Equivalent Words Research Articles

Code-Switching as a tactical approach to enhance learner engagement with intricate concepts in oral english presentations

The South African English language curriculum states that by the time students reach Grade 7, they should have mastered certain English language skills that enable them to communicate effectively at both personal and educational levels. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the potential benefits of code-switching in improving students' oral participation in English classes. The study took place in a primary school in the Malamulele East circuit and involved all fifty Grade 7 students. The students' oral presentations were part of their formative assessment. Researchers used a rigorous methodology, including convenience sampling, to select participants, with the first ten girls and the first ten boys considered for the study. Data was collected during presentations, where each student had an opportunity to present. The qualitative method was used, with audio recordings and observations as data collection tools. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data collected from the Grade 7 students. Based on the students' performance in their oral presentations, code-switching seemed to help them to effectively communicate complex concepts in their primary language when there were no equivalent English words. The findings of this study showed that code-switching enhances students' oral communication skills and makes learning more enjoyable. students achieve their communication goals through code-switching, offering the audience a hopeful outlook on the potential benefits of this approach.

Developing and Validating Monosyllabic Speech Materials with Psychometric Homogeneity for Young Adult Turkish-Azeri Speakers in Iran and Compiling the Equivalent Word Lists

Background and Aim: For the Word Recognition Score (WRS) test, homogenous lists of words with similar difficulty levels are needed. This study aimed to develop and validate Turkish-Azeri monosyllabic words with phonetic balance and psychometric homogeneity for the WRS test in young adult Turkish-Azeri speakers in Iran and to compile four 25-item word lists. Methods: In this cross-sectional/comparative study, four lists of 25 monosyllabic words with phonetic balance were created by extracting common words from Turkish-Azeri dialects and assessing them in terms of ease of use, familiarity, and relevance. Then, the lists were tested on 40 young adult Azari speakers aged 18–25 years to determine the validity and reliability. Results: All four lists showed adequate face and content validity. Cronbach’s alpha and split-half values for all four lists were above 0.9, indicating acceptable internal consistency and reliability. Construct validity was confirmed the factor analysis with one-dimensional variance of 77.9%, 80.0%, 79.9%, and 88% for the word lists 1 to 4, respectively, and reported the single-factor solution of the index in all four lists. Also, test-retest reliability with a two-week interval with Pearson correlation coefficients of the lists were 0.94, 0.97, 0.97, and 0.96, respectively. Conclusion: The four developed Turkish-Azeri word lists have phonetic balance and psychometric homogeneity with a high level of validity and reliability, which makes them suitable for evaluating the recognition of monosyllabic words by young adults in hearing centers of Azeri cities in Iran. Keywords: Speech audiometry; speech discrimination test; Azeri; monosyllabic; validity and reliability; psychometric function

Discussion on Comparative Research and Teaching of the Adverbs Shizhong(始终),Zaowan (早晚),Chizao (迟早) for Vietnamese Students

Adverb“始终（shizhong）、早晚（zaowan）、迟早（chizao）” in Chinese and Vietnamese are equivalent compound words composed of two monosyllabic morphemes, and these two morphemes have opposite meanings. This article analyzes and compares three adverbs from two semantic and grammatical perspectives, conducts comparative analysis, and thereby finds the similarities and differences between these three words in Chinese and Vietnamese. At the same time, finding the causes and proposing teaching methods to solve the problem of Vietnamese students often misusing these words when learning Chinese in Vietnam. We have found very few studies on teaching and comparing adverbs in these two languages, so this article hopes to help Vietnamese students understand more deeply the characteristics of this group of words, as well as avoid misusing this group of words.

Learning Chinese as a Second Language: Implications of the Character-Word Dual Function Model

Learning new words is fundamental in both first and second-language reading. There are, however, divided opinions on the best instructional approaches. Two widely used approaches across languages are whole-word focus and word-constituent focus. The appropriateness of each approach has varied historically, even within a single language (e.g., the debate between whole-word instruction and phonics in English). In teaching Chinese, both approaches are applied but to different learner groups. Whole-word instruction predominates in teaching Chinese as a second language (L2), while instruction for Chinese children focuses more on character-level mappings. It may seem reasonable in L2 Chinese instructions to focus on direct mappings between Chinese words and their L1 equivalent words. However, this raises a question: Is whole-word instruction the most efficient approach in L2 Chinese instruction? Based on an analysis of the Chinese writing system, we proposed a Character-Word Dual Function model of Chinese and tested its application of a dual-focus approach on both characters and words in L2 Chinese classroom instruction. Empirical findings support the advantage of this new approach compared to conventional whole-word instruction. We discuss the alignment between our findings and the Unified Computational Model and its implications for word instruction across languages.

Critical Study of Islamic Educational Language In the Naquib Al – Attas Perspective

Linguistically, Islamic education has the equivalent of Arabic words in the form of tarbiyah, ta'lim, and ta'dib. After reviewing the meanings of the three languages, each of them has a characteristic that has consequences on different target fields. Tarbiyah is more directed to the physical- material aspect; ta'lim leads more to cognitive-intellectual aspects ; ta'dib is more directed towards moral-spiritual aspects. In the study of Naquib al-Attas, in fact the Arabic language which is more appropriate to be used as the equivalent of Islamic education is ta'dib, because ta'dib contains words that focus on the formation of a moral-affective domain, where it is the essence of the goals of Islamic education. However, the study of al-Attas was not automatically agreed upon by other Muslim scientists. Many of them are pro, but not a few contra. Ijtihad al-Attas about ta'dib, although it produced a monumental finding, tarbiyah is still popularly applied in pointing out the language of Islamic education.

Dissociating Cerebellar Regions Involved in Formulating and Articulating Words and Sentences.

We investigated which parts of the cerebellum are involved in formulating and articulating sentences using (i) a sentence production task that involved describing simple events in pictures; (ii) an auditory sentence repetition task involving the same sentence articulation but not sentence formulation; and (iii) an auditory sentence-to-picture matching task that involved the same pictorial events and no overt articulation. Activation for each of these tasks was compared to the equivalent word processing tasks: noun production, verb production, auditory noun repetition, and auditory noun-to-picture matching. We associate activation in bilateral cerebellum lobule VIIb with sequencing words into sentences because it increased for sentence production compared to all other conditions and was also activated by word production compared to word matching. We associate a paravermal part of right cerebellar lobule VIIIb with overt motor execution of speech, because activation was higher during (i) production and repetition of sentences compared to the corresponding noun conditions and (ii) noun and verb production compared to all matching tasks, with no activation relative to fixation during any silent (nonspeaking) matching task. We associate activation within right cerebellar Crus II with covert articulatory activity because it activated for (i) all speech production more than matching tasks and (ii) sentences compared to nouns during silent (nonspeaking) matching as well as sentence production and sentence repetition. Our study serendipitously segregated, for the first time, three distinct functional roles for the cerebellum in generic speech production, and it demonstrated how sentence production enhanced the demands on these cerebellar regions.

Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Women and Treatment of Mental Disorders in the Unani System of Medicine: An Overview

Background: The world miserably collapsed when the COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease) pandemic was going out of control. The ongoing crisis has damaging effects on the mental health of individuals, predominantly women, in both developed and developing countries. Women in developing countries, both as frontline workers and at home, are at increased risk of mental health problems (specifically mental disorders). A few observational studies related to the COVID- 19 pandemic have reported a higher prevalence of mental health problems like stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, fear, delirium, hysteria etc. among women compared to men. Thus, understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's mental health are as important to discuss as their physical health effects. Objective: The Unani System of Medicine (USM) has a holistic approach to preventing, treating, and curing mental disorders. The present article aimed to provide an overview of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's mental health and its containment measures described in classical Unani texts besides their relevance in the current outbreak. Materials and Methods: A manual literature survey of classical Unani literature such as Firdaus- al-hikmat, Al Qanoon-fit-tib, Zakheera Khwarzam Shahi, and Kamilus Sana was conducted to collect the information available on the strategic approaches of health promotion and disease prevention in Unani Medicine. To obtain the appropriate English equivalent words for Unani terms and the scientific name of the drugs, “Standard Unani Medical Terminology” and “Classification of Unani Drugs” were consulted, respectively. Many pharmacological books and papers were considered from PubMed, Google Scholar etc. Results: According to the literature review results, Unani doctors have pushed the adoption of personalised and predictive methods for preserving health and preventing diseases. The main focus is to treat the fragile population, i.e., women affected by mental illnesses. Conclusion: The present article emphasizes the mental health problems among women provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic, their possible etiopathogenesis, prevention, and psychological, regimental and pharmacological management of the USM.

Exploring the Efficiency of Associative Vocabulary Teaching Strategies to Foreign Language Learners

This study attempted to explore the effect of applying three associative vocabulary instruction strategies (context-based, morphemic analysis and concept map) compared with the traditional strategies on the intermediate EFL learners' vocabulary development employing a quasi-experimental, quantitative, pre-test/post-test design. With the aid of an English proficiency test and a researcher-developed vocabulary test the homogeneity of the participants were checked before the study's treatment. Subsequently, 80 intermediate EFL learners were chosen via convenience sampling procedure from private language schools and recruited for the study and divided into four groups of 20 as the experimental and control participants. The experimental participants were taught the target lexical items with the aid of contexts, concept maps and morphemic analyses while the control participants experienced the traditional instruction (i.e., L1 equivalent provision, word lists, flashcards and memorization). The same vocabulary test was administered this time as the post-test to check whether there was a significant difference in the learners’ attainment for the taught lexical items. The performance of the participants on the vocabulary post-test was analyzed both descriptively and inferentially (a MANOVA, an ANOVA and an independent-samples t-test). It was revealed that all the associative vocabulary teaching strategies were significantly more efficient than the traditional vocabulary teaching strategies. Moreover, it was found that concept mapping was the most efficient instructional strategy for teaching the lexical items compared with the traditional strategies and other associative strategies for the intermediate EFL learners.

An Analysis of Jargon used by Asian Comic Writers

This research aims to find out the jargon used by comic writers as a social group. This research was applying the qualitative descriptive method to collect data. The method used to analyze the meaning and function of jargon is descriptive analysis which is visible in each paragraph. Collecting data was carried out by finding out the jargon on Asian comics such as manga, manhwa, and manhua on the website. The results of this research show the meaning and function of jargon used by comic writers. Jargon is a variety of language which is used by certain social groups or professions and is not understood by other groups. Research regarding the use of jargon in Asian comics can be conclude that jargon is used by comic writers to describe their work. The jargon found is in the form of words, phrases, acronyms, and abbreviations. The function of jargon used by comic writers is to identify and describe the word. This research proves that the use of jargon is not only in other communities but also in the comic writing community. The weakness of this research is that some comics still use Chinese, Korean, and Japanese terms. This is because there are no equivalent English words that is suitable to describe it. The words are dantian, qi, and mana. Researcher hope this writing can be a reference for future researchers to do a researching in other aspects of comics relate with linguistics or language learning media. Keywords: Asian Comics, Comics Writer, Jargon, Language Variety, Sociolinguistic

Pengaruh Gairaigo Terhadap Lanskap Linguistik di Nishikasai, Tokyo

Linguistic landscape (LL) refers to the signs of linguistic objects located in public spaces as a place for human social interaction to perform a series of cultural activities. The linguistic landscape in Japan, in particular, on Nishikasai street, Tokyo, uses an absorption word called Gairaigo. This research focuses on the use of Gairaigo in the Japanese linguistic landscape, particularly in Nishikasai street, Tokyo. Through a qualitative method, the research data is drawn from the linguistic landscape along Nishikasai street, Tokyo. In the linguistic landscape of Nishikasai street, Tokyo, there are lexical semantic meanings connected with Gairaigo and there are shifts in the mention and selection of words even though the meaning and function are similar. On the other hand, the absorption of foreign language into Japanese was also found to have no change in word composition or meaning and function. The results of LL's research in Nishikasai, Tokyo showed that the criteria for the formation and use of gairaigo is based on the nuances of meaning contained in the foreign word cannot be represented by an equivalent word in Japanese; the foreign word used as Gairaigo is considered effective and efficient; and the foreign word, according to the sense of language, is considered to have good taste value, good, and harmonious as expressed by Sudjianto (2004).

Equivalent sentiment measures for cross-language analysis of corporate communications

This paper presents a technique for sentiment measurement in many languages. The method allows researchers to efficiently analyze corporate documents, management reports, and financial statements using python. When the texts are written in many languages, the method extracts equivalent cross-linguistic sentiment features that can be used for statistical analysis or machine learning. We use Open Multilingual WordNet, a large lexicon organizing words into semantic groups, as the knowledge base about word equivalence in more than 200 languages. We experiment with a parallel English-French corpus and find that our senitment measures across the two languages are comparable. The method produces a consistent classification of positive and negative texts in two languages, and sentiment measure values correlate. The paper provides a detailed account of the method and python code, So that it can be applied to other languages, text mining, quantitative communication studies, and management research.•Method to create equivalent sentiment measures in multiple languages•Based on established lexicons and WordNet•Validated for English and French

PROBLEMS OF TERMINOLOGY AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE (CASE STUDY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN)

Terminology and professional communication in post-Soviet states are analyzed, as exemplified by the Republic of Kazakhstan. An excursus into the history of linguistic development of Eurasia and Central Asia, achievements of Turkic and Iranian countries in compiling dictionaries, imperial and Soviet periods. The groundbreaking terminological works and dictionaries in the Kazakh SSR are presented. The founders of Kazakh linguistics considered the term as a means of scientific communication, transfer of complex thought, new information, elevation of human reason; the term should be created not from artificial symbols and obscured foreign language morphemes, but from the morphological material of national languages, taking into account the factors of the cultural code and continuity of the memory of the people. The principle of localization of terminology in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods of the Kazakh language was nearly inviolately observed. The methods of borrowing terminology in Kazakh rank as follows: calque (including explication and equivalent); internationalism-semicalque; hybridization of internationalisms with genuine native or deeply assimilated affixes; calque translation of abbreviations and acronyms; full transliteration/transcription. The lexicon of the Kazakh and Russian segments of the bilingual dictionary of military-aviation terminology was analyzed on the subject of original words and borrowings. 3223 (65 %) Russian words and 1751 (35 %) phonographic internationalisms were identified in the Russian segment of the dictionary against 4920 (82 %) Kazakh words and 1032 (17 %) internationalisms in Kazakh. The example comes to prove that the degree of forenization of the Russian terminology is significantly higher than that of the Kazakh one. Problems of the development of Kazakh science and professional communication sub-languages in high-tech areas (aviation) are constated. The main obstacle that calls into question the expediency of the korenization of professional communication is the limitation of the functioning of sub-languages by the borders of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There is also a problem with the selection of national equivalent words denoting new technologies or concepts; code switching in the communication of multilingual specialists; duration of standards development for terminology use and translation, their coordination with practice; high costs when introducing new terms and professional cliches, retraining personnel, changing documentation and information systems, etc.

TRANSLATION OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR OF FEAR IN ENGLISH INTO INDONESIAN AND TURKISH: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor is known to reflect the human’s thinking process. Thus, the translation of the conceptual metaphor itself is challenging due to its cultural-bounded lexical. This research compares the conceptual metaphor of fear in an English text and the translation in Indonesian and Turkish. The aim of the research is to show how a conceptual metaphor of fear in English is transferred to Indonesian and Turkish translation. The data was taken from an international bestseller novel, ‘The Kite Runner’, written by Khaled Hosseini, and the translation in Indonesian and Turkish. The equivalent word of fear that the writer used to find the conceptual metaphor is <em>ketakutan</em> in Indonesian and <em>korku</em> in Turkish. This paper is qualitative driven research conducting in-depth analysis from the data collected. As a result, seven conceptual metaphors of fear are found in the source text, namely FEAR IS SOUND, FEAR IS A VISIBLE OBJECT, FEAR IS HIDDEN ENEMY, FEAR IS PAIN, FEAR IS SUBSTANCE, FEAR IS BURDEN, and FEAR IS TASTE. In translation, it is revealed that some of the conceptual metaphors are translated faithfully for both languages, and some have undergone reconstruction to meet the target language criteria. This result shows that universal metaphor is applied in the languages, proving that the same metaphor can be transferred in the target languages. Moreover, this paper also shows that these three languages see the emotional concept of fear in a different way of thinking.

Censorship and Taboo Maintenance in L1 and LX Swearing

In this paper, we consider the censorship of public swear word usage as a function of, and continued maintenance of, taboo with a focus on L1 and LX swearing and its management. In research with multilingual speakers, first-language swear words are consistently perceived as more taboo, and thus more emotional/powerful than equivalent words from a second or third language. While the public use of English-language swear words may be subject to censorship in Anglophone contexts, it is not censored to the same extent in LX contexts. On the other hand, L1 swear words are censored. Such perceptions of differences in strength between one’s L1 and LX languages also seem to affect the work of language professionals: translators’ tendency to self-censor may at least in part be explained by this bias. The existence of a two-tier system of swearing and censorship serves to reinvigorate L1 swear words, while diminishing the power of English swear words. We thus examine how censorship works as a means of maintaining and/or attenuating taboo, potentially moderating the power of swearing itself in cross-linguistic and multilingual contexts.

Campur Kode dalam Lirik Lagu-Lagu Bagus Wirata: Kajian Sosiolinguistik

In recent years, the practice of code mixing in public communication in Bali has increased. Code mixing events can occur anytime and anywhere. One form of code mixing that has attracted attention is code mixing in pop song lyrics, especially Balinese pop songs. This is a concern in itself regarding the character of Balinese Pop songs, which were initially aimed at preserving Balinese art and culture, especially in terms of language, but have become something that seems to be forced solely for the sake of market demands. The formulation of the problem in this research is: 1) What is the form of code mixing in the lyrics of songs sung by Bagus Wirata 2) What factors encourage code mixing in the lyrics of songs sung by Bagus Wirata. The research approach used is an empirical method because the use of Balinese in the lyrics of Bagus Wirata's songs already exists naturally. The object of research in this research is the songs sung by singer Bagus Wirata. The data collection methods used were document study, observation and interviews.The research results are; 1. The form of code mixing in the lyrics of songs sung by Bagus Wirata is: The use of code mixing in the form of words is most often used in the lyrics of songs sung by Bagus Wirata with a total usage percentage of 63%. Code mixing in the form of clauses ranks second with a usage percentage of 19%. The remainder is code mixing in the form of phrases amounting to 13%, code mixing in the form of basters 3% and code mixing in the form of repeated words 2%. 2. Factors that encourage code mixing in the lyrics of songs sung by Bagus Wirata are; 1) language dominance, 2) language attitudes, 3) psycholinguistic motivation, 4) lack of equivalent words in Balinese, 5) commercial target market. 3. The impact of using code mixing on the Balinese language, namely; 1) destruction of the Balinese language system, 2) extinction of the Balinese language.

Two-Way Sign Language Translator for Visually Impaired People

Hearing disabilities affect people all over the world. Nearly 360 million people have a disabling hearing loss. In the recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of deaf and dumb victims due to birth defects, accidents and oral diseases. Since deaf and dumb people cannot communicate with a hearing person, they have to depend on some sort of visual communication. Sign Language is not understood by the majority of hearing people. The objective of our project is to form a bridge between the hearing-impaired community and the hearing community; to further commence a two-way communication. We propose a two-way sign language translator that converts Voice to sign language and vice versa in real time. We process the video frame by frame using the OpenCV Library in Python. Furthermore, we use background subtraction method called Gaussian Mixture-based Background/Foreground Segmentation Algorithm on each frame to subtract the background. Contours of this processed image are then passed into a Deep Neural Net (DNN) to classify the frame to the corresponding written language equivalent words. For conversion from sign language to voice, we use basic Natural Language Processing and gtts to accurately conserve the grammar in the sign language. The enrolment rate and literacy among the hearing-impaired children is far below the average for the population at large. This technology will then help the normal schools better integrate the hearing-impaired community thus making education more accessible and cheaper for them. Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) is a vital aspect of human-computer interaction and emotional intelligence applications. This SER that employs Mel- frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) as the basis for feature extraction, followed by a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with a customized architecture for emotion classification. The methodology 2 involves transforming audio samples into MFCC images, enabling the application of CNNs typically used in computer vision tasks. This fusion of traditional audio analysis with deep learning techniques harnesses the power of MFCC's spectral representation and CNN's spatial pattern recognition. By modifying the CNN architecture, the model can better discern emotional cues in the MFCC images, enhancing SER performance. This strategy offers SER a viable path forward, with the ability to identify complex emotional expressions. In order to increase the accuracy of emotion recognition, it tackles the requirement for feature-rich representations and sophisticated modelling techniques. KEYWORDS: OpenCV, DNN, SER, CNN, MFCC

Intertextualizing Interactive Texts for Teaching Synonyms Using Digital Platforms: An Experimental Study Engaging the First-Year Undergraduate Students

With Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) gaining greater attention in English Language Teaching, more emphasis has been given to teaching content-based vocabulary to students. However sufficient attention has not been given to widening the students' knowledge to make them learn synonyms (equivalent words). In this research, we explore the possibilities of teaching synonyms to First Year College students using Interactive Texts. This is done through the use of Mobiles and other classroom gadgets available. Interactive learning methods utilizing Interactive Texts actively engage the learner’s intellect and emotions by strengthening the connection to the content. Beyond the use of traditional textbooks and methods, this methodology includes a variety of tasks that promote engagement with printed materials, such as Directed Activities Related to Texts (DARTs), as well as mobile-based activities that improve students' reading and comprehension skills. This activity-based instruction introduces students to a variety of vocabulary. It enhances their word power by not only teaching them synonyms but also the application of the same in their real-life situations in the most appropriate way.

КОГНІТИВНИЙ СТИЛЬ ТЛУМАЧА ЯК ЧИННИК ВИБОРУ ПЕРЕКЛАДАЦЬКОЇ СТРАТЕГІЇ У ЦІЛЬОВОМУ ТЕКСТІ (НА ПРИКЛАДІ АНГЛО-УКРАЇНСЬКИХ ПЕРЕКЛАДІВ П'ЄСИ Б. ШОУ "ПІГМАЛІОН")

The article focuses on translator’s cognitive style as an important factor that determines translation strategies and techniques while rendering a source text into a target language. In particular, the study analyses and compares the cognitive styles of Oleksandr Mokrovolskyi and Mykola Pavlov, Ukrainian translators of the play ‘Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw. The relevance of the paper is stipulated by the need to provide theoretical justification for the differences in cognitive styles of the interpreters. The theoretical justification can help to explain interpreters’ successful or unsuccessful translation decisions. The results of the investigation can be used while rendering English texts into Ukrainian. The investigation is carried out using the method of contrastive analysis of the source and target texts as a main one. The comparison between O. Mokrovolskyi’s and M. Pavlov’s cognitive styles are drawn on the basis of the analysis of the translation strategies and techniques used by them while rendering cockney, a social dialect used by people from the East End of London; and interpreting associations of source precedent names and verbal poetic images in the target text. The article proves that translator’s cognitive style manifests itself in translation strategy of keeping or changing the stylistic tone of the original text. M. Pavlov uses stylistically marked vocabulary to render cockney and stylistically neutral lines more often than O. Mokrovolskyi does. The paper notes that the translator’s creative cognitive activity can also manifest itself in using the translation technique of so-called ‘explicative asymmetry’. The mentioned technique involves using target lexical units that are not considered to be equivalents for source words in order to reveal the author’s ideas better. It should be mentioned that the ‘explicative asymmetry’ technique usually causes conceptual shift. The investigation proves that while rendering English precedent names into Ukrainian M. Pavlov tends to use transformations that cause conceptual shift whereas O. Mokrovolskyi does not use the technique of explicative asymmetry very often. The author expresses the opinion that the technique of ‘explicative asymmetry’ helps to interpret associations of source precedent names in the target text. While rendering English idioms into Ukrainian both the translators use the ‘explicative asymmetry’ technique that causes conceptual shift to reveal the author’s ideas better.

English-Arabic Phonetic Dataset construction

In the field of natural language processing, the effectiveness of a semantic similarity task is significantly influenced by the presence of an extensive corpus. While numerous monolingual corpora exist, predominantly in English, the availability of multilingual resources remains quite restricted. In this study, we present a semi- automated framework designed for generating a multilingual phonetic English- Arabic corpus, specifically tailored for application in multilingual phonetically and semantic similarity tasks. The proposed model consists of four phases: data gathering, preprocessing and translation, extraction IPA representation, and manual correction. Four datasets were used one of them was constructed from many sources. A manual correction was used at all the levels of the system to produce a golden standard dataset. The final dataset was in the form (English Word, English Phonetic, equivalent Arabic Word, and Arabic Phonetic). Also, a deep learning approach was used for extracting International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) phonetic representation where the results for 13400 samples show that the Phonetic Error Rate (PER) and accuracy were 11.96% and 88.04 % respectively which are good results for producing IPA representation for unknown English and Arabic names.

Development of Singapore English speech audiometry test materials

Background Speech audiometry is utilised for diagnostic and rehabilitative purposes. Speech audiometry involves materials linguistic in nature. The ideal protocol is to have a tester who is a native or at least a fluent speaker of that language to conduct the test on a native listener. Except for a set of psychometrically equivalent word recordings that have yet to be validated, no other existing speech audiometry materials have been developed in Singapore English. Objective This study aims to develop and validate a local set of phonemically balanced English word lists for use on Singaporeans. Methods The first phase encompassed the development of spondaic and phonemically-balanced monosyllabic word lists for Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) and Word Recognition Score (WRS) testing. The second phase established perceptual equivalence across the monosyllabic word lists. The third phase encompassed the validation of these materials on 72 normal-hearing and hearing-impaired Singaporeans between 21 to 80 years old. Participants were tested with two spondaic and six monosyllabic word lists. Participants’ SRT and WRS values were analysed. Results The mean SRT and pure tone audiometry (PTA) average difference was 5.79 dB. All 43 normal-hearing participants achieved a maximum WRS of 100%, at an average presentation level of 28.1 dB above their PTA average. Test-retest analysis revealed clinically insignificant differences across all word lists. Conclusion The test materials are validated to be suitable for testing on Singaporean English speakers. Normative SRT and WRS data for Singaporeans have also been established.