of it. …

Ben Jonson's Eloquent Nonsense: The Noisy Ordeals of Heard Meanings on the Jacobean Stage (1609-14)

Ben Jonson’s avid staging of noise, aural loss, and inadequate heard meanings in Epicene (1609) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) transforms the plays into peculiar venues for studying and negotiating early modern histories and theories of auditory reception. The ordeals of hearing in each play further betray deeper concerns with the increasingly alienating nature of voiced forms of communication in Jonson’s overpopulated urban setting. This study uncovers local histories of aural failure which indicate that the plays were meant to be heard and in so doing question the very nature of hearing both in the crowded playhouses and within the extended topographic perimeter of Jacobean London.

Atypical central auditory speech-sound discrimination in children who stutter as indexed by the mismatch negativity

PurposeRecent theoretical conceptualizations suggest that disfluencies in stuttering may arise from several factors, one of them being atypical auditory processing. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether speech sound encoding and central auditory discrimination, are affected in children who stutter (CWS). MethodsParticipants were 10 CWS, and 12 typically developing children with fluent speech (TDC). Event-related potentials (ERPs) for syllables and syllable changes [consonant, vowel, vowel-duration, frequency (F0), and intensity changes], critical in speech perception and language development of CWS were compared to those of TDC. ResultsThere were no significant group differences in the amplitudes or latencies of the P1 or N2 responses elicited by the standard stimuli. However, the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) amplitude was significantly smaller in CWS than in TDC. For TDC all deviants of the linguistic multifeature paradigm elicited significant MMN amplitudes, comparable with the results found earlier with the same paradigm in 6-year-old children. In contrast, only the duration change elicited a significant MMN in CWS. ConclusionsThe results showed that central auditory speech-sound processing was typical at the level of sound encoding in CWS. In contrast, central speech-sound discrimination, as indexed by the MMN for multiple sound features (both phonetic and prosodic), was atypical in the group of CWS. Findings were linked to existing conceptualizations on stuttering etiology.Educational objectives: The reader will be able (a) to describe recent findings on central auditory speech-sound processing in individuals who stutter, (b) to describe the measurement of auditory reception and central auditory speech-sound discrimination, (c) to describe the findings of central auditory speech-sound discrimination, as indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN), in children who stutter.

Comparação das habilidades auditivas e visuais em paralíticos cerebrais diplégicos

Objetivo comparar o desempenho das habilidades psicolinguísticas auditivas e visuais de crianças com PC-D. Métodos participaram dez crianças com PC-D, classificados por meio da escala Gross Motor Function Measure System (GMFMS), de idade entre quatro anos e um mês a cinco anos e seis meses. A avaliação fonoaudiológica constou de entrevista com responsável, análise de prontuário e aplicação dos subtestes auditivos e visuais do Teste de Illinois de Habilidades Psicolinguísticas (ITPA). O tratamento estatístico constou de análise descritiva e aplicação do teste de Wilcoxon (nível de significância foi p≤ 0,05). Resultados os subtestes que obtiverem os menores escores foram na memória sequencial auditiva e memória sequencial visual. Na comparação entre as habilidades auditivas e visuais somente houve diferenças estatisticamente significante nos subtestes de recepção e associação. O grupo se comportou de forma heterogênea. Este estudo pretende chamar atenção para esta questão, pois se considera que estas habilidades são de extrema importância para o desenvolvimento das habilidades linguísticas e comunicativas que devem ser pensadas nos programas de reabilitação destes indivíduos. Conclusão houve diferenças estatisticamente significantes nos subtestes auditivos e visuais de recepção e associação nesta população.

1309 – Mirror neurons, verbalization filter and biofeedback

In previous papers we described the verbalization filter as an integronic informational level of psychic model conceived by us. Its particularity consists in awareness of logical informational process, not reflected by verbalization or figurative representation. Filter verbalization generates the “silent speech” and eidetic process of psychic. The localization of mirror neurons in the proximity of the two centers of language could confirm their role in the learning and development of speech and implicitly of the thought process based on words or on inner speech. Verbalization filter involves three feedback loops. First loop is in part an extern loop that encompasses pronunciation, the sonorous model and auditory reception of words. Closing of this first loop during the first years of childhood coincides with gradually internalize of this circuit between subliminal motor commands and direct perception from periphery screen of sounds that subject wants to pronounce, hence forming the second loop. The third loop develops once with maturity and is established by direct connection between motor programs and sensory programs of the same word. This phenomenon is certainly based on mirror neurons function. Thus it could be explain why even without periphery the filter can continue to work for a while. Including of noosphera level in our model of psychic generates other debates about the role of mirror neurons. The generous idea regarding the bio-psycho-social model, conceived and published by Engel, was anticipatory described by our model of informational levels of psychic.

Psycholinguistic abilities of children with Williams syndrome

The objective of this study was to investigate the psycholinguistic abilities of children with Williams syndrome (WS) and typically developing children using the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA). Performance on the ITPA was analysed in a group with WS (N=20, mean age=8.5 years, SD=1.62) and two typically developing groups, matched in mental (MA, N=20, mean age=4.92 years, SD=1.14) and chronological age (CA, N=19, mean age=8.35 years, SD=3.07). Overall, within-group analyses showed that individuals with WS displayed higher scalar scores on the visual reception and visual association subtests. When groups were compared, we observed inferior performance of the WS group on all ITPA subtests when compared with typically developing groups. Moreover, an interaction between reception and group was found, only the WS group demonstrated superior performance on the visual reception subtest when compared to the auditory reception subtest. Evidence from this study offers relevant contributions to the development of educational intervention programs for children with WS.

Extracellular chloride regulation of Kv2.1, contributor to the major outward Kv current in mammalian outer hair cells

Outer hair cells (OHC) function as both receptors and effectors in providing a boost to auditory reception. Amplification is driven by the motor protein prestin, which is under anionic control. Interestingly, we now find that the major, 4-AP-sensitive, outward K(+) current of the OHC (I(K)) is also sensitive to Cl(-), although, in contrast to prestin, extracellularly. I(K) is inhibited by reducing extracellular Cl(-) levels, with a linear dependence of 0.4%/mM. Other voltage-dependent K(+) (Kv) channel conductances in supporting cells, such as Hensen and Deiters' cells, are not affected by reduced extracellular Cl(-). To elucidate the molecular basis of this Cl(-)-sensitive I(K), we looked at potential molecular candidates based on Cl(-) sensitivity and/or similarities in kinetics. For I(K), we identified three different Ca(2+)-independent components of I(K) based on the time constant of inactivation: a fast, transient outward current, a rapidly activating, slowly inactivating current (Ik(1)), and a slowly inactivating current (Ik(2)). Extracellular Cl(-) differentially affects these components. Because the inactivation time constants of Ik(1) and Ik(2) are similar to those of Kv1.5 and Kv2.1, we transiently transfected these constructs into CHO cells and found that low extracellular Cl(-) inhibited both channels with linear current reductions of 0.38%/mM and 0.49%/mM, respectively. We also tested heterologously expressed Slick and Slack conductances, two intracellularly Cl(-)-sensitive K(+) channels, but found no extracellular Cl(-) sensitivity. The Cl(-) sensitivity of Kv2.1 and its robust expression within OHCs verified by single-cell RT-PCR indicate that these channels underlie the OHC's extracellular Cl(-) sensitivity.

Relation between language, audio–vocal psycholinguistic abilities and P300 in children having specific language impairment

Specific language impairment is a relatively common developmental condition in which a child fails to develop language at the typical rate despite normal general intellectual abilities, adequate exposure to language, and in the absence of hearing impairments, or neurological or psychiatric disorders. There is much controversy about the extent to which the auditory processing deficits are important in the genesis specific language impairment. The objective of this paper is to assess the higher cortical functions in children with specific language impairment, through assessing neurophysiological changes in order to correlate the results with the clinical picture of the patients to choose the proper rehabilitation training program. Subjects and method This study was carried out on 40 children diagnosed to have specific language impairment and 20 normal children as a control group. All children were subjected to the assessment protocol applied in Kasr El-Aini hospital. They were also subjected to a language test (receptive, expressive and total language items), the audio–vocal items of Illinois test of psycholinguistic (auditory reception, auditory association, verbal expression, grammatical closure, auditory sequential memory and sound blending) as well as audiological assessment that included peripheral audiological and P300amplitude and latency assessment. The results revealed a highly significant difference in P300 amplitude and latency between specific language impairment group and control group. There is also strong correlations between P300 latency and the grammatical closure, auditory sequential memory and sound blending, while significant correlation between the P300 amplitude and auditory association and verbal expression. Conclusion Children with specific language impairment, in spite of the normal peripheral hearing, have evidence of cognitive and central auditory processing defects as evidenced by P300 auditory event related potential in the form of prolonged latency which indicate a slow rate of processing and defective memory as evidenced by small amplitude. These findings affect cognitive and language development in specific language impairment children and should be considered during planning the intervention program.

Political History and Embodied Identity Discourse in the Turkish Call to Prayer

This article examines the Turkish language call to prayer, which was recited in lieu of the traditional Arabic call for a brief time in Turkey's early national period, and discusses the subsequent discourse this brief period continues to engender among listeners and practitioners. This discourse manifests itself both in recitation practice and reception, reflecting the coexistence of theoretically contradictory and incompatible identities. call to prayer is just one case study exemplifying these multiple constructions of identity - constructions which began as early as the nineteenth century and which now seem to be an organic part of Turkish selfidentification. I argue that, even though current practice prefers Arabic language recitation, the contemporary Arabic language call in Turkey nonetheless has been profoundly influenced by the Turkish language period because this period solidified the presence of a politically� oriented embodied discourse evidenced in recitation artists' production of the call and in Turkish listeners' auditory reception. early national period that espoused Turkicization of the call to prayer began during the first half of the twentieth century when the publicly broadcast call was targeted for reform by the new secularist government. Having recently replaced the Ottoman Empire's Muslim leadership with that of the national Turkish Republic, reformers were troubled by the call to prayer's traditional language of recitation, Arabic, and its regular presence in public auditory space. As part of an overall modernization agenda that forwarded secularist and nationalist ideals, new language laws called for Turkish as the national language of the Republic and for state control over religious practice, as well. Hence, in 1932 mandated Turkish language recitation began. This linguistic change quickly resulted in popular unrest in part because Arabic is the sacred language of Islam and recitation in Arabic of the Koran, and to a lesser extent the call to prayer, is another important and direct link to God. Further, by mandating Turkish language call to prayer recitation, the populace of Turkey experienced a public fivetimesdaily reminder that the secular nat ion now took precedence over previous allegiances and more than a millennium of practice. However, despite popular opposition, the state felt strongly that Turkish recitation of this public practice should continue and the practice was maintained for almost twenty years before being restored to Arabic recitation. Consequently, while Turkish secularists and some government officials may have perceived of their agenda as freeing the state from religion, what in fact happened was the reverse; as historian Kemal Karpat argues, The problem that Turks would eventually face, therefore, was how to free the faith from the autocracy of the state rather than vice versa. 1 Seen in this light, opposition to the call and other state mandated religious reform efforts was, in a sense, an internal rebellion in which practicing Muslim Turks sought to regain autonomy over their religious practice.