Language Resources Research Articles

Mobilising multilingual and multimodal resources for facilitating knowledge construction: implications for researching translanguaging and multimodality in CLIL classroom context

ABSTRACT The articles in this special issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development highlight three significant areas of research that have evolved in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) education: (1) the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy and the use of multimodal resources in scaffolding content and language in CLIL classrooms, (2) CLIL teachers’ awareness of the pedagogical philosophies of multilingualism and translanguaging, and (3) the role of multimodality in CLIL assessments. This commentary will begin with a discussion of the articles in this special issue and draw out key theoretical and methodological themes. This commentary will advance the field of CLIL education by critically reflecting on the implications of adopting translanguaging as a methodological framework in CLIL research, which enables teachers and researchers to achieve a greater understanding of the meaning-making processes in CLIL classrooms.

Вербализация картины мира ислама в современном российском медиапространстве: лингвокогнитивный потенциал

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the linguistic and cognitive status of the Islamic worldview in the media space of modern Russia. Based on the material of Internet sites focused on the coverage of Islamic issues, it is determined that the foundation of the confessional picture of the world is a set of meanings that interact in a complex way with the national picture of the world expressed through the national language. The Russian Muslim community actively uses Russian along with Arabic, the language of the Holy Quran, which naturally complicates the characteristics of the Islamic worldview in Russia. The scientific novelty of the research lies in understanding the Islamic media discourse as a representative of the subcode of the Russian cultural code due to the use of the resources of the Russian language by the Islamic media along with Islamic terms – Arabisms, as well as lexical units borrowed from Farsi, Turkish and the national languages of the ethnic groups of the Russian Federation, traditionally professing Islam. As a result, it is proved that the Islamic media discourse effectively uses various formats and genres of modern media in order to provide an interested audience with relevant content. The picture of the world of Islam is verbalized in the Russian Islamic media discourse using various linguistic methods that allow us to reveal various aspects of all aspects of life – both religious and secular, including issues of law, ethics, commerce, finance. In the Russian media space, a new image of a modern Muslim is being formed – a Russian patriot and representative of the interests of the Russian Muslim community in accordance with the value and ethical dominants of the confessional worldview.

Developing a Critical Intercultural Perspective in Language Learning

Intercultural language teaching and learning is one manifestation of the critical turn in language education. Its critical dimension is characterised by a strong emphasis on self-reflexivity in both teaching and learning, and by a transformational agenda for language education (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). Within language education, the critical project requires that the focus of language learning is to develop social actors capable of using language repertoires in ways that provide for agency both over language (in the choices they make about how to use their language resources) and through language (in the social possibilities they realise for themselves through their language repertoires). Within such a view of education, critical reflection comes to play an important role. To consider language education in such a way requires reconceptualising some of the fundamental starting assumptions of language education, which provides a basis for creating new emphases in both theory and practice.

Language and cultural concordance to promote equity in organ transplantation for Hispanics with limited English proficiency.

Hispanics with limited English proficiency (LEP) face unique challenges in accessing organ transplantation due to limited culturally concordant care and linguistically appropriate resources, leading to disparities in healthcare delivery and transplantation outcomes. This review examines how language barriers affect access to kidney and liver transplant, and highlights the importance of institutional support for quality interpretation services in promoting healthcare equity in transplantation. Hispanics experience greater disease burden, but are less likely to receive a transplant compared to non-Hispanic Whites. LEP is a significant barrier to transplantation. Culturally and linguistically concordant interventions, such as the "Hispanic Kidney Transplant Program," have demonstrated success in improving transplant-related outcomes among Hispanics. However, limited resources affect widespread implementation, and the broad lack of interpretation services in healthcare settings delay timely care in transplantation. Despite some progress demonstrated by culturally and linguistically concordant clinical intervention trials, disparities in transplantation for Hispanics with LEP remain. Enhancing the availability of interpretation services, recruiting and hiring bilingual healthcare professionals, and training healthcare staff to effectively engage with language and interpretation resources are critical to improving health equity. Efforts must prioritize language access and cultural concordance to address the unique challenges faced by Hispanics with LEP.

An Interface for Linking Ancient Languages

Abstract This paper focuses on the linking potentials offered by the EpiLexO web-based front-end for creating and editing an ecosystem of digital resources for ancient languages, developed in the context of a project on the languages of fragmentary attestation of ancient Italy. The focus is particularly on mechanisms introduced for linking lexical information to other information bits either internally or externally, e.g., for creating attestations by linking lexical forms to their variants in relevant inscriptions, as well as for linking lexical data to external independent LOD datasets available on a remote endpoint. Finally, in the conclusions, we briefly introduce some future planned or desired enhancements as well as the final platform component, a parallel interface that constitutes the fruition application, which will be open to anyone on the web and will allow for browsing, searching, cross-querying and visualizing the created set of interlinked resources.

Malay phoneme-based subword news headline generator for low-resource language

The booming of technology has significantly increased the amount of news articles for readers. The headline of news plays an essential role in attracting readers. Traditionally, crafting the news headline is a manual task at the news desk. The motivation of this paper is to address the issues faced in low resource languages, such as the Malay language. The main contribution of this paper is a new hybrid model based on extractive- and abstractive-based text summarization with the integration of a geographical linguistics model; a Malay phoneme-based subword embedding has been developed to solve the complex morphological issue in the Malay language-based computational linguistic applications. The experiment involves various sequence-to sequence (seq2seq) models to generate the Malay news headlines. Besides that, the out-of-vocabulary (OOV) is assessed in the models. From the experiment, the proposed hybrid text summarization model shows significant improvement over the baseline models above 11.00 in ROUGE-1, 4.00 ROUGE-2, and 11.00 in ROUGE-L. The proposed model can reduce the OOV rate to below 15%.

Tokenization Stability Index: A Catalyst for Optimizing Transformer Models for Low Resource Languages

Tokenization Stability Index: A Catalyst for Optimizing Transformer Models for Low Resource Languages

Intelligent Support for Low Literacy Adults: The European Portuguese iRead4Skills Corpus

This paper presents the Portuguese dataset of the iRead4Skills project (Dataset 1: corpora by complexity level for FR, PT, and SP – v.2.0), a representative sample of written European Portuguese for automatic complexity assessment that addresses a gap in existing resources for Portuguese. The corpus was created within the framework of the iRead4Skills project, which encompasses Portuguese, French, and Spanish. The project aims to develop an intelligent system to evaluate text complexity while recommending appropriate reading materials to native adult learners with low literacy skills. The corpus compilation involved a manual selection of text samples across various textual genres and document types, covering a wide range of existing written materials and focusing on the reading needs and reading habits of the target audience—low literacy adults enrolled in vocational education and training centres or adult learning (AL) centres. The collected texts were categorised into the three distinct levels of complexity targeted and defined by the project: very easy, easy, and plain levels. Texts of higher complexity were also included, resulting in the creation of four distinct sub-corpora. The resulting Portuguese dataset consists of 2,186 texts and 942,818 tokens and serves as the foundational source for training and testing the project’s complexity analysis systems. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the compilation process of the corpus, encompassing its methodological design and the challenges faced. Although some existing Portuguese corpora were used for complexity studies and tool development, these primarily consist of texts classified according to CERF levels and retrieved from didactic materials designed for L2 teaching/learning or texts produced by L2 learners. The corpus presented in this paper introduces a new resource that addresses a significant gap in materials needed to inform and support studies and applications related to text complexity. The resulting dataset provides a novel and important language resource for European Portuguese, with several applications including research on linguistic complexity, development of automatic text complexity and readability assessment systems, and educational purposes.

Supporting teacher dispositions towards translanguaging-for-learning in a Grade 9 mathematics classroom

Background: Our article argues that the role of translingual instruction in mathematics classrooms is under-recognised in South Africa, as policymakers, teacher educators, teachers, learners, and parents assume that mathematics is just about numbers and calculations and not language. This is despite findings on the value of using children’s familiar language resources in MacDonald (1991), code-switching for meaning-making in mathematics and science learning by Setati et al. (2002) and Probyn (2015), and the findings by Mbude (2019) on using isiXhosa for boosting mathematical and science skills.Objectives: The main aim of our article is to examine the role of the Languaging-for-Learning (L4L) project in fostering ‘supportive teacher dispositions’ to translanguaging and bilingual and multilingual education. We will accomplish this aim through description and analysis of one Grade 8 and Grade 9 mathematics teacher and her learners who participated in the project.Method: The study is a qualitative and interpretive linguistic ethnographic case study of a Grade 8 and Grade 9 mathematics teacher. The researchers used ethnographic methods to collect data and primarily draw on data transcribed from one of the video recordings of a lesson, fieldnotes of their classroom observations and still photographs from their classroom visits and L4L workshops. They used discourse analysis to interpret the data.Results: The research findings point to the critical role that fostering supportive teacher dispositions to translanguaging can play in teacher development and in supporting learners’ engagement and learning in multilingual mathematics classrooms.Contribution: Our contribution to the field has been in demonstrating pluriversality in mathematics classrooms, showing how translanguaging enhances meaning-making and participation and helps to give voice to learners.Conclusion: Having multilingual resources, collaboratively building knowledge and resources and team teaching with teachers played a role in supporting the teacher’s development in pedagogical translanguaging.

Psychosocial Disorders and Escapism in Nigerian Poetry: A Study of Lara Owoeye’s Time to Sing and Other Poems

Nigerian poetry has consistently responded to issues affecting the country and the people since the pioneer stage to contemporary time. In this instance, the burden of societal failings has propelled the level of social commitment and ideological postures identified in the poetry. However, recent experiences in the socio-political and economic landscape of the Nigerian society seems to have shaped the mentation and emotional condition of contemporary Nigerian poets in a way that calls for a psychological approach to the study of the poets’ creative nuances. Therefore, adopting a descriptive research method and employing relevant psychoanalytic theoretical framework, the study explores how Lara Owoeye's collection, Time to Sing and Other Poems, represents psychosocial disorders and escapism. Through a close reading of the selected poems from the collection, it is discovered that Owoeye employs the resources of language and music like imagery, metaphor, parody, allusion, enjambment, rhyme, tone and other literary devices vis-à-vis the motif of a distressed singer to convey her psychosocial condition. The study also shows that the psychosocial disorders represented in the collection are triggered by memories of bad leadership and harsh socio-economic conditions. In this instance, the poet finds an escape into the world of imagination and emotional recovery through poetic expression. This way, Owoeye's poetry does not only reflect the cultural, historical, and social contexts of the Nigerian society but also offers an understanding of the complex interplay between psychosocial disorders and poetry as an escape mechanism.

AI-Powered Applications for Improving EFL Students’ Speaking Proficiency in Higher Education

As Artificial Intelligence systems increasingly dominate various sectors in this technology-driven era, educational institutions are eager to integrate innovative tools and applications into the teaching and learning experience to enhance students' abilities, performance, skills and achievements. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of utilizing Google Assistant, an AI-based app, in improving students’ English speaking performance. The research utilized a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitatively, a pre-post speaking test was conducted with participating students before and after the intervention (using the Google Assistant app). Following the experiment, qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions with some of the participants. The findings revealed significant improvements in students’ overall speaking performance and sub-skills. The use of the Google Assistant application notably enhanced EFL students’ fluency and interaction, followed by pronunciation, vocabulary, content and relevance, and spoken grammar, respectively. Additionally, based on the participants' discussions, several benefits of using this AI-based application were identified, including providing language practice and resources, engaging and motivating learners, and immersing students in a self-directed learning experience. However, some challenges were also inducted, particularly regarding accessibility, connectivity and technical issues. Consequently, several conclusions and recommendations were drawn based on these findings.

Part-of-Speech (POS) Tagging of Low-Resource Language (Limbu) with Deep learning

POS tagging is a basic Natural Language Processing (NLP) task that tags the words in an input text according to its grammatical values. Although POS Tagging is a fundamental application for very resourced languages, such as Limbu, is still unknown due to only few tagged datasets and linguistic resources. This research project uses deep learning techniques, transfer learning, and the BiLSTM-CRF model to develop an accurate POS-tagging system for the Limbu language. Using annotated and unannotated language data, we progress in achieving a small yet informative dataset of Limbu text. Skilled multilingual tutoring was modified to enhance success on low-resource language tests. The model as propose attains 90% accuracy, which is very much better than traditional rule-based and machine learning methods for Limbu POS tagging. The results indicate that deep learning methods can address linguistic issues facing low-resource languages even with limited data. In turn, this study provides a cornerstone for follow up NLP-based applications of Limbu and similar low-resource languages, demonstrating how deep learning can fill the gap where data is scarce.

Economic Value of Endangered Languages

In a world where more than half of the 6,500 languages are under the threat of extinction, this paper challenges the conventional view that language preservation lacks concrete economic benefits. Investigating the intricate relationships between monolingualism, cultural identity, and economic dynamics, it illuminates the diverse values that languages contribute to our global heritage. From communicative and emotional to ecological and scientific perspectives, the paper unveils the interconnectedness of linguistic diversity with biodiversity, influencing conservation efforts and ecological equilibrium. Case studies illustrate the economic implications of language loss in sectors like medicine, where traditional knowledge guides pharmaceutical development. Beyond direct monetary considerations, the exploration underscores the unexpected role of language in business, influencing international trade, collaboration, and workplace dynamics. Advocating for the economic value of investing in language resources, the article urges decision-makers to recognize the economic dimensions of endangered languages. The conclusion calls for a shift in perspective, positioning languages not merely as cultural assets but as vital economic factors. It encourages the integration of language preservation into national and international policies to safeguard global linguistic diversity.

“It's Just a Hot Mess”: Supporting Teacher Praxis to Challenge Barriers for Multilingual Learners

ABSTRACTThis paper examines a professional learning (PL) program for upper elementary teachers focused on developing instructional practices to support multilingual learners (MLLs) in science. The PL sought to support teachers' praxis, which we describe as their sense of agency to critically analyze and take action against barriers to MLLs’ opportunities to learn. We analyzed pre‐PL interviews with teachers to identify the ways that they framed MLLs from asset‐ and deficit‐based perspectives and the barriers that they identified that undermine MLLs' science learning. Then, we analyzed the extent to which the teachers' participation in the PL shifted their framing of MLLs and fostered their sense of agency to challenge the barriers faced by MLLs. We found that teachers shifted toward more asset‐based views of students' existing language resources and deepened their sense of agency to employ scaffolds that engage these resources in their own instructional practice. However, teachers continued to surface barriers in their organizational contexts, including the emphasis placed on standardized language assessments and the misalignment between English language instruction and science learning. Our analysis shows that the PL did not adequately support teachers in navigating these particular institutional barriers. Based on our analysis, we argue that teachers and science education researchers should expand their focus beyond teachers’ instructional practices and work together to remove barriers for MLLs in the larger organizational systems of schooling.

L1 as a tool for providing corrective feedback

This article delves into the controversial practice of utilizing a student’s first language (L1) as a teaching resource in second language (L2) learning environments. Initially, strategies such as code-switching/code-mixing and translanguaging were considered signs of poor linguistic ability. There was a strong push towards using only the target language in foreign language education, aiming to limit the first language’s interference and foster a deeper immersion in the new language. However, later research has shown the benefits of incorporating the first language in bilingual education and language learning processes. It’s argued that a student’s knowledge in their native language can actually support their comprehension of a second language, suggesting that transferring certain linguistic or conceptual knowledge from L1 to L2 can be advantageous. This perspective encourages the strategic use of this knowledge transfer in teaching methods. Moreover, the text points to positive results from various studies on the positive impact of L1 usage in L2 classrooms. These insights pave the way for further exploration into the application of the first language in adult English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, particularly regarding providing corrective feedback.

It “bendy dis one”: recognising and building upon Australian Aboriginal students’ linguistic repertoires as educational resources

There is a considerable body of research documenting the languages First Nations children bring to school. However, despite language being a key factor impacting on educational outcomes, there is little research focussing on the students’ language use within schools outside specific learning contexts. Therefore, in this study we sought to explore the language resources used by Australian Aboriginal children at school, particularly those underexamined cohorts living in regional and remote locations. We examined how they used language in the classroom and in the playground, and with different audiences (e.g. peers vs teachers). Naturalistic language data were collected in seven schools located in different settings within Western Australia. 230 children and their teachers were recorded. The data show these students draw on their full linguistic repertoire when at school – moving between lighter or heavier varieties of Australian Aboriginal English (AAE), their traditional languages (e.g. Martu and Kija), SAE, as well as Kriol (an Australian creole) in some remote locations. We also found they adjusted their language choices according to the audience and content of their discussions and they utilised processes of translanguaging as part of these school interactions.

The union of linguistics and prompt engineering: linguistic features of prompts to neural networks

This article offers a linguistic perspective on the study of the interaction between humans and Artificial Intelligence. The focus of the work is on analyzing human communication with neural networks which generate textual content. With the advent of text-based interfaces for neural networks, where programming skills are no longer required for human-AI communication, and it is sufficient to create text queries (prompts), one of the key skills for prompt engineers (specialists in prompt creation) has become the ability to ‘program’ and obtain AI responses corresponding to the query while using natural language resources. This work is aimed at studying, identifying, and describing the linguistic features of prompts and their parameters that influence the stylistic correctness of the generated responses by the neural networks.

Corpora and corpus-based studies of the languages of the Russian Federation

The article describes corpus resources for the languages of Russia and their use in linguistic research. The linguistic diversity of the country is quite substantial: currently 155 languages are identified as languages of Russia. Many of them are under threat of extinction, which makes the task of creating corpora particularly relevant as a tool for language preservation. In this study we conducted a survey among the staff of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other colleagues, which helped us collect the data about 73 corpus resources representing various languages and dialects of Russia. The sample covers both major languages and languages with relatively few speakers, including unwritten languages. The article examines various parameters by which corpora may differ, and offers examples of research based on materials from the corpora. The final part of the article discusses the organizational aspects of creating and maintaining corpus resources. The results of the study suggest that corpus resources not only play an important role in preserving the linguistic diversity of Russia but also represent a valuable tool for various research tasks, as well as for creating other language resources.

Migration and linguistic integration: an investigation of Chinese immigrants’ language learning experience before moving to Africa

ABSTRACT The current study investigates the linguistic integration of Chinese immigrants, with a particular focus on their language learning experiences before migrating to Africa. As China’s presence in Africa grows, understanding how Chinese migrants prepare linguistically for their new environments becomes crucial. Through a mixed-methods approach, which include surveys and interviews conducted primarily in Cameroon, the research highlights the value of language skills for successful integration and examines the potential consequences of inadequate language proficiency. The study suggests that both Chinese and African governments should collaborate to encourage Chinese immigrants to learn destination languages even before migrating to Africa. This could be achieved by promoting proactive language acquisition initiatives, reevaluating language policies, and implementing standardised language testing. Emphasising the language learning experience is crucial not only for effective communication but also for reducing stereotypes and fostering deeper understanding and integration between the Chinese expatriate community and local populations. Providing language resources and support can greatly enhance crosscultural interactions and promote the harmonious coexistence of diverse Chinese communities across Africa.

From Conversation to Interaction: A Pedagogical Exploration of Applying Conversation Analysis in EFL Classrooms

Within the communicative language teaching approach, current instructional materials often lack explicit guidance or fail to provide L2 learners with a wide range of resources in the target language. Conversation analysis (CA), which focuses on authentic talk, has been proposed as a potential resource for language classrooms. This study examines the effectiveness of using CA as a pedagogical approach in an EFL classroom and its impact on learners’ attitudes toward English language learning. The study engaged eight adult learners in a structured program, encompassing a pre-test, a 4-week explicit CA-informed instruction, and a post-test. After four weeks, learners demonstrated progress in their knowledge and skills of interaction, different aspects of English speaking, interactional competence, and confidence in speaking English. Additionally, the CA-informed instruction positively influenced learners’ attitudes toward English language learning and their appreciation of interactional features. The results strongly suggest that language teachers should consider incorporating CA insights into their teaching practices to enhance both linguistic and attitudinal outcomes.