Bilingual Information Research Articles

Hispanic accrual on randomized cancer clinical trials: a call to arms.

Hispanic accrual on randomized cancer clinical trials: a call to arms.

Verb Classification Using Bilingual Lexicon and Translation Information in Tibetan Language

Automatically acquiring semantic verb classes from corpora is a challenging task, especially with no existing treebank. Building a high-performing parser for a language is still crucially depends on the existence of large, in-domain texts as training data. While previous work has focused primarily on major languages, how to extend these results to other languages is the way to avoid working start from scratch. In general, a large monolingual corpus in a resource-rich source language labeled with lexico-syntactic information, and a very limited bilingual corpus are available. This paper addresses the problem of verb classification automatically in Tibetan using bilingual lexicon and translation information.

Developing the BIO Questionnaire: A Bilingual Parent Report Tool for Prekindergarten English Learners of Latino Heritage

With the increasing number of preschool-age children of Latino heritage entering U.S. schools comes a growing need to accurately determine children's individual needs and identify potential disabilities, beginning with the screening process. Unfortunately, teachers face many challenges when screening English language learners. Often, parents have important information that can contribute to teachers’ understanding of children's development, but there are limited tools available to collect information from parents. The Formulario Familiar Bilingue de Información Formulario y Observación/Family Bilingual Information & Observation (BIO) Questionnaire is a new parent report tool that can be used to collect information from parents of Latino heritage concerning their child's language development history, current language usage, and exposure to Spanish and English. A multiphase research study was conducted to collect formative data and to establish construct validity for the questionnaire. Results from a focus group, pilot study, and face validity review provided numerous suggestions to improve the tool, and established that the BIO is a viable means to collect parent perspectives on their own children's language development.

Integrating MultiWordNet with Italian Sign Language lexical resources

A novel Italian Sign Language MultiWordNet (LMWN), which integrates the MultiWordNet (MWN) lexical database with the Italian Sign Language (LIS), is presented in this paper. The approach relies on LIS lexical resources which support and help to search for Italian lemmas in the database and display corresponding LIS signs. The lexical frequency analysis of the lexicon and some newly created signs approved by expert LIS signers are also discussed. The larger MWN database helps to enrich the variety and comprehensiveness of the lexicon. We also describe the approach which links the Italian lemmas and LIS signs to extract and display bilingual information from the collected lexicon and the semantic relationships of LIS Signs with MWN. The users can view the meanings of almost one fourth of the lemmas of MWN in LIS.

A Real-Time Optimal Route Computation for Public Transport System Using Web

In this work describes web-map public transport enquiry system as described in this paper, gives a good example of providing bilingual information and public transport run in the form of interactive maps and texts, as well as real time derivation of optimal travelling routes for users in terms of multiple criteria, i.e., preferred mode, least changes, shortest travelling time, or lowest fare. This paper describes a research on The Flexible Bus Systems (FBS) using SMAC as a communication medium. The Flexible Bus System is a demand responsive transit (DRT) but it is more efficient and convenient in a sense that it entertains passengers demands and gives bus locations in real time. The real time synchronization of The Flexible Bus System makes it information rich and unique as compared to other DRTs. The Flexible Bus Systems is a system that can replace the Traditional Bus Systems with its flexibility and efficiency. This paper discusses the use of wireless technologies in The Flexible Bus Systems and how to make it more reliable using short range wireless technology SMAC protocol.

Enhancing Patient-Centered Communication and Collaboration by Using the Electronic Health Record in the Examination Room

Enhancing Patient-Centered Communication and Collaboration by Using the Electronic Health Record in the Examination Room

Educación de supervivencia para supervivientes de cáncer de mama latinas: empoderando a las supervivientes a través de la educación

Nueva Luz is an English and Spanish quality of life (QOL) intervention developed to address the educational needs of Latina breast cancer survivors and provide strategies to assist in their transition into survivorship. A qualitative approach was used to evaluate the English and Spanish educational intervention (Nueva Luz). A purposive sample of eight Latina breast cancer survivors was selected from the group who received the intervention to participate in a digitally recorded interview. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings provide evidence that the one-on-one tailored approach is a feasible and acceptable method of providing a bilingual psychosocial intervention. The provision of printed bilingual information along with the verbal instruction from a bilingual and culturally competent health care provider can be effective in helping Latina breast cancer survivor's transition successfully into survivorship, improve QOL and contribute to better patient outcomes. The study informs our understanding of the cultural context in patient education content and delivery of psychosocial interventions. The findings may also have relevance for other ethnic minority cancer survivors.

Choosing the right mix: lessons on culturally relevant treatment from the evaluation of the Drug and Alcohol Multicultural Education Centre's Counselling Service

Understanding and engaging with cultural perspectives can enhance treatment for substance use issues and co-occurring mental health issues among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. As not many services document the way they provide services to CALD clients, this research sought to investigate the ways in which alcohol and other drug counsellors at a specialist service balance cultural relevance with fidelity to a combination of psychosocial interventions. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with counsellors and clients at the Drug and Alcohol Multicultural Education Centre's Counselling Service in a major Australian city. Interviews employed screening questions to explore the combination of brief solution focused therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and narrative therapy as well as bilingual counselling roles and information provided to clients about the service. Interviews were conducted in the four major languages spoken by clients of the service: Arabic, English, Mandarin and Vietnamese. The findings highlight 10 strategies for culturally relevant treatment. These include addressing clients' understanding of counselling, offering bicultural and bilingual counsellors, enquiring about the importance of cultural identity to each client, responding to cues from clients about taboos or sensitive topics, and expectations about social roles and communication patterns. Furthermore, counsellors reflected upon the interpretability of psychosocial interventions in particular languages, and explained flexible and creative responses which integrate elements of cultural philosophy and communication styles into their practice of counselling.

Readability and Health Communication: An Analysis of the Readability of Commonly Used Malaria Drugs Information Leaflets in Cape Coast, Ghana.

This study conducted in-depth analysis of the readability of commonly used malaria medicine information leaflets in Cape Coast, Ghana. Seven leaflets of malaria medicines that are very popular in Cape Coast, Ghana were analyzed using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease and Gunning Fog readability indexes. These leaflets were also examined based on the legibility of print, type of paper and bilingual information. Data collected from the two indexes revealed that all the leaflets are very difficult to read. Values ranged from 10.4 to 38 for the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease indicating that the leaflets are very difficult to comprehend and that one needs university education to comprehend them.14.2 to 18.8 were recorded for the Gunning Fog index also indicating that the leaflets are very difficult and that in some cases are even not readable for people with university education. The mean value for the readability consensus for the two readability indexes was 21.04. The implication is that in terms of the Gunning Fog index, the leaflets are very difficult to comprehend and that they were written far above the reading comprehension level for university graduates. Also, in the case of the flesch reading ease regarding the readability consensus of the two indexes, the leaflets are very difficult to comprehend in terms of level of reading difficulty but match the appropriate reading level of the university graduate. The findings of the study also revealed that 5 leaflets (71.4%) had a font type size <10 and none (0%) was produced in any of the major languages in Ghana apart from English and French. Conclusively, the study discovered that malaria medicine information leaflets available in drug stores and hospitals in Cape Coast, Ghana are not readable to the majority of the population. The significance of rendering the valuable information contained in those leaflets comprehensible to consumers is life and death matter. Hence, pharmaceutical companies in Ghana are encouraged by the researcher to produce readable medicine information leaflets so that their intended purpose can be achieved.

An Interactive Web-Based Public Transport Enquiry System With Real-Time Optimal Route Computation

A comprehensive and presentable public transport information system is deemed invaluable for local residents and tourists all over the world. This is particularly necessary in view of the complex city structure and transportation system in Hong Kong. There are more than ten public transportation modes available, all with different operation schedules, fare structures, and routing characteristics. To assist commuters in making better use of public transport, the system needs to be not only user friendly and informative but intelligent enough to provide optimal route choices in terms of users' travelling behavior or preference as well. The web-map public transport enquiry system, as described in this paper, gives a good example of providing bilingual (English and Chinese) information on all public transports run in Hong Kong in the form of interactive maps and texts, as well as real-time derivation of optimal travelling routes for users in terms of multiple criteria, i.e., preferred mode, least changes, shortest travelling time, or lowest fare.

What if Web site editorial content and ads are in two different languages? A study of bilingual consumers' online information processing

ABSTRACTThis study examined banner ads' communication effects when they were written in the same or different language from the editorial content of a Web site. A total of 60 bilingual consumers who spoke both Chinese (as their first language) and English (as their second language) participated in an experiment, in which they viewed a designated news story Web site. The editorial content of the Web site and the banner ads on it were written in either Chinese or English. It was found that the participants considered the Chinese Web sites to be more readable. However, they generated higher recalls and purchase intentions for the ads on the English Web sites. Moreover, they revealed more favorable attitudes toward the brands when the ads were written in English than in Chinese. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Attracting international students by means of the web: transadaptation, domestication and cultural suppression

This article presents a critical examination of how the Norwegian University of Science and Technology attempts to recruit transnational students through the use of bilingual information on its website. The nature of the translational relationship between a Norwegian web text directed at local students and its comparable English version directed at international students is discussed, and it is suggested that this relationship could be characterized as one of “transadaptation”. Nevertheless, it is argued that prospective students are likely to perceive the relationship as one of “proper” translation and it is suggested that this may impede the recruitment process since students with no interest and/or possibility of accessing the local version might believe that the international version gives a faithful portrayal of the University and the cultural context it is situated in. The elements of the Norwegian web text that point to aspects of the local culture are systematically downplayed in the English version and it is claimed that this contributes to what may be termed “cultural suppression”. In the long run, this might drive off students who are looking for a university based on cultural specificity, and not simply yet another Anglophone/Anglocultural university.

Organizing cross-border fire brigade response in the Dutch-German border region

This article addresses the opportunities and problems with cross-border collaboration between the Dutch and German fire brigades. The following are the main problems: 1) no uniformity in concluding and using the cross-border agreements for emergency assistance, 2) the language problem, 3) the material and equipment problem, 4) communication problems, and 5) differences in organizational autonomy. The following are the possible solutions for the aforementioned problems: 1) new routines by joint-training sessions, 2) bilingual information systems, 3) technical standardization of equipment, 4) standardization of communication, and 5) building trust on the basis of insights into each other’s routines.

Lietuvių ir slavų kalbų sąveika vilniškių tarmės rytiniuose pakraščiuose (Adutiškio apylinkių duomenys)

PERIPHERIES OF THE VILNIUS’ DIA­LECT (DATA FROM THE ENVIRONS OF ADUTIŠKIS)SummaryThe object of this article – two small unites (of Adutiškis and Svirkos) of the eastern Vilnius’ highlanders’ subdialect that have active contact with the Belarusian, the Russian and the Polish. We analyze the process of interaction of these languages and the changes of their status in society during the 20th century. The impact of Slavonic languages on the Lithuanian subdialects is analyzed on the bases of linguistic facts taken from bilingual informants. We make the conclusion that the processes of divergence in these peripheral areas are stronger than in the central dialects. The language of a bilingual person presents non only innovations, but also the most well conserved relics. The major changes are noticed in those layers of the language where both languages end up being used at the same time (phonetics). The inflexion is the most stable part of the grammar.

Readability of Malaria Medicine Information Leaflets in Nigeria

Purpose: To assess the readability of malaria medicines information leaflets available in Nigeria. Methods: Fourty five leaflets were assessed using the Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) readability test and by examining them for paper type, font size type, use of symbols and pictograms, and bilingual information. Results: The SMOG readability data revealed that the mean United State reading grade level for malaria medicines information leaflets available in Nigeria was 13.69 ± 1.70. This value is equivalent to a tertiary level of education in Nigeria. The study also revealed that 6.7 % of the leaflets were glossy; 6.7 % contained symbols and pictograms; 42.2 % of the leaflets had a font type size < 8; and only 2.2 % of the leaflets were produced in both English language and one of the major local languages of Nigeria. Conclusion: Malaria medicine information leaflets available in the Nigerian market are not readable to the majority of the population. There is need for pharmaceutical companies to produce readable medicine information leaflets.

Using Sublexical Translations to Handle the OOV Problem in Machine Translation

We introduce a method for learning to translate out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words. The method focuses on combining sublexical/constituent translations of an OOV to generate its translation candidates. In our approach, wildcard searches are formulated based on our OOV analysis, aimed at maximizing the probability of retrieving OOVs’ sublexical translations from existing resources of Machine Translation (MT) systems. At run-time, translation candidates of the unknown words are generated from their suitable sublexical translations and ranked based on monolingual and bilingual information. We have incorporated the OOV model into a state-of-the-art machine translation system and experimental results show that our model indeed helps to ease the impact of OOVs on translation quality, especially for sentences containing more OOVs (significant improvement).

Accent effects in auditory processing by native and non‐native speakers.

The current study examined whether non‐native listeners’ perception is facilitated by a match between their L1 and the accent with which L2 words are pronounced. An auditory lexical decision task was used, where English words and nonwords were pronounced by a native speaker of English or a native speaker of Mexican Spanish. Half the words were cognates (overlapping in phonetic form and meaning across languages) while half were noncognates. Spanish‐English bilinguals from Mexico and English‐speaking monolinguals listened to accented and nonaccented stimuli and decided as quickly as possible whether they were English words. Results indicate an effect of lexical status and accent in both listener groups, with faster reaction times (RTs) for words than nonwords, and slower RTs on accented than nonaccented stimuli. However, English‐speaking monolinguals were slower than Spanish‐English bilinguals in recognizing accented English words. Moreover, Spanish‐English bilinguals demonstrated faster RTs for cognates than for noncognates, but only when these were spoken with a Spanish accent. Results indicate that non‐native accent influences auditory processing even in listeners who are familiar with the particular accent. Further, cognate effects indicate that lexical‐phonological variables interact with acoustical factors in determining the efficiency with which the bilingual lexical system processes auditory information.

Operationalizing and measuring language dominance

The aim of this article is to show how measures of lexical richness (Guiraud, 1954; Malvern, Richards, Chipere, &amp; Durán, 2004) can be used to operationalize and measure language dominance among bilinguals. A typology of bilinguals is proposed based on these measures of lexical richness, and the validity of the typology is then investigated in an empirical study among two groups of bilingual informants with different language dominance profiles (25 Dutch—French bilinguals from Brussels and 24 French—English bilinguals from Paris). The most important advantage of the proposed operationalization is that it allows researchers carry out precise measurements of bilingual ability in languages or language varieties for which no standardized tests exist and that these measures can be calculated on oral data that have been collected in an informal and unobtrusive way, in a naturalistic setting.

Evaluation of Bilingual Sign Layout and Information Load before Implementation of New Signing System

Before implementation of a new Parks Canada signing system, a laboratory study was carried out to compare bilingual sign layout options and to assess the relative information load of various sign elements. Participants were given a name or activity destination and shown a sign embedded in a road scene for a brief interval. Participants were asked to recall whether various elements were present on the sign. The key results on sign layout were as follows: on signs with side-by-side arrangement of languages, the primary language should be on the left; horizontal separators between destinations improve performance; vertically stacked arrangement of languages performs better than conventional side-by-side arrangement; placing all arrows on the left side of the sign as opposed to left and forward arrows to the left and right arrows to the right improves performance. Key findings regarding maximum information load were as follows: single-destination name signs performed much better than two- and three-destination signs for layouts with direction arrows, destination names, and activity pictograms. Two-destination signs performed better than three-destination signs for layouts with direction arrows, destination names, and distances. Regarding relative information load of sign elements, a name pair should be considered to have the same information load as a single activity pictogram, and a distance element has less information load than an activity pictogram.

Die Entwicklung von Gesundheitsinformationen unter Beteiligung von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern am Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen (IQWiG)

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) began publishing free bi-lingual (German/English) evidence-based health information in February 2006 on the website, http://www.gesundheitsinformation.de http://www.informedhealthonline.org . The Institute aims to be a patient-centred and non-directive provider of health information to the public and patients. The point of view and information needs of the public are a central element in the development of health information. People can be involved implicitly or explicitly. People can participate directly or explicitly in health information, for example, by suggesting a topic, by helping shape the content and during the development process. We do this in several ways, including surveys, consultation with consumer representatives as well as through user-testing and reader online rating. In addition, implicit involvement of patients occurs indirectly through consideration of the experiences and information needs of patients via an analysis of qualitative research. A challenge here is the generalisability of information derived from research in other cultures. The Institute monitors methodological developments in the area of patient and health information, to keep its methods up-to-date. In addition, the colleagues involved in this work participate in an in-house training program on patient-centred health information.