Language Association Research Articles

Report on the Conference of the European Second Language Association

Report on the Conference of the European Second Language Association

The Japanese Language and Literature Association of Daehan

The Japanese Language and Literature Association of Daehan

The Multidimensional Orientation toward Dying and Death Inventory: validity and reliability in a Turkey sample

Objective: Death anxiety is universal and influenced by many personal, cultural and linguistic features. The Multidimensional Orientation toward Dying and Death Inventory (MODDI-F) is a measure of ‘death anxiety’ and ‘death acceptance’. The aim of this study is to scale the validity and reliability study in Turkey. Methods: The study consisted of Turkey were created by selecting one of the seven regions. These include Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Mersin, Samsun, Sanliurfa, and Erzurum. The sample number is 402 persons, 52% male and 48% female. Analysis of the data was done with SPSS 22 program and it was worked with 95% confidence level. Explanatory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed with the AMOS 21.0 program to determine the validity of the scale. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients were calculated to determine its reliability. Results: Multidimensional Assessment of Dying and Death Inventory was first translated into Turkish, then to German, and as a result, a single text was obtained with the language association. Scale There are two dimensions as the dimen-sion of fear and the dimension of acceptance. Fear scale total variance explanation rate is 43,44%; the reliability coefficient is 0.950. Explanation of the total variance of the acceptance scale is 50,21%; the reliability coefficient is 0,678. Discussion: Factor distribution of the subscales differs according to the original scale. The names of the subscales are adapted to Turkish culture. According to these results, MODDI-F Turkish form has been shown to be a valid scale for its validity and reliability.

Adverb as an obligatory component of the functional-semantic field of temporality

The proposed theoretical study is a complex analysis of specialized concepts, devoted to the problem of qualification of the temporal functional-semantic field, as well as to the determination of specifics of realization of the adverbial part-of-speech component in this language association. The purpose orientation of the author of the work is to carry out a thorough scientifically weighted review of the heterogeneous differential features of such ambiguous linguistic notion as temporality. The more detailed explanation of the compositional and role aspects of figuring is subjected to such universal language institution, as functionally-semantic field of temporality. The particular attention is paid to the deep characterization of the constituent and content amount of the adverbial lexeme group, nominated as an integral figurant of the mentioned field totality. The result of a thorough analysis of the peculiarity of the functioning of the temporal adverb in the structure of the corresponding linguistic integrity is the ascertaining of several determinant facts, united by the outlined problem. In particular, there is postulated the two-component construction of the temporal functionalsemantic association, constituted by semantic fundamental principle with a clearly defined thematic specialization and by the formal means of actualization of the semantic basis. It is found that in the structure of a hierarchically arranged by the principle of nuclear-peripheral transition monocentric temporal field integrity the central structural positions are occupied by a verbal paradigmatic complex which is the medium of the general deictic time significance. In contrast to this cardinal indicator of temporal relations, lexical concretizers are localized in more distant (peripheral) fragments of the outlined linguistic association, but the underestimation of their functional-semantic status seems completely unfair. The role of lexical markers of time is qualified as “informative expansion”, namely: the detalization of the general time plan expressed by the morphological representatives. The adverbial means of indicating the time parameters of action is nominated as a specific by semantical, grammatical and functional features autonomous part-of-speech figurant of the temporal field. It is emphasized that this abstract by temporal content nuance heterogeneous wordy group is vested with the potency for clarification and tendentious modification of the natural significance of the verb form within a concrete temporal microfield. The realized work has allowed the author to demonstrate the peculiarity of conceptually diverse authors’ interpretive mechanisms focused on the analysis of the adverbial lexeme category in the functional plane of its figuring, as well as to determine the undoubted perspective of the study of adverbial issues.

An empirical study of the language of brand taglines: a code mixing approach

Language is a vital tool of communication which takes deliberate use of thoughts and feelings to express explicitly. With this underlying idea, the paper seeks to understand the association and connection of code-mixed language of taglines which is defined as the mixing and embedding of two different linguistic units from two different grammatical systems. Data was collected from 111 professionals in the creative field to understand the impact of code mixed taglines on customers and lexical analysis of selected taglines from the linguistic point of view used in branding of different products in print advertisements. The quantitative research work helps to understand the importance of use of code mixed taglines that are influential in making the brand memorable and unique. The results of the study will help copywriters and advertisement scriptwriters to be more precise with the demand and change of language in the current scenario.

Language use statistics and prototypical grapheme colours predict synaesthetes' and non-synaesthetes' word-colour associations

Synaesthesia is the neuropsychological phenomenon in which individuals experience unusual sensory associations, such as experiencing particular colours in response to particular words. While it was once thought the particular pairings between stimuli were arbitrary and idiosyncratic to particular synaesthetes, there is now growing evidence for a systematic psycholinguistic basis to the associations. Here we sought to assess the explanatory value of quantifiable lexical association measures (via latent semantic analysis; LSA) in the pairings observed between words and colours in synaesthesia. To test this, we had synaesthetes report the particular colours they experienced in response to given concept words, and found that language association between the concept and colour words provided highly reliable predictors of the reported pairings. These results provide convergent evidence for a psycholinguistic basis to synaesthesia, but in a novel way, showing that exposure to particular patterns of associations in language can predict the formation of particular synaesthetic lexical-colour associations. Consistent with previous research, the prototypical synaesthetic colour for the first letter of the word also played a role in shaping the colour for the whole word, and this effect also interacted with language association, such that the effect of the colour for the first letter was stronger as the association between the concept word and the colour word in language increased. Moreover, when a group of non-synaesthetes were asked what colours they associated with the concept words, they produced very similar reports to the synaesthetes that were predicted by both language association and prototypical synaesthetic colour for the first letter of the word. This points to a shared linguistic experience generating the associations for both groups.

Structural language, pragmatic communication, behavior, and social competence in children adopted internationally: A pilot study

ABSTRACTThe objectives of this study were to examine the association of structural language and pragmatic communication with behavior problems and social competence in girls adopted internationally. Participants included girls between 6–12 years of age who were internationally adopted from China (n = 32) and Eastern-Europe (n = 25) and a control group of never-adopted girls (n = 25). Children completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. Parents completed the Child Communication Checklist- second edition, the Child Behavior Checklist, and the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales. Compared to the controls, parents in the Eastern European group reported more problems with social competence, externalizing behaviors, structural language, and pragmatic communication. The Chinese group evidenced more internalizing problems. Using generalized linear regression, interaction terms were examined to determine if the associations of pragmatic communication and structural language with behavior problems and social competence varied across groups. Controlling for general intellectual functioning, poorer pragmatic communication was associated with more externalizing problems and poorer social competence. In the Chinese group, poorer pragmatic communication was associated with more internalizing problems. Post-adoption weaknesses in pragmatic communication are associated with behavior problems and social competence. Internationally adopted children may benefit from interventions that target pragmatic communication.

“Fugitive Without Knowing it”: Language, Displacement and Identity in Assia Djebar’s Autobiographic Narratives

If in Edward Said’s words, “everyone lives life in a given language; everyone’s experiences therefore are had, absorbed, and recalled in that language” ( Out of Place , 1999: 217), a writer who chooses to write in a language other than the mother-language is inevitably a victim of displacement. In a geography-decentred world, being linguistically out of place is usually accompanied with a physical displacement, issuing into a problematic interplay between language, self and identity. In Assia Djebar’s autobiographic narratives, the role of the written word is made more complex, not only because Djebar is a Muslim woman, but also due to the conflict between her oral ‘maternal’ Arabic/Berber language, and the written ‘paternal’ language which is French. Djebar has a complex relationship with these two languages in and between which she lived; two languages that worked in tandem, but also Othered each other in a shifting myriad of experiences and forms of being and becoming. This paper aims at discussing the intersectionality of language, identity and displacement. It starts with the view that the written word separates the writer from her maternal language, and her expression in French has become a source of anxiety. Knowing that her association of language and home underlies her double displacement both linguistically and geographically, how does Djebar come to terms with the anxiety of a double exile? At what point was she able to proclaim that writing in “the enemy’s language” heralds the self’s plurality, positionality, alterity and uniqueness. What role has the autobiographic genre played in this self-fulfilment? The paper postulates that linguistic hybridity is the only possible venue for Djebar when it comes to escaping the alienation inherent in her expression in the enemy's language. The integration of orality in Djebar’s (written) autobiographies allows the author to surmount her linguistic exile, to properly mourn the loss of the maternal tongue, enhancing a linguistic and cultural reconciliation. Keywords : Linguistic exile- female collective memory- displacement - Algeria- French language

Celebrating the Chinese International Speech, Language, and Hearing Association: A Week of International Engagement

This article is a companion piece to the article summarizing the history and development of the Chinese International Speech, Language and Hearing Association and describes the authors' attendance and participation in the inaugural meeting of the association. It summarizes the content of the meeting and describes a visit to The Little Tiger Rehabilitation Center in Sonjiang, a suburb of Shanghai. The authors' travel experiences in China are also described.

Difference in association. About bridging the cultural gap when translating Ibsen's En folkefiende

<p>Ibsen-In-Translation aims at translating Ibsen’s work simultaneously into the languages of: Classic Arabic, Chinese, Egyptian, English, Hindi, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. During the translation of <em>En Folkefiende</em> the group met twice to discuss problems and help eachother’s understanding of the play. This article aims at pointing out some of the common translation-problems the eight translators encountered, and to mention specific problems I encountered in the process of translating the play into Japanese.</p><p>During our two meetings, I saw that some problems were language-specific, and that some were common to more of us. We also discovered that some words and expressions are so rooted in the Norwegian culture and that a literal translation of such words and expressions create different associations in the target language. Among the problems we had in common, there seemed to be two main categories. 1: Concepts related to Christian values, and 2: Concepts related to the Norwegian societal organization of the time. Christian values-related problems consisted of translating swearwords, translating the concepts and the associations related to the words ”temperance”, ”atheism” and ”openmindedness”. As for the problems relating to societal organization and political ideology in Norway of the time, concepts relating to the term ”borger” was a challenge for many of us. As for me specifically, I also had the added challenge of fitting the relatively democratic language of Ibsen into the Japanese hierarchical language system. </p>

“Cock Mouth Kill Cock”: Language, Power and Sexual Intimacy in Constructions of Caribbean Masculinities

since Foucault's association of language and power or his connection of dominant discourse with social privilege, we have become more sensitive to the ways in which the disciplining of unruly bodies as a means of asserting one's authority and power position has incorporated control of meaning. How gendered bodies, for example, are interpreted and made legitimate to a dominant group becomes central to its assertion of power. Often, however, the very aggression in these discursive assertions or the excessive language performance betrays the slipperiness of this attempt to confer or confirm power. What Noel Cowell has referred to as exaggerated rituals1 includes exaggerated [speech] rituals, as Moji Anderson and Nadine McLean demonstrated in their article 'Straighten Up Your Argument': Language as Shibboleth of Jamaican Masculinity which appeared in the previous issue of Caribbean Quarterly.2 Yet, this very hyperbolic verbal exhibition is an attempt to mask men's anxiety about and investment in the changing norms/roles/expressions of masculinity. In this way, mouth kill cock - in other words, it is what comes out of your mouth that condemns you, or the hyperbolic statements of hyper-masculine men expose their own embrace of the very subjectivities they appear to condemn and their own discursive investments. The more public the display, the more magnified the exposure is. And the very excess in public display seems to be a strategy to camouflage heteronormative and patriarchal complicity with transgressive intimacies. Public speech rituals contrasted with private transgressive intimacies expose the contradictory and complex negotiations of masculinities in Caribbean societies. As a way to theorise the complexity of gender construction in general, and masculinities in particular, Caribbean critics have been making significant use of popular culture. 3 In this special issue, for example, sociologists Clinton Hutton and Rhoda Reddock mine popular music to demonstrate the discursive manoeuvres of the everpersistent patriarchal operatives in the construction of Caribbean masculinities, but they are also aware of the ways in which those very strategies of legitimisation announce patriarchy's undoing. Both recognise the way in which sexual intimacy and women's bodies become central discursive tropes in the construction of 'legitimate' masculinities and in the disavowal of not so much alternative, but more accurately, subjugated versions of transgressive masculinity.The possibility of deviation from gender norms is recognised by those who seek to police these vulnerable stereotypes by their implicit acknowledgment that these are constructions open to transgression. Not surprisingly, patriarchy's fear of women's (and some men's) ability to challenge gender norms is performed in the theatre of sexual intimacies. Because of the recognition of the possibilities of transgression, women's bodies and their expressions of sexual intimacy have been heavily policed by anxious men. Of equal significance is a discursive surveillance - the ways in which the language associated with women and women's bodies becomes a way of marking the feminine as a site of deviance and deficiency and as the boundary line of legitimate masculinities. In this regard, Clinton Hutton's essay begins an excavation of how this primarily patriarchal stratagem works. Hutton locates in 1990s popular street expression and dancehall music what he calls the gyalification complex. In examining the speech rimai of cursing that has elsewhere been associated with Afro-Caribbean men,4 Hutton shows how the female body is marked as a site of deviance from gender norms for some men. By marking these men as gyal, their gender designation is hegemonically repositioned so that their masculinity is brought into question. Via what Hutton calls symbolic castration, these patriarchal and hyper-masculine manoeuvres prepare the stage for violence to the body and in some cases involve making the gyal-man a passive sexual subject in a punishing aggressive sex ritual. …

368 The Association of Patient Primary Language and Receipt of Analgesics Among Emergency Department Patients Presenting With Headache, Abdominal Pain, or Low Back Pain

368 The Association of Patient Primary Language and Receipt of Analgesics Among Emergency Department Patients Presenting With Headache, Abdominal Pain, or Low Back Pain

About Dialectology Lessons at Lithuanian Schools: a Qualitative Study

Modern standard Lithuanian language is the result of the development of the language over a period of time. The basis for the language was the dialect spoken in the western part of the Aukštaitija ethnographic area of Lithuania around the city of Kaunas. The vitality, wit, and meaning of the language can be better understood through dialects.
 Today, however, dialects are less and less used by pupils, teachers, and students of philology; we hear less of them on radio and TV. It is understood that public use of dialects is limited by the fact that not all residents of Lithuania can understand texts in local dialects, so the most distinctive, interesting, unexpected, and expressive dialect words and words of the standard language are used passively making the language bookish, its syntactic structure rigid, and changing the whole grammar. Dialects for many pupils and young people are associated with poor language, provincial intellect and other negative associations. Such thinking is provoked by the lack of information and reluctance to take interest in one’s own local dialect as well as many other socio-cultural reasons. However, dialects are a very important part of Lithuanian culture. Many people in the21st century are bilingual, because they can speak both the standard language and dialects or at least the language with clear or slightly felt distinguishing characteristics.
 Contributing to EU attempts to promote local languages and having regard to the fact that the living tradition of dialects in Lithuania is in decline, the Seimas declared 2013 as the Year of Dialects.
 The aim of this article is to discuss the situation in teaching dialects at general education schools and to explore the attitude of teachers and pupils of general education schools to teaching / learning dialects.
 Objectives of the research: 1) to discuss the situation in teaching dialects at general education schools and opportunities for improvement; 2) to compare the attitude of teachers and pupils to dialects; 3) to compare the attitude to dialects of teachers and pupils who work / study in an environment which has a specific dialect and in an environment which does not have a specific dialect.
 The scientific problem of the article is whether teaching and learning dialects in today’s globalised world help students and teachers form their identity?
 Research methods: literary analysis, analytical descriptive method, survey of teachers and pupils, and analysis of the data of the survey.
 The research showed that teachers in the regions pay more attention to dialects than teachers in the city of Vilnius. Most teachers are satisfied with the theoretical material provided in the Lithuanian language textbooks, but would like to see a wider range of interesting and practical tasks. All teachers associate teaching dialects with literature lessons; activities of teachers from the Žemaitija (Samogitia) ethnographic area of Lithuania are particularly interesting as they read the books of Samogitian authors in the Samogitian dialect. Although pupils tend to assess dialect lessons positively, sometimes a very pragmatic approach to dialects can be seen: dialects are not interesting, because pupils do not see benefit from it.

Value-laden issues and English as a Second/Foreign language teaching in secondary education: A perfect combination enabled through ICT

INTRODUCTIONThe teacher of English as a Second/Foreign Language has the potential to be a very important educator and relevant figure in society. This potential is based on her/his being the one that can more easily integrate the teaching of the most global language at the moment and essential contents for the full development of their students.The essential contents that are meant in this paper are moral and civic education, peace education, health education, gender education, environmental education, sex education, consumer education and road safety education. These are a series of value-laden issues that were promoted in Spain under the Ley Organica General del Sistema Educativo (LOGSE). This educational law was applicable from 1990 to 2007. In its Ensenanza Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) ('compulsory secondary education') curriculum it was stated that a series of topics should be taught in all subject areas and throughout the four years with a view to achieving the fundamental aim of the law: the full development of the student's personality.Since 1991 these issues have been popularly known and referred to in official documents as 'cross-curricular issues' (henceforth CCIs). Their teaching was recommended so that the compulsory secondary education curriculum could fulfill the social, emotional and ethical-moral aspirations of the law (LOGSE). The close relationship of these topics with values education has been stated by many experts, e.g. Gavidia (1996), Gonzalez Lucini (1994) and Yus Ramos (1996).At the present time, another educational law is applicable in Spain, the Ley Organica de Educacion (LOE). The above CCIs are not mentioned in the ESO curriculum of this current law. However, it is stated in it that values education is one of the methodological principles to be followed by teachers in all areas and, in tune with Recommendation 12 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of 2002 (Council of Europe, 2002), one of the basic competences to be developed along this stage is the Social and Citizen one. Thus, this is evidence that a crosscurricular approach on values has not lost importance in Spanish education.The teaching of similar contents across the compulsory secondary education curriculum has also been advocated in other countries such as England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Japan -either under the name of 'cross-curricular issues/themes/dimensions', Teaming across the curriculum sections', 'general teaching requirements', 'educational paths', 'transverse transdisciplinary area' or 'hidden curriculum'. Moreover, Maes et al.'s (2001, in CIDREE, 2005: 6) analysis of the status, compulsory or not, of sixteen CCIs in up to twenty-seven European countries or communities shows that they are widely introduced in the educational system of other nations.If we concentrate on the English as a Second/Foreign Language classroom in particular, many examples can be given of the current worldwide interest in dealing with related topics. There are recent trends in language teaching having to do with integrating global issues, values, citizenship or intercultural education, teaching in a humanistic way and 'peace linguistics' (Rascon Moreno, 2011a: 13-16).The projects described here intend to shed optimistic light against the negative assumptions and data and scarce empirical research on the teaching of moral issues in the language classroom that can be found in the specialized literature despite its boost in policy documents and in language associations. This paper shows the results of putting ideas into practice and fosters activism within the English as a Second/Foreign Language classroom. It includes a local piece of research but that could be replicated in other contexts as the contents addressed are global. Its conclusions could be generalized to any country where English is taught as a Foreign or Second Language, as is the case of the USA.JUSTIFICATIONI strongly defend broaching value-laden issues in the English as a Second/Foreign Language classroom at the present time for a few reasons. …

Iranian scientific associations’ websites in the field of Humanities: A Webometric study

This paper intends to examine the visibility extent of Iranian scientific associations’ websites in humanities using Webometrics methods. The details of 62 Iranian Scientific Associations in Humanities included in the study were gathered through the website of the Commission of Iranian Scientific Associations. The details include the name and address of these associations’ websites. In order to analyze the active websites, used Alexa, urloz and Yahoo directory in the time period of 27 April to 17 May 2012.The findings of the study showed that the website of Iranian Social Psychology Association has received the most links from other websites (918 links). The website of Iranian Curriculum Studies Association, Association of Family Studies and Persian Language and Literature Association, having received the lowest ranking in Google, are considered the weakest websites of Iranian Scientific Associations. Iranian Executive Management Association has the highest Web impact factor. This research has identified 6 core websites of Iranian Scientific Associations having more than 185.2727 links.

A Theme-Oriented Data Automatic Organization Method

In order to automatic organization data according to customers’ requirement, and improve the data reusability, an idea of data meta-component is proposed, the definition of data meta-component is present, the model of data meta-component is established. A theme-oriented data automatic organization method is proposed; on the basis of data mete-component, the theme domain data automatic organization is realized by means of nature language processing, semantic query, association analysis, share distribution, and other technologies; experimental results show that this method is feasible and effective.

Word association patterns in a second/foreign language – what do they tell us about the L2 mental lexicon?

The aim of the article is to review the findings of research into patterns of word associations in both first and second language and discuss its relevance for the understanding of L2 lexical processes. Word association studies have been used widely in areas such as psychology and first language acquisition and have resulted in detailed descriptions of word association behaviour of speakers at different ages and stages of language development. As far as research into L2 word associations is concerned, it concentrated predominantly on the differences between native and non-native association patterns, types of links between words in the L2 mental lexicon as well as the influence of general language proficiency on word association behaviour.

Intersecting scapes and new millennium identities in language learning

This paper examines how flows of people, media, money, technology, and ideologies move through the world, with attention to how these scapes (Appadurai 1990, 1996, 2013) shape identity construction among language learners, both in and out of classrooms. After illustrating intersecting scapes in sociolinguistic terms, I explore the relevance of these ideas to identity formation among language learners, using three case studies. First, I examine the mediascape of hip hop in the ideoscape of education in Hong Kong, where an ELT Rap curriculum was designed for working class students in a low-banded secondary school. Next, I discuss how the confluence of transnationals and cosmopolitan urban residents in Tanzania provides a range of identity options for learners of Swahili that challenge nation-state-based associations of language. Finally, I consider how learners’ engagement in anime and manga from the mediascape is taken up in an introductory university-level Japanese language classroom in Hawai’i. These examples demonstrate how individuals are increasingly learning and using additional languages in the contexts of cultural mélange and new identity zones.

Teaching under-resourced languages: An evaluation of Great Zimbabwe University's initiatives in the teaching of Tshivenda and Xichangana

Tshivenda and Xichangana, like other minority languages in Zimbabwe, are only taught up to Grade 3 of elementary education in areas where they are spoken. Chishona and isiNdebele are the only indigenous languages that are taught as subjects up to university level, either through the medium of English or through their own medium (as at Great Zimbabwe University). This paper seeks to evaluate the initiatives that have been set out to promote the teaching and use of Tshivenda and Xichangana by training teachers at university level to enable them to teach these languages beyond Grade 3, at secondary and university level. These teachers will then form the manpower base to teach at the grassroots. The initiatives include partnerships with language associations, universities that teach the languages in South Africa, affirmative action on recruiting students into the languages and lobbying for support from government and other stakeholders. The research describes the initiatives, evaluates them and recommends the best way to finalise the project and how to promote other minority languages to the level of Chishona and isiNdebele in the country.

State Spotlight: Washington Speech, Language, and Hearing Association

An interview with Washington Speech, Language, and Hearing Association's president Karen Simpson