Linguistic Skills Research Articles

CHILDREN’S AUDIO DESCRIPTION FOR THE PRACTICE OF MEDIATION AND THE ACQUISITION OF VOCABULARY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Even though teaching methods have evolved, translation remains an important and useful tool in the second language classroom (Lertola, 2018). Teachers have been adapting translation exercises to the new teaching trends, and this has allowed AVT to gain a new dimension as a didactic tool (Alonso Pérez & Sánchez Requena, 2018). Some researchers have already conducted projects to implement AVT modes to enhance students’ linguistic skills, but also to encourage intercultural education. Regarding DAT studies, the main modes that have been employed are dubbing and subtitling. However, accessibility modes like AD and SDH have not yet received as much academic attention as they deserve. A type of AD that has been ignored in academic fields is children’s AD. When creating a script for a children’s program, it is crucial to consider the specific needs of this group. This article discusses a case study in which an interactive activity based on children’s AD is employed to help English as a foreign language students practice their mediation skills and acquire vocabulary related to feelings and emotions while also developing their creativity. The results of the experiment show that students perceive that they have developed their creativity and their vocabulary and that the activity has helped them be more aware of the importance of accessibility nowadays. Keywords: accessibility, adaptation, children’s audio description, didactic audiovisual translation, language teaching

Intergenerational psychological intervention programme - PIN - Exploratory study with children and seniors

Intergenerational programs involving children and seniors are a form of psychological and social intervention that promote the development of cognitive, linguistic, motor, emotional and social skills and well-being, with significant results and benefits described for both children and seniors, such as intergenerational socialization and increased self-esteem and self-efficacy, intellectual development, increased happiness, and improved quality of life. In Portugal, programmes intervening in the psychological domain are scarce, which justifies our proposal. We present a P-IN Program: Intergenerational Psychological Intervention Program: Cri(activ)age, Health and Well-Being focused on the promotion of creativity, cognitive preservation/development and well-being associated with intergenerational coexistence. 
 The P-IN programme aims to: (i) Promote through an intergenerational psychological intervention, cognitive development/preservation, creativity and well-being, in children (5-6 years) and seniors (+60). (ii) To evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention on cognitive development/preservation, creativity and well-being. This paper presents the conceptual structure of the programme, its organization into three main components: Beliefs and attitudes; Emotions and well-being; Cognitive stimulation and creativity, and its operationalization in 10 90-minute sessions. Finally, we present the evaluation plan of the quality and effectiveness of the programme based on a qualitative methodological approach using semi-structured interviews to the participants (N= 23 children and 18 seniors; professionals= 4). Of the results we highlight: increase in autonomy, self-confidence and social participation in both groups. In specific terms, the increase in the emotional well-being and psychosocial and physical autonomy of the seniors is highlighted.

Cognitive-pragmatic approach in professional linguistic education

Introduction. This article concentrates on the concept of implementing the cognitive-pragmatic approach into professional linguistic education. For this reason, the author conducts a comparative analysis of pedagogical approaches applied to teaching a foreign language in higher education, highlights key concepts and describes the crucial theoretical and methodological positions, taking into account the educational environment and future professional activity. The purpose of the study is to identify the potential for introducing the cognitive-pragmatic approach into professional linguistic education when teaching foreign languages with the aim of developing discourse competence as the ability and readiness to perceive and create meanings in professional activity.Materials and Methods. The theoretical basis of the study involves philosophical, linguistic, psychological, cognitive, pedagogical, pragmatic concepts that reveal the essence of the cognitive-pragmatic approach in professional linguistic education. The article uses methods of comparative analysis of theoretical and methodological literature on this scientific issue. These methods enable to determine the main positions of the cognitive-pragmatic approach which are to be taken into account for elaborating further methodological recommendations.Results. As a result of scientific understanding and systematization, the article presents the main positions for the implementation of the cognitive-pragmatic approach in professional linguistic education. As a result of comparative analysis, the similarities and differences of such pedagogical approaches as cognitive, pragmatic, sociopragmatic, communicative, reflexive, and functional ones have been studied to substantiate the advantages of the cognitive-pragmatic approach in teaching foreign languages in higher education. Potential areas for improving the process of professional education of language students as well as teaching methods and techniques have been defined for further investigation.Discussion and Conclusions. In the conclusion, the author emphasizes the importance and effectiveness of the implementation of the cognitive-pragmatic approach in professional linguistic education. The results of this study present theoretical and practical interest for researchers regarding the problem of developing linguistic and professional skills of language students.

Учет экстралингвистических факторов в устном переводе (на примере выступления президента Французской Республики Эмманюэля Макрона на французском языке и его перевода на русский язык)

The aim of the study is to identify the extralinguistic factors that influence the process of interpreting. The paper examines the influence of extralinguistic parameters on interpreting through the lens of the functionalist Skopos theory. The study is novel in that it is the first to identify the relevant extralinguistic parameters affecting interpreting that are important exclusively in a given communicative situation, i.e., the speech of a political leader addressed to a wide audience, cultural background, historical context, using a speech by the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron as research material. As a result of the study, it was found that there is considerable interest in the academic community in extralinguistic cultural references in interpreting. Using a political speech and its translation as an example, the paper describes the following extralinguistic parameters: cultural context, body language and gestures, contextual knowledge, the speaker’s status and power. Actual language examples show the role that these parameters play in interpreting. Interpreting political speech requires not only linguistic skills, but also a deep understanding of political dynamics, cultural context and effective communication strategies.

Analysis of lingual situation and foreign language teaching methods (quality) in China and Kyrgyzstan

Relevance The development of a quality language policy fully depends on the level of development of the language situation in the state. For this reason, during the introduction of the current reforms for the improvement of Kyrgyzstan, particular attention should be devoted to the state languages and their prevalence in society.Purpose. The research aims to study the linguistic situation in Kyrgyzstan and China and to investigate the concepts of foreign language teaching in these countries.Methodology. Analysis and synthesis, comparison, deduction, generalization, and abstraction were used in the study.Results. As a result, the characteristics of education, as well as the provision of the language situation in China and Kyrgyzstan, were revealed. Historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural aspects were characterised based on the source for the development of the state language policy. The study also differentiated the societies of China and Kyrgyzstan based on the nationality of the people living in these states. Such results allowed identifying the most common languages and dialects in these territorial entities, as well as determining the level of balance between them. In addition, the study explored approaches and starting points for Chinese and Kyrgyz language teachers. Based on this, the main pedagogical tools, both formal and informal, aimed at developing students� linguistic skills were characterized.Conclusions. Following the study, methodological recommendations for the formation and provision of effective interaction of educational actors were developed. The results are appropriate to be used in the process of developing curricula and materials for those involved in foreign language teaching.

ADAPTING MATERIALS FOR TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH

Selecting materials for teaching Business English is a crucial act, but the aim of this paper is not that of discussing whether we should use authentic or "doctored" texts. It presents several ideas, which have emerged, from personal experience and from the literature on the subject. The findings are suggestions and comments, rather than solutions. The article is intended to provide information regarding the steps of this so called "trip" of any Business English teacher, to the final destination of provi ding appropriate materials for students who study different fields of business. According to the field of business they study, it is in their interest for the Business English teacher to develop their linguistic and communicational skills and competencies.

Impact of school SES on literacy development.

Effective literacy skills are essential to actively participate in today's society. However, little research has been conducted that examined the impact of contextual variables on literacy development. The present paper addressed whether and how the socioeconomic status of the school (S-SES) children attend affects their literacy achievements. Eight-hundred and seventy-eight 2nd and 4th grade children participated in the study. Data were collected in low-SES (vulnerable) and in mid-high-SES (non-vulnerable) schools. Children completed a large battery of language, cognitive, and literacy tasks in Catalan, a language spoken in a region in Spain where virtually all children are at least bilingual (they also speak Spanish) and it is the main language of instruction. Results showed that children in vulnerable schools were outperformed by children in non-vulnerable schools across all literacy competencies, but particularly affected higher order skills; that is, text quality and reading comprehension. Differences with their non-vulnerable peers remained, even after controlling for context-level covariates, including familial SES. However, S-SES ceased to exert significant influence once children's cognitive and, especially, linguistic skills were considered. The study adds to previous research claiming that school SES has an effect on students' literacy skills, above and beyond children's home SES. However, our findings also suggest that literacy performance is ultimately mostly dependent on educationally actionable, subject-level skills. Educational implications are discussed.

Il parlait assez bien français et plusieurs langues: Foreign Language Acquisition and the Diplomatic Self-Fashioning of Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin

Using the example of Prince B. I. Kurakin (1676–1727), the Imperial Russian diplomat who served as extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to France (1724–1727), this article seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the possible reasons for the adoption of French as the language of international communication in general and eighteenth-century diplomacy in particular. It asks when the Moscow-born Gediminid prince learned to speak French and how this non-native speaker of the language became proficient enough to impress a finicky and fastidious interlocutor like Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (1675–1755). The author suggests that the answer to these questions lies not in Russia or France, but in Poland and Italy; and not in the halls of formal educational institutions, but in the networks of personal connections that were sustained as much by face-to-face communication as by written correspondence. This brief biographical survey of the development of Prince Kurakin’s “linguistic personality” demonstrates the mediating role of modern, vernacular languages (Russian, Polish, Italian) in the transition from Latin to French as the lingua franca of international diplomacy. It also emphasizes the intimate connection between foreign language acquisition and diplomatic self-fashioning, showing how linguistic knowledge could be instrumentalized for both personal and professional advancement. In doing so, it illustrates the active role that individual brokers – especially, but not exclusively, aristocratic royal servitors with broad linguistic skills and extensive international connections, like Prince Kurakin and the duc de Saint-Simon – played in creating the very notion of an early modern “European” style of diplomacy based on the cultural dominance of the French language.

The Role of Musicals in Music Education for Children with Hearing Impairment

This paper explores the multifaceted role of musicals in the music education of children with hearing impairments, providing a comprehensive theoretical and practical analytical framework that integrates perspectives from education, psychology, musicology, and linguistics. Initially, the paper outlines the general impact of music education on child development, with a special focus on the unique educational needs of children with hearing impairments. It then delves into a multidisciplinary exploration of how musicals can foster the development of cognitive, psychological, social, and linguistic skills in these children. Through specific case studies, this paper demonstrates the effective application of musicals in actual teaching, while also assessing the practical value of various teaching methods and strategies. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges and future opportunities in musical education, offering insights into future research directions. This study aims to provide deep insights into the field of music education for children with hearing impairments and to guide future educational practices and research.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Cross-Media Writing to Enhance Children’s Language Competences: An Educommunicative Study of Language Development in China

Despite the extensive focus on language development, Chinese children are facing several types of difficulties in developing their linguistic skills in English, majorly due to their extensive character-based writing system and complex tonal language. It is observed that cross-media writing helps the children to promote level of engagement in English writing through multimodal language learning, creativity fostering, collaborative learning opportunities and transferable skills which lead to the promotion of language skills. To address these issues, this study proposed the importance of the effectiveness of cross-media writing in language development. The blended use of blogs, podcasts, TikTok’s, videos, and Duolingo’s in TV ads as education communicative practices was considered as cross media platform. A survey questionnaire was developed for data collection from the language development experts in various Chinese educational institutions. By considering a cross-sectional research design, 265 valid responses were received and used in data analysis by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings of the study revealed the major contribution of crossmediawriting to language development of Chinese children. This study provides valuable insights for the practitioners to promote language development among the Chinese children using cross-media in educational communication.

Description of a patient with developmental delay and dysmorphic features caused by a novel SHANK2 deletion

BackgroundThe SHANK gene, located on chromosome 11q13.3-q13.4, encodes the SHANK2 protein with a function in neuronal synapses. An error in coding can alter the development of typical cognitive, linguistic and social skills. However, its alteration produces a phenotype that has yet to be fully defined.Case presentationWe present the case of a patient diagnosed with a deletion in the SHANK2 gene as an infant and its subsequent evolution, including a description and iconography of the phenotype. Similar copy number variations (CNVs) are described in the literature, but none with the length of our patient's copy number.ConclusionsThis work broadens the phenotypic and genotypic spectrum associated with the SHANK2 gene, which promotes the genetic diagnosis of the disease.

Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents.

Language is a universal human ability, acquired readily by young children, who otherwise struggle with many basics of survival. And yet, language ability is variable across individuals. Naturalistic and experimental observations suggest that children's linguistic skills vary with factors like socioeconomic status and children's gender. But which factors really influence children's day-to-day language use? Here, we leverage speech technology in a big-data approach to report on a unique cross-cultural and diverse data set: >2,500 d-long, child-centered audio-recordings of 1,001 2- to 48-mo-olds from 12 countries spanning six continents across urban, farmer-forager, and subsistence-farming contexts. As expected, age and language-relevant clinical risks and diagnoses predicted how much speech (and speech-like vocalization) children produced. Critically, so too did adult talk in children's environments: Children who heard more talk from adults produced more speech. In contrast to previous conclusions based on more limited sampling methods and a different set of language proxies, socioeconomic status (operationalized as maternal education) was not significantly associated with children's productions over the first 4 y of life, and neither were gender or multilingualism. These findings from large-scale naturalistic data advance our understanding of which factors are robust predictors of variability in the speech behaviors of young learners in a wide range of everyday contexts.

The Role of Task-Based Language Teaching in Fostering Tunisian Pre-service Primary School Teachers’ Functional Competence

This exploratory practice study, conducted at the Higher Institute of Human Sciences of Jendouba and the Higher Institute of Languages of Gabès, Tunisia, investigated the impact of task-based language teaching (TBLT) on pre-service teachers’ functional competence and explored both teachers’ and students’ perceptions of TBLT in their English courses. Data came primarily from classroom observations and focus-group interviews. Findings suggest that TBLT fostered pre-service teachers’ functional competence in English. Both teachers and students reported that TBLT helped improve learners’ linguistic and communicative skills.

CACTI: Co-developing awareness of bi/multilingual classroom practices with a professional development survey instrument

Abstract This paper introduces an instrument, the Classroom Approaches to CLIL and Translanguaging Inventory (CACTI), to help primary and secondary teachers and academic researchers collaboratively develop awareness of bi/multilingual practices when academic subjects are taught in English. While teachers can develop explicit awareness of their language policies and practices, and of critical gaps that require action toward more equitable and productive learning spaces, researchers can learn what different bi/multilingual practices mean to teachers, and what concerns are salient for teachers regarding these practices. The practices may include (1) teaching for knowledge transfer across languages, (2) cultivating linguistic analysis skills, (3) raising critical awareness of the value placed on different languages in society, (4) developing bi/multilingualism and bi/multiliteracies, and (5) involving ALL students’ languages in the social and academic life of the class, even if they are not the official medium of instruction. Besides explaining what brought us to develop the CACTI, we illustrate two ways it can be used for collaborative reflection, one with pre-service teachers and one with in-service teachers. For each application, we discuss how our understanding was challenged by teachers, and what insights we offer for teachers on theirs.

Interconnected Pathways: Postural Stability and Vocabulary Skills in Preschool-Aged Children.

Previous research has highlighted an interplay between postural abilities and linguistic skills during infancy. However, this relationship could undergo further radical transformations in other periods of development. This current study explored a plausible network of relationships among postural abilities and vocabulary skills in a substantial cohort (N = 222) of preschoolers aged between 2 and 5 years-a developmental phase critical for refining both language and motor competencies. Here, postural stability was measured in terms of balance duration and accuracy, alongside an assessment of comprehension and expressive vocabulary skills. Employing a diverse set of techniques, i.e., data and missing data visualization and multilevel regression analysis, task complexity and age emerged as crucial factors explaining our data. In addition, network analysis indicates that language production plays a central role within postural and language interdomain networks. The resulting discussion focuses on the useful implications of this study for the assessment of typical preschool development, which would benefit from tailored methodological inspections guided by developmental theories that are framed in inter-domain approaches.

Reading for Meaning: The Influence of Reader Characteristics on Paragraph Understanding in Aphasia.

The study improves our understanding of the reading comprehension difficulties seen in people with aphasia. It investigates the influence of reader characteristics, including personal demographic variables, and linguistic and wider cognitive skills, on text comprehension. Seventy-five people with aphasia and 87 neurologically typical readers completed a test of paragraph comprehension. People with aphasia also completed background tests of language, attention, recognition memory, and executive functions. The influence of demographic variables (age, gender, and level of education) was analyzed separately in the group of people with aphasia and the typical readers using analyses of variance. In the people with aphasia, the relationship between paragraph comprehension and the language and cognitive tests was explored using correlational analyses. In the typical readers, there was a significant effect of gender and level of education and a significant three-way interaction. For the people with aphasia, there were no significant effects of demographic variables. Significant positive correlations were found between performance on paragraph comprehension and each of the language tests and with tests of auditory attention, executive functions, and recognition memory for words. In people with aphasia, the effects of demographic variables were overshadowed by the effect of their language difficulties. The association seen across language measures reflects the shared semantic representations across single-word, sentence, and text levels, across modalities. The study emphasizes the importance of attention, executive functions, and short-term memory in the comprehension of and memory for what we read. The contribution of both language difficulties and wider cognitive skills needs to be considered when planning intervention. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24695451.

Linguistic skills between explicit and implicit in the romanian early education curriculum

Linguistic skills between explicit and implicit in the romanian early education curriculum

Rethinking Grammar Teaching: Dynamic Approach in Portuguese as a Foreign Language

This text critically examines traditional methodologies for teaching grammar in the context of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL). It proposes an alternative, eclectic approach, which can be used in any foreign language. Drawing on evidence from research and pedagogical practices, it highlights areas for improvement in current approaches, such as the decontextualization of linguistic structures and insufficient gradual progression in exercises. The paper suggests a teaching framework based on Motivating-Grammaring-Applying (MGA), aiming to embed grammar learning in meaningful, communicative contexts and develop grammatical proficiency beyond mere rule memorization. The MGA model foregrounds the importance of authentic texts, student-centric discovery learning, and the application of learned structures in diverse communicative tasks. The paper further emphasizes the potential of digital tools and the importance of integrating grammar learning with other linguistic and cultural skills. Ultimately, this study encourages PFL teachers to diversify their pedagogical strategies and reconsider the role of grammar teaching in language learning, aiming at empowering students for effective communication in real-world contexts.

Emergence of the cortical encoding of phonetic features in the first year of life

Even prior to producing their first words, infants are developing a sophisticated speech processing system, with robust word recognition present by 4–6 months of age. These emergent linguistic skills, observed with behavioural investigations, are likely to rely on increasingly sophisticated neural underpinnings. The infant brain is known to robustly track the speech envelope, however previous cortical tracking studies were unable to demonstrate the presence of phonetic feature encoding. Here we utilise temporal response functions computed from electrophysiological responses to nursery rhymes to investigate the cortical encoding of phonetic features in a longitudinal cohort of infants when aged 4, 7 and 11 months, as well as adults. The analyses reveal an increasingly detailed and acoustically invariant phonetic encoding emerging over the first year of life, providing neurophysiological evidence that the pre-verbal human cortex learns phonetic categories. By contrast, we found no credible evidence for age-related increases in cortical tracking of the acoustic spectrogram.

Predicting Student's Soft Skills Based on Socio-Economical Factors: An Educational Data Mining Approach

Recent changes in the labor market and higher education sector have made graduates' employability a priority for researchers, governments, and employers in developed and emerging nations. There is, however, still a dearth of study about whether graduate students acquire the employability skills that businesses want of them because of their higher education. To determine a student's future employment and career path, it is critical to evaluate their soft skills. An emerging area called educational data mining (EDM) aims to gather enormous volumes of academic data produced and maintained by educational institutions and to derive explicit and specific information from it. This paper aims to predict students' soft skills such as professional, analytical, linguistic, communication, and ethical skills, based on their socio-economic, academic, and institutional data by leveraging data mining methods and machine learning techniques. All five soft skills were predicted using prediction models created using linear regression, probabilistic neural networks, and simple regression tree techniques. This study used a dataset from an open source that Universidad Technologica de Bolivar published. It covers academic, social, and economic data for 12,411 students. The experimental results demonstrated that the linear regression algorithm performed better than the others in predicting all five soft skills compared to machine learning methods. This finding can assist higher education institutions in making informed decisions, providing tailored support, enhancing student success and employability, and continuously modifying their programs to meet the needs of students.