Conversational Fluency Research Articles

Investigating the effectiveness of practicing English conversation with ChatGPT in improving non-English majored students’ English speaking skills at Nguyen Tat Thanh University

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of practicing English conversations with ChatGPT to enhance speaking skills of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, specifically focusing on four key criteria: conversational fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary use, and grammatical accuracy. In this study, 60 students were divided into six groups for a quasi-experimental design with a combination between non-equivalent groups design and pretest-posttest design. Four groups were trained with ChatGPT for eight weeks, while two control groups were not. Speaking abilities were measured through pretest, mid-test, and posttest assessments. The findings revealed significant improvements in conversational fluency, vocabulary, and grammar for the ChatGPT-trained groups, while pronunciation showed minimal progress. These results suggest that integrating ChatGPT into English teaching curricula could help non-English majored students at Nguyen Tat Thanh University enhance their English communication skills.

Technological Advances in Early Childhood Bilingual Learning: A Quantitative Analysis

This study explores the multifaceted role of technology in augmenting early childhood bilingual education, emphasizing interactive software, multimedia resources, online communication, and programming for cognitive development. Through a series of quantitative analyses, this research delineates the significant impact of technology-enhanced learning environments on vocabulary acquisition, engagement, personalized learning, multimodal learning efficacy, phonetic recognition, cultural immersion, global classroom participation, conversational fluency, cultural competency, logic and problem-solving skills, coding for language learning, and creative expression. Findings from statistical methods, including Pearson correlation coefficients, repeated measures ANOVAs, and pre-and post-test designs, reveal notable improvements in language proficiency, cognitive abilities, cultural awareness, and expressive skills among young learners exposed to technology-integrated instruction. Specifically, gamification in language apps, adaptive learning technologies, multimedia input, and programming tasks have shown to considerably enhance educational outcomes. This paper advocates for a strategic integration of digital tools in early childhood bilingual curriculums to foster a comprehensive developmental approach, thereby preparing students for the challenges of a globalized and technologically advanced society.

Exploring English for academic purposes instructors’ perceptions of speech fluency through developing and piloting a rating scale for a paired conversational task

Much research has explored how perceptions of speech fluency are influenced by a variety of temporal speech features (e.g. speech rate). However, less is known about the influence of non-temporal and conversational speech characteristics on fluency perceptions. To address this gap, this study explored English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors' perceptions of speech fluency through developing and piloting a rating scale for a paired conversational task for assessment for learning purposes. A two-phase mixed-methods sequential exploratory design (Creswell, 2009) was used. Seven trained EAP instructors watched videos of seven-minute conversations, elicited from 14 intermediate-to-advanced EAP learners. Afterwards, instructors were audio-recorded discussing their observations about learners' fluency. These recordings were transcribed and coded using in-vivo and pattern coding techniques (Saldaña, 2009). Six themes were identified: efficiency, smoothness, sophistication, clarity, facilitating topics and turns, and supporting the conversation partner. These themes informed the development of a multi-item fluency rating scale. 35 EAP instructors then used the scale to rate eight learners’ speeches. To investigate the construct-relevance of these scale items, a principal component analysis was conducted, producing two components - individual fluency and conversational fluency. Pedagogical activities aligned with the scale are provided.

Conversational Fluency and Attitudes Towards Robot Pilots in Telepresence Robot-Mediated Interactions

In a controlled lab experiment, we compared how in-person and robot-mediated communicative settings affected attitudes towards communicators and discourse phenomena related to conversational negotiation. We used a mock interview within-participants experiment design where each participant (mock interviewee) experienced both types of communication with the same experimenter (mock interviewer). Despite communicating with the same person, participants found the in-person interviewer to be more likable, more capable, more intelligent, more polite, more in control, and less awkward than the same person using a telepresence robot. Behaviorally, we did not detect differences in participants’ productions of discourse phenomena (likes, you knows, ums, uhs), laughter, or gaze. We also tested the role of communicative expectations on attitudes towards communications. We primed participants to expect that they would be talking to a person via telepresence, a “disabled” robot-person combination using telepresence, or a person in person (between-participants). We did not find differences arising from people’s expectations of the communication.

Artificial Intelligence and Impression Management: Consequences of Autonomous Conversational Agents Communicating on One’s Behalf

Abstract Artificially intelligent communication technologies (AICTs) that operate autonomously with high degrees of conversational fluency can make communication decisions on behalf of their principal users and communicate with those principals’ audiences on their behalf. In this study, we explore how the involvement of AICTs in communication activities shapes how principals engage in impression management and how their communication partners form impressions of them. Through an inductive, comparative field study of users of two AI scheduling technologies, we uncover three communicative practices through which principals engaged in impression management when AICTs communicate on their behalf: interpretation, diplomacy, and staging politeness. We also uncover three processes through which communication partners formed impressions of principals when communicating with them via AICTs: confirmation, transference, and compartmentalization. We show that communication partners can transfer impressions of AICTs to principals themselves and outline the conditions under which such transference is and is not likely. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of technological mediation of impression management and formation in the age of artificial intelligence and present propositions to guide future empirical research.

An Analysis of the Use of Code Switching in the Students' Conversation

<p><span lang="EN-US">This present study aims to analyze the use of code switching in English conversation. This study focuses on the types of code switching that are often used by students in English conversation. The present study employed qualitative descriptive method. The participants were two first semester students of the English education program at Wiralodra Indramayu University. Before making observations, the writer first provided a conversation topic to make it easier to analyze the types of code switching used by students when speaking English. In this step, the writer observed the participants’ conversation using a recording device, then analyzed the results of these observations and conducted interview with students to find out the contributing factors of using code switching in their English conversation. The results of study point out that the first student uses the types of code-switching of inter sentential, intra sentential, and tag switching, while the second student uses the types of inter sentential and intra sentential code switching. Several contributing factors in doing the code switching are identified as nervousness, lack of vocabulary, and forgetting when speaking. Moreover, it is also defined that the use of code switching when speaking English is aimed to facilitate the participants’ conversational fluency</span></p>

THE WAY UKRAINIANS LEARNT THE CZECH LANGUAGE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA OR UKRAINIAN INTERWAR IMMIGRATION IN THE NEW LINGUISTIC FIELD (1918-1939)

The phenomenon of cross-linguistic homonymy is the result of closely related languages’ interaction, confusing the same or similar sounding words which have different meanings in different languages. The Ukrainian immigrant community in the interwar Czechoslovakia is no exception. The life of the people of Ukrainian origin in the interwar Czechoslovakia can be conditionally divided into four periods. The first one dates back to 1918-1921 when the detachments of Ukrainian Galicia Army entered the territory of the First Czechoslovak Republic: “Hirska Brygada”, “Stary Tabir”, “Hlyboka”, “Krukenychy”. This first period for the people of Ukrainian origin in the interwar First Czechoslovak Republic is characterized by the lack of interest in learning the Czech language in general as far as most of the campers, who had conversational fluency in German and Polish, were waiting for settling the status of Eastern Galicia, the fate of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic and solving the conflict in Cieszyn Silesia. The second period dates back to 1921-1925 when the majority of antibolshevik immigration arrived in the interwar First Czechoslovak Republic. Especially this period is characterized by the active learning of the Czech language. The immigrants had two ways of mastering the language. The official way was acquiring the high education in the Czech and Ukrainian educational establishments. However, the most widespread way was the unofficial one, when the language was learnt in the shops, restaurants, bars or other working places where unskilled manual labour was required (for example, at Tomash Batia’s shoe factory, different plants and enterprises); right in the streets after all within different communication situations. The third period in the life of the people of Ukrainian origin on the territory of the interwar First Czechoslovak Republic took place in 1925-1929 and was called “povorontnytstvo”. During this period there was no way of speaking about mastering the Czech language and using cross-linguistic homonyms. In the 1930s due to the world economic crisis and shutting down the access to the Czechoslovak labour market for the people of Ukrainian origin the issue of learning the Czech language was not raised at all. The majority of the people of Ukrainian origin who stayed in Prague and its suburbs or moved to Transcarpathia had already mastered the Czech language by that time. Thus, on the one hand the provocative similarity created a number of obstacles, misunderstandings, it caused tragic and sometimes comic situations. On the other hand, it spiced up the everyday lives of the people of Ukrainian origin.

Resisting Artificial Intelligence: When Do Decision-Makers Avoid or Use Algorithmic Input?

When do people heed the advice from an algorithm as opposed to a human? This session delves into novel research in which people opt for the recommendations from algorithmically-derived sources and uses experimental approaches to quantify and theoretically inform the conditions in which decision-makers listen to (or ignore) algorithmic advice. The papers in this session examine a breadth of decision-making scenarios and a diverse range of contextual factors, including: contrast in stated preferences and behavioral decisions; domain sensitivity of algorithmic advice; conversational fluency in evaluations of AI competence; gender-status stereotype congruence of AI agents; and the effect of anthropomorphization of algorithms. Robo-Coaching: Responses to Performance Feedback from Algorithms Versus People Presenter: Jennifer Marie Logg; Georgetown U. Presenter: Julia Alexandra Minson; Harvard Kennedy School Presenter: Francesca Gino; Harvard Business School Making Sense of Recommendations Presenter: Michael Yeomans; Harvard Business School Presenter: Anuj Shah; U. of Chicago Booth School of business Presenter: Sendhil Mullainathan; Harvard U. Presenter: Jon Kleinberg; Cornell U. Detrimental Dehumanization in the IoT Presenter: Christian Hildebrand; U. of St. Gallen Presenter: Donna Hoffman; George Washington U. Presenter: Thomas P. Novak; George Washington U. The Role of Status and Gender Stereotype Congruence in Preference for AI Agents Presenter: Heather Hee Jin Yang; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Object-Oriented Anthropomorphism as a Mechanism for Understanding AI Presenter: Donna Hoffman; George Washington U. Presenter: Thomas P. Novak; George Washington U.

What's That You Say? Communication Breakdowns and Their Repairs in Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Conversational fluency is important to form meaningful connections and relationships with the people around us but is understudied in children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). Communication breakdowns reduce conversational fluency. They occur when a speaker says something that interrupts the flow of conversation requiring a request for clarification or confirmation from their listener to repair the misunderstanding. Young children who are D/HH are at risk of more frequent communication breakdowns and fewer successful repairs than children with typical hearing (The missing link in language development of deaf and hard of hearing children: Pragmatic language development. Seminars in Speech and Language, 33 (04), 297-309). About 14 children who were D/HH aged 7-12 year and 15 children with typical hearing were matched on chronological age. Comparisons of the number and duration of communication breakdowns, requests for repair, and responses to requests used by children in a 10-min conversation with an adult were completed. Results showed that while children who were D/HH demonstrated some differences, they were more similar to their typically hearing peers in communication breakdowns and repairs than previously reported in the literature.

Bilingual and Multilingual Psychologists Practising in Australia: An Exploratory Study of Their Skills, Training Needs and Experiences

ObjectiveAs Australia becomes more diverse it is essential for the psychology profession to examine training, cultural competency, and professional development needs of psychologists working in languages other than English. In this exploratory study of bilingual/multilingual psychologists in Australia, we aimed to investigate their self‐perceived language skills, multicultural counselling competency, and professional development needs; understand their training and practice experiences; and seek recommendations for policy and practice.MethodAn online survey including demographic and practice information, the Multicultural Counselling Inventory and open‐ended text questions was completed by 38 bilingual/multilingual psychologists working in Australia in 2015. Eleven participants undertook supplementary telephone interviews which along with survey responses were transcribed for qualitative thematic analysis.ResultsMost participants trained in English. They expressed concerns about their application of psychological concepts in other languages, despite good conversational fluency. Participants highlighted language barriers to entering the profession; limited multicultural and multilingual training and supervision in Australia; and the need for more transcultural mental health resources, particularly for small/new migrant communities and people outside large cities.ConclusionTo effectively serve clients, significant changes are required to psychology training in Australia, including but not limited to bilingual and multilingual psychologists. These include enhanced training and competency standards in MCC and using interpreters. The profession must actively support supervision, professional development, and practice in community languages. The Psychology Board of Australia and the universities need to examine policies operating as barriers to the admission of culturally and linguistically diverse people to the psychology profession in Australia.

Improvements in micro level indices of social communication following Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT)

BackgroundPivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is an evidence-based treatment for individuals with ASD that targets social communication skills, most notably social motivation. The aim of the current study was to map microanalytic changes in social communication during dyadic child-therapist interactions following a 16-week trial of PRT. We proposed that a microanalytic approach would allow us to meticulously outline the dynamics of the “building blocks” of children’s discourse, stressing certain aspect that might go unnoticed in global methods of coding. We hypothesized that PRT would improve measures of linguistic social communication in children. MethodWe utilized continuous microanalysis of behavior to explore changes in social communication during PRT sessions in 20 high-functioning children with ASD (ages 4–7 years). For each child, two videotaped PRT sessions – at the beginning and end of these 16 weeks – were coded for vocalizations and verbalizations. This allowed us to compare the amount, fluency, adequacy and reciprocity of social communication between child and therapist at the early versus final stages of PRT. ResultsCompared to baseline, at endpoint, children increased their overall use of vocalizations as well as the congruency of their responses to those of the therapist. The amount of non-congruent responses also dropped significantly. Additionally, children improved in measures of conversational fluency and use of self-referential pronouns. ConclusionsThese results provide a mapping of microanalytic changes in social and linguistic communication that occur during PRT and point to children’s improvement in social communication behavior leading to greater social reciprocity and conversational synchrony following treatment.

Studying Objects, Objectifying Students: Natural History at Women's Colleges in Postbellum New York State

Studying Objects, Objectifying Students:Natural History at Women's Colleges in Postbellum New York State Andrew Fiss (bio) The Civil War transformed American higher education. According to the new, synthetic work Reconstructing the Campus: Higher Education and the American Civil War (2012), the Civil War had immediate, dramatic, lasting effects on American colleges. Because of the importance of colleges for providing recruits, supplies, and related professionals, federal and state governments took a greater role in supporting, funding, and monitoring colleges.1 Even in New York State, so far north of the fighting, the Board of Regents became particularly invested in observing trends in higher education, especially in drawing a distinction between "colleges" and "academies."2 Through connections with military preparedness, postbellum colleges experienced curricular growth in scientific/industrial education and also demographic changes, particularly in the increased incorporation of women.3 This paper investigates the confluence of these postbellum trends in natural history education at the four women's institutions that the New York State Regents recognized as colleges.4 At the three that were particularly prosperous, changes in academic and student life followed from attempts to make natural history familiar to students. At Vassar College, Rutgers Female College, and Ingham University, faculty members, administrators, and architects transferred all elements of "familiar science" to the campus. This genre of English-language children's literature emphasized the "familiar" through family-oriented conversation [End Page 205] about common objects. As historian Melanie Keene has shown, such texts had three major components: a family setting, informal conversations, and the use of everyday objects.5 At Vassar College (founded in 1861 and opened in 1865), students encountered a familial version of natural history in the parlor of the college mother, the "lady principal." There they viewed and discussed zoological specimens in a setting constructed to seem domestic. At Rutgers Female College (founded in 1839 and re-chartered in 1869), professors encouraged students to develop conversational fluency about specimens in the natural history cabinets. In limited encounters, students developed a personal understanding of specimens and an ability to extemporize moral tales from them. At Ingham University (founded in 1837, re-chartered in 1852, re-chartered again in 1857, and expanded in 1870) and later Vassar College, campus architects designed multipurpose structures that made natural history exhibitions literally central to student life. Called museums, these new buildings acted more like prototypes of student unions, as they contained spaces for art, music, student clubs, athletics, and recreation. There, students' encounters with specimens became an everyday occurrence.6 Such transformations did not occur so dramatically at the fourth women's institution that the Regents recognized as a college: Elmira Female College (chartered in 1853 and opened in 1855). Its financial difficulties prevented major investments in curriculum and infrastructure at the time.7 As other historians have shown, Elmira's requests for state aid set an important precedent for the future of American higher education.8 Still, Elmira's negotiations kept the faculty and administrators from engaging in the same institutional reforms as elsewhere. In the late 1860s, college officials at Vassar College, Rutgers Female College, and Ingham University constructed natural history as appropriate for women's higher education through familiar science, particularly emphasizing connections to family life, conversation, and daily exposure. [End Page 206] In observing the emergence of these new methods in science education, this paper builds on the literature on "familiar science" from historian Melanie Keene. In her books and articles, Keene observes the growth in nineteenth-century British texts that used the phrases "familiar lectures" or "familiar conversations" in beginning a science-oriented book, article, lecture, or even fictional story. These texts, intended for children as well as adults, encouraged readers to see science all around them. Focusing on common objects, from toothpick cases to eggs and tea, they modeled domestic conversations that extrapolated from sensory observations to scientific theories and vocabulary.9 The creation and implementation of new pedagogical techniques at women's colleges in New York State partially stemmed from the popularity of this genre for providing introductions to natural history. Though they did not often comment on this connection, officials at women's colleges in New York State institutionalized familiar science. Meanwhile...

Family at the Heart of Chickasaw Language Reclamation

Family at the Heart of Chickasaw Language Reclamation Kari A. B. Chew (bio) Located in south- central Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation faces unprecedented language loss. Because of colonization and forced assimilation, the intergenerational transmission of the Chickasaw language—Chikashshanompa’—has been interrupted in families, leading to devastating and rapid language decline. In 1994 there were an estimated one thousand Chikashshanompa’ speakers.1 Currently, there are about seventy remaining speakers, all of whom are elders.2 While a small but increasing number of second-language learners speak the language at a level of conversational fluency, new generations do not speak Chikashshanompa’ as a first language.3 As a result, community members are growing increasingly aware of the urgency surrounding language loss and the necessity for language reclamation. Currently, a small group of dedicated Chickasaw citizens and allies are working to restore Chikashshanompa’ as a healthy and vibrant language of the community. Significantly, family has emerged as being at the heart of their efforts. This article examines intergenerational perspectives on the importance of Chikashshanompa’ to Chickasaw families. I begin with an autoethnographic account of my own efforts to learn Chikashshanompa’ and the responsibility I have in ensuring its continuance. Next, a brief historical account of language loss in the community demonstrates the impact of this historical trauma on Chickasaw families. A discussion of contemporary Chickasaw language work situated within the theoretical concepts of language reclamation, survivance, and linguistic responsibility follows. Culturally grounded research methods frame my analysis of emerging themes, including (1) elders’ desire to ensure Chickasaw survivance through the language, (2) parents’ responsibility to pass the [End Page 154] language to their children, and (3) young people’s yearning to speak Chikashshanompa’ and developing consciousness of Chickasaw identity. “chikashsha saya” My Chickasaw ancestors spoke Chikashshanompa’ in southeastern homelands given to them by Aba’binni’li’, the One Who Sits Above. While first European contact imposed unprecedented change on Chickasaw society, my ancestors continued to speak Chikashshanompa’. By the turn of the nineteenth century, however, the federal government had grown increasingly hostile toward American Indian peoples as the United States pursued its vision of Manifest Destiny and the taking of Indigenous lands. In the late 1830s, my great- great-great-grandparents were forcibly removed from their homelands to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Their children, who attended boarding schools in Indian Territory, were among the last generation in my family to speak Chikashshanompa’. Raised outside of the Chickasaw Nation, I did not hear my heritage language spoken as a child. My interest in learning Chikashshanompa’ developed as I entered young adulthood. As an undergraduate, I gravitated toward American Indian studies because it was a space on campus that affirmed and allowed me to develop my identity as a Chickasaw person. Reading Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places, about Western Apache language and place making, kindled my interest in Indigenous languages and inspired me to seek my own language.4 To this end, I participated in a summer internship through the Chickasaw Nation. My position with the Division of History and Culture afforded me opportunities to research Chikashshanompa’ and, importantly, take language classes. Sitting in a small room with a group of elder fluent speakers and other language learners, I heard my heritage language spoken for the first time. As we practiced saying words and phrases, I became increasingly conscious of the vital role of language in the continuance of Chickasaw culture and identity. Early in my Chikashshanompa’ class, I learned to say the phrase, “Chikashsha saya” (I am Chickasaw). While I had spoken these words many times in English, my life was forever changed when I said them in the language of my ancestors. I realized that my identity as a Chickasaw person was not adequately expressed through English. The far-reaching impact of colonization and the enduring pressures of assimilation [End Page 155] had prevented me from knowing my language and, thus, fully knowing myself. Reclaiming this ability became a driving force behind my desire to learn my heritage language and pursue language reclamation as both a field of academic study and a potential career. As a Chickasaw person and language learner, my experiences are inseparable from my research about Chikashshanompa...

The Verbal and Nonverbal Correlates of the Five Flirting Styles

The present investigation identifies the nonverbal and verbal behaviors associated with the five flirting styles (i.e., physical, traditional, sincere, polite, playful) (Hall et al. in Commun Q 58:365–393, 2010). Fifty-one pairs (N = 102) of opposite-sex heterosexual strangers interacted for 10–12 min and then reported their physical attraction to their conversational partner. Four independent coders coded 36 nonverbal and verbal behaviors. The residual variance of the interaction term between each flirting style and physical attraction was calculated, accounting for variance associated with the other styles. These five residual terms were separately correlated with the coded verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Each flirting style was correlated with behaviors linked to the conceptualization of that style: more conversational fluency for physical flirts, more demure behaviors for traditional female flirts and more assertive and open behaviors by traditional male flirts, less fidgeting, teasing, and distraction and more smiling for sincere flirts, more reserved and distancing behavior by polite flirts, and more obviously engaging and flirtatious behaviors by playful flirts.

Assessing language dominance in Mandarin-English bilinguals: Convergence and divergence between subjective and objective measures.

This study examines the convergence and divergence between subjective and objective measures of language proficiency for assessing language dominance in Mandarin-English bilinguals. Sixty-two young adults (Experiment 1) and 27 children (Experiment 2) provided self-ratings of proficiency level (or were rated by their parents), were interviewed for spoken proficiency, and named pictures in the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) and (in Experiment 1 only) the Boston Naming Test. In Experiment 1, the four measures converged in the number of people classified into different dominance groups but both naming tests indicated greater English dominance than self-report and interview measures. In Experiment 2, parent report and interview measures converged in dominance classifications but the MINT indicated higher degrees of English dominance. To a large extent bilinguals were able to classify themselves (or their children) into dominance groups but some mismatches between measures in dominance classification were observed for all age and dominance groups. These results, together with previous findings with Spanish-English bilingual adults (Gollan et al., 2012), suggest that bilinguals may shift to English dominance in confrontation naming before they do so in conversational fluency, and that dominance shifts persist throughout the lifespan but may be relatively more pronounced in children. These findings caution against the use of self-reports as the sole means of classifying bilinguals into dominance groups and support a multi-measure approach including direct assessment of the relevant linguistic domain.

Defining and Teaching Academic Language: Developments in K‐12 ESL

The concept of academic language (also referred to as academic English) has developed substantially in the 30 years since Cummins introduced the distinction between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). Cummins’ (1979, 1981, 2000a) work explains why English language learners (ELs) may acquire basic conversational fluency in English quickly but require substantially longer to acquire academic language. The BICS/CALP framework has also influenced pedagogy, particularly by promoting highly contextualized teaching of academic content. More recent work drawing on linguistic approaches, including corpus linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), provides insights into the specific features of language used in school settings. Pedagogical approaches emphasizing explicit language instruction and plentiful opportunities for oral and written language practice show promise for assuring that ELs can develop academic language proficiency. Given the need to address the academic achievement of the growing population of ELs, it is important for teachers to expand their concept of academic language instruction to include these approaches.

Treating the Signature Injury

Treating the Signature Injury

Using the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire to Measure Perceived Social Communication Ability in Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury

Introduction: The La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) was developed to measure perceived social communication ability from various sources including the self-perceptions of individuals as well as those of others with whom they converse regularly (e.g., family members, friends and clinicians). It has been psychometrically evaluated with healthy young adults and adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and found to have acceptable reliability and validity. The present study was conducted to gauge the ability of the LCQ to distinguish between a group of adolescents who had sustained TBI and a control group of neurologically normal adolescents matched on the variables of socio-economic status (SES), age, gender and level of education completed. Method: Participants were 19 TBI dyads (TBI adolescents and close relatives) and 19 control dyads. All TBI adolescents had sustained severe injury (mean posttraumatic amnesia duration 33.76 days, SD 18.13) due to moving vehicle-related trauma. Mean age at the time of injury was 16.33 years (SD 1.67) and at the time of assessment 17.11 years (SD 1.90). The LCQ was administered to all participants at home. Results: Perceptions of TBI adolescents and their relatives were significantly different from those of control dyads and consistent with a higher frequency of social communication difficulties in the TBI group. Difficulties reflected reduced conversational fluency and problems with managing the multiple demands of social discourse. Conclusions: The LCQ is a clinical tool that has sound potential to contribute to the multifaceted assessment of social communication in adolescents with TBI.

Maths beyond pictures

We all fall into the same trap, sometimes. It is an easy thing to do when teaching pupils in the later stages of learning English as an additional language (EAL). We find ourselves assuming that, because they can communicate all of their needs, participate in all playground games, follow instructions to the same extent as their peers, and chat away all day long (perhaps they are the ones that never stop), then they must also be able to cope with the language demands of the classroom. We are aware of their grammatical errors in English because it is evident in their writing, and we work hard to support them in this. But what about their learning in other subjects? Studies show that EAL pupils often underachieve more in maths than in English, proving the extent to which the subject is about language. This is an area in which many teachers require further support. We are using children’s conversational fluency to overestimate their cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), that is, the language they have available to them for academic study. As it usually takes between five and seven years for an EAL pupil’s CALP to reach that of an average first language English speaker, the primary years are a crucial time for its development, and a time when it should always be assumed that extra language support is needed. The old EAL adage of using visual images and culturally-relevant examples, while important, is not enough.

Using the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire to Measure Perceived Social Communication Ability in Adolescents With Traumatic Brain Injury

AbstractIntroduction:The La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) was developed to measure perceived social communication ability from various sources including the self-perceptions of individuals as well as those of others with whom they converse regularly (e.g., family members, friends and clinicians). It has been psychometrically evaluated with healthy young adults and adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and found to have acceptable reliability and validity. The present study was conducted to gauge the ability of the LCQ to distinguish between a group of adolescents who had sustained TBI and a control group of neurologically normal adolescents matched on the variables of socio-economic status (SES), age, gender and level of education completed.Method:Participants were 19 TBI dyads (TBI adolescents and close relatives) and 19 control dyads. All TBI adolescents had sustained severe injury (mean posttraumatic amnesia duration 33.76 days,SD18.13) due to moving vehicle-related trauma. Mean age at the time of injury was 16.33 years (SD 1.67) and at the time of assessment 17.11years (SD1.90). The LCQ was administered to all participants at home.Results:Perceptions of TBI adolescents and their relatives were significantly different from those of control dyads and consistent with a higher frequency of social communication difficulties in the TBI group. Difficulties reflected reduced conversational fluency and problems with managing the multiple demands of social discourse.Conclusions:The LCQ is a clinical tool that has sound potential to contribute to the multifaceted assessment of social communication in adolescents with TBI.