Linguistic Gap Research Articles

Biliteracy Summer Schools: Breaking the Cycle of Monolingualism in Migrant Families

Immigration and the role of language in education have been major issues in governance and education across the world. The current study looks at a family biliteracy program for 2- to 6-year-old students and their parents. The findings shed light on the importance of teacher-community partnerships in bridging the linguistic gap between Spanish-speaking migrant parents and their children who are entering an English-only educational system. Such partnerships create opportunities for teachers to reflect on and re-evaluate their teaching practices, for parents to value literacy in the home language as well as the school language, and for students to value biliteracy as a relevant skill. Biliteracy practices, highlighted in the study, have implications for immigrant families in creating linguistic equity in education.

Proficiency as a Factor in English-Medium Instruction Online Tutoring

The current study explored the effects of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ proficiency level on English-medium instruction (EMI) in an online tutoring project. Sixteen Taiwanese college students (tutees) collaborated with preservice teachers (tutors) in the United States in an EMI online tutorial project. The online tutor-tutee interactions were examined to determine if the two tutee groups of two respective proficiency levels were equally receptive to EMI online tutoring based on nine indicators. The results show that learners of both levels could generate approximately equal amounts of language-related discussions and utterances. Overall, proficiency level did not impede tutees’ ability to notice their linguistic gaps in interlanguage. Moreover, tutees of both proficiency levels benefited from the textual display of online interactions with their tutors during a task-based learning scheme. Among the nine indicators, successful uptake and feedback type were two strong predictors of tutees’ subsequent target language (L2) learning in both groups. The findings offer pedagogical values to promotion of EMI policy in globalized higher education.

Process Drama in the Japanese University EFL Classroom: The Emigration Project

This paper examines the impact of using a process drama project in a Japanese university EFL class focusing on the social issue of emigration from a historical perspective while simultaneously developing English communicative skills. Speaking in English is a skill that many Japanese people find challenging. There are a number of cultural reasons for this, for example the enormous linguistic gap between Japanese and English communicative patterns in terms of explicitness/implicitness, hierarchy, gender, and the role of silence. Therefore, the overt aim was to help students develop English language skills while learning about Japanese historical emigration through the medium of English with Japanese scaffolding. This is in keeping with the needs of the average Japanese university EFL student, who has had six years of accuracy-based study for the short-term target of the university entrance examination and who sees English in terms of mathematical code, rather than as a communicative tool. The narrative arc of the paper follows the Noh theatre JO-HA-KYU, Enticement- Elaboration-Consolidation trajectory to take the reader through the emigration process drama project held in the spring semester of 2009 at the School of Human Welfare Studies (HWS), Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU), Japan. The research approach was a mixed-method one and data was collected through digital recording of role-plays, student self-critical reflection by writing-in-role and writing out-of-role in an online class group, qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and teacher observation. Results indicated that process drama projects can have a positive influence on Japanese university EFL learners from the perspective of both linguistic and intercultural communicative competence.

Language Barriers in Mental Health Care: A Survey of Primary Care Practitioners

Many migrants do not speak the official language of their host country. This linguistic gap has been found to be an important contributor to disparities in access to services and health outcomes. This study examined primary care mental health practitioners' experiences with linguistic diversity. 113 practitioners in Montreal completed a self-report survey assessing their experiences working with allophones. About 40% of practitioners frequently encountered difficulties working in mental health with allophone clients. Few resources were available, and calling on an interpreter was the most common practice. Interpreters were expected to play many roles, which went beyond basic language translation. There is a clear need for training of practitioners on how to work with different types of interpreters. Training should highlight the benefits and limitations of the different roles that interpreters can play in health care delivery and the differences in communication dynamics with each role.

The influence of diglossia in Arabic on narrative ability: evidence from analysis of the linguistic and narrative structure of discourse among pre-school children

The aim of the present study is to examine the influence of diglossia on linguistic and narrative structures in Arab kindergarten children by testing performance in production and comprehension. The 30 children who participated in our study were asked to retell one narrative text that was read aloud to them in Literary Arabic and another narrative text that was retold to them in Spoken Arabic. Then they were given a comprehension test that included questions pertaining to each of the two stories. In addition, two questionnaires were filled in by their parents, for collecting personal data and evaluating the level of the children’s exposure to Literary Arabic at home. The findings show a significant advantage in the retold spoken text over the retold literary text and in understanding the narrative-discourse. In addition, the findings show that the linguistic gap between Literary and Spoken Arabic seems to impact the level of mastery over linguistic structures in both forms of Arabic. Both of these findings indicate that, despite the fact that the exposure to Literary Arabic at a young age is informal and indirect, pre-school children are able to use linguistic structures from the literary language and to comprehend narrative texts. These results, with a particular emphasis on spoken and literary linguistic knowledge in pre-school children, are discussed herein in light of previous behavioral findings and models of development of narrative abilities in the Arabic language.

The Relationship between Communication Strategies and Noticing Function of Output Hypothesis in Teacher Talk

Purpose of the Study: The present study, building upon communication strategies research and noticing function of output hypothesis, examines the relationship between these two issues in teacher talk. Method: Five Iranian EFL teachers along with the students in their classes participated in this study. To collect the required data for this study, two steps were taken. First, the researcher observed the classrooms as a non-participant and made audio-recordings from three lessons of each teacher. Second, a single semi-structured interview session was conducted with each teacher. Results: The results showed that whether the teacher notices his linguistic gaps and uses communication strategies to deal with his linguistic problems but this noticing does not lead to any reaction on the part of the teacher; or the communication strategy is not noticed by the teacher that is in apparent contrast to Swain's noticing function of output hypothesis.

The blind men and the elephant: on meeting the problem of multiple truths in data from clustering and pattern mining perspectives

In this position paper, we discuss how different branches of research on clustering and pattern mining, while rather different at first glance, in fact have a lot in common and can learn a lot from each other's solutions and approaches. We give brief introductions to the fundamental problems of different sub-fields of clustering, especially focusing on subspace clustering, ensemble clustering, alternative (as a variant of constraint) clustering, and multiview clustering (as a variant of alternative clustering). Second, we relate a representative of these areas, subspace clustering, to pattern mining. We show that, while these areas use different vocabularies and intuitions, they share common roots and they are exposed to essentially the same fundamental problems; in particular, we detail how certain problems currently faced by the one field, have been solved by the other field, and vice versa. The purpose of our survey is to take first steps towards bridging the linguistic gap between different (sub-) communities and to make researchers from different fields aware of the existence of similar problems (and, partly, of similar solutions or of solutions that could be transferred) in the literature on the other research topic.

Reading/Literacy – For the Lower Orders?

The first part of this account of struggles over literacy begins with the later middle ages and follows issues in the construction of a literacy addressed to the lower orders through to the seventeenth century. After the suppression of the Lollard Bible had left the English peasantry without that spur to literacy, the sixteenth-century formation of Renaissance grammar schools, with their classical education based on rhetoric, created a new cultural and linguistic gap from the lower orders. Only the most original English writers, steeped in this classical tradition, managed occasionally to bridge the gap. But after 1650, Hobbes led the way in avoiding figurative language, at least for philosophical and scientific discussion, and Lucy Hutchinson, from a dissenting family, showed in her autobiography how a fondness for the servants’ stories could open the way to a colloquial idiom.

Translating the Five Senses in Alfredian Prose

This paper tackles the question of whether an Old English noun exists to express the concept of the five physical senses. After elucidating the debate around potential linguistic gaps in Old English and the modern interpretations of the methods employed by ninth-century Anglo-Saxon scholars to carry out their translations from Latin, I will identify specific vernacular techniques applied whenever the Latin noun sensus was encountered in the sources. Through a comparative analysis of the Latin texts translated as part of the Alfredian cultural programme, and their Old English versions, this paper will firstly assess whether a linguistic gap exists; and secondly, explore possible reasons behind the different translating approaches employed to render the concept of the five bodily senses.

Estratégias utilizadas por aprendizes de línguas afins: a troca de código

Neste artigo analisamos a troca de código, uma estratégia de compensação que consiste na utilização de uma palavra ou frase em L1, L3 ou L4, no interior do enunciado em L2, empregada por aprendizes de italiano LE cuja língua materna é o português brasileiro, durante a realização em dupla de uma tarefa escrita. A pesquisa, que se baseou nos instrumentos propostos pela etnografia, mostra que a troca de código constitui um potencial para o desenvolvimento da interlíngua e para a aquisição/aprendizagem de LE e que tal estratégia, além de compensar eventuais lacunas linguísticas originadas pela falta de recursos adequados para expressar-se em LE, é usada pelos falantes como procedimento típico da conversação bilíngue para facilitar a comunicação.

English to Hindi Paraphrase Convention for Translating Homoeopathy Literature

The rule based approach to machine translation (MT) confines grammatical rules between the source and the target language with the goal of constructing grammatical translation between the language pair. In this paper, we describe the structural representation of English stemmer, POS tagging and design transfer rules which can generate Hindi sentence from the structural representation of the English sentence. Due to the specific terminology of homoeopathic sentences and the linguistic gap between the two languages the translation of these literatures form English to Hindi is a challenging task. The rule sets are used to plug gap between the two languages. Further, rule sets are described for mapping preposition verbs, nouns, etc. Finally, a system architecture has been proposed for the translation of homoeopathy literature from English to Hindi Language.The system accuracy has been evaluated using Bleu score, which is found out to be 0.7501 and the accuracy percentage of the system is 82.23%.

Bodily perception in female ad hoc interpreting: Romanian immigrants in contemporary Spain

In the present landscape of globalization, immigrants have attained demographic weight in developed countries and economic relevance in the territories they left behind. The province of Alicante (Spain) is home to 32,899 Romanian immigrants. Almost half of them are women who not only manage themselves in daily communication, but also bridge the linguistic gap between their families and local service providers. This paper focuses on health care communication and tries to show the centrality of the body within medical relations, especially in a transcultural setting and from a gender-oriented perspective. I will focus on how eight Romanian women living in Spain perceived bodily issues when they helped relatives or friends communicate with health care providers in Spanish services. My case study is supported by a guided interview intended to elicit information on these women's perceptions both as ad hoc interpreters and as patients under their immigrant circumstances.

Francophone and Anglophone perinatal health: temporal and regional inequalities in a Canadian setting, 1981–2008

We evaluated temporal and regional inequalities in adverse birth outcomes between Anglophones and Francophones of a Canadian province. Odds ratios and rate differences in preterm birth (PTB, <37 gestational weeks) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth were computed for Anglophones relative to Francophones for singleton live births in Québec from 1981 to 2008 (N = 2,292,237), adjusting for maternal characteristics. Trends over time and residential region were evaluated. Rates of PTB and SGA birth overall were lower for Anglophones relative to Francophones, but temporal and regional trends varied by outcome. Although PTB rates increased over time, inequalities between Francophones and Anglophones were relatively stable. In contrast, inequalities in SGA birth narrowed over time as Francophone rates declined more than Anglophones. Inequalities in SGA birth favored Anglophones overall, but the gap gradually reversed in Montréal (the largest metropolitan center) to currently favor Francophones. PTB and SGA birth rates favored Anglophones over Francophones. The linguistic gap was generally stable over time for PTB, but narrowed or reversed for SGA birth. Language may be used to capture inequalities in perinatal health in countries where different linguistic groups predominate.

HUNTING GWENDOLEN: ANIMETAPHOR INDANIEL DERONDA

In George Eliot'sDanielDeronda, animal vitality figures prominently in shaping the human shell, to use an opening animal metaphor. Approaching the significance of the animal leads to a reading of Gwendolen Grandcourt's character as a responsible creature. Gwendolen is Eliot's heroine, one half of the pair of protagonists around whom the novel revolves. Eliot's fantastic character takes shape in three movements, each punctuated by its own animal metaphor: Gwendolen morphs from Lamia to mastered-animal to white doe. Animal imagery appears at the edge of the human, the point at which humanity gains and loses subjectivity, and Gwendolen's novel is fundamentally one of finding her place in the world, her singularity, her responsibility. Images of animals stand in the linguistic gaps – in the places words fail – to figure the subject.1Animals appear at the end of the ability of language to mean. Nevertheless, this analysis is not intended to encompass the complex range of animal representations in George's Eliot's oeuvre, or even to catalog every example inDaniel Deronda. Instead, it suggests the possibility of using animal metaphor as a map for reading a Victorian heroine.

日本総合健診医学会 第40回大会・シンポジウム7 国際社会における健診&lt;br&gt;医療における言語ギャップ

日本総合健診医学会 第40回大会・シンポジウム7 国際社会における健診&lt;br&gt;医療における言語ギャップ

Pre-school education and bilinguality of home and school in bilingual regions of Iran

Pre-school educational institutions assist children in their physical, psycho-motor, social, emotional, mental, and linguistic development and prepare them for primary schools. Furthermore, the main objective of pre-school programs is to familiarize children with the school culture and language. Such an objective takes a whole new meaning when we consider students, like Turkish-speaking Azeri people in Iran, who are challenged with the bilinguality of home and school since the official language of instruction is Farsi. The aim of the research conducted was to see if attempts at bridging the linguistic gap through different complementary pre-school programs have been successful.

The Use of Glossing in Modern Original Scientific Writing in Arabic

This study investigates the use of glossing in translated and original scientific texts in Arabic and the factors that motivate this use, given existing knowledge and linguistic gaps between Arabic and English. The form of glossing investigated is the insertion of foreign terms next to their target text counterparts. The study draws on a corpus of 10 translated and 15 original research articles taken from three publications. Statistical analysis of the occurrence of glossing was conducted, taking into consideration variables such as the types of glossed expressions, the ratios of glossed expressions to the total number of words in each text and the recurrence of the same gloss in each text. Results show that glosses of source language scientific terms are used frequently in translated and original texts in the corpus, although the ratios are smaller in original texts than in translated texts. Historical, educational, linguistic and practical factors that could explain such usage in original writings are discussed.

Open access to living books on the internet: a new chance to bridge the linguistic gap for at-risk preschoolers?

The Dutch website Bereslim (http:// www.bereslim.nl) provides digital picture storybooks for three- to seven-year-olds for daily use. The present study investigates whether this new opportunity to enhance linguistic development actively assists preschool children from low- and high-educated families in an equal manner. We looked closely at the characteristics of the 1781 persons who visited the Bereslim website between March and October 2006, when the digital books were available free of charge. To get access, visitors had to complete a brief questionnaire about characteristics of the child (date of birth, gender, school and grade) and parents (educational level, membership library, number of storybooks bought in the last six months, and how they found the website), how the child spent his or her leisure time, whether he or she used (new) media (i.e. amount of time and content of shows/ games/books and favourite websites, programs and books), whether the parents participated in different activities from their children and if their children already are familiar with the five books on the site. We found that the bulk of low-educated families who most need this additional opportunity of literacy enhancement were absent. Attempts to create new chances for at-risk children from low-educated families have often failed, as it did this time in another natural experiment.

Comparing native models and peer feedback in promoting noticing through written output

This study explores the effect of written output followed by two types of feedback tools (native models vs. peer feedback) on fostering noticing among 65 Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level. At the first stage, the participants were asked to narrate a story in written form. Then the participants of the native model group compared their texts with native models and the participants of the peer feedback group collaborated with their peers to provide feedback on each other's linguistic problems. Finally, at the third stage, the participants of both groups renarrated the story after a week's interval. While completing the task at the first and second stages, the participants were urged to jot their linguistic problems down and their notes were considered as the operationalized form of noticing. The results revealed that the participants in both groups noticed approximately the same linguistic problems. However, the native model group outperformed the peer feedback group in filling their linguistic holes and gaps. Moreover, the effect of native models on the participants' retention and subsequent learning was higher than for the peer feedback group.

Collaborative tasks and learning occasions in English as a foreign language

The study reported here forms part of a program of qualitative research focusing on the use of collaborative tasks in learning English as a foreign language in Brazil. The research examines the concept of collaborative dialogue (SWAIN, 2000), understood as dialogue that constructs linguistic knowledge within a sociocultural view of language learning. The results indicated that the learners reflected upon the target language, tested hypotheses and reformulated their production in order to promote mutual comprehension in the learning process. The results also revealed that the interaction established during the production of the collaborative dialogue stimulated foreign language learning as the students noticed linguistic gaps in the target language, and sought solutions together.