Conventional Language Research Articles

Second Language Acquisition through Task Based Language Teaching

The classroom environment plays a major part in learning. The atmosphere is more essential for a student. The Students have a different psychological stimulus when performing the activities inside the classroom. The classroom atmosphere helps the students in learning the foreign language.TBLT is being applied inside the language classroom. With the new method, the teachers try to correlate the contents and the task design of teaching closer to their profession, because student participants can find it out easy for communicating via different stages tocarryout the tasksin all aspects of capabilitiesin second language acquisition. This paper is focused from all perspectivesof Task Based Language Teaching particularly in terms of meaning and concept, certain issues of conventional language teaching andexplaining the real value of execution of Tasks in language classroom .

Interpretation Before and After Natal Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality 2012 4 SA 593 (SCA)

This article explores the background to the decision in Natal Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality 2012 4 SA 593 (SCA), some of its conceptual content and its broader implications for future jurisprudence in regard to the interpretation of documents. It illustrates the reality that in the past interpretation in different areas of the law was undertaken in accordance with differing standards even though all areas involved the interpretation of language in common everyday use, and questions the need to approach issues of interpretation in a way different from that used in conventional language. The internal inconsistencies of past authority are highlighted, as well as the trend in South African jurisprudence and overseas towards a single, simple and coherent approach to interpretation. The importance of recognising the role of both text and context is stressed, and the identification of relevant context in interpreting contracts and statutes is addressed. The article identifies two animating principles underlying the approach to interpretation in Endumeni, viz.: the discipline it imposes on judges to explain their decisions in regard to interpretation rather than starting with an a priori meaning and buttressing it with authority, and the desirability of a single, clear and simple standard by which to approach issues of interpretation.

The Effectiveness of Action Observation Therapy Based on Mirror Neuron Theory in Chinese Patients with Apraxia of Speech after Stroke

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of action observation therapy (AOT) on apraxia of speech (AOS) in patients after stroke. Materials and Methods: Forty-two patients diagnosed with AOS after stroke were randomly divided into an experimental group (n = 21) and a control group (n = 21). Both groups received 30 min of conventional language therapy twice daily, 5 days a week for 4 weeks. The patients in the experimental group additionally received 20 min of AOT before 10 min language therapy each day. The speech function and aphasia severity of the 2 groups were assessed using the speech apraxia assessment method of the China Rehabilitation Research Center, Western Aphasia Battery (WAB), and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination before and after treatment. Results: AOS and WAB scores increased significantly after treatment in both groups (p < 0.05). AOS and WAB scores exhibited significant differences between the experimental group and the control group after training (p < 0.05). The response rate in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: AOT based on mirror neuron theory may improve language function in patients with AOS after stroke.

Complexity of bird song caused by adversarial imitation learning

Biological evolution produces complexity through genetic variations based on randomness. In conventional communication or language simulation models, genetic variations based on randomness and fitness function rewarding task achievements play an important role in evolving communication signals to complex ones. However, it is known that not only genetic variations evolve communication but also imitative learning during developmental processes contributes to the evolution of communication. What we investigated here was to find a different principle of generating complexity which does not rely on the randomness or external environmental complexity but only on the learning processes in communication. Our hypothesis is that the contradictory learning mechanism we call the adversarial imitation learning can work to increase the complexity without relying on the random processes. To investigate our hypothesis, we implemented the adversarial imitation learning on a simulation where two agents interact with and imitate each other. Our results showed that the adversarial imitation learning causes chaotic dynamics and investigating the learning results in different types of interaction between the two; it was clarified that the adversarial imitation learning is necessary for the emergence of the chaotic time series.

Neural attention with character embeddings for hay fever detection from twitter

The paper aims to leverage the highly unstructured user-generated content in the context of pollen allergy surveillance using neural networks with character embeddings and the attention mechanism. Currently, there is no accurate representation of hay fever prevalence, particularly in real-time scenarios. Social media serves as an alternative to extract knowledge about the condition, which is valuable for allergy sufferers, general practitioners, and policy makers. Despite tremendous potential offered, conventional natural language processing methods prove limited when exposed to the challenging nature of user-generated content. As a result, the detection of actual hay fever instances among the number of false positives, as well as the correct identification of non-technical expressions as pollen allergy symptoms poses a major problem. We propose a deep architecture enhanced with character embeddings and neural attention to improve the performance of hay fever-related content classification from Twitter data. Improvement in prediction is achieved due to the character-level semantics introduced, which effectively addresses the out-of-vocabulary problem in our dataset where the rate is approximately 9%. Overall, the study is a step forward towards improved real-time pollen allergy surveillance from social media with state-of-art technology.

ROLE- PLAY AS PART OF COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN EFL TEACHING

The article is devoted to one of the innovative, alternative methods in EFL teaching. Teaching oral speech with the help of role-play has been examined. The author puts particular emphasis on the close connection of role-play with communicative approach in EFL teaching. It has been stressed that role-play heightens self-esteem, motivation, spontaneity, increases capacity for empathy, and lowers sensitivity to rejection. All these facilitate communication and provide an appropriate psycholinguistic climate for language learning. The author considers that role-play is a source of fresh ideas and relieves the monotony of education. Role-play is considered to be one of the types of drama activity. The experience of role-play putting into practice in home-reading classes has been described. The author comes to the conclusion that the use of role-play as drama activity in Teaching English as a Foreign Language can be used as an innovative technique in language teaching. Using drama to teach English results in real communication involving ideas, emotions, feelings and adaptability; in other words an opportunity to use language in operation which is absent in conventional language class.

Transitioning from introductory block-based and text-based environments to professional programming languages in high school computer science classrooms

Block-based programming languages are becoming increasingly common in introductory computer science classrooms across the K-12 spectrum. One justification for the use of block-based environments in formal educational settings is the idea that the concepts and practices developed using these introductory tools will prepare learners for future computer science learning opportunities. This view is built on the assumption that the attitudinal and conceptual learning gains made while working in the introductory block-based environments will transfer to conventional text-based programming languages. To test this hypothesis, this paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental classroom study in which programming novices spent five-week using either a block-based or text-based programming environment. After five weeks in the introductory tool, students transitioned to Java, a conventional text-based programming language. The study followed students for 10 weeks after the transition. Over the course of the 15-week study, attitudinal and conceptual assessments were administered and student-authored programs were collected. Conceptual learning, attitudinal shifts, and changes in programming practices were analyzed to evaluate how introductory modality impacted learners as they transitioned to a professional, text-based programming language. The findings from this study build on earlier work that found a difference in performance on content assessments after the introductory portion of the study (Weintrop & Wilensky, 2017a). This paper shows the difference in conceptual learning that emerged after five weeks between the block-based and text-based conditions fades after 10 weeks in Java. No differences in programming practices were found between the two conditions while working in Java. Likewise, differences in attitudinal measures that emerged after working in the introductory environments also faded after 10 weeks in Java, resulting in no difference between the conditions after 15 weeks. The contribution of this work is to advance our understanding of the benefits and limits of block-based programming tools in preparing students for future computer science learning. This paper presents the first quasi-experimental study of the transfer of knowledge between block-based and text-based environments in a high school setting. The lack of significant differences between the two introductory programming modalities after learners transition to professional programming languages is discussed along with the implications of these findings for computer science education researchers and educators, as well as for the broader community of researchers studying the role of technology in education.

What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients?

Cyberchondria may be defined as heightened distress evoked through excessive searches of the internet for medical information. In healthy people, cyberchondria is associated with a greater intolerance of uncertainty and greater health anxiety. These relationships are likely bidirectional. People who have a greater intolerance of uncertainty may be more likely to search the internet for medical information and have greater health anxiety. This greater health anxiety may lead to an increased likelihood of engaging in further internet searches and greater intolerance of uncertainty. These three constructs are important for patients because they impact patient function and health care costs. We were specifically interested in understanding the role of cyberchondria in the association between intolerance of uncertainty and health anxiety among orthopaedic patients because it has not been explored before and because knowledge about these interactions could inform treatment recommendations. Does cyberchondria mediate (that is, explain) the association between intolerance of uncertainty and health anxiety in orthopaedic patients searching for medical information on the internet, after controlling for potentially confounding variables? This was a cross-sectional study of 104 patients who had searched the internet for any medical information about their current condition. A research assistant approached 155 patients attending two orthopaedic outpatient clinics, one hand and upper extremity service and one sports medicine clinic, during a 3-month period. Ten patients declined to participate and 41 patients were excluded, predominantly because they had never searched for medical information online. The patients completed the Cyberchondria Severity Scale, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-short version, Short Health Anxiety Inventory, and a numerical rating scale for pain intensity at baseline, as well as demographic and clinical questionnaires. We performed a series of linear regression analyses to determine whether a greater intolerance of uncertainty predicts greater cyberchondria (mediator) and whether cyberchondria predicts greater health anxiety. Although it is more appropriate to use the language of association (such as "whether cyberchondria is associated with health anxiety") in many observational studies, here, we opted to use the language of causation because this is the conventional language for studies testing statistical mediation. After controlling for potentially confounding variables including pain intensity, multiple pain conditions, and education, cyberchondria explained 33% of the variance of the effect of intolerance of uncertainty on health anxiety (95% CI, 6.98 to 114.72%; p < 0.001). Among orthopaedic patients who search the internet for medical information, a greater intolerance of uncertainty is associated with greater cyberchondria, which is associated with greater anxiety about health. Identifying patients with an intolerance of uncertainty and educating them about the negative role of compulsive searches for medical information may improve the success of orthopaedic treatment. Orthopaedic surgeons should also consider making referrals for cognitive behavioral therapy in these instances to increase the patient's tolerance of uncertainty, decrease internet searching habits, and reduce anxiety about health. Level III, prognostic study.

A programmable neural virtual machine based on a fast store-erase learning rule

We present a neural architecture that uses a novel local learning rule to represent and execute arbitrary, symbolic programs written in a conventional assembly-like language. This Neural Virtual Machine (NVM) is purely neurocomputational but supports all of the key functionality of a traditional computer architecture. Unlike other programmable neural networks, the NVM uses principles such as fast non-iterative local learning, distributed representation of information, program-independent circuitry, itinerant attractor dynamics, and multiplicative gating for both activity and plasticity. We present the NVM in detail, theoretically analyze its properties, and conduct empirical computer experiments that quantify its performance and demonstrate that it works effectively.

The Deceptive Efficiency of Smart Contracts: Hidden Opportunism in Certainty

The optimism for smart contracts is derived from the cost-saving efficiency benefits in contractual construction, enforcement, and provisions of legal certainty. However, this paper analyzes from a behavioral standpoint the problem of opportunism in incomplete contract theory and relation-based contract theory, leading to an evaluation of how smart contracts might consequently lead to the amplification of such costs of opportunism, overall making them less efficient compared to conventional natural language contracts.

Body in fashion films: The new net-aesthetic era

With “fashion film” we mean those online videos that are peculiar to fashion industry and are developing their own language and new types of brand narration. The field of study presented here to is related to language. The objective is indeed to better understand how this new communication tool has influenced the conventional language of fashion images through the development of new codes or a transformation of the existing ones. The object under examination is, in particular, the body as a preferred communication code within this industry. This body is not viewed by fashion as a simple object to dress, but rather as a mediating channel between the individual’s individuality and their need for communication, or better to say, their need to establish a relationship within its context. To do so, it seemed appropriate to start with the examination of the history of fashion images by concisely analysing how the body has changed its communicative role over the decades. Further analysis was then conducted in order to focus on the new meaning undertaken by the body in fashion films. As a consequence, the result is a complex and extremely rich picture.

EMPLOYING TELEGRAM APPLICATION: LEARNERS’ ATTITUDE, VOCABULARY LEARNING, AND VOCABULARY DELAYED RETENTION

Using smartphones for learning a language has long been recommended by scholars. However, its effectiveness is still the subject of argument. Moreover, due to the limited time in the conventional language classes, students do not have the chance to practice all vocabulary items which may hinder the learning process. Accordingly, a mixed method only-post-test quasi-experimental study was conducted. Also, for the qualitative phase, data were gathered through a focus group interview with the participants chosen through purposive sampling. It was confirmed that there was a significant effect of online practicing on vocabulary learning of the language learners. Furthermore, it was found out that the participants held a positive attitude for practicing target words through Telegram. In addition, the study results showed that using Telegram application does not have a significant effect on the retention of the vocabulary of the learners. From the results of this study, the researcher proposed some pedagogical implications to EFL teachers, practitioners, material developers, policy makers, and other English education stakeholders. Article visualizations:

Checking Object-Z Formal Specification with Z/EVES automatically

Formal specifications can only be used when matching or non-colliding. In the conventional programming language, program integrity is checked at runtime. However, formal specification descriptions cannot be implemented in general. The grammar analysis and semantic checking of a tool sometimes invalidate conformance checks. Therefore, it is difficult to verify the consistency of formalization norms. In this paper, we propose a method to generate theorem proof for Object-Z norms. The purpose is to obtain clear confidence by verifying the consistency of norms. Finally, we use the theorem prover Z/EVES to analyze and verify theorems.

Het verschil met mijn broer Jan

Abstract Disability is mainly approached from a clinical perspective which emphasizes the physical or mental impairements and the care disabled people need in order to survive. Very little is known about how disabled people experience the world and create meaning in their interactions with their environment. By analyzing the behaviour and interaction of my disabled brother Jan, I try to answer the following questions: (1) How does he experience the world, is he capable of meaningfull interaction and what does this tells us about human sociality? (2) Are the human sciences capable to elucidate these experiences which are unaccessible through conventional language? By using a phenomenological approach we will argue that Jan’s interaction with the world is meaningful in a way that it challenges our assumptions about how we perceive the concept of ‘sociality’. Further, we aim to show how a phenomenological way of analyzing is able to gain considerable insight in those experiences which are unaccessible through conventional language.

Separating Use and Reuse to Improve Both

Context: Trait composition has inspired new research in the area of code reuse for object oriented (OO) languages. One of the main advantages of this kind of composition is that it makes possible to separate subtyping from subclassing; which is good for code-reuse, design and reasoning. However, handling of state within traits is difficult, verbose or inelegant. Inquiry: We identify the this-leaking problem as the fundamental limitation that prevents the separation of subtyping from subclassing in conventional OO languages. We explain that the concept of trait composition addresses this problem, by distinguishing code designed for use (as a type) from code designed for reuse (i.e. inherited). We are aware of at least 3 concrete independently designed research languages following this methodology: TraitRecordJ, Package Templates and DeepFJig. Approach: In this paper, we design $42_\mu$ a new language, where we improve use and reuse and support the This type and family polymorphism by distinguishing code designed for use from code designed for reuse. In this way $42_\mu$ synthesise the 3 approaches above, and improves them with abstract state operations: a new elegant way to handle state composition in trait based languages. Knowledge and Grounding: Using case studies, we show that $42_\mu$'s model of traits with abstract state operations is more usable and compact than prior work. We formalise our work and prove that type errors cannot arise from composing well typed code. Importance: This work is the logical core of the programming language 42. This shows that the ideas presented in this paper can be applicable to a full general purpose language. This form of composition is very flexible and could be used in many new languages.

Recognition and extraction of named entities in online medical diagnosis data based on a deep neural network

How to correctly recognize and extract named entities, such as disease names, medical measurements and therapies, from online medical diagnosis data remains challenging. For the one hand, conventional natural language processing methods cannot be directly applied in the field of online medical diagnosis (OMD). Although existing supervised or unsupervised learning algorithms have offered strategies for OMD on open websites, such methods might extensively rely on specific knowledge sources or manually designed features. For the other hand, due to the large size of the data and the sophistication of the data structure, it is difficult to establish a robust NLP model for recognition and extraction of clinical named entities in paragraphs. Therefore, in the paper, we try to establish a new deep neural network (DNN), combine the bi-directional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) and the conditional random field (CRF), and utilize online medical diagnosis data for recognition and extraction of clinical named entities. Different from existing artificial neural networks (ANN), the proposed neural network well functions even without manual rules or features. The word representations input into the DNN is connected by character-based representations and continuous bags of word clusters (CBOWC) in an embedding way. We test the new DNN on different online medical diagnosis datasets obtained from a scalable web crawler, and compare it with the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network linguistic model, the convolutional neural network (CNN) model and the most advanced Bi-LSTM-CRF. The fundamentals for the method selection is that they have been suggested to generate acceptable results. According to the comparison analyses, the DNN is proved to be a reliable tool and improves every benchmark performance of OMD.

PARC: A Novel Design Methodology for Power Analysis Resilient Circuits Using Spintronics

A prevalent class of side-channel attacks relies on Differential Power Analysis (DPA) methods, which monitor power traces during cryptographic processing to discover secret keys. Reconfigurability via Polymorphic Gate Modules (PGMs) offers an approach to obscure DPA information by dynamically rearranging the operation of constituent sub-circuits, albeit at the cost of increased area and power consumption. Thus, we develop the Power Analysis-Resilient Circuit (PARC) design methodology to instantiate the use of spin-based devices as an extension to conventional Register Transfer Language (RTL) specifications. PARC replaces a specific portion of the circuit to maximize a new Effectiveness of Design (EoD) metric, which quantifies DPA impact versus its performance overhead. To validate functionality, PARC is applied to various benchmark circuits including ISCAS-89, MCNC, and ITC-99. EoD results indicate that PARC significantly increases the number of power traces that an adversary would need to use in order to extract power information but incurs a low cost to the functional circuit itself.

The noun-verb distinction in established and emergent sign systems

In a number of signed languages, the distinction between nouns and verbs is evident in the morphophonology of the signs themselves. Here we use a novel elicitation paradigm to investigate the systematicity, emergence, and development of the noun-verb distinction (qua objects vs. actions) in an established sign language, American Sign Language (ASL), an emerging sign language, Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL), and in the precursor to NSL, Nicaraguan homesigns. We show that a distinction between nouns and verbs is marked (by utterance position and movement size) and thus present in all groups–even homesigners, who have invented their systems without a conventional language model. However, there is also evidence of emerging crosslinguistic variation in whether a base hand is used to mark the noun-verb contrast. Finally, variation in how movement repetition and base hand are used across Nicaraguan groups offers insight into the pressures that influence the development of a linguistic system. Specifically, early signers of NSL use movement repetition and base hand in ways similar to homesigners but different from signers who entered the NSL community more recently, suggesting that intergenerational transmission to new learners (not just sharing a language with a community) plays a key role in the development of these devices. These results bear not only on the importance of the noun-verb distinction in human communication, but also on how this distinction emerges and develops in a new (sign) language.

The “brand” of the Catholic Church in England and Wales: Challenges and opportunities for communications

This paper considers the concept of “brand” in relation to religious organisations and, in particular, the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It explores the application of marketing and branding concepts to the Church and reports on perceptions of the Church's brand and identity. The findings show that the Catholic Church in England and Wales has very strong brand equity and high levels of brand loyalty among its members, although conventional marketing language should be avoided due to the sensitivities involved. The findings suggest that the Church could usefully be regarded as a “brand community,” akin in many key respects to brand communities in the commercial sphere. It recommends that Church communications could be enhanced by leveraging the brand more effectively as within a true “brand community” for the purpose of encouraging brand loyalty and energising Church members.

MOOC-based educational program and interaction in distance education: long life mode of teaching

ABSTRACT Modern educational technologies might be perceived as practical and sufficient equipment for presenting educational tasks that simulate authentic language use. Through a defined procedure, learning activities can be delivered in the course of technology-based apparatus to change, manipulate, and control learners’ educational environments. Today’s teachers’ challenge has transformed from the best teaching method to the best teaching apparatus. One of the foremost kinds of these potentials is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It has received special attention in the recent years derived from Open Educational Resource (OER) movement. To investigate the effectiveness of such programs, this mixed methods and explanatory sequential design study evaluated a MOOC-based educational program in Baqer al-Olum University, Iran. Thirty-eight tertiary learners have participated in the study. Among them 20 learners participated in the MOOC-based educational program and 18 learners participated in a conventional English language class. Pretest/posttest and interview were employed to reach comprehensive data. The findings indicated that MOOC-based educational programs provide remarkable opportunities for language learners. Along with such opportunities, these new technology-based educational apparatuses provide challenges for stakeholders, policy makers, teachers, and learners that might constraint learners’ development in the course of their actions. Discussions and implementations are discussed.