Heritage Language Research Articles

“Not the Player nor the Coach”: Considerations for Peer-Tutor Education in Heritage Language Writing Centers

“Not the Player nor the Coach”: Considerations for Peer-Tutor Education in Heritage Language Writing Centers

Cognitive foundations of the formation of communicative competencies in the theory of dialogue

Abstract The study of cognitive mechanisms involved in the process of developing communicative competencies, particularly from the perspective of dialogue theory, is relevant and necessary to improve communicative activity and its effectiveness. The purpose of this research is to study the cognitive-communicative interaction in the process of dialogical communication and the cognitive conditionality of the development of communicative competencies. The methods of frame, cognitive and communicative analysis, and the analytical-synthetic method were used in the study. The main frame structures of dialogic speech were considered: using one frame and similar ways of verbalization, using one frame and different ways of verbal expression, and using two frames with different thematic or semantic content. The study examined cognitive-communicative interaction in dialogic communication and the cognitive basis for developing communicative competencies. Among the important conclusions is the discovery of three primary dialogical unity frame structures. It has been found that cognitive functions affect successful communication. The study demonstrated how cognitive-communicative interaction fosters the development of communicative competencies. It was also determined that dialogue structure relates to response shifts represented as interrelated frames. The study concludes that future research should focus on studying cognitions in communicative contexts and improving foreign language communication.

Methodological foundations for teaching students to use the WEATHER concept in the process of foreign language communication (by the example of a language university)

Methodological foundations for teaching students to use the WEATHER concept in the process of foreign language communication (by the example of a language university)

What Role Does the Heritage Language Play in Chinese Communities in UK?

This article examines the pivotal role of heritage language on Chinese diaspora communities in the UK, emphasizing its role in cultural transmission and identity formation. It emphasizes how community schools serve as essential platforms for heritage language education, enabling immigrant families to preserve their linguistic and cultural connections. The interplay between language learning and the socio-cultural environment is explored, revealing the challenges faced by learners and the significance of family education in this progress. Mastery of heritage language is shown to foster a sense of belonging and cultural pride, contributing to the construction of identities in a multicultural society. The article further discusses how heritage language education not only imparts linguistic skills but also installs cultural values and beliefs, reinforcing national identity among diaspora members. Ultimately, it underscores the transformative impact of heritage language on individual and collective identities, facilitating a deeper understanding of cultural nuances and promoting intercultural awareness within the diverse landscape of contemporary Britain.

Teachers’ Strategies for Improving ESL Learners’ Speaking Skills

The study examines the perception of Nepalese English teachers on the strategies employed to enhance ESL learners’ speaking skills. To gather insights and experiences, interviews were conducted with two secondary-level English teachers from schools in the Kathmandu valley. The findings reveals that creating a supporting learning environment and utilizing different teaching strategies, such as task-based learning and communicative language teaching are crucial for improving students’ speaking abilities. The study also highlights how socio-economic and cultural factors influence language learning, underscoring the need for the inclusive and equitable educational practices. Despite the study’s contributions to understanding effective ESL teaching practices and its practical implications for educators and policymaker, effective reading strategies are underestimated. The study emphasizes the importance of adopting effective teaching strategies and fostering supportive learning environments to enhance ESL learners’ speaking skills and confidence in using English.

ERG-AI: enhancing occupational ergonomics with uncertainty-aware ML and LLM feedback

Workers, especially those involved in jobs requiring extended standing or repetitive movements, often face significant health challenges due to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). To mitigate MSD risks, enhancing workplace ergonomics is vital, which includes forecasting long-term employee postures, educating workers about related occupational health risks, and offering relevant recommendations. However, research gaps remain, such as the lack of a sustainable AI/ML pipeline that combines sensor-based, uncertainty-aware posture prediction with large language models for natural language communication of occupational health risks and recommendations. We introduce ERG-AI, a machine learning pipeline designed to predict extended worker postures using data from multiple wearable sensors. Alongside providing posture prediction and uncertainty estimates, ERG-AI also provides personalized health risk assessments and recommendations by generating prompts based on its performance and prompting Large Language Model (LLM) APIs, like GPT-4, to obtain user-friendly output. We used the Digital Worker Goldicare dataset to assess ERG-AI, which includes data from 114 home care workers who wore five tri-axial accelerometers in various bodily positions for a cumulative 2913 hours. The evaluation focused on the quality of posture prediction under uncertainty, energy consumption and carbon footprint of ERG-AI and the effectiveness of personalized recommendations rendered in easy-to-understand language.

Unveiling the Veiled Threat: The Impact of Bots on COVID-19 Health Communication

This article presents the results of a comprehensive study examining the influence of bots on the dissemination of COVID-19 misinformation and negative vaccine stance on Twitter over a period of three years. The research employed a tripartite methodology: text classification, topic modeling, and network analysis to explore this phenomenon. Text classification, leveraging the Turku University FinBERT pre-trained embeddings model, differentiated between misinformation and vaccine stance detection. Bot-like Twitter accounts were identified using the Botometer software, and further analysis was implemented to distinguish COVID-19 specific bot accounts from regular bots. Network analysis illuminated the communication patterns of COVID-19 bots within retweet and mention networks. The findings reveal that these bots exhibit distinct characteristics and tactics that enable them to influence public discourse, particularly showing an increased activity in COVID-19-related conversations. Topic modeling analysis uncovers that COVID-19 bots predominantly focused on themes such as safety, political/conspiracy theories, and personal choice. The study highlights the critical need to develop effective strategies for detecting and countering bot influence. Essential actions include using clear and concise language in health communications, establishing strategic partnerships during crises, and ensuring the authenticity of user accounts on digital platforms. The findings underscore the pivotal role of bots in propagating misinformation related to COVID-19 and vaccines, highlighting the necessity of identifying and mitigating bot activities for effective intervention.

Maintenance of Lexical Pitch Accent in Heritage Lithuanian: A Study of Perception and Production

This study investigates how the unique circumstances of heritage language acquisition impact prosody, an understudied aspect of heritage speech. I examine the perception and production of lexical pitch accent by two generations of heritage Lithuanian speakers in Chicago (n = 13), with a qualitative comparison to one normative native speaker also living in Chicago. The speakers participated in the following: (1) a perception task requiring them to identify meaning distinctions between pairs of words that differ only by accent; and (2) a production task in which they produced sentences containing nine nominal declensions, where pitch accent plays a morphological role. In task (1), speakers across the board were not able to identify meaning distinctions in accent-based minimal pairs, irrespective of their frequency, and were more accurate at perceiving pairs that differed on the basis of segmental phonological features. However, HSs with more education perceived more accent-based distinctions, as did HSs who were more engaged in the Chicago community. Older HSs maintained more distinctions than either the NS or the younger HSs, which suggests a change in progress in the language or the Chicago Lithuanian community. In task (2), none of the speakers consistently used pitch to signal word-level prominence. Instead, all speakers relied on changes in duration and vowel quality to signal word-level prominence, suggesting that, for these speakers, there has been a shift to a stress-accent system. The older HSs was also patterned more like the NS in their retention of the expected stress in the nominal declensions. Dialect was also determined to play a role in the retention of standard accent patterns in both perception and production.

Empowering sign language communication: Integrating sentiment and semantics for facial expression synthesis

Translating written sentences from oral languages to a sequence of manual and non-manual gestures plays a crucial role in building a more inclusive society for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Facial expressions (non-manual), in particular, are responsible for encoding the grammar of the sentence to be spoken, applying punctuation, pronouns, or emphasizing signs. These non-manual gestures are closely related to the semantics of the sentence being spoken and also to the utterance of the speaker’s emotions. However, most Sign Language Production (SLP) approaches are centered on synthesizing manual gestures and do not focus on modeling the speaker’s expression. This paper introduces a new method focused in synthesizing facial expressions for sign language. Our goal is to improve sign language production by integrating sentiment information in facial expression generation. The approach leverages a sentence’s sentiment and semantic features to sample from a meaningful representation space, integrating the bias of the non-manual components into the sign language production process. To evaluate our method, we extend the Fréchet gesture distance (FGD) and propose a new metric called Fréchet Expression Distance (FED) and apply an extensive set of metrics to assess the quality of specific regions of the face. The experimental results showed that our method achieved state of the art, being superior to the competitors on How2Sign and PHOENIX14T datasets. Moreover, our architecture is based on a carefully designed graph pyramid that makes it simpler, easier to train, and capable of leveraging emotions to produce facial expressions. Our code and pretrained models will be available at: https://github.com/verlab/empowering-sign-language.

Lazy or Creative: Linguistic Behavior of Filipinos

This paper aims to explore the linguistic behavior of Filipinos through the lens of the pragmatic philosophy of language and the prototype theory of cognitive linguistics. It provides answers to whether Filipinos are linguistically lazy or linguistically creative. Surprisingly, Filipinos do not usually care about what a word or a concept is; they only care about how a word will be used in their daily lives. This research uses textual analysis methodology to provide possible explanations for the linguistic traits of Filipinos using philosophy and cognitive linguistics. In-depth analysis of the works of William James and Eleanor Rosch was done to answer the research problem. Pragmatism explains that Filipinos are genius communicators who prioritize the practical use of a word rather than its definite meaning, while prototype theory validates the wisdom of Filipino people in creating prototypes in language for easy communication. Therefore, this paper concludes that Filipinos are linguistically creative and not lazy.

Improving English Teaching Skills: An Online Course for Non-English Major Teachers in Southern Thailand’s Rural Primary Schools

The mixed-methods study addressed the needs and challenges faced by first-grade English teachers in rural primary schools in Southern Thailand (for example, lack of pedagogical training). The study’s primary objectives were to investigate these teachers’ needs and difficulties, develop a 15-hour online pedadgocial training course, and evaluate its effectiveness after the training was completed. The research involved 33 teachers and 153 students and employed various tools, including questionnaires, an online pedagogical training and language course, pre-and post-tests, and semi-structured interviews about the experience. The findings highlighted the importance of training in speaking, vocabulary, materials, games, and communicative language teaching (CLT) for these teachers. Statistically significant improvements (p < 0.001) were observed in post-test scores for both teachers and students, indicating the positive impact of the customized online training course on teachers’ English skills and teaching performance and improvement in student learning outcomes.

Decolonizing New Testament Translation in the Indian Context: John 10.1–18 in the Satya Veda Pusthakam

This article analyses NT translation in the Indian context with a focus on John 10.1–18 in the Satya Veda Pusthakam (SVP), a Malayalam version of the Bible. The colonial context in which this translation was produced is first outlined, showing how this context and its accompanying ideology shaped approaches to translation. This led to a translation that does not reflect the culture or language of subaltern communities, but reinforces dominant class ideology in its adoption of English and Sanskritized style. These issues are illustrated through a closer analysis of John 10.1–18 in the SVP. Finally, the essay explores the ways in which translation can enable communication between cultures, and argues for a decolonized approach to biblical translation in the Indian context. The challenge of decolonization might continue to reshape NT studies in India as the indigenous and subaltern communities get involved in Bible translation and interpretation of the text.

Teaching English for Tourism: A Case Study in Kosovo

This paper analyzes the necessity of teaching English for tourism in Kosovo. This study falls within the realm of applied linguistics, specifically in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Tourism undoubtedly stands as a vital pillar for a country's economy. The aim of this paper is to underscore the significance of teaching the English language to students specializing in Tourism, Hospitality, and Environment. English is widely recognized among scholars focusing on tourism as a facilitative tool that enhances the quality of services provided to foreign tourists. Individuals working in national, municipal tourism offices, or private business facilities involved in tourism activities are obligated, as per their job descriptions, to communicate effectively with guests—foreign tourists who come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Hence, mastery of the English language and proficient communication in English are essential factors in the field of tourism and hospitality. This paper aims to address the challenges of mastering English language skills and the importance of teaching English in the context of tourism and hospitality in Kosovo. The paper includes a research study conducted among students of the Department of Management in Tourism, Hospitality, and Environment (MTHE), emphasizing the relevance of the English language in this domain. The research methodology utilized in this study is both quantitative and qualitative, involving data collection through a questionnaire. The questionnaire results underscore the necessity of teaching English for tourism and the pivotal role of the English language in the entire industry.

Ethnic integration and evolution of the phonological features of Northern Standard Chinese Language

ABSTRACT: Ethnic integration is often accompanied by language contact and language shift. The process of "ethnic integration" is the process of "remolding" northern standard Chinese language into an inter-ethnic language and ultimately into a common national language. Only by reevaluating the phonological rules and structure of the languages (mainly Altaic) of northern non-Han ethnic groups and investigating the interference with and influence on Chinese during the language shift by the non-Han ethnic groups, can we comprehend that the common national language is a language community jointly shaped by the Han people and other ethnic groups during ethnic integration. The speakers of ethnic languages are, therefore, not only the transmitters but also the co-modelers in forming the common national language. 摘要: 民族融合往往伴随着语言接触和语言转换。"民族融合"的过程就是 将北方标准汉语"重塑"为族际共同语进而成为民族共同语的过程。 只有基于以阿尔泰语为主的北方诸民族语音系规则和音韵结构特征重 新思考并深入研究以阿尔泰为主的北方诸民族在转用汉语过程中对汉 语形成的干扰和影响，才能理解民族共同语是在民族融合过程中汉族 与其他民族共同塑造的语言共同体。在民族共同语形成的过程中，民 族语者不仅是民族共同语的传播者，也是民族共同语的共同塑造者。

Effects of Blended Learning on EFL College Students’ Oral Communicative Competence: A Critical Review of Studies

For EFL learners’ development of oral communication competence in English, computer-assisted instruction has become an indispensable model. In the face of the arrival of the information and intelligence era and the need for regular pandemic prevention and control, blended learning has become a normalized teaching approach. Although there have been some investigations of the effectiveness of blended learning in enhancing college EFL students’ English communication skills, a review article that synthesizes the findings of these studies deserves an urgent attention. Thus, the overall purpose of this research is to review previous studies that have examined the use of blended learning to improve college EFL students’ English communication skills. The anticipated outcomes of this research can uncover the potential benefits of utilizing blended learning for enhancing English oral communicative competence among college EFL students. This article can offer some critical perspectives, suggestions, and consequences concerning the integration of blended learning in the acquisition of English language communication competence among college EFL students.

A Photoelectrochemical Retinomorphic Synapse.

Reproducing human visual functions with artificial devices is a long-standing goal of the neuromorphic domain. However, emulating the chemical language communication of the visual system in fluids remains a grand challenge. Here, a "multi-color" hydrogel-based photoelectrochemical retinomorphic synapse is reported with unique chemical-ionic-electrical signaling in an aqueous electrolyte that enables, e.g., color perception and biomolecule-mediated synaptic plasticity. Based on the specific enzyme-catalyzed chromogenic reactions, three multifunctional colored hydrogels are developed, which can not only synergize with the Bi2S3 photogate to recognize the primary colors but also synergize with a given polymeric channel to promote the long-term memory of the system. A synaptic array is further constructed for sensing color images and biomolecule-coded information communication. Taking advantage of the versatile biochemistry, the biochemical-driven reversible photoelectric response of the cone cell is further mimicked. This work introduces rich chemical designs into retinomorphic devices, providing a perspective for replicating the human visual system in fluids.

미국 한글학교의 현황과 당면과제

This article aims to explore the current status and challenges of Hangeul schools in the United States. The researcher has first-hand experience as a HLS teacher for more than five years during his long residence in the United States and interviewed current HLS teachers and principals to learn more about the current status and changes in HLS. The study found that HLSs have recently diversified their student body with an influx of non-Korean adult learners and children from multicultural Korean families, which has led to greater differences in levels among learners. Teachers have become increasingly concerned about how to teach to these differences, and are grappling with how to move toward an education system that reflects students' diverse language levels, cultural backgrounds, and purposes for coming to Hangeul. As the times have changed, Hangeul schools have been faced with the challenge of establishing a new status as an institution that is responsible for educating foreign learners in Korean language and culture, in addition to its original identity as a national language and heritage language. In this regard, the Korean government should actively intervene and strive to build a more systematic system of Hangeul schools, and it is time for more active coordination and communication at the government level to resolve conflicts between Korean language schools that arise due to the overlap of learners.

Topic-Based Communication Between Agents

AbstractCommunication within groups of agents has been lately the focus of research in dynamic epistemic logic. This paper studies a recently introduced form of partial (more precisely, topic-based) communication. This type of communication allows for modelling scenarios of multi-agent collaboration and negotiation, and it is particularly well-suited for situations in which sharing all information is not feasible/advisable. The paper can be divided into two parts. In the first part, we present results on invariance and complexity of model checking. Moreover, we compare partial communication with the public announcement and arrow update settings in terms of both language-expressivity and update-expressivity. Regarding the former, the three settings are equivalent, their languages being equally expressive. Regarding the latter, all three modes of communication are incomparable in terms of update-expressivity. In the second part, we shift our attention to strategic topic-based communication. We do so by extending the language with a modality that quantifies over the topics the agents can ‘talk about’, thus allowing a form of arbitrary partial communication. For this new framework, we provide a complete axiomatisation, showing also that the new language’s model checking problem is PSPACE-complete. Finally, we argue that, in terms of expressivity, this new language of arbitrary partial communication is incomparable to that of arbitrary public announcements and also to that of arbitrary arrow updates.

A Revolutionary Approach to Imparting English Language Skills

It is universally acknowledged that a command over spoken and written English is a sinequanon of success, professional or personal. The methods, principles and techniques adopted in schools and colleges in non-native English countries, not to speak of India, have not met the expected success in equipping students with the requisite linguistic skills to express themselves through speaking and writing. So many discussions have taken place among scholarly circles to address the lacunae resulting in the formulation of various methods like the Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method, The Audio-Lingual Method, the Silent Way, the Bilingual Method, Community Language Learning, Communicative Language Teaching Approach, Structure Approach and Situational Approach. In the luxuriant of these numerous methods, the right approach becomes conspicuous by its absence in other words all these approaches will only help the learner be confused in acquiring English language competence. This rather gloomy picture has made the writer of this paper seek a solution to the problem resulting in his invention of an easy approach on the part of English language teachers in imparting English communication skills.

Addressing intercultural language teaching issues in EFL settings

Globalization has made intercultural competence essential for EFL learners, yet traditional approaches like grammar-translation and communicative language teaching remain prevalent in Algeria. These methods focus primarily on language mechanics, lacking a foundation for developing intercultural skills. This study advocates for adopting an intercultural language teaching approach in Algerian EFL classrooms to better prepare students for effective communication in multicultural contexts. Through literature analysis and classroom observations, the study finds that current practices inadequately address students' intercultural needs. In contrast, ILT fosters critical cultural awareness, empathy, and adaptability, providing a more comprehensive framework for building intercultural communicative competence. It is recommended that policymakers and educators support ILT integration, especially in oral expression classes where students actively engage. Emphasis on teacher training and curriculum reform would help embed this intercultural framework in the classroom, thereby developing EFL learners who are both linguistically skilled and culturally adaptive communicators. Keywords: Communicative competence; English as a foreign language; intercultural; language teaching