Multilingual Speaker Research Articles

Efeitos da instrução articulatória das vogais médias baixas do português (L3) no espanhol (L1) e no inglês (L2): um estudo de caso

Following a Complex Dynamic System account (de Bot, 2017), this study addresses the assumption that changes in an additional language system may account for the co-occurrence of changes in the previously learned languages. Departing from this assumption, a longitudinal study was conducted with a learner (L1 Spanish) who had been residing in Brazil (L2: English; L3: Brazilian Portuguese) at the time of the study. The instruction took place throughout 4 months and had a communicative and articulatory approach on the Portuguese open vowels. The data collections consisted of recordings of the reading of word lists in the three languages, conducted before, during and after the instructional period, totaling 5 recordings. The findings of the longitudinal study provided evidence to the premise that alterations in the L3 system (Brazilian Portuguese), accelerated by formal instruction, may cause alterations in the production of the vowels of the other languages, due to the interrelation among the language systems of this multilingual speaker.

The role of language proficiency and linguistic distance in cross-linguistic treatment effects in aphasia

ABSTRACTCurrent findings from intervention in bilingual aphasia are inconclusive regarding the extent to which levels of language proficiency and degree of linguistic distance between treated and non-treated languages influence cross-language generalisation and changes in levels of language activation and inhibition following treatment. In this study, we enrolled a 65-year-old multilingual speaker with aphasia and administered treatment in his L1, Dutch. We assessed pre- and post-treatment performance for seven of his languages, five of high proficiency and two of lower proficiency. We asked whether treatment in L1 would generalise to his other languages or increase interference among them. Forty hours of treatment were completed over the course of five weeks. Each language was tested three times at pretreatment and at post-treatment. Testing included measures of narrative production, answering questions, picture description and question generation. Dependent measures examined language efficiency, defined as Correct Information Units (CIUs)/min, as well as language mixing, defined as proportion of code-mixed whole words. We found that our participant’s improved efficiency in Dutch was mirrored by parallel improvement in the four languages of high proficiency: English, German, Italian and French. In contrast, in his languages of lower proficiency, Norwegian and Spanish, improved efficiency was limited. An increase in code-mixing was noted in Spanish, but not in Norwegian. We interpret the increased code-mixing in Spanish as indication of heightened inhibition following improvement in a language of close linguistic proximity, Italian. We conclude that an interaction of language proficiency and linguistic similarity affects cross-language generalisation following intervention in multilingual aphasia.

Metaphorical Competence in Multilingual Context of Language Acquisition and Learning

Abstract It has been defended since Gibbs (1994) that in proper contexts people mostly use the metaphorical asset of a message rather than its literal meaning, which means that we tend to express ourselves metaphorically and that conceptual metaphors and metonymies are features of communicative interaction. In the present paper we discuss the notion of metaphorical competence (Aleshtar & Dowlatabadi, 2014: 1895) in the process of language acquisition and learning of a (multilingual) speaker in a multilingual context. Based on previous studies by Sinha and Jansen (2004), Kövecses (2005), Palmer & Sharifian (2007), Gibbs & Colston (2012) and Sharifian (2015), among others, we postulate that research in the area should be centred not exclusively on Language but on interaction in a triangle Cognition - Language - Culture, We defend the way one conceptualises the world is based on bodily experience, and is mediated by culture (cf. Yu, 2003, 2009; Batoréo, 2017a). In this study we present research from different language backgrounds both occidental (European Portuguese, English and Polish) and oriental ones (Mandarin Chinese). It focuses on conceptualization of emotions (e.g., emotional expression of feeling hungry) and moral values (e.g. courage). The analysis shows that it implies culture anchorage and/or physiological and cultural embodiment. We defend that conceptual appropriateness and metaphor awareness play a fundamental role in the acquisition of figurative language (cf. Doiz & Elizari, 2013), which is at least partially motivated, and thus can be object of insightful learning (cf. Boers et al., 2004).

The Newest Survey on Language Attitude of Sundanese Urban Community in West Java Province, Indonesia Against Sundanese, Indonesian, And Foreign Language: A Study on Multilingual Speaker

This research intends to describe the newest survey on the language attitude of the Sundanese, West Java, Indonesia Urban Community against Sundanese, Indonesian, and foreign language. The methodology of the reserach is quantitative method. Although most of the people in West Java are Sundanese , most of them are multilingual. Therefore, the writer tries to find the language attitude of Sundanese toward Sundanese, Indonesia, and foreign language. Respondents involved in the research are 324 respondents living in Bogor city, 84 respondents living in Bandung city, and 92 respondents living in Bekasi city. The study seeks to discover how Sundanese people shift their language in their communication. Based on Keller’s theory (1968), language shift caused more by the emergence of the industry. The three cities are industrial area where people are possibly to choose certain language in communication. Furthermore, Cooper (1978) showed that the role of language became the lingua franca (in this case, including Indonesian) often urged the local language. The result of the research indicates that (1) the attitude of the Sundanese urban community in West Java to the Sundanese language is good category, because the average only reaches 64.11% . The language attitude of people in Bogor is the lowest among the three cities. (2) The language attitude of the Sundanese urban community in West Java to the Indonesian language is in fair category , because the average is only 56.19%. The lowest language attitude of urban community in West Java toward Indonesian language is Bekasi.(3) The attitude of the Sundanese urban community in West Java to foreign languages is in good category because the average reaches 69.85%. The highest language attitude toward foreign language is Bogor. Since this is the newest survey on language attitude on urban community in West Java, it will be very significant findings for those who are interested in multingual conditions in West Java, Indonesia.

The verbalization of emotions in the discourse of a multilingual speaker. A case study: Diary (1904-1910) by Vytautas Civinskis

The article aims to discuss the verbalisation of emotions in the discourse of a multilingual person. First, an overview of linguistic investigation in the field of emotions is presented. Notably, linguistic expression of feelings in every given language sometimes lacks precision; moreover, the names of emotions in various languages do not correspond. This poses some problems for multilinguals who try to express their emotions in L2. Later, the paper focuses on a case study, mainly on a series of examples from the manuscript of Diary (1904–1910), an egodocument from the beginning of the 20thcentury written by a multilingual student Vytautas Civinskis. The Diary was written mainly in Polish, Russian and Lithuanian. Civinskis was inspired to classify his own emotions by his studies in psychology. The examples show that while writing about his emotions the diarist makes use of lexical units from various languages (Polish, Russian, German, French, Lithuanian), often not matching the language of the sentence. Presumably, he chooses not to translate the words incorporated in idioms or collocations and avoids translating the names of emotions, which are especially salient in some given language. The diarist is keen to quote the texts of literary and other origin; therefore, he sometimes names his emotion after the line of a well-known poem or a song (such quotations are also kept in the original). The observed tendency to code-switch while talking about emotions corresponds to the results of some experiments carried out by the researchers of bilingualism. The case study also shows that research into emotion names in the discourse of multilinguals should rely on the results of research from the fields of lexical valency, semantics and psychology.

Translanguaging pedagogies and English as a lingua franca

Multilingualism is widespread in the world today and English is, in many cases, one of the languages in the multilingual speaker's repertoire. English as a lingua franca (ELF) is used by multilingual speakers who can also communicate in other languages and use their multilingual and multicultural resources in creative ways. This paper aims at exploring the relationship between recent trends in multilingualism, particularly the proposal ‘Focus on Multilingualism’ and ELF. After a brief presentation of multilingualism as related to globalization and super-diversity, there will be an examination of the new trends that bring together the study of multilingualism in education and ELF. Then, similarities and differences between the two are discussed as related to the emerging paradigm that takes into consideration a new vision of language, speakers and repertoires and has translanguaging as a key concept. Translanguaging pedagogies based on the multilingual learner's repertoire are also discussed. The last section looks at achievements and challenges presented by the synergies that have been created and reinforced.

Facets of the Concept of Syntactic Control of Matrix Language in Codeswitching Instances in Mwea East Sub-County

This paper focuses on the facets of the concept of syntactic control of matrix language in code switching instances in a multilingual society, that is, Mwea East Sub-County, Kirinyaga County where eight languages are spoken. Observations and Audio tapes were used to collect data in specific language domains. The data were examined within the sketch of Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Framework that deals with morphosyntactic frame of code switching instances. The result of the investigation established that code switching is a rule-governed linguistic behaviour and so has a grammar. The data shows that for a multilingual speaker, the process of alternating between two languages requires a nonrandom, sophisticated cognitive and linguistic manipulation of their languages. Thus, CS is systematic because each participating language is systematic, particularly in the ways that form-meaning sets are structured. This study hopes to provide insights on the code-switching phenomenon in a multilingual society. Additionally, the findings of this study will be of value for the development of code-switching studies in the sociolinguistic area.

An Experimental Comparison of Modeling Techniques and Combination of Speaker – Specific Information from Different Languages for Multilingual Speaker Identification

AbstractMost of the state-of-the-art speaker identification systems work on a monolingual (preferably English) scenario. Therefore, English-language autocratic countries can use the system efficiently for speaker recognition. However, there are many countries, including India, that are multilingual in nature. People in such countries have habituated to speak multiple languages. The existing speaker identification system may yield poor performance if a speaker’s train and test data are in different languages. Thus, developing a robust multilingual speaker identification system is an issue in many countries. In this work, an experimental evaluation of the modeling techniques, including self-organizing map (SOM), learning vector quantization (LVQ), and Gaussian mixture model-universal background model (GMM-UBM) classifiers for multilingual speaker identification, is presented. The monolingual and crosslingual speaker identification studies are conducted using 50 speakers of our own database. It is observed from the experimental results that the GMM-UBM classifier gives better identification performance than the SOM and LVQ classifiers. Furthermore, we propose a combination of speaker-specific information from different languages for crosslingual speaker identification, and it is observed that the combination feature gives better performance in all the crosslingual speaker identification experiments.

Multilingual acquisition of vowels in L1 Polish, L2 Danish and L3 English

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to determine whether all languages in the linguistic repertoire of a multilingual speaker manifest cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and establish the directions of CLI on the basis of chosen vowels from the linguistic repertoire of two groups: the Bilingual group (L1 Polish/L2 Danish) and the Multilingual group (L1 Polish/L2 Danish/L3 English). The results show that L1 Polish vowels are higher and fronter as a result of the influence of L2 Danish and L3 English. L2 Danish vowels are backer as a result of L1 Polish. Also, L3 English vowels are produced on target, possibly due to combined CLI from L1 and L2. The only direction of CLI that is not observed is from L3 to L2. The existence of a global language system is postulated, which should be treated as one entity whose characteristics depend on the characteristics of its component languages. Each component language has unique features because it is influenced by other component languages in a particular global language system. It is shown that the L1 of a bilingual group is different from the same L1 of a multilingual group because the latter also has a third component language.

The Non-Native Speakers of International Law: The Case of Russia

This article presents a metaphor that might explain Russia’s approach to international law. Drawing on linguistics, the article proposes that Russia has been a non-native speaker of international law. A non-native speaker’s experiences range from estrangement and disengagement from the foreign language and its speech community to that of empowerment and inspiration nurtured by the acquisition of a new language and a new multilingual identity. Thus, as a non-native speaker, Russia has approached international law with two rhetorical moves: as a disaffected foreigner and as an empowered multilingual subject who aspires to uphold and interpret the rules of the language recently acquired. As a multilingual speaker fluent in the language of international law, Russia has asserted control over judgments of grammaticality and has disagreed with previously determined linguistic rules established by the native-speaking community. The notion of a non-native speaker of international law can apply to states other than Russia. Policymakers and intellectual leaders of other countries, including China, might perceive themselves as non-native speakers in their encounters with the western European foundations of the language of international law. Finally, the article explores the future of international law by asking whether non-native speakers who have been gaining fluency in the parlance of international law will continue to develop their own linguistic repertoire, build their own vocabularies, and advance their own assertions regarding rules of grammar. The future of international law might be diglossic, as two varieties of its language, shared by different speech communities and practiced in different contexts, may be established.

Sounds Affecting the Moments of Stuttering in Multilingualism: A Case Study

Research involving stuttering in multilingual individuals is limited. Speech-language therapists face the challenge of treating a diverse client base, which includes multilingual individuals. The aim of this study was to examine the stuttering moments across English, Afrikaans, and German in a multilingual speaker. A single multilingual adult with a severe developmental stutter participated in this study. A mixed-method design was implemented. The results were perceptually analyzed, and interrater reliability was determined. The results revealed that the voiceless plosive [k], the voiceless fricative [f], and the plosive-lateral approximant cluster [kl] caused stuttering moments across the languages. More stuttering moments occurred on consonants as opposed to vowels. The most prominent core behavior was prolongations. Language proficiency plays a role in the increase of the moments of stuttering in the least proficient language. Future research on a larger sample size is recommended. Research on African language speaking multilingual person who stutters (PWS) should be pursued.

THE MOBILITY BETWEEN LANGUAGES AND THE FLUXES OF GLOBALIZATION: REVIEWING PARADIGMS, TRANSCENDING PARADOXES

This article aims to raise some general questions related to mobility and the traffic between languages in times of globalization. While defining “globalization” as a set of discourses, we outline some of its internal contradictions and paradoxes as well as the equally contradictory role of the English language as a homogenizing and fragmentary force in this context. Next, taking the perspective of language as socio discursive practice, we situate the multilingual speaker and the interweaving between languages and meanings in a world dominated by intense patterns of diversity and fluxes of people and discourses. Finally, we turn to the context of the bi/multilingual classroom, trying to point out alternatives to monolingual assumptions underlying educational and pedagogical discourses and practices related to bi/multilingual education that prevent us from understanding multilingual speakers in all their complexity. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

‘Then you can ride the scooter to run away!’ Gender positioning of marriage-migrants in adult Mandarin education in Taiwan

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to explore how gender restructuring might interact with immigrant second language (L2) learning in the new trends of feminized marriage migration in Asia, using Mandarin-language education in Taiwan as a case study. Drawing on positioning theory to analyze classroom discourse in a Mandarin-language class for marriage-migrants, this paper shows how the societal gendered expectations of marriage-migrants are concretely manifested and discursively negotiated in the classroom. As the teacher interactively positioned students as runaways, potential transgressors of chaste womanhood, and unfit mothers, the focal student reflectively positioned herself as an autonomous woman, capable mother, avid language learner, and multilingual speaker. By focusing on the dynamic negotiations of gender positionings in the language classroom for marriage-migrants in Asia, this study extends current research on immigrant L2 education to examine the nexus of globalization, transnational marriage migration, gender, and adult immigrant education.

Language Choice in Multilingual Communities: The Case of Larteh, Ghana

In a multilingual community, the multilingual speaker needs to make the right language choice which principally depends on the domain of usage and the linguistic repertoire of speech participants. This paper investigates factors that govern language choices that multilingual speakers make in Larteh, a multilingual community. The study is informed by insights from the Markedness Model, developed by Myers-Scotton (1993, 1998). Larteh is a non-reciprocal bilingual community, where the people speak Leteh and Akuapem Twi (Johnson, 1973, p. i). English is the third language for those who have had formal education. In this paper, three domains of language use are examined: education, tradition, and religion. Data from an interview survey on language use and participant observations are employed. The paper notes that due to changes in various spheres of life in Larteh, current language use patterns in the community differ from what pertained about three decades ago (Johnson, 1973, 1975). Subsequently, factors that determine language choice are gradually undergoing some modification. Keywords: language choice, multilingualism, education, tradition, Christianity

Pathological switching and mixing in bi-/multi-lingual speakers with acquired language disorders

Event Abstract Back to Event Pathological switching and mixing in bi-/multi-lingual speakers with acquired language disorders Anthony Pak Hin Kong1* 1 University of Central Florida, United States Code switching and code mixing in bilingual speakers refers to the inter-phrasal and intra-phrasal language changing behaviors, respectively (Ritchie & Bhatia, 1996, 2005). Both mechanisms of language use are part of behavior selection coordination involved in the frontal lobe system (Paradis, 1993). Voluntary language switching in healthy unimpaired adults is considered an instance of task switching because of its involvement of, at a minimum, a shift between different stimulus-response sets (Kong, Abutalebi, Lam, & Weekes, 2014). The capability of bi-/multi-lingual speakers to separate their languages and use each language in appropriate contexts is often compromised by cerebral lesions, resulting in pathological language switching and mixing symptoms that are typically involuntary and uncontrolled. Malfunctioned language control that separates the languages of a bi-/multi-lingual speaker during production is, therefore, indicative of deficits in executive function that are controlled by the frontal cortex. This presentation, as a part of the symposium in ‘Bilingualism and cognitive control,’ will start with a review of studies reporting pathological language switching and mixing in bi-/multi-lingual aphasia. Although the majority of existing investigations tended to conclude pathological mixing (that typically occurs in bi-/multi-lingual aphasia) is dependent of language mechanisms, some reports have claimed the opposite for pathological switching. Multiple case studies that examined bi-/multi-lingual confrontation naming, discourse production, and/or conversation among bilingual speakers with aphasia and traumatic brain injury will then be reported. Specifically, these examinations involved the use of quantitative and qualitative analysis of code switching and mixing behaviors (e.g., Kong et al., 2014) and struggle ratio, as well as monitoring of parallel recovery in executive functions (and other related cognitive functions) with reduced proportion of pathological switching and mixing symptoms in spontaneous oral discourse production (e.g., Kong & Whiteside, 2015). The above findings echoed and provided further empirical evidence on the notion that pathological code switching is attributed to impairment in executive control. References Kong, A. P. H., Abutalebi, J., Lam, K. S. Y., & Weekes, W. (2014). Executive and language control in the multilingual brain. Behavioural Neurology, 2014, 1- 7. doi: 10.1155/2014/527951 Kong, A.P.H., & Whiteside, J. (2015). Early recovery of a multi-lingual speaker with aphasia using Cantonese and English. Speech, Language and Hearing, 18(3), 133-139. doi: 10.1179/2050572814Y.0000000059 Paradis, M. (1995). Aspects of bilingual aphasia. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press. Ritchie, W. C., & Bhatia, T. K. (1996). Handbook of second language acquisition. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Ritchie, W. C., & Bhatia, T. K. (2005). Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Keywords: bilingualism, Multilingualism, Aphasia, Traumatic brain injury (TBI), code switching, code mixing Conference: 54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Llandudno, United Kingdom, 16 Oct - 18 Oct, 2016. Presentation Type: Symposium Topic: Academy of Aphasia Citation: Kong A (2016). Pathological switching and mixing in bi-/multi-lingual speakers with acquired language disorders . Front. Psychol. Conference Abstract: 54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00088 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Apr 2016; Published Online: 15 Aug 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Anthony Pak Hin Kong, University of Central Florida, Orlando, United States, akong@hku.hk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Anthony Pak Hin Kong Google Anthony Pak Hin Kong Google Scholar Anthony Pak Hin Kong PubMed Anthony Pak Hin Kong Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Feature extraction and modelling techniques for multilingual speaker recognition: a review

In this paper, recognising the speaker in the multilingual context is demonstrated. Multilingual speaker recognition is useful in countries like India, Canada and South Africa where multiple languages are used for communication. In such countries, use of the monolingual speaker recognition system may not yield the expected level of performance. This is because a speaker may change his training and test languages whenever it is necessary. As a result, the system yields poor performance due to variation in language parameters. Therefore, developing a robust multilingual speaker recognition system is an issue in many countries. Researchers in the field of speaker recognition have made a few attempts to identify the speaker in a multilingual context. This paper gives an overview of various techniques developed for monolingual, cross-lingual and multilingual speaker recognition systems.

Bilingualism and cognitive control

Bilingualism and cognitive control

Semantic feature analysis targeting verbs in a quadrilingual speaker with aphasia

Background: Semantic feature analysis (SFA) is a treatment approach aimed at enhancing lexical retrieval by improving access to the semantic network in speakers with aphasia. Although there are promising results on trained items, previous studies exploring the impact of SFA on verb production in monolingual speakers have shown mixed results for generalisation to untrained items and discourse. There are few published studies investigating SFA and action naming in multilingual speakers.Aims: The study explores the impact of SFA on trained and untrained verbs, semantics and syntax, and narrative production in the trained and untrained languages of a multilingual speaker (Japanese–English–German–Norwegian) with moderate non-fluent aphasia. Treatment was conducted in a late-acquired language (Norwegian).Methods & Procedures: SFA was provided during an intensive schedule of about 22 hr of therapy, with approximately 10 hr per week over two and a half weeks. The treatment focused on the production of verbs in sentence contexts.Outcomes & Results: Outcome measures include the Bilingual Aphasia Test, an action-naming test, and production of semi-spontaneous narratives.Outcomes in the treated language: Overall, the participant responded positively to the SFA treatment. The trained verbs improved significantly, but no transfer was observed to untrained verbs. There were no changes in the formal testing of semantics or syntax, but improvements were noted in narrative production.Cross-linguistic outcomes: Transfer to verbs in untreated German was evident. There were significant increases in the semantics and syntax in both English and German. The participant showed an improvement in discourse in English and German, although not in Japanese.Conclusions: SFA treatment in a late-acquired language can lead to gains in the treated language and transfer to both stronger and weaker languages, with different patterns for the various languages. This indicates that SFA may be a promising method for treating multilingual speakers with aphasia. The authors further advocate the use of narratives as an assessment tool. In addition to enhancing the ecological validity of the findings, the narratives provided information not obtainable from the other assessment tools for within- and cross-linguistic therapy gains for the participant.

Early recovery of a multi-lingual speaker with aphasia using Cantonese and English

This study reports a systematic monitoring of recovery from bilingual aphasia in a 75-year-old high-functioning multi-lingual female speaker of Cantonese and English, S1. She received six monthly evaluations after stroke by means of the Western Aphasia Battery and its Cantonese version (to monitor linguistic recovery and change of aphasia syndrome), cognitive linguistic quick test (to monitor cognitive recovery), and the main concept analysis (to assess the changes of narrative skills). Results indicated a non-parallel linguistic recovery, with a better improvement in her native L1 (Cantonese) than English. Since S1 demonstrated a change of using Cantonese dominantly post stroke, the results illustrated that a higher daily use of one language post-morbidly would lead to better post-morbid proficiency profile at the early recovery period. S1's changes in cognitive functions and narrative skills were also consistent with her linguistic improvement.

A FRAMEWORK FOR MULTILINGUAL TEXT- INDEPENDENT SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

This article evaluates the performance of Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) in the context of text independent Multi lingual speaker identification for recorded and synthesized speeches. The type and number of filters in the filter bank, number of samples in each frame of the speech signal and fusion of model scores play a vital role in speaker identification accuracy and are analyzed in this article. Extreme Learning Machine uses a single hidden layer feed forward neural network for multilingual speaker identification. The individual Gaussian components of GMM best represent speaker-dependent spectral shapes that are effective in speaker identity. Both the modeling techniques make use of Linear Predictive Residual Cepstral Coefficient (LPRCC), Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), Modified Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MMFCC) and Bark Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (BFCC) features to represent the speaker specific attributes of speech signals. Experimental results show that GMM outperforms ELM with speaker identification accuracy of 97.5% with frame size of 256 and frame shift of half of frame size and filter bank size of 40.