Group Of English Speakers Research Articles

Comparing OECD PISA Reading in English to Other Languages: Identifying Potential Sources of Non-Invariance

The use of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) across nations, cultures, and languages has been criticized. The key criticisms point to the linguistic and cultural biases potentially underlying the design of reading comprehension tests, raising doubts about the legitimacy of comparisons across economies. Our research focused on the type and magnitude of invariance or non-invariance in the PISA Reading Comprehension test by language, culture, and economic development relative to performance of the Australian English-speaking reference group used to develop the tests. Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis based on means and covariance structure (MACS) modeling was used to establish a dMACS effect size index for each economy for the degree of non-invariance. Only three wealthy, English-speaking countries had scalar invariance with Australia. Moderate or large effects were observed in just 31% of the comparisons. PISA index of economic, social and cultural status had a moderate inverse correlation with dMACS suggesting that socioeconomic resourcing of education played a significant role in measurement invariance, while educational practice and language factors seemed to play a further small role in non-invariance. Alternative approaches to reporting PISA results consistent with non-invariance are suggested.

The relationships between illness and treatment perceptions with adherence to diabetes self-care: A comparison between Arabic-speaking migrants and Caucasian English-speaking patients

AimsTo compare illness and treatment perceptions between Arabic-speaking immigrants and Caucasian English-speaking people with type 2 diabetes, and explore the relationships between these beliefs and adherence to self-care activities. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in healthcare settings with large Arabic populations in metropolitan and rural Victoria, Australia. Adherence to self-care activities, illness and treatment perceptions, and clinical data were recorded. Bivariate associations for continuous normally distributed variables were tested with Pearson's correlation. Non-parametric data were tested using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results701 participants were recruited; 392 Arabic-speaking participants (ASPs) and 309 English-speaking participants (ESPs). There were significant relationships between participants’ illness and treatment perceptions and adherence to diabetes self-care activities. ASPs’ negative beliefs about diabetes were strongly and significantly correlated with poorer adherence to diet recommendations, exercise, blood glucose testing and foot care. ASPs were significantly less adherent to all aspects of diabetes self-care compared with ESPs: dietary behaviours (P=<0.01; 95% confidence interval (CI)=−1.17, −0.84), exercise and physical activity (P=<0.001, 95% CI −1.14, −0.61), blood glucose testing (P=<0.001) and foot-care (P=<0.001). 52.8% of ASPs were sceptical about prescribed diabetes treatment compared with only 11.2% of the ESPs. 88.3% of ASPs were non-adherent to prescribed medication, compared with 45.1% of ESPs. ConclusionsArabic-speaking migrants’ illness and treatment perceptions were significantly different from the English-speaking group. There is a pressing need to develop new innovative interventions that deliver much-needed improvements in adherence to self-care activities and key health outcomes.

Phonetic Training Significantly Mitigates the Stress ‘Deafness’ of French Speakers

&lt;p&gt;Stress ‘deafness’ refers to the inconsistent perception and/or processing of phonological stress by speakers of fixed stress languages such as French. This paper briefly reports on the results of a study in which French and English participants performed an ABX word stress task, similar to Dupoux et al.’s (1997) Experiment 1. One group of French and a group of English speakers received phonetic training designed to improve perception while two other groups of French and English speakers received no training. The training was an adaptation of the perceptual fading technique, which exposes listeners to stressed syllables that exaggerate the durational correlate of stress, then gradually reduces the durations of subsequent stressed syllables to increase participants’ overall ability to accurately perceive stressed syllables. The trained French group performed significantly better than the untrained group with fewer errors and lower response times. As expected there was no difference in accuracy between the trained and untrained English groups. We argue that by exaggerating the duration cue for stress, the phonetic training led to increased overall perception, perhaps even beginning to build an abstract phonological representation of stress that was then carried into the ABX task. Although trained on artificially manipulated stimuli, participants were able to perform well on naturally-produced novel stimuli.&lt;/p&gt;

Lalo Alcaraz: political humour across borders

Lalo Alcaraz’s work centres on the life of Latinos in the United States. The son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, he is well aware of the conflicts between Latinos and Anglos, the dominant English-speaking group, particularly in the domain of politics. Alcaraz is a Latino spokesperson, presenting the point of view of this segment of the American population and denouncing the incongruities and absurdities that it faces. His main target is politicians, even if others can also feel his barbs. Alcaraz is relentless in his criticism and has exposed the political motives for decades. His critiques are timeless, evident in the recent resurgence of his older cartoons and strips, highlighting the continued marginalisation suffered by Latinos. This paper looks at how Alcaraz uses bilingual and bicultural punning to present his case. Alcaraz is a master at double entendre and has an uncanny ability to encapsulate the problems while straddling two languages.

Cross-cultural rating of satisfaction with cancer care.

e17613 Background: Accurate evaluation of patient satisfaction is an important dimension of quality of cancer screening and treatment. We applied ordinal logistic regression to assess uniform, non-uniform and total Differential Item Functioning (DIF) for the Patient Satisfaction with Cancer-related Care (PSCC) measure items in English vs. Spanish speaking cancer patients. Methods: The sample included 18 to 86 years old patients who completed the PSCC in English (N = 1067; 82.5% female) and Spanish (N = 229; 100% female 100%). We used total scale score and latent satisfaction estimate separately as matching variable to assess uniform, non-uniform, and total DIF for the PSCC items using ordinal logistic regression analysis. We used language as the grouping variable, i.e., the English speaking group is the reference group and the Spanish speaking group the focal group. Results: Using the total scale score (TSS), we found uniform DIF for 10 out of 29 PSCC items. For example, item 1 showed uniform DIF (χ2 = 5....

Medicine‐taking experiences and associated factors: comparison between Arabic‐speaking and Caucasian English‐speaking patients with Type 2 diabetes

The aim of this study was to explore and compare medication-taking experiences and associated issues in Arabic-speaking and Caucasian English-speaking patients with Type 2 diabetes in Australia. Various healthcare settings in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, were purposefully selected to obtain a diverse group of participants with Type 2 diabetes. Recruitment occurred at diabetes outpatient clinics in two tertiary referral hospitals, six primary care practices and ten community centres. Face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews and group interviews were employed. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and coded thematically. Data collection continued until saturation was reached. In total, 100 participants were recruited into two groups: 60 were Arabic-speaking and 40 were Caucasian English-speaking. Both groups had similar demographic and clinical characteristics. Only 5% of the Arabic-speaking participants had well-controlled diabetes compared with 17.5% of the participants in the English-speaking group. Arabic-speaking participants actively changed medication regimens on their own without informing their healthcare professionals. Arabic-speaking patients had more knowledge gaps about their prescribed treatments, compared with the English-speaking group. Their use of diabetes medicines was heavily influenced by peers with diabetes and family members; conversely, they feared revealing their diagnosis within the wider Arabic community due to stigma and collective negative social labelling of diabetes. Confidence in non-Arabic-speaking healthcare providers was lacking. Findings yielded new insights into medication-taking practices and associated factors in Arabic-speaking patients with diabetes. It is vital that healthcare professionals working with Arabic-speaking patients adapt their treatment approaches to accommodate different beliefs and views about medicines.

Diabetes quality of life perception in a multiethnic population.

Aim The aim of this study was to determine ethnic differences and predictors of the perception of quality of life (QOL) in a multiethnic Malaysian population with type 2 diabetes.MethodsA population-based cross-sectional study was done in three different states in Malaysia. The Asian Diabetes Quality of Life (AsianDQOL) tool specific for type 2 diabetes is the primary outcome tool. One-way analysis of covariance was undertaken to examine ethnic differences on the total and component AsianDQOL scores controlling for important covariates. Stepwise multiple linear regression models were used for selecting predictors for the AsianDQOL score with stratification for ethnicity and language.ResultsA total of 647 subjects (338 Malays, 160 Chinese and 149 Indians) were recruited. Chinese scored significantly lower (78.1 ± 11.6) on the AsianDQOL (total) score compared to Malays (81.4 ± 9.0) and Indians (81.5 ± 9.2) (F = 3.060, p = 0.049, η 2 = 0.02). Likewise, Chinese scored significantly lower (21.0 ± 4.3) on the AsianDQOL (diet) score compared to Malays (22.8 ± 3.6) and Indians (22.5 ± 3.7) (F = 4.96, p = 0.008, η 2 = 0.04). The main predictors of AsianDQOL (total) score for the English language group of different ethnicities were sexual dysfunction (−4.5), having visual problems (−3.7), female (−2.8) and glycemic control (−1.6). Sexual dysfunction was negatively correlated with QOL in Malay, Chinese ethnic group and Indian ethnic groups.ConclusionThe perception of AsianDQOL is different across ethnic groups and languages spoken. Significant differences in the English-speaking group and the non-English-speaking group are detected within the same ethnicity. Sexual dysfunction severely impacts AsianDQOL in a multiethnic Asian population and remains an important determinant regardless of ethnicity and language.

The differential effects of direct and indirect speech on discourse comprehension in Dutch and English listeners with and without aphasia

Background: In a previous study, we demonstrated that narratives containing direct speech constructions were easier to comprehend than narratives with indirect speech constructions for Dutch listeners with and without aphasia. There were two possible explanations for this finding: either that direct speech has increased liveliness compared to indirect speech or that direct speech is less grammatically complex.Aims: This study aimed to provide further insight into the mechanisms underlying the differences between direct and indirect speech constructions on discourse comprehension in Dutch. More specifically, it aimed to examine the role that the grammatical characteristics of direct and indirect speech play in discourse comprehension success by comparing English- and Dutch-speaking individuals with and without aphasia.Methods & Procedures: An English version of the Dutch iPad-based Direct Speech Comprehension (DISCO) test was developed. Twenty individuals with aphasia and 19 neurologically healthy control participants were presented with spoken narratives that contained either direct or indirect speech constructions. Their performance was compared to that of the participants of the Dutch DISCO study. To assess the effect of language on performance, we conducted a single analysis in which we contrasted the English data with the Dutch data.Outcomes & Results: Control participants performed better than participants with aphasia; English-speaking participants performed worse than Dutch participants, and narratives containing direct speech were easier to comprehend than narratives with indirect speech constructions. However, a subsequent analysis including only individuals with aphasia showed that the Dutch group differed from the English-speaking group: direct speech was only beneficial for the Dutch participants with aphasia.Conclusions: This study expanded on the findings of a previous study, in which a facilitating effect of direct over indirect speech constructions for audiovisual discourse comprehension was found. The differential effects of direct speech on comprehension in Dutch and English showed that rather than one or other explanation being “correct”, both liveliness and grammatical characteristics play a role in discourse comprehension success. Grammatically less complex constructions (direct speech) are not necessarily always easier to comprehend than grammatically more complex constructions (indirect speech) for individuals with aphasia. In our study grammatically simple constructions introduced grammatical ambiguity and therefore possible interpretation difficulties for the English-speaking participants with aphasia.

Abstract A14: Colorectal cancer screening: Does racial/ethnic and language concordance matter?

Abstract Objectives: Asian-Americans are the only racial/ethnic population to experience cancer as the leading cause of death. Barriers to cancer screening among Asian-Americans have been widely studied; however, the importance of concordance that may link to health care disparities has yet to be studied in the Asian-American population. Racial/ethnic and language concordance is found to foster trust, communication and better patient-provider interaction, but whether it can also improve compliance of cancer screening guidelines remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine how physician racial/ethnic and language concordance may motivate colorectal cancer screening (CRS) using Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) among Korean Americans. Methods: This study used a prospective design with random sampling. Participants in this study were recruited through Korean community-based organizations. Presenters of the educational sessions were all male physicians and different in their race/ethnicity (Korean-American and White) and language capacity (Korean-speaking and English-speaking). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: the White physician, English speaking with an interpreter; Korean-American physician, English speaking with an interpreter, and Korean-American physician, Korean speaking. A culturally tailored presentation was given during the sessions. All three group educations were conducted concurrently in three separated rooms. Participants who agreed to participate in the study were asked to fill out a bilingual pre- and post-survey. Each participant was offered a no-cost FOBT kit at the end of the session, and had four weeks to mail back the FOBT kit. The two main independent variables were racial/ethnic and language concordances. Racial/ethnic concordance was determined by the presenter's race/ethnicity, while language concordance was determined by the use of an interpreter. The main dependent variable of interest was the return of FOBT kit. Results: Following the recommendation guideline for CRS, only participants who were older than 49 years old were included in the final data analysis. A total of 115 participants completed the pre and post surveys, and 78 (68%) met the age criterion. Of the 78 participants, 69% were female, 48% completed high school education and all of them were foreign-born. Only 40% reported having a regular place for health care and 39% reported having a primary care physician (PCP). Participants who had a regular place for health care were more likely to have a PCP than participants who didn't, 83% and 11% respectively (p &amp;lt; .0005). 63% of the participants returned their FOBT kit within 4 weeks. The Korean and Korean-speaking presenter groups had the highest return rate, 78%, compared to 63% for the Korean and English-speaking presenter groups and 52% for the White and English-speaking presenter groups. For race/ethnic concordance only, the return rate was 70% for Korean presenters and 52% for the White presenter; while for language concordance only, the return rate was 78% for Korean-speaking presenter and 52% for the English-speaking presenters. Conclusion: This preliminary study provides important information on how race/ethnic and language concordance might influence CRS behaviors. Although some studies show that interpreter use can overcome language barriers, our study shows that screening behavior was reduced among the non-Korean presenter and non-Korean speaking cohort. Therefore, while reduction in language barriers using interpreter may improve patient-provider communication, further larger scale studies are warranted to explore concordance and cancer screenings among race/ethnic minority groups. Citation Format: Karen Kim, Edwin Chandraskar, Michael Quinn, Helen Lam. Colorectal cancer screening: Does racial/ethnic and language concordance matter?. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A14. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-A14

The English version of the four-dimensional symptom questionnaire (4DSQ) measures the same as the original Dutch questionnaire: A validation study

Background: Translations of questionnaires need to be carefully validated to assure that the translation measures the same construct(s) as the original questionnaire. The four-dimensional symptom questionnaire (4DSQ) is a Dutch self-report questionnaire measuring distress, depression, anxiety and somatization.Objective: To evaluate the equivalence of the English version of the 4DSQ.Methods: 4DSQ data of English and Dutch speaking general practice attendees were analysed and compared. The English speaking group consisted of 205 attendees, aged 18–64 years, in general practice, in Canada whereas the Dutch group consisted of 302 general practice attendees in the Netherlands. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis was conducted using the Mantel–Haenszel method and ordinal logistic regression. Differential test functioning (DTF; i.e., the scale impact of DIF) was evaluated using linear regression analysis.Results: DIF was detected in 2/16 distress items, 2/6 depression items, 2/12 anxiety items, and 1/16 somatization items. With respect to mean scale scores, the impact of DIF on the scale level was negligible for all scales. On the anxiety scale DIF caused the English speaking patients with moderate to severe anxiety to score about one point lower than Dutch patients with the same anxiety level.Conclusion: The English 4DSQ measures the same constructs like the original Dutch 4DSQ. The distress, depression and somatization scales can employ the same cut-off points as the corresponding Dutch scales. However, cut-off points of the English 4DSQ anxiety scale should be lowered by one point to retain the same meaning as the Dutch anxiety cut-off points.

Experiences of self-management support from GPs among Australian ethnically diverse diabetes patients: A qualitative study

Ethnically diverse diabetes patients face significant challenges in diabetes self-management ranging from cultural expectations to inequalities in health care provision. This study explored the experiences of ethnically diverse patients with diabetes attending group diabetes education in receiving self-management support from GPs. An approach based on phenomenology was used to analyse participants’ experiences in self-management support across three group interviews comprising 28 Australian ethnically diverse diabetes patients: Arabic-speaking group (n = 11), English-speaking group (n = 9) and Vietnamese-speaking group (n = 8). Two themes emerged related to the poor quality of information to support self-management and challenges in negotiating traditional consultation styles. In particular, participants believed they knew more about diabetes self-management than their GPs but felt unable to influence consultation style and communicate their changing needs in self-management support. The health care and information needs of ethnically diverse patients continue to be marginalised within health systems. This small exploratory study highlights the need for further research to illuminate interactions between ethnically diverse diabetes patients and GPs in supporting long-term diabetes self-management.

Comparing personality structures from within the same language but different cultures

Development of the five factor model (FFM) was inspired by the lexical hypothesis, the idea that more important personality features are reflected in languages by correspondingly greater numbers of associated descriptors, especially adjectives. A recent large, cross-national study showed that while some lexical factors remain largely constant across languages, other lexical factors vary significantly (De Raad et al., 2010). One explanation for this is based on cultural differences in how people respond to personality scales (Heine & Buchtel, 2009). Culture often covaries with language, so previous research has systematically confounded language with culture. Consequently, this study is the first to examine personality descriptors using an English-speaking group (Australian Aboriginal peoples) whose culture is substantially different from that within which the FFM was developed, allowing examination of culture’s effect on personality description, within the same language.

Social strategy use and language learning contexts: A case study of Malayalee undergraduate students in India

Abstract This article reports on the social strategy use among India's Malayalee undergraduate students across eight university colleges in one university in Kerala State. The investigation examines social strategy use in three main language learning contexts (in class, on campus outside the classroom, and off campus) and explores the topic from structuralist and sociocultural perspectives. The study also investigates the interplay of stakeholders' desires and opportunities in conversational contexts, in which individuals and groups deployed social strategies and yet experienced their sociocultural positions being challenged. Data were collected through interviews and the Social Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SSILL), a questionnaire that was built on but expanded beyond the social strategies in Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Results indicate that although participating Malayalee undergraduate students seem highly motivated and fairly cooperative, they settled for less than optimal use of interactive social strategies, probably because their legitimate right to become proficient speakers of English continued to be hampered by language education policies. The situation is far more pervasive than what several previous studies of language learning strategies (LLS) had envisaged. These findings imply that there is an urgent need to socialize and acculturate the less proficient Malayalee students into English-speaking groups to make their transition from schools to colleges smoother and to give them more autonomy.

The impact of home language on the understanding of the vocabulary used in the South African version of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire Fifth Edition

The aim of this study was to investigate the understanding of the vocabulary used in the South African version of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire Fifth Edition by native English speakers and non-native English speakers. Two prominent studies investigated the impact of home language when using the earlier version, namely, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire South African 1992 version. Methodological suggestions following from these studies were implemented in this study and the results for the current version were compared to the findings of the earlier studies. The sample comprised 213 first-year university students from different faculties. Understanding of the vocabulary used was operationalised as the ability to provide synonyms for words used in the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire Fifth Edition. The number of correct responses to each word was reported in frequency tables for each language group and Chi-square analyses provided support for these findings. The average percentage of correct responses was calculated to allow for comparisons. The native English-speaking group performed moderately better. The non-native English-speaking respondents nevertheless performed notably higher in this study when compared to earlier studies. This was attributed partly to the changes in the design of this study. Further comparison between the language groups in this study was done using an independent samples t-test. The mean score obtained by each language group was relatively high, but a significant difference between the groups suggested greater difficulty in understanding in the case of non-native English speakers. These findings were further informed by a preliminary investigation into the level of understanding of different population groups.

The English phonological awareness skills of 5;0–6;0-year-old Polish–English, Portuguese–English bilingual speakers and English monolingual children

Previous research on bilingual children's phonological awareness (PA) abilities is contradictory. Some studies suggest that bilinguals are advantaged compared to monolinguals, benefiting literacy acquisition. Other research indicates that any advantage in PA skills is transient, influenced by language learning context, proficiency in both languages, and the language pair being acquired. This study compared the English PA skills of two groups of bilingual children and a monolingual English-speaking group matched for age, gender, and social class. The 54 participants were 5 to 6 years old, in their first or second year of school. There were 18 children speaking Polish–English, 18 children speaking Portuguese–English and 18 English-speaking monolingual children. Their letter knowledge, syllable, onset–rime, and phoneme awareness were assessed using subtests from standardized assessments plus one task specifically designed for this study. Parents of bilingual children completed a questionnaire about their child's language background and language use. The three groups did not differ on tasks assessing syllable awareness, identification of word initial sounds or letter knowledge. The results of tasks assessing alliteration, rhyme, and phoneme awareness indicated that typically developing English-speaking monolingual children performed better than matched typically developing bilingual children. The monolinguals and the Polish-English bilinguals performed equally well on the rhyme detection task. The language use questionnaire responses provided insight into factors affecting the results. It was concluded that no bilingual advantage for PA was apparent in the bilingual populations studied. These results suggest that bilingual children are likely to initially find English literacy difficult.

Representation of linguistic information determines its susceptibility to memory interference.

We used the dual-task paradigm to infer how linguistic information is represented in the brain by indexing its susceptibility to retrieval interference. We measured recognition memory, in bilingual Chinese-English, and monolingual English speakers. Participants were visually presented with simplified Chinese characters under full attention, and later asked to recognize them while simultaneously engaging in distracting tasks that required either phonological or visuo-spatial processing of auditorily presented letters. Chinese speakers showed significantly greater memory interference from the visuo-spatial than phonological distracting task, a pattern that was not present in the English group. Such a pattern suggests that retrieval of simplified Chinese characters differentially requires visuo-spatial processing resources in Chinese speakers; these are compromised under dual-task conditions when such resources are otherwise engaged in a distracting task. In a secondary analysis, we showed the complementary pattern in a group of English speakers, whose memory for English words was disrupted to a greater degree from the phonological than visuo-spatial distracting task. Together, these results suggest the mode of representation of linguistic information can be indexed behaviorally by susceptibility to retrieval interference that occurs when representations overlap with resources required in a competing task.

A Meta-Analysis of Health Status, Health Behaviors, and Health Care Utilization Outcomes of the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program

IntroductionThe Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) is a community-based self-management education program designed to help participants gain confidence (self-efficacy) and skills to better manage their chronic conditions; it has been implemented worldwide. The objective of this meta-analysis was to quantitatively synthesize the results of CDSMP studies conducted in English-speaking countries to determine the program’s effects on health behaviors, physical and psychological health status, and health care utilization at 4 to 6 months and 9 to 12 months after baseline.MethodsWe searched 8 electronic databases to identify CDSMP-relevant literature published from January 1, 1999, through September 30, 2009; experts identified additional unpublished studies. We combined the results of all eligible studies to calculate pooled effect sizes. We included 23 studies. Eighteen studies presented data on small English-speaking groups; we conducted 1 meta-analysis on these studies and a separate analysis on results by other delivery modes.ResultsAmong health behaviors for small English-speaking groups, aerobic exercise, cognitive symptom management, and communication with physician improved significantly at 4- to 6-month follow-up; aerobic exercise and cognitive symptom management remained significantly improved at 9 to 12 months. Stretching/strengthening exercise improved significantly at 9 to 12 months. All measures of psychological health improved significantly at 4 to 6 months and 9 to 12 months. Energy, fatigue, and self-rated health showed small but significant improvements at 4 to 6 months but not at 9 to 12 months. The only significant change in health care utilization was a small improvement in the number of hospitalization days or nights at 4 to 6 monthsConclusionSmall to moderate improvements in psychological health and selected health behaviors that remain after 12 months suggest that CDSMP delivered in small English-speaking groups produces health benefits for participants and would be a valuable part of comprehensive chronic disease management strategy.

The role of dynamic contrasts in the L2 acquisition of Spanish past tense morphology

This study examines the second language acquisition of Spanish past tense morphology by three groups of English speakers (beginners, intermediates and advanced). We adopt a novel methodological approach – combining oral corpus data with controlled experimental data – in order to provide new evidence on the validity of the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (LAH) in L2 Spanish. Data elicited through one comprehension and three oral tasks with varying degrees of experimental control show that the emergence of temporal markings is determined mainly by the dynamic/non-dynamic contrast (whether a verb is a state or an event) as beginner and intermediate speakers use Preterit with event verbs but Imperfect mainly with state verbs. One crucial finding is that although advanced learners use typical Preterit–telic associations in the least controlled oral tasks, as predicted by the LAH, this pattern is often reversed in tasks designed to include non-prototypical (and infrequent) form–meaning contexts. The results of the comprehension task also show that the Preterit-event and Imperfect-state associations observed in the production data determine the interpretation that learners assign to the Preterit and the Imperfect as well. These results show that beginner and intermediate learners treat event verbs (achievements, accomplishments and activities) in Spanish as a single class that they associate with Preterit morphology. We argue that dynamicity contrasts, and not telicity, affect learners’ use of past tense forms during early stages of acquisition.

Are English and Chinese Versions of the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life Equivalent? An Exploratory Study Based on the Universalist Approach

ObjectiveTo translate and culturally adapt the UK English Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQOL) into Chinese for Singapore. MethodsTranslation was integrated into investigation of conceptual, item, semantic, and operation equivalence. Conceptual equivalence, item equivalence, and operation equivalence were assessed by literature review, expert judgment, and cognitive debriefing. Semantic equivalence was studied by using an optimized procedure including forward and backward translation, clinician review, and cognitive debriefings. Cognitive debriefings were done with five Chinese-speaking diabetic patients at polyclinics. Reliability, responsiveness, and construct validity tests were used to evaluate measurement equivalence. English- and Chinese-speaking diabetic patients by convenient sampling at a Diabetes Society of Singapore's public event were recruited for the measurement equivalence study. Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-square tests, and descriptive analyses were used for group comparisons and Spearman's correlation coefficients for construct validity tests. ResultsForty-two English-speaking and 26 Chinese-speaking diabetic patients (45.5% females) with a mean age of 54.2 ± 10.07 years were recruited. Chinese-speaking respondents were more likely than the English-speaking group to be unemployed, less educated, and with poorer family functioning (P < 0.05). Conceptual equivalence, item equivalence, operation equivalence, and semantic equivalence were all demonstrated. Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency and intraclass correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability were 0.94 and 0.65, respectively. Distributions of responses were found to be similar except for some difference that can be justified by different demographic background. Convergent validity was suggested by weak to moderate correlations between “Present QOL” on the ADDQOL and EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (r = 0.268; P = 0.185) and six-dimensional health state short form (derived from short form 36 health survey) scores (r = 0.351; P = 0.078); divergent validity was shown by a weak correlation between ADDQOL average weighted impact (AWI) and ADDQOL “Present QOL” scores (r = 0.027, P = 0.896), a moderate correlation between ADDQOL AWI and six-dimensional health state short form (derived from short form 36 health survey) mental scores (r = 0.247; P = 0.224), and a positive correlation between ADDQOL AWI and family functioning scores (r = 0.288; P = 0.182). ConclusionsThe ADDQOL has been translated and culturally adapted successfully into a Chinese version for Singapore. Our study provides justification for further research with large sample sizes among the Chinese-speaking population in Singapore.

Comparing language experience and task demands in Mandarin tone processing: Neurophysiological evidence

Behavioral studies have suggested that speech discrimination can operate at the acoustic/phonetic level at relatively short interstimulus intervals (ISIs<500 ms) because the auditory trace is robust. However, with longer delays (>1500 ms) the short-term memory trace decays, and thus, discrimination must rely on the phonemic information stored in long-term memory (Werker & Logan, 1985). To study the neurophysiology of tone perception, native Mandarin and monolingual English speakers participated in a passive oddball paradigm designed to elicit mismatch negativity (MMN). Event-related potentials were recorded from 65 electrode sites. Two tone-contrast pairs (“easy”: tone 3-tone 1; “hard”: tone 3-tone 2) were presented in bisyllabic nonword contexts in short and long ISI conditions. It is found that Mandarin listeners have similar amplitude MMN evoked by the easy-tone and hard-tone contrasts at both ISIs. English listeners, in contrast, have larger amplitude MMNs to the hard-tone contrast only in the short ISI condition. Further, the English-speaking group also showed a larger N1 peak amplitude in the long ISI condition compared to the short ISI or to Mandarin listeners. The results suggest that language experience and task demands influence speech processing at both the lower sensory (indexed by N1) and higher cognitive (indexed by MMN) levels.