Linguistic Input Research Articles

Looking for immediate and downstream evidence of lexical prediction in eye movements during reading.

Previous investigations of whether readers make predictions about the full identity of upcoming words have focused on the extent to which there are processing consequences when readers encounter linguistic input that is incompatible with their expectations. To date, eye-movement studies have revealed inconsistent evidence of the processing costs that would be expected to accompany lexical prediction. This study investigated whether readers' lexical predictions were observable during or downstream from their initial point of activation. Three experiments assessed readers' eye movements to predictable and unpredictable words, and then to subsequent downstream words, which probed the lingering activation of previously expected words. The results showed novel evidence of processing costs for unexpected input but only when supported by a plausible linguistic environment, suggesting that readers could strategically modulate their predictive processing. However, there was limited evidence that their lexical predictions affected downstream processing. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of prediction in language processing are discussed.

Driving and suppressing the human language network using large language models.

Transformer models such as GPT generate human-like language and are predictive of human brain responses to language. Here, using functional-MRI-measured brain responses to 1,000 diverse sentences, we first show that a GPT-based encoding model can predict the magnitude of the brain response associated with each sentence. We then use the model to identify new sentences that are predicted to drive or suppress responses in the human language network. We show that these model-selected novel sentences indeed strongly drive and suppress the activity of human language areas in new individuals. A systematic analysis of the model-selected sentences reveals that surprisal and well-formedness of linguistic input are key determinants of response strength in the language network. These results establish the ability of neural network models to not only mimic human language but also non-invasively control neural activity in higher-level cortical areas, such as the language network.

Might text-davinci-003 Have Inner Speech?

AbstractOpenAI is a research organization founded by, among others, Elon Musk, and supported by Microsoft. In November 2022, it released ChatGPT, an incredibly sophisticated chatbot, that is, a computer system with which humans can converse. The capability of this chatbot is astonishing: as well as conversing with human interlocutors, it can answer questions about history, explain almost anything you might think to ask it, and write poetry. This level of achievement has provoked interest in questions about whether a chatbot might have something similar to human intelligence and even whether one could be conscious. Given that the function of a chatbot is to process linguistic input and produce linguistic output, we consider that the most interesting question in this direction is whether a sophisticated chatbot might have inner speech. That is: might it talk to itself, internally? We explored this via a conversation with ‘Playground’, a chatbot which is very similar to ChatGPT but more flexible in certain respects. We put to it questions which, plausibly, can only be answered if one first produces some inner speech. Here, we present our findings and discuss their philosophical significance.

Korean Mothers’ Speech to Young Children with Cochlear Implants in Parent-Child Interaction

Objectives: Infant-directed speech is the particular form of spontaneous speech observed in interactions between parents and their young children. There are reasons to believe that infant-directed speech may help to make language acquisition easier for young children. Thus, this study investigates the effects of cochlear implantation on mothers’ speech to their young children.Methods: Fourteen children with cochlear implants (CIs) and 14 agematched children with normal hearing (NH), aged 12 to 35 months, participated in this study. We recorded mothers’ utterances through a parent-child interaction task. Mothers’ speech features such as fundamental frequency, utterance length, speech rate, and pause duration were measured across speech samples.Results: There were no significant differences between the CI and NH groups in fundamental frequency, utterance length, and pause duration variables. However, the speech of mothers in the CI group was significantly slower than that of the NH group.Conclusion: Mothers used typical infant-directed speech styles when speaking to their children with CIs. Additionally, mothers of the CI group tended to speak more slowly than mothers of the NH group in the parent-child interactions. Given that the language skills of children with CIs are significantly lower than those of children with NH in this study, mothers of the CI group may speak to their children at a slower rate than those of the NH group to provide their linguistic input more efficiently. These findings suggest that children with CIs are exposed to infant-directed speech with similar acoustic qualities as children with NH.

Michael Swan's Poems in Translation on Social Media – An Exercise in Rendering Poetic Images and Encouraging Translating Communities

Translating poetry is an exercise that stimulates both the cognitive and the emotional potentialities of students. Poetic texts are the essence of what poets thought and are therefore more difficult to decipher given the minimal linguistic input. The present study is the result of the work with two groups of students who had classes online during the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook as an accessible social media platform proved to be a great hub for launching the challenge of translating poetry and having students post their versions of translations. Their work was thus exposed to the assessment and appreciation of their fellow students who became thus part of a translating community. The poems chosen for this exercise in translation were selected from Michael Swan’s volume tiger dreams/ vise cu tigri POEMS/ POEME. The bilingual edition appeared at Niculescu Publishing House Romania and served as a consistent basis for the translation practice with the students from the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași who were specializing in Applied Linguistics - Translation and Interpreting. The resulting versions of the texts prove that language in poetry is pulsating with meaning anchored in the reality of the author’s imagination and in the translators’ efforts to mediate that reality and make it accessible to the contemporary public.

Language experience matters for the emergence of early numerical concepts

Research has shown a link between the acquisition of numerical concepts and language, but exactly how linguistic input matters for numerical development remains unclear. Here, we examine both symbolic (number word knowledge) and non-symbolic (numerical discrimination) numerical abilities in a population in which access to language is limited early in development—oral deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) preschoolers born to hearing parents who do not know a sign language. The oral DHH children demonstrated lower numerical discrimination skills, verbal number knowledge, conceptual understanding of the word “more”, and vocabulary relative to their hearing peers. Importantly, however, analyses revealed that group differences in the numerical tasks, but not vocabulary, disappeared when differences in the amount of time children had had auditory access to spoken language input via hearing technology were taken into account. Results offer insights regarding the role language plays in emerging number concepts.

Morphological awareness in arithmetic word-problem solving among Chinese early adolescents

The current study explored a specific reading subskill, morphological awareness, in arithmetic word-problem solving among Chinese early adolescent students (N = 668, mean age = 11.3 years). Participants completed measures of Chinese morphological awareness, receptive vocabulary as well as arithmetic word-problem solving. Drawing upon multivariate analyses (hierarchical multiple regression and path analysis), the study showed that morphological awareness facets collectively contributed to arithmetic word-problem solving above and beyond age and receptive vocabulary. More specifically, recognition and discrimination of compound words were uniquely associated with word-problem-solving skills. The current study highlights the uniqueness of Chinese morphological awareness in structural linguistic input, and the facilitative effect of morphological awareness on arithmetic problem-solving.

Combining EEG and 3D-eye-tracking to study the prediction of upcoming speech in naturalistic virtual environments: A proof of principle

EEG and eye-tracking provide complementary information when investigating language comprehension. Evidence that speech processing may be facilitated by speech prediction comes from the observation that a listener's eye gaze moves towards a referent before it is mentioned if the remainder of the spoken sentence is predictable. However, changes to the trajectory of anticipatory fixations could result from a change in prediction or an attention shift. Conversely, N400 amplitudes and concurrent spectral power provide information about the ease of word processing the moment the word is perceived. In a proof-of-principle investigation, we combined EEG and eye-tracking to study linguistic prediction in naturalistic, virtual environments. We observed increased processing, reflected in theta band power, either during verb processing - when the verb was predictive of the noun - or during noun processing - when the verb was not predictive of the noun. Alpha power was higher in response to the predictive verb and unpredictable nouns. We replicated typical effects of noun congruence but not predictability on the N400 in response to the noun. Thus, the rich visual context that accompanied speech in virtual reality influenced language processing compared to previous reports, where the visual context may have facilitated processing of unpredictable nouns. Finally, anticipatory fixations were predictive of spectral power during noun processing and the length of time fixating the target could be predicted by spectral power at verb onset, conditional on the object having been fixated. Overall, we show that combining EEG and eye-tracking provides a promising new method to answer novel research questions about the prediction of upcoming linguistic input, for example, regarding the role of extralinguistic cues in prediction during language comprehension.

Are there socioeconomic differences in the lexical diversity and syntactic complexity of child directed utterances with different pragmatic functions?

ABSTRACT Early linguistic environment has shown an impact on children’s later language development, particularly, child directed speech has been associated with providing children with linguistic input from which to look for regularities and patterns, and boosting children to produce utterances beyond their current competence. This article aims to examine linguistic and interactive features of the speech addressed to Argentinean toddlers (mean age 19.9 month) living under different socioeconomic circumstances. We focused on the lexical diversity (VOCD) and syntactic complexity (MLU) that characterize utterances that fulfil different pragmatic functions (comments, requests for verbal and non-verbal response) addressed to children living under vulnerated and non-vulnerated socioeconomic circumstances. Results showed differences regarding lexical diversity between groups of households for requests for non-verbal response, while regarding syntactic complexity differences between groups were found in both requests for non-verbal response and for verbal response.

Conditionals in context: Brain signatures of prediction in discourse processing

Comprehenders are known to generate expectations about upcoming linguistic input at the sentence and discourse level. However, most previous studies on prediction focused mainly on word-induced brain activity rather than examining neural activity preceding a critical stimulus in discourse processing, where prediction actually takes place. In this EEG study, participants were presented with multiple sentences resembling a discourse including conditional sentences with either only if or if, which are characterized by different semantics, triggering stronger or weaker predictions about the possible continuation of the presented discourses, respectively. Results revealed that discourses including only if, as compared to discourses with bare if, triggered an increased predictive neural activity before the expected critical word, resembling the readiness potential. Moreover, word-induced P300 brain responses were found to be enhanced by unpredictable discourse continuations and reduced in predictable discourse continuations. Intriguingly, brain responses preceding and following the critical word were found to be correlated, which yields evidence for predictive activity modulating word-induced processing on the discourse level. These findings shed light on the predictive nature of neural processes at the discourse level, critically advancing our understanding of the functional interconnection between discourse understanding and prediction processes in brain and mind.

The Effect of Flipped Classroom Technique on Developing English Speaking Skills of EFL learners

Various innovative language teaching techniques have been created and applied in language classes to improve students’ speaking skills. Flipped classroom technique, a new pedagogical model, has paved the way for transformation in the foreign language teaching field for it provides students with online instruction or language content in videos to be studied as homework and an opportunity to practice linguistic input in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of the Flipped Classroom Technique on developing the English Speaking Skills of EFL learners. Semi-experimental method was used to examine the data. The population of the study was made up of Forty-seven intermediate EFL students in an English institute in Khorramabad, Iran. They were divided into two groups, experimental (males=8, females=9) and control group (males=9, females=8). Each group comprised of seventeen students. The experimental group was taught based on flipped classroom techniques while the control group was taught according to traditional methods. Besides, the participants’ age range was between 16 to 26 years old. The instruments used for data collection are the IELTS Speaking Test, Multimedia resources, Brainstorming, and the IELTS speaking rubric. The findings of the study show that there is a meaningful difference between those instructed with flipped classroom techniques and those instructed with traditional methods. Those who were taught by the flipped technique outperformed those who were instructed by the traditional methods. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the flipped classroom technique is an effective technique in terms of developing the speaking skills of EFL learners.

Quantity and Quality of Parental Linguistic Input to Young Children with Cochlear Implants: A Longitudinal Study

Objectives: This study aims to investigate longitudinal changes in the quantity and quality of the parental linguistic input of children with cochlear implants (CIs) and children with typical hearing (TH) and find the significant parental linguistic variables that might positively be related to children’s language development in the CI group. Methods: Participants were 33 parent-child dyads, including 16 children with CIs and 17 with TH at the initial visit. They participated in a 20-minute free-play task at three-time points (initial, 6-month, and 12-month visits). Results: There were no significant differences between the CI and TH groups in the total number of utterances (NTU) and the total number of words (NTW). However, the two groups significantly differed in the different number of words (NDW) and higher-level facilitative language techniques (FLTs). In addition, the CI group produced more utterances than TH parents at the initial visit. However, there were no significant differences in the NTU between CI and TH groups at 6- and 12-month visits. Furthermore, both groups used fewer NDW and mental state words at the initial visit than at the 12-month visit. Nevertheless, CI and TH groups used fewer higher-level FLTs at the initial visit than at the 6- and 12-month visits. Lastly, qualitative parental linguistic input is a critical factor, continuously affecting language development in children with CIs. Conclusion: These findings suggest that early intervention programs should be designed to enable parents to use more qualitative linguistic features in daily routines to build their child’s language skills.

Causal inference: relating language to event representations and events in the world.

Events are not isolated but rather linked to one another in various dimensions. In language processing, various sources of information-including real-world knowledge, (representations of) current linguistic input and non-linguistic visual context-help establish causal connections between events. In this review, we discuss causal inference in relation to events and event knowledge as one aspect of world knowledge, and their representations in language comprehension. To evaluate the mechanism and time course of causal inference, we gather insights from studies on (1) implicit causality/consequentiality as a specific form of causal inference regarding the protagonists of cause/consequence events, and (2) the processing of causal relations. We highlight the importance of methodology in measuring causal inference, compare the results from different research methods, and emphasize the contribution of the visual-world paradigm to achieve a better understanding of causal inference. We recommend that further investigations of causal inference consider temporally sensitive measures and more detailed contexts.

A Review of The Place of Listening in The L2 Learner Curriculum

Listening chances are frequently described in second language studies as the linguistic environment - the stage for SLA. The speakers of the target language and their speech to the L2 learners give linguistic input in the form of listening and interaction opportunities embedded in social and pedagogical circumstances. It has been observed that three major conditions are required for a person to learn a second language: (1) a learner who recognizes the need to learn the second language and is motivated to do so; (2) a speaker of the target language who knows it well enough to provide the learner with access to the spoken language and the support (such as simplification, repetition, and feedback) they require for learning it; and (3) a social setting that brings the learner in frequently enough and sustainably. Listening is necessary under two of these conditions and is thus an important way of language development, which is frequently disregarded in language instruction and research. To acquire the language, the learner must come to grasp the input and pay attention to the forms in the input. The more input pupils receive from listening, the richer their knowledge becomes, and the more fluent they become. It is up to educators to plan and arrange listening in such a way that it brings the learner into frequent and sustained contact with target language speakers to make language learning possible.

Commenting on learning Korean on TikTok and YouTube

ABSTRACT Online informal language learning has surged due to the growing interaction on social networking sites, such as TikTok and YouTube. One vital interaction method is through comments, revealing insights into learner behaviors and thoughts. Concurrently, the Korean Wave has made Korean a sought-after language. This study examined comments under Korean language learning hashtags on TikTok and YouTube in English and Spanish. From 570 comments, three themes were discerned: (1) those oriented towards the video creator, (2) those focused on the community, and (3) those highlighting Korean language understanding. Findings indicate that these comments foster a supportive environment for sharing experiences and resources while addressing content inaccuracies or linguistic uncertainties. However, there was no interaction in Korean within these comments. Hence, while videos provide linguistic input, comments mainly facilitate metalinguistic reflection, but not a space for interactive Korean language use.

Keep in touch, stay in sight: locally-interpreted overt subjects in 1QIsaa

This study discusses textual variants at the sentence level in 1QIsaa, in which syntactic phrases in MT, mainly objects, seem to have been interpreted as overt subjects in the scroll. These variants are attested in two syntactic contexts: (a) clauses with non-canonical word order; and (b) subjectless clauses with third-person masculine verbs. In both contexts, an overt subject does not appear in its expected linear position. Consequently, an unintentional interpretation of the first suitable syntactic phrase as an overt subject at the closest proximity to its predicate is sometimes observed in the scroll. This (mis)interpretation is evaluated from a sentence-processing perspective and explained by (a) economic processing; and (b) the probability of comprehenders’ interpreting linguistic input as a simpler and more plausible structure in their language. A preference for subject interpretation is well attested in other Subject-before-Object languages, indicating a general bias of comprehenders toward the simplest structure of the linguistic input, in which all syntactic phrases are realized in their canonical positions with no moved or absent elements.

Learning Concrete and Abstract Novel Words in Emotional Contexts: Evidence from Incidental Vocabulary Learning

ABSTRACT This study investigates the role of emotional linguistic input in learning novel words with abstract and concrete denotations. It is widely accepted that concrete words are processed more easily than abstract ones. Several theories of vocabulary acquisition additionally propose a critical role of sensorimotor and emotional information during novel word learning. In this study, proficient adult speakers of English read novel words denoting concrete and abstract words (e.g. boat vs religion) embedded in informative passages with different emotional valence (positive, neutral, and negative). After five exposures to each novel word in an emotionally consistent context, participants were tested on orthographic and semantic vocabulary learning, and provided valence judgments of these novel words. A concreteness advantage was seen in both tasks measuring semantic learning. Critically, valence of linguistic contexts was more influential for novel words with concrete denotations. In line with previous reports, the transfer of context emotionality to novel words (i.e. semantic prosody) took place in concrete stimuli but it was not found in abstract stimuli, even though both were embedded in emotional contexts. An equal advantage was seen for semantic learning of novel words with both concrete and abstract denotations seen in positive contexts. These findings provide support for weak embodied theories of cognition, which propose experiential and linguistic information as critical for concrete and abstract novel word learning.

Fuzzy‐based unequal clustering protocol for underwater wireless sensor networks

SummaryUnderwater wireless sensor network (UWSN) is a network made up of underwater sensor nodes, anchor nodes, surface sink nodes or surface stations, and the offshore sink node. Energy consumption, limited bandwidth, propagation delay, high bit error rate, stability, scalability, and network lifetime are the key challenges related to underwater wireless sensor networks. Clustering is used to mitigate these issues. In this work, fuzzy‐based unequal clustering protocol (FBUCP) is proposed that does cluster head selection using fuzzy logic as it can deal with the uncertainties of the harsh atmosphere in the water. Cluster heads are selected using linguistic input variables like distance to the surface sink node, residual energy, and node density and linguistic output variables like cluster head advertisement radius and rank of underwater sensor nodes. Unequal clustering is used to have an unequal size of the cluster which deals with the problem of excess energy usage of the underwater sensor nodes near the surface sink node, called the hot spot problem. Data gathered by the cluster heads are transmitted to the surface sink node using neighboring cluster heads in the direction of the surface sink node. Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm is used for multi‐hop and inter‐cluster routing. The FBUCP is compared with the LEACH‐UWSN, CDBR, and FBCA protocols for underwater wireless sensor networks. A comparative analysis shows that in first node dies, the FBUCP is up to 80% better, has 64.86% more network lifetime, has 91% more number of packets transmitted to the surface sink node, and is up to 58.81% more energy efficient than LEACH‐UWSN, CDBR, and FBCA.

An Analysis of English Speaking Materials in the Textbook “Bahasa Inggris SMA” based on Dat Bao’s Theory at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Swasta Santu Xaverius Gunungsitoli 2022/2023

This research aimed to analyze whether the content of “Bahasa Inggris SMA” textbook in the part of its speaking material is in line with Dat Bao’s theory. This research used descriptive research type with the content analysis. The data was English textbook “Bahasa Inggris SMA” used by eleventh grade students of SMA Swasta Santu Xaverius Gunungsitoli that consist of eight Chapters. The research instruments were textbook evaluation sheet and interview sheet. The data was then analyzed by using assessment rubric of Dat Bao’s theory that consists of four main aspects, namely; linguistic support, content-based and affective support, skill support, and diversity and flexibility. Thereafter, the researcher presented the data with percentage of scoring and interpreted it into a description paragraph. The result of study showed that English textbook “Bahasa Inggris SMA” did not successfully fulfill Dat Bao’s theory, where the linguistic support was (73.95%), content-based and affective support (48.43%), skill support (70.31%), and diversity and flexibility (58.31%). The percentage showed that it was still lacking of linguistic input in pronunciation section, lacking of supporting students’ cultural and visuals that support verbal learning, lacking of supporting communicative functions and strategies, and lacking of variety of speaking activities. From the research findings, the researcher suggested that the textbook needs to be developed in terms of its content of speaking materials. Subsequently, both ELT teacher and textbook writer should concern and pay attention with the content of the textbook suggested by Dat Bao’s theory.

Speech Segmentation and Cross-Situational Word Learning in Parallel.

Language learners track conditional probabilities to find words in continuous speech and to map words and objects across ambiguous contexts. It remains unclear, however, whether learners can leverage the structure of the linguistic input to do both tasks at the same time. To explore this question, we combined speech segmentation and cross-situational word learning into a single task. In Experiment 1, when adults (N = 60) simultaneously segmented continuous speech and mapped the newly segmented words to objects, they demonstrated better performance than when either task was performed alone. However, when the speech stream had conflicting statistics, participants were able to correctly map words to objects, but were at chance level on speech segmentation. In Experiment 2, we used a more sensitive speech segmentation measure to find that adults (N = 35), exposed to the same conflicting speech stream, correctly identified non-words as such, but were still unable to discriminate between words and part-words. Again, mapping was above chance. Our study suggests that learners can track multiple sources of statistical information to find and map words to objects in noisy environments. It also prompts questions on how to effectively measure the knowledge arising from these learning experiences.