Language Of Country Research Articles

The linguistic landscape of Bukhara and Tashkent in the post‐Soviet era

The sociopolitical changes that have taken place in Central Asia since the downfall of the Soviet Union have had a significant effect on the linguistic landscape of Uzbekistan. Russian, the dominant language of the Soviet era, lost its power and prestige in the wake of independence. Uzbek, the mother tongue of the local people, became the country's sole official language, while English, once considered the language of the Western bourgeoise, started to flourish as the most popular foreign language in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Using the concept of linguistic landscape, this study analyzes the presence and use of Uzbek, Russian, and English languages on public and private signs in two major Uzbek cities. The findings of the study reveal that even though it has been almost 30 years since Uzbek was declared as an official language, its presence on public and private signs is not as widespread as people might think.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Mathematics at the Vietnamese High School

The implementation of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has been enforced by many education systems across the world as a means of improving their foreign language education or strengthening multilingualism in their society. CLIL in the context of Vietnam has recently been promoted as a means of tackling the country's ineffective English language education and upholding its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. This study was conducted to gather information on the teaching of mathematics in English in Vietnamese high schools. Data were collected from a survey and follow-up interviews at 42 high schools across the country. The survey involved 39 school administrators, 78 teachers, and 500 students who had direct experience with teaching and learning mathematics in English while the follow-up interviews were conducted with 14 school administrators and 35 teachers. Statistical analyses performed indicated that CLIL-practising schools in Vietnam performed rather satisfactorily in terms of assessing CLIL learning outcomes and using content and pedagogies appropriate for their CLIL objectives and their school context. CLIL mathematics activities were perceived to be less satisfactory than other CLIL teaching and learning aspects due to practical conditions that constrained the range and diversity of CLIL mathematics activities. Vietnamese schools reported tailoring their CLIL mathematics teaching and learning to suit their particular school settings, which could be seen appropriate at the current early stage of CLIL mathematics implementation in Vietnam. The heavy dependence on foreign-imported curriculum and textbooks, however, still posed challenges in creating meaningful learning outcomes for CLIL students in Vietnam.

FENOMENA BAHASA PADA RUANG PUBLIK SEPANJANG JALAN PROTOKOL KOTA PONTIANAK

The priority of the country's language becomes a reflection that the city upholds Indonesian language. This does not rule out the possibility of the Pontianak city government. This paper tries to explain the phenomenon of language in public spaces along the Pontianak city protocol. The aim is to describe the use of language and find out the level of language control in Pontianak city public spaces. This research method uses a combination of quantitative methods and qualitative methods. Quantitative method is used as a method of processing the number of population and corpus of data to determine the number of data samples. The qualitative method is used as a method of analyzing the linguistic features of data samples which include the type of language landscape and language use of data samples. The data source of this research is the primary data source directly collected directly from the area along the Pontianak city protocol streets. Data were classified and analyzed according to the study. Data analysis in this study was presented using descriptive analytic methods. The results of the study are the existence of language shifts that can be seen from the emergence of complete foreign language interference, grammatical interference, the use of foreign terms in the structure of language and code-switching in foreign language. The level of language control along the protocol road in the public sphere has a significant result, B, which means that the state language is still controlled at the level of public space.

Multilingual assessment of early child development: Analyses from repeated observations of children in Kenya.

In many low‐ and middle‐income countries, young children learn a mother tongue or indigenous language at home before entering the formal education system where they will need to understand and speak a country's official language(s). Thus, assessments of children before school age, conducted in a nation's official language, may not fully reflect a child's development, underscoring the importance of test translation and adaptation. To examine differences in vocabulary development by language of assessment, we adapted and validated instruments to measure developmental outcomes, including expressive and receptive vocabulary. We assessed 505 2‐to‐6‐year‐old children in rural communities in Western Kenya with comparable vocabulary tests in three languages: Luo (the local language or mother tongue), Swahili, and English (official languages) at two time points, 5–6 weeks apart, between September 2015 and October 2016. Younger children responded to the expressive vocabulary measure exclusively in Luo (44%–59% of 2‐to‐4‐year‐olds) much more frequently than did older children (20%–21% of 5‐to‐6‐year‐olds). Baseline receptive vocabulary scores in Luo (β = 0.26, SE = 0.05, p < 0.001) and Swahili (β = 0.10, SE = 0.05, p = 0.032) were strongly associated with receptive vocabulary in English at follow‐up, even after controlling for English vocabulary at baseline. Parental Luo literacy at baseline (β = 0.11, SE = 0.05, p = 0.045) was associated with child English vocabulary at follow‐up, while parental English literacy at baseline was not. Our findings suggest that multilingual testing is essential to understanding the developmental environment and cognitive growth of multilingual children.

Changes in English language policy in Kim Jong-un's North Korea

One of the most important components of a country's language policy is its planning on foreign languages and its decisions regarding which foreign language(s) to choose and teach to its people in the nation's school system (Cenoz &amp; Gorter, 2012). The government generally makes a selection among the candidate languages on the basis of the languages' perceived economic and socio-political value inside and outside the country. However, the socio-economic power and prestige of languages are variable and bound to change over time (Wright, 2004). For this reason, changes are almost always observed in any country's foreign language policy.

A Study on the Training Plan of Local Culture Promotion Personnel through the Migrant Women in Uljin-gun

The means to train plan of local culture promotion personnel through the migrant women refers to the knowledge education of local cultural personnel through the accurate recognition of Korean culture and local culture and related information to foreign immigrants and workers in each region of the country. Through education courses in four areas, such as international manners, local promotion education, cultural heritage, and experience learning, the immigrant women will present a leading direction in which they can expect to play a role as experts in regional culture and public relations through the mother country's language.

Variation and change in English /r/ among Tamil Indian Singaporeans

AbstractSingapore's multiethnic population has historically been found to differ in their use of a range of English features. As English continues to eclipse the country's other languages, it gains potential as a site for the performance of ethnic identity. At the same time, English‐dominant Singaporeans may be less likely to use features perceived as resulting from non‐native transfer. Integration policies and transnational migration have also arguably reduced the salience of ethnicity in the local sociolinguistic landscape. This study investigates a feature linked to Indian identity, tapped and trilled prevocalic /r/, in the speech of 30 Tamil Singaporeans. A significant change in apparent time is observed, with younger speakers using almost entirely approximant /r/. Variation in /r/ also correlates with home language, cultural context, and phonological environment. We argue that, while non‐approximant /r/ is becoming rarer among Tamil Singaporeans, it continues to serve as a means of indexing Indianness.

Study of the Cultural Platforms of the Formation and Growth of Ethnic Challenges in Iran's Azerbaijan

One of the issues and problems of Iran is the issue of ethnic groups and challenges that at times, in the past and in the contemporary era, endangered national solidarity and led to the collapse of its political systems. With the aim of finding the cultural context of ethnic challenges in Iran, this paper tries to provide appropriate strategies for managing ethnic diversity in Iran and to take appropriate policy in order to respect the components and culture of the peoples in order to increase national solidarity. In this study, we investigated the cultural context of the formation and growth of ethnic challenges that have been established and continued since the Constitutional Revolution in Azerbaijan. So, the main question is, “what is the most important cultural context affecting the formation and growth of ethnic challenges in Azerbaijan?”. The research method was a deep interview which was conducted after interviewing 32 related experts and after access to all the results, analysis of interview data and quantitative content analysis of all the results of the deep interview.Findings of the research indicate that Emphasis on a country's language and cultural discrimination, and the non-implementation of Article 15 of the Constitution for Turkish speakers ( 39%) as the most important domestic cultural context, The impact of Turkish satellite networks (32%), and Influence of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the superior Turkish identity in the neighborhood of Iran ( 31%) Are the most important foreign policy for the formation and growth of ethnic challenges in Iran’s Azerbaijan.

Immigrant students’ achievements in light of their educational aspirations and academic motivation

ABSTRACTDespite their often-reported tendency to ‘aim high’, children of immigrants frequently demonstrate lower school achievement than children of non-immigrants. We address this attitude-achievement paradox by proposing a conditional view that contends that exposure to the destination country's language is essential for transforming favourable educational orientations into achievement. Based on German data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we study the role of educational attitudes in terms of both sociological measures of educational aspirations and psychological measures of academic motivation. The attitude-achievement paradox is reflected in a weaker link between educational orientations and reading achievement among students from certain migrant groups than among their majority peers. Regarding the sources of these discrepancies, we find that immigrant students who use the destination language in their everyday interactions experience greater benefits from higher levels of educational aspirations and academic motivation than do those with less exposure to the language. In this manner, we can account for some of the observed group differences in the link between educational attitudes and achievement and, thus, for part of the attitude-achievement paradox.

Colonial Legacy and Economic Efficiency across Africa: A Metafrontier Approach

AbstractThis paper attempts to estimate comparable efficiency scores for 40 African countries over the period 1975–2014, adopting the metafrontier framework which allows the decomposition of the overall technical efficiency into technology gap ratio and standard technical efficiency (Huang et al., ). We tested whether colonial legacy, proxied by country's first official language, based on stochastic frontiers were preferred to the pooled stochastic frontier. Consequently, we split countries into the three following groups: French‐speaking countries, English‐speaking countries, and other African countries. Efficiency measures results showed that there is, on average, more efficiency matters than technology gap issues. In addition, the extent of those challenges varies from one group of countries to another. It is found that the efficiency issue is more pronounced among English‐speaking countries, while the main challenge for French‐speaking countries is related to technology gap. Results also show that the appropriate trade, monetary, and financial sector‐oriented policies may help countries to close their technology gap.

Review shows that Icelandic society is taking firmer steps to tackle the diverse forms of child abuse and neglect that its children are exposed to.

AimThis review examined and summarised the research published on child abuse in Iceland, which was mainly in the country's native language, to make the findings more accessible to English speakers. It specifically focused on child rearing and the physical, emotional and sexual abuse, neglect and intrafamilial conflicts suffered by children at the hands of their parents and other carers.MethodThe review drew on published research, books and reports and compared the findings with Nordic research and global estimates of child abuse.ResultsQualitative and quantitative research revealed that the prevalence of different forms of child abuse, child neglect and intra‐familial conflicts in Iceland was similar to, or higher than, global and Nordic estimates. Younger respondents reported less physical abuse than older respondents, but higher levels of emotional abuse. Legislation, greater awareness, public debates and research on child abuse in Iceland have contributed to the growing recognition of the negative consequences of child abuse and strengthened support for prevention strategies.ConclusionIcelandic children have reportedly experienced diverse forms of child abuse and neglect from their parents and other carers. Diverse initiatives have been put in place that underline the urgent need to tackle such behaviour.

The Development of English and Spanish Among Children in Immigrant Families in the United States.

The variable language skills of children from immigrant families create challenges for families, teachers, and policy makers. A first step toward meeting those challenges is to understand the factors that influence language development in children who hear a language other than the country's majority language at home. We present findings from analyses of longitudinal data on children in immigrant families in the United States that contribute to that understanding. Our findings support four broad conclusions: (1) Children who are exposed to two languages simultaneously will lag behind monolingual children in their rates of single language growth. This is the normal result of distributed language exposure. (2) Language exposure provided by native speakers is more supportive of language growth than exposure provided by nonnative speakers. Therefore, immigrant parents should be encouraged to interact with their children in the language that allows the richest, most meaningful conversations, not necessarily in the majority language. (3) Preschool attendance does not always provide support for majority language skill. Attention needs to be paid to the quality of language support provided in preschool classrooms if they are to benefit language growth. (4) Acquiring the heritage language does not interfere with acquiring the majority language. Rather, it is heritage language acquisition that is vulnerable.

Prolingua se bydrae tot terminologieontwikkeling in Afrikaans

Prolingua's Contribution to Terminology Development in Afri­kaans. The research problem addressed in this article deals with the isolated development of Afri­kaans terminology in a multilingual dispensation. The research problem manifests itself in three ways: the need for such terminology; the sustainability thereof; and whether a single institu­tion, such as Prolingua, could maintain such development. Prolingua, an association for English and Afrikaans language practitioners, was founded in 1950. At the time it was known as the Trans­vaal Association of Municipal Translators . As the name indicated, the members were mainly munici­pal officials. Municipal services included several services that, at the time needed bilingual terms for various areas in the workplace. The country's bilingual language policy then required terms to be translated and created for all municipal departments — suddenly there was a need for Afri­kaans terms. The aim of the newly established association was, among other things, to translate, create and standardise terminology and to discuss problems with translation. Later more attention was given to terminology-related problems and the association became more inclusive and inviting for language practitioners from other institutions to join its ranks. This article deals with the need for Afrikaans terminology and gives information on the history of Prolingua and its contribution to terminology development in Afrikaans, i.e. the Prolingua term list and other products and services. The contributions made by external collaborators regarding terminology development also receive attention. Prolingua's cooperation with other institutions is discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for a way forward. Keywords: classic origin; collaborator; cooperation; database; digiti­sation; digitalisation; harmonisation; language policy; language practi­tioner; neologism; online terminology products; standardisation; tech­nical dictionary; term creation; term list; terminology develop­ment; terminology; terminology management system

Topical corticosteroid phobia in atopic dermatitis: International feasibility study of the TOPICOP score.

Adherence to topical corticosteroids (TCS) is essential for the effective treatment of atopic dermatitis but can be limited by concerns about their use. This study examined the feasibility of applying the validated TOPICOP score for assessing TCS phobia across different countries. This was a prospective multicentre feasibility study conducted in 21 hospitals in 17 countries. Patients >3 months of age with atopic dermatitis or their parents or legal representatives completed a validated translation of the TOPICOP questionnaire in the country's native language. Respondents also completed questionnaires collecting opinions about the feasibility and acceptability of the TOPICOP questionnaire. A total of 1564 participants in 15 countries were included in the analysis. 81% of respondents considered the questions clear or very clear, and 79% reported that it took less than 5 minutes to complete. Each of the individual items in the TOPICOP questionnaire was considered to be not at all difficult to answer by 49% to 74% of participants. The mean global TOPICOP score was 44.7%±20.5. Mean TOPICOP subscores were 37.0±22.8% for knowledge and beliefs, 54.7±27.8% for fears and 50.1±29.1% for behaviours. Global scores and subscores differed between countries, although the subscores did not always vary in parallel, suggesting different levels of TCS phobia and different drivers for each country. The TOPICOP score can be feasibly applied across countries and may therefore be useful for obtaining qualitative and quantitative data from international studies and for adapting patient education and treatment.

Bilingualism, identity and social tolerance

This study examines the impact of bilingualism on identity and social tolerance among students of Tabriz University, accordingly the level of social tolerance is investigated among the students with different ethnic backgrounds. Every year many students from different ethnic backgrounds that have different maternal language from country's official language attend the University of Tabriz. This survey research was constructed among the male and female students in various areas in the 2011-2012 academic years. The sample size is 370, which were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Results show that bilingual students have flexible attitude towards groups, beliefs and acts, also those who are fluent in more than one language act better than monolingual people in social tolerance, coping skills and group identity. In other word, there is significant relation between coping skills, identity with bilingualism. Keywords: Bilingualism, language, group identity, social tolerance, coping skills

Cultural Transformation in the Lingua-didactical Dimension

The concept of “culture” is viewed from a lingua-didactical position as transformation of cultural facts with original contours, specific content and distinctive features, such as: transformation of cultural facts relevant to the cultural approach to teaching foreign languages; transformation of cultural facts of the target language's country; transformation of students’ country cultural facts; transformation of the facts of two contacting cultures which are characteristic for the teaching of foreign social-bicultural competence. Relative-comparative analysis of cultural transformations is described as the teaching method for the formation of foreign language social-bicultural competence.

O ensino de Línguas Estrangeiras no Brasil: questões de ordem político-linguísticas

Currently, the debate about the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil runs two different paths: one methodological, guided by the applied linguistics; and one political, guided by what Haugen (1999) refers to as “applied sociolinguistics” or, more appropriately, Language Education Policy, as per Petitjean (2006). This paper proposes a brief discussion on political linguistic matters, such as the Brazilian Educational Legislation (LDB, 9394/96, law #11.161), recommendations (PCN), linguistic representations, and multilingualism (BEACCO; BYRAN, 2003). These matters underlie many of the problems in the country's foreign language teaching, even though they are purely conceived in a methodological framework, as exposed by Celani (1997), Campani (2006) and Leffa (1999). The arguments presented lead to a complementary analysis of the foreign language teaching problems and to a language perception, grounded on the foreign languages' social role.

VDub: Modifying Face Video of Actors for Plausible Visual Alignment to a Dubbed Audio Track

AbstractIn many countries, foreign movies and TV productions are dubbed, i.e., the original voice of an actor is replaced with a translation that is spoken by a dubbing actor in the country's own language. Dubbing is a complex process that requires specific translations and accurately timed recitations such that the new audio at least coarsely adheres to the mouth motion in the video. However, since the sequence of phonemes and visemes in the original and the dubbing language are different, the video‐to‐audio match is never perfect, which is a major source of visual discomfort. In this paper, we propose a system to alter the mouth motion of an actor in a video, so that it matches the new audio track. Our paper builds on high‐quality monocular capture of 3D facial performance, lighting and albedo of the dubbing and target actors, and uses audio analysis in combination with a space‐time retrieval method to synthesize a new photo‐realistically rendered and highly detailed 3D shape model of the mouth region to replace the target performance. We demonstrate plausible visual quality of our results compared to footage that has been professionally dubbed in the traditional way, both qualitatively and through a user study.

The Threat to Norwegian as an Academic Language

In 1991 Norwegian state institutions gained the option of introducing “performance salary” as part of local salary negotiations. One institute, in the humanities, began rewarding academic staff for their published books and articles. At the University of Oslo Institute of Philosophy in 1997, an author of a book published in Norwegian received a bonus of 7,000 NOK (ca. $1,100), while an author of a book published in English received a bonus of 15,000 NOK. An academic staff member who edited a scholarly book or professional journal in Norwegian received a bonus of 2,000 NOK. If the book or journal was published in the English language, the editor got a bonus of 5,000 NOK. The author of a doctoral thesis written in Norwegian received a bonus of 7,000 NOK, while an author of a doctoral thesis written in English received a bonus of 15,000 NOK. The author of an article in a professional, refereed journal received 1,000 NOK if the article was in Norwegian and 7,000 NOK if the article was in English. The presentation of this strategy before the Institute for Educational Research in 1997 produced protests among our academic staff. We saw the system as a danger both to our country's language and to a university's obligation to the rest of society. We saw it as a threat to democracy. Unfortunately, the case in point at the Institute of Philosophy began an ongoing policy trend.

Perspectives on Identity and Acculturation of Immigrants in Europe

Migration has always played a requisite role in the history of mankind. At present the intensity and frequency of cross-border mobility are much higher than in previous decades. In addition, many citizens are children of foreigners and belong to the so called second generation of immigrants, these people belonging to two different cultures. The second generation of immigrants is raised and educated in accordance with the value system of their parents‟ country of origin. Outside the home, they familiarize themselves with the national society‟s value system, while the kind of neighbourhood in which they live may be more or less encouraging. Cultural assimilation occurs when immigrants voluntarily adopt their new country's language and cultural practices to integrate into society and improve their chances of economic and social gain. Sociologists suggest that differences in cultural integration efforts matter less to the formation of acculturation preferences of the second generation. Somewhat surprisingly, the position of this growing segment of European societies is still underexplored, reasons for policy-makers concern. In this paper we are trying to reflect both the attitude of immigrants and that of European host countries towards integration and assimilation of new habits and cultures.