Fluent Speakers Research Articles

Language Contact, Language Ecology, and Intonational Variation in the Yami Community.

This study investigates socioprosodic variation in Yami, a moribund indigenous language under intense contact with Mandarin in Taiwan: 32 bilingual (Yami-dominant, balanced, Mandarin-dominant) and 5 Yami-monolingual participants were recruited. We used an Interactive Card Game to elicit semi-spontaneous speech for neutral questions (NQ), default declarative questions (DQ1), and declarative questions with lighter incredulity (DQ2). Results reveal that (1) yes/no question intonation in Yami is highly variable; (2) on a broad community level, the DQ1-DQ2 distinction is absent from Yami; and (3) there is prosodic hybridization and innovation in bilingual speech. In particular, we see significant differences in DQ1 and NQ productions, with DQ1s having a rising nuclear configuration, higher pitch level, and wider pitch span, while NQs are realized with a mid-level pattern, lower pitch level, and narrower pitch span. DQ2 utterances exhibited highly varied nuclear configuration patterns with no significant differences in either pitch level or pitch span in DQ1-DQ2 comparisons. Yet, there is evidence that a hybridized DQ2 has begun to be integrated into Yami among younger bilinguals, suggesting that present-day Yami is in flux and is undergoing restructuring.These intonational variations are not easily attributable to a weakened Yami identity. Rather, younger bilinguals, who are leading the change, are highly dedicated to cultural practices and show strong rootedness in their Indigenous identity. Seemingly, while these less fluent speakers no longer use Yami to fulfill their everyday communicative needs, they are leaning more on its socio-indexical functions to reflect their ethnocultural identity.

Language learning in transition: narrative case studies of two provincial Korean high school students

ABSTRACT What drives provincial students in Korea to choose a college in Seoul? What role does English language learning play in their choices? This study focuses on two young academic migrants to Seoul, Joon and Lynn, to explore how macrocultural phenomena shaped their psychology and contributed to their language education. Previous studies have focused on how the culture of English learning in Korea encourages study abroad. Less understood are nation-level migration trajectories and what drives this form of mobility. Participants’ narratives showed different values and opportunities assigned to different regions. ‘In-Seoul’ discourse and a sense of belonging in the imagined communities impacted their college choices and learning experiences. Both shared that their final goal of moving between regions was to expand their horizons: Joon perceived Seoul as a propitious place for his occupation, and Lynn saw it as an interim place where she could communicate freely with people from different cultural backgrounds. Joon showed voluntary alignment with the ideals sought by colleges in Seoul. Lynn negotiated her way into communities of fluent language speakers and academic pursuits within her major. This study shows how these migrants made sense of English language learning within their broader regional migration and learning experiences.

Difficulties in Speaking English among the EFL students in Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Speaking is a measure of linguistic ability and a fluent speaker is considered as a skilled language learner. In Kurdistan Region of Iraq -KRI, English is taught as a foreign language from elementary to university. However, Kurdish students, even university students, have challenges with speaking English and show their attitudes to speaking as one of the complex skills in language learning. This paper revealed that most learners have personal, linguistic, social, and environmental speaking challegnes. Lack of confidence, insufficient vocabulary, reluctance, nervousness while speaking, fear of making errors, lack of an appropriate setting to practice English, and lack of instructor enthusiasm were major problems of Kurdish students. This study looked at students' speech problems and their reasons. The researchers collected data from 12 second-year students in the National Institute of Technology, in sulaimaniyah city, as an example by adopting a semi-structured interview. The data were collected and analyzed in two significant categories: difficulties and reasons, with three subgroups. The research focused on psychological, social, environmental, interpersonal, and linguistic issues as challaenges of speaking difficulty, instructor and instruction, core curriculum, misuse of mother tongue, insufficient education, and classroom culture as causes of speaking inadequacy. The researchers recommend the development of a positive atmosphere, promoting knowledge acquisition, modifying teaching approaches, and rewriting courses.

Analysing the Use of some Morphological and Semantic Particles in the Krio Language in Kailahun District, Sierra Leone

The study dealt with comprehensive documentation of the language features of locative particles in the Krio Language in Kailahun District, a dominant non-native Krio area. The study examined specific language usage in space, synonymous with deictic features with respect to the speaker. The study used fluent and literate speakers of Krio, though few are non-native krio speakers. Based on the topic, the researcher considered personal experience in doing the research, including designing instruments such as desk-top research, use of the tape recorder, and corpus-based research. The findings revealed that locative nouns, locative particles, and locativized nouns exist in the Krio language and that such morphological and semantic features enhance comprehension, competence, and performance.

Gratitude in Foreign Language Learning

Studies on positive emotions in language learning have increased over the years. However, gratitude, a moral virtue, which may have a novel effect in learning a foreign language, remains underexplored in applied linguistics. This paper aims to know the antecedents of gratitude and its constructs in English as a foreign language context. Nineteen antecedents of gratitude were generated to create a survey questionnaire called Foreign Language Gratitude Scale, a 4-point Likert rating scale. An open-ended question was also added to gain qualitative data. Convenience sampling was used to collect data from 240 undergraduate students. Descriptive statistics results showed that the participants were very grateful in all situations in the survey, specifically for their improved outputs and the corrections initiated by their teachers. Further, principal component analysis was used to explore the underlying dimensions of gratitude. Two factors were elicited – positive reinforcement and language practice. The first factor includes the following grateful situations: encouraging students to do better, appreciating students’ output, correcting students’ mistakes, using media resources in learning, sharing practical knowledge, providing examples and practices, treating students equally, encouraging language activities, and managing classroom effectively. The grateful situations in the second factor are having fluent English speakers, doing productive activities, providing opportunities, sharing ideas, and having a better output. Other factors coded from the qualitative data include promoting collaborative work, gaining comprehension and knowledge, language success, encouraging productive activities, the teacher acts, and designing out-of-class activities. Finally, implications of results and suggestions for future studies were presented.

Validationof the Spanish version of the Sunnybrook facial grading system.

The Sunnybrook facial grading system (SFGS) is one of the most widely employed tools to assess facial function. The present study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the Spanish language version of the SFGS. Forward-backward translation from the original English version was performed by fluent speakers of English and Spanish. Videos from 65 patients with facial paralysis (FP) were evaluated twice by five otolaryngologists with experience in FP evaluation. Internal consistency and intra- and inter-rater reliability were assessed. The House-Brackmann scale was used to display concurrent validity which was established by Spearman's rho correlation. The Cronbach's α score exceeded 0.70. The intra-rater intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was nearly perfect for the composite score (0.96-0.99), voluntary movements (0.97-0.99), and synkinesis (0.91-0.98), and important to almost perfect for symmetry at rest (0.79-0.97). In both evaluations, the inter-rater ICC was higher than 0.90 for the composite score (0.92-0.96) and voluntary movements (0.91-0.96) and slightly lower for symmetry at rest (0.66-0.85) and synkinesis (0.72-0.87). A strong negative correlation was found between the H-B scale and SFGS (Spearman's rho coefficient = -0.92, p < 0.001) in both evaluations. The Spanish version of the SFGS is a reliable and valuable instrument for the assessment of facial function in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with FP.

The Realization of Formulaic Competence in the Classroom Interactions among Learners in Kampung Inggris Pare

A critical component in communicative competence is formulaic competence, enabling learners to create natural and fluent spoken and written texts. This competence refers to recurrent fixed expressions used by native speakers to communicate in daily life, such as collocations, idioms, lexical bundles, and insert/routines. This study aimed to investigate the formulaic expression by exposing Celce-Murcia (2007) and Biber et al.'s (1999) theory in the classroom interactions among learners in Kampung Inggris Pare. In addition, it used Lennon's (1990) theory to investigate the influence of formulaic language on the learners' fluency. A qualitative approach, exposing conversational analysis, was adopted to analyze the gathered data to fulfill the research objectives. The data were collected by observing the learners' interactions, including recording during the conversation. Thus, the current study reveals that Kampung Inggris, Pare learners produced all types of formulaic expressions. However, due to a lack of collocational awareness, they made simple combinations and tended to avoid more complex words with more than two particles. In addition, the learners who produced many formulaic expressions have high exclusive rates implying that the more formulaic expressions are used, the higher the fluency level will be obtained.

Development of the use of discourse markers across different fluency levels of CEFR

AbstractFluent L2 English speakers frequently use discourse markers (DMs) as a speech management strategy, but research has largely ignored how this develops across different proficiency levels and how it is related to immersive experiences. This study examines the developmental patterns of three DMs –well,you knowandlike – in the speech of learners at A2-C1 in CEFR with and without immersive experiences in target language environments. The fluency-rated LINDSEI corpus (173 learners) and a parallel native corpus (50 speakers) provided approximately 350,000 tokens and 3,395 instances of the analyzed DMs. Overall, DM frequency (especially withwellandyou know) among C1 speakers increases with rising fluency levels up to almost native-like levels. Immersive experience correlates positively with overall and individual DM frequency (except forlike). As the skillful use of DMs results in more fluent speech production, the didactic implications for L2 instructors should be developed.

QOL-21. Language development and outcomes in pediatric brain tumor

Abstract RATIONALE: Pediatric brain tumor (PBT) survivors are at risk for speech (e.g., articulation, prosody, fluency) and language (e.g., vocabulary, grammar, narratives, pragmatics) difficulties, though group outcomes vary with study design and individual risk factors (Hodges et al 2020). This study characterizes language functioning for clinically referred PBT survivors diagnosed in early childhood, a time of rapid language development and vulnerability. METHODS: Participants were 98 PBT patients (56 supratentorial) diagnosed by age 6 (M = 43.8 months, SD 24.4) who received tumor-directed intervention (surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation). Age at neuropsychological evaluation (2019 – 2022) was 2-19 years (M = 9.1, SD 4.1). Patients were 56% male, 73.5% White, and fluent English speakers. Verbal IQ, naming, working memory, fluency, comprehension, syntactic and phonological processing, and parent-reported functional communication outcomes were assessed. Rates of weak performance (1 SD&amp;lt;Mean) were compared to the expected base rate of 16%. RESULTS: Group means significantly diverged from age-expected performance in all domains except fluency. IQ correlated with most language measures, age at diagnosis (r .280, p .010), and time from diagnosis (r -.276, p .012). Weakness was identified on at least 1 verbal subtests for 71.4% of the full sample and most (57%) patients with IQ&amp;gt;84. Patients with NF1 (n=15) or treatment-related hearing concerns had lower reported functional communication. Naming difficulty was associated with supratentorial tumors; there were no other significant differences by tumor type or location. While functional communication correlated with several measures, weaknesses on performance-based and parent-report measures only corresponded for 44.6% of the sample. CONCLUSIONS: Language weaknesses are prevalent following early childhood PBT diagnosis. IQ and functional communication measures are useful indicators of risk, but more detailed and higher-level language measures are needed, particularly for cognitively intact patients. Additional implications and research needs will be discussed.

El uso de gestos en la comunicación de sujetos con afasia

Background and objectiveMuch has been discussed about the use of gestures in aphasia. Mainly, studies have been focused on two aspects: (i)to stablish if gestures are employed normally in aphasia or if there is some loss in this capacity, and (ii)to determine if fluency plays a major role. However, in Spanish there are few researches which has tackle study about gestuality in aphasia and the two aspects mentioned before. For this reason, the aim of this study is analyzing the use of gestures in four aphasic-speakers to figure out if gestuality remains despite pathology, and determine what role plays the fluency in the use of gestures. Materials and methodsA descriptive-exploratory study of four subjects with aphasia has been carried out: two with fluent aphasia and two with non-fluent aphasia. A semi-structured interview was conducted with each subject in order to obtain a high participation rate. The type and amount of gestures used were evaluated from the theoretical proposals of Cosnier (1987) and Ekman (2004) mainly, and considering the fluency/non-fluency variable. ResultsBoth groups employ gestures, but non-fluent subjects use more gestures with a high semantic content and with no speech, meanwhile fluent speakers use less gestures and accompanied of speech. ConclusionsSpeech and gestures are two independent processes working in parallel, and gestures are utilized as compensatory strategies which help to speakers with aphasia to communicate despite loss of speech.

UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION STRATEGIES IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE SCHOOLS IN NORTHWEST AREA OF THE UNITED STATES

The expansion of globalization and the demand to establish one lingua franca for international communication has brought a significant impact on the decline of local languages around the globe. This issue calls for language revitalization programs so that all the Indigenous languages can be passed on to the younger generations. This small-sample-qualitative study describes the strategies used by Indigenous language schools in the Northwest area of the United States and further elaborating on the unique elements of those strategies. Five websites covering the information on Indigenous language school programs in Kalispell, Inchelium, Spokane, Browning, and Arlee were analyzed. In general, schools emphasize the relationality between elders, community, and educational institutions to preserve the language successfully. In addition, technology was utilized to help younger generations access materials more easily. This connection was built through creating listening materials by recording and transcribing the remaining fluent speakers, recording songs and lullabies, introducing Indigenous languages through storybooks, and launching mobile-friendly language apps.

Electrophysiological correlates of stuttering severity: An ERP study

Although a variety of theories have been proposed to explain the etiology of stuttering, the exact neurological origin of it is still uncertain. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between stuttering severity and ERP measures. The population of this study consisted of 12 adults with moderate, 12 adults with severe stuttering, and 12 fluent speakers as the control group. ERPs were recorded during an auditory task in which subjects should determine an oddball stimulus. The result of mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitude analysis revealed significant differences between severe stuttering and fluent speakers groups and between two stuttering groups. Moreover, the result showed significant differences between the three study groups for P300 amplitude. The findings of the present study suggest that the differences in ERP components are existed not only between people who stutter and fluent speakers but also between people with different levels of stuttering severity.

Problematizing Fluent Speakers’ Unintentional Exclusion of Emergent Bilinguals

In English-medium instruction (EMI) classrooms in Japan, less proficient English speakers are often marginalized, positioned as powerless, and quiet (e.g., Iino, 2019). This situation is problematic for inequitable access to activity and the possible consequences for their identity and emotional wellbeing. However, few studies have examined how exclusion is co- constructed in such a context. This study addresses that lack, illustrating how exclusion is co- constructed by shedding light on the microlevel social interactions in an EMI classroom. In the study, observation notes, students’ weekly journals, and interview data were gathered. The findings show that fast-paced interactions and some gestures made the emergent bilinguals hesitant to participate in the discussions. Also, a mismatch of expectations from both the emergent bilinguals and the fluent speakers suggested that the exclusion was unintentional. An analysis of the findings underscores how social interactions, if not sensitive enough towards less proficient speakers, may cause unintentional exclusion and inflict emotional harm in the classroom.

Linguistic characteristics of different types of aphasia: A computer-assisted qualitative analysis using T-LAB

Aphasic disorders are observed in patients with both vascular and neurodegenerative pathology. Although spontaneous speech in the various forms of aphasia has some features that are identifiable on a purely linguistic level, diagnosing the type of aphasia critically relies on the support of clinical and neuroimaging data. To identify some core characteristics of different types of fluent aphasias (i.e., disorders of speech production due to lesions in the posterior regions of the left perisylvian areas not associated with articulatory deficits or apraxia of speech) in spontaneous speech using T-LAB computer-assisted qualitative analyses. This is a mixed-method software that allows exploring narratives by highlighting their key features using linguistic, statistical and graphical tools. We collected samples of spontaneous speech (narratives) from 34 fluent aphasic Italian speakers (i.e.,11 post-stroke aphasic patients, 17 with the logopenic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia and 6 with the semantic variant) during the description of the Cookie Theft Picture of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. Thirty-four healthy control subjects were asked to complete the same task. Analyses of the entire corpus (all of the narratives), specific metadata introduction and tagging were performed by two raters and any conflicts were resolved by a third rater. T-LAB analysis revealed statistically significant differences between both aphasic patients and healthy controls and between vascular and degenerative patients. Although the main distinction emerged between post-stroke and neurodegenerative aphasias, important differences also emerged between the individuals with the logopenic variant and the semantic variant. These findings underline the potential usefulness of a computer-assisted analysis of speech production to identify the core linguistic characteristics of different aphasic disorders, independently of any clinical support.

"Expert musical improvisations contain sequencing biases seen in language production": Correction to Beaty et al. (2021).

Reports an error in "Expert musical improvisations contain sequencing biases seen in language production" by Roger E. Beaty, Klaus Frieler, Martin Norgaard, Hannah M. Merseal, Maryellen C. MacDonald and Daniel J. Weiss (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2022[Apr], Vol 151[4], 912-920). In the article, the supplemental materials link on the first page of the article should not appear, as the supplemental materials are available only via the Open Science Framework link that is noted at the end of the first paragraph of the Method section. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2022-07928-001.) Language production involves action sequencing to produce fluent speech in real time, placing a computational burden on working memory that leads to sequencing biases in production. Here we examine whether these biases extend beyond language to constrain one of the most complex human behaviors: music improvisation. Using a large corpus of improvised solos from eminent jazz musicians, we test for a production bias observed in language termed easy first-a tendency for more accessible sequences to occur at the beginning of a phrase, allowing incremental planning later in the same phrase. Our analysis shows consistent evidence of easy first in improvised music, with the beginning of musical phrases containing both more frequent and less complex sequences. The findings indicate that expert jazz musicians, known for spontaneous creative performance, reliably retrieve easily accessed melodic sequences before creating more complex sequences, suggesting that a domain-general sequencing system may support multiple forms of complex human behavior, from language production to music improvisation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Implementation of The Public Speaking Program in The Training of Speech Skills Among Students at Modern Boarding School Tukung Lumajang for The Year 2020

This speech Program is an activity that attracts, pleases, and motivates female students to practice speaking skills. As said by Thoriq Muhammad al-Suwaidan, speech is a speech that stretches, where a fluent speaker speaks to a group of people to convince them. The speech Program at the Modern Boarding School Tekung Lumajang in 2020 has a particular goal: female students write the khitobah text before the speech is given. The formulation of the problem of this thesis is how the process of implementing the speech program in training skills in female students at the Modern Boarding School Tekung Lumajang in 2020, the motivating and inhibiting factors of the speech program in training skills in female students at the Modern Boarding School Tekung Lumajang in 2020. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the process of implementing the speech program in training skills in female students at the Modern Boarding School Tekung Lumajang in 2020, to tell the motivating and inhibiting factors of the speech program in training skills in female students at the Modern Boarding School Tekung Lumajang in 2020. Researchers use qualitative research, and the type of research in this study is descriptive. The data collection methods are interview, observation/observation, and documentation. The results of this study showed that the implementation of khitobah activities on female students at Modern Boarding School Tekung Lumajang in training speaking skills is good. Female students use the method of memorizing the text. That is, female students make text then corrected by ustadzah. After the text is fixed, santri memorizes and then displays it. The material in the speech program is all from the Yellow Book. And the media used in speech programs are pulpit and microphone. And as the supporting factors in the speech program are knowing grammar in general (nahwu and sharraf), female students learn Arabic conversation and memorize mufrodat, madrasah diniyyah. And as the inhibiting factors in the speech program are the lack of ustadzah ability in speaking skills, boarding schools do not apply the language environment, the lack of knowledge of female students in vocabulary, and differences in the ability of female students in grammar, lack of time.&#x0D; هذا برنامج الخطابة هي أنشطة جذابة و فرحة و حثة على الطالبات في تدريب مهارة الكلام كما قال طارق محمد السويدان الخطابة في اللغة هي الكلام المنثور، يخاطب به متكلم فصيح جمعا من الناس لإقناعهم. وبرنامج الخطابة بمعهد الخلافية تكونج لوماجانج للسنة 2020 لها الهدف الفريد وهو تكتب الطالبات نسخة الخطابة قبل إلقائها. الأسئلة التي تقدمها الباحثة في هذا البحث العلمي هي كيف تنفيذ برنامج الخطابة في تدريب مهارة الكلام لدى الطالبات بمعهد الخلافية تكونج لوماجانج للسنة 2020م؟، مالعوامل الدافعة والعائقة في تنفيذ برنامج الخطابة في تدريب مهارة الكلام لدى الطالبات بمعهد الخلافية تكونج لوماجانج للسنة 2020م. ويهدف هذا البحث العلمي لوصف تنفيذ برنامج الخطابة في تدريب مهارة الكلام لدى الطالبات بمعهد الخلافية تكونج لوماجانج للسنة 2020م. ولوصف العوامل الدافعة والعائقة في تنفيذ برنامج الخطابة في تدريب مهارة الكلام لدى الطالبات بمعهد الخلافية تكونج لوماجانج للسنة 2020م. استخدمت الباحثة المدخل البحث الكيفي ونوع البحث في هذا بحث هو الوصفي. أما الطريقة التي قدمت الباحثة لجمع البيانات فهي طريقة الملاحظة و طريقة المقابلة و طريقة الوثائقية. ونتائج البحث تدل على أن تنفيذ برنامج الخطابة لدى الطالبات في معهد الخلافية تكونج لوماجانج لتدربات الطالبات في مهارة الكلام قد جيدة. تستخدم الطالبات بطريقة حفظ النسخة وهي تكتب الطالبات النسخة الخطابة وتصحيحها المعلمات ثم يحفظن النسخة قبل إلقاء الخطابة. وأما مواد فهي كل من الكتب السلفية. و أما الوسائل المستخدمة فهي منبر ومكبر الصوت.أما العوامل الدافعة فهي معرفة القواعد العامة (النحوية و الصرفية) و تتعلم طالبات المحادثة وحفظ المفردات و مدرسة الدينية. وأما العوامل العائقة فهي قلة قدرة المعلمات في مهارة الكلام ولا ينفذ معهد البيئة اللغة وقلة قدرة الطالبات في المفردات واختلافة قدرة الطالبات في القواعد وقلة الزمان.

A systematic review: Male engagement in adolescent and young adults’ sexual and reproductive health in the Americas

Progress towards sexual and reproductive health (SRH) goals for adolescents across the Americas has stagnated. Of all the regions worldwide, Latin America has experienced the slowest decline in adolescent fertility rates. Reports published by the United Nations and multiple nongovernmental organizations demonstrate a growing consensus for a masculinities framework that engages men and boys in public health and social change. Male engagement acts as a complement - and not a replacement - of current SRH. Emerging evidence indicates that Coronavirus disease in 2019 has worsened SRH outcomes, especially related to gender-based violence; new evidence-based interventions are ever more urgent. This systematic review includes a focus on education-based male engagement, a special consideration of gender equity, and systematic searches by fluent speakers in three most populous languages in the Americas (English, Spanish, and Portuguese). PubMed, EBSCO, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar databases were digitally searched. Publications were excluded if their focus did not align directly with sexual reproductive health, their location was outside the scope of study, its content derived from information collected before 2010, or its study’s population’s age of focus was not between 15-24 years of age. After abstract screening and full-text review, the original 10,721 articles identified were narrowed down to 13 articles whose references were further examined through hand searching, leading us to a total of 32 final articles chosen for analysis. The results were classified by geographic regions of the American continent. The literature emphasized that society often defines masculinity as a hegemonic role grounded in aggressive high-risk sexual behavior. Adolescent males internalize this and hold their peers to these expectations. These beliefs have detrimental SRH consequences that have yet to be fully understood among adolescent boys and males. The efficacy of future interventions will depend on further exploration of these topics, especially among minority populations.

Expert musical improvisations contain sequencing biases seen in language production.

Language production involves action sequencing to produce fluent speech in real time, placing a computational burden on working memory that leads to sequencing biases in production. Here we examine whether these biases extend beyond language to constrain one of the most complex human behaviors: music improvisation. Using a large corpus of improvised solos from eminent jazz musicians, we test for a production bias observed in language termed easy first-a tendency for more accessible sequences to occur at the beginning of a phrase, allowing incremental planning later in the same phrase. Our analysis shows consistent evidence of easy first in improvised music, with the beginning of musical phrases containing both more frequent and less complex sequences. The findings indicate that expert jazz musicians, known for spontaneous creative performance, reliably retrieve easily accessed melodic sequences before creating more complex sequences, suggesting that a domain-general sequencing system may support multiple forms of complex human behavior, from language production to music improvisation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Structural brain network topological alterations in stuttering adults.

Persistent developmental stuttering is a speech disorder that primarily affects normal speech fluency but encompasses a complex set of symptoms ranging from reduced sensorimotor integration to socioemotional challenges. Here, we investigated the whole-brain structural connectome and its topological alterations in adults who stutter. Diffusion-weighted imaging data of 33 subjects (13 adults who stutter and 20 fluent speakers) were obtained along with a stuttering severity evaluation. The structural brain network properties were analysed using network-based statistics and graph theoretical measures particularly focussing on community structure, network hubs and controllability. Bayesian power estimation was used to assess the reliability of the structural connectivity differences by examining the effect size. The analysis revealed reliable and wide-spread decreases in connectivity for adults who stutter in regions associated with sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional and memory-related functions. The community detection algorithms revealed different subnetworks for fluent speakers and adults who stutter, indicating considerable network adaptation in adults who stutter. Average and modal controllability differed between groups in a subnetwork encompassing frontal brain regions and parts of the basal ganglia. The results revealed extensive structural network alterations and substantial adaptation in neural architecture in adults who stutter well beyond the sensorimotor network. These findings highlight the impact of the neurodevelopmental effects of persistent stuttering on neural organization and the importance of examining the full structural connectome and the network alterations that underscore the behavioural phenotype.

Passing the Frontier

Passing the Frontier Laura Da' (bio) Terra Esonis Incognita is a phrase used in cartography to indicate an unknown or imagined world. The etymology can break down in a few ways: Land, Secret, Unknown; Mythical Hidden Land; Clouds on the Border Land; Across the Border There Is No Life. In 1887 the Dawes Severalty Act was passed under the presidency of Grover Cleveland as: "An act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for Other Purposes." In a Commissioner of Indian Affairs report from the Secretary of the Interior, it is encouraged that Natives who resisted allotment or left their reservations should be, "harassed and scourged without intermission" and made "as comfortable on" and "uncomfortable off" as conceivable. At the end of the report, a loose accounting of the numbers of Indigenous people is divided into the following categories: Civilized, Semi-Civilized, Wholly Barbarous. Allotment promised each head of family a grant of 160 acres to be held in trust by the US government for 25 years. Agents were encouraged to urge allotments upon the tribes in any and every way possible. All around northeastern Indian Territory, registration for allotments was held out of the back of a railroad caboose. Obvious drivers of allotment included assimilation, white settlement, and resource extraction. Deeper in the dark river of the ink is permanent erasure of tribal lives and life: "It seems to me this is a self-acting machine that we have set going, and if we only run it on the track, it will work itself [End Page 79] all out, and all these difficulties that have troubled my friend will pass away like snow in the spring time, and we will never know when they go, we will only know they are gone." So wrote Henry Laurens Dawes, Massachusetts senator, about his eponymous act. Dawes was also an early proponent of national parks and was instrumental in having Yellowstone surveyed and appropriated. The removal of sacred sites was a paramount consideration to the success of the endeavor of allotment. In 1889, Congress opened seized land in Indian Territory for white settlement. The land runs thundered. Many of the settler towns created in the land runs are ghost towns now. Timber, railroads, and mining leaving a host of cavernous emptiness in their wake. What is a ghost town in a nation whose settlements, roads, and parks are directly superimposed over Indigenous cities, trails, and sacred sites? In America, the symbolic magic word for erasure is "first." I am weary of tasting the words as they leave my mouth. Turning frontiers of civilized and city and reservation and graft and outcome. Hours of scanning documents from 1833 or 1912 to make cruelties of syntax and word choice incriminate their drafters. An 1890s census report notes that all Shawnee Indians were fluent speakers of the language. The report itself was made possible by the Dawes Rolls that demanded each head of family be documented to receive an allotment. The rolls also tracked children and were instrumental in coercing families to cede their young to Indian boarding schools in the subsequent decades. Nine Indian bills became law in the 49th and 50th sessions of Congress: six railroad grants, the Dawes Act, and the Appropriation Act. Property is often defined as "objectified will" in these documents. The miles of railroad laid in that decade have not been exceeded since. The timber felled unimaginable. The invention of barbed wire was a boon for anyone with a taste for skin. Allotment was both the whip and the balm both delivered to the same hands. After the Dawes Act came the Curtis Act, which eliminated judicial and executive aspects of tribal government, and then the Burke Act, which cemented a hierarchical government control of Indigenous people on allotments. [End Page 80] Miami, Oklahoma, was plotted from land bought from Ottawa tribal members and aggressively mined for lead and zinc. Railroad lines cut through individual allotments of the Shawnee, Miami, and Quapaw, and each tribal member received about a dollar and a...