Groups Of Speakers Research Articles

Investigating language transfer from a usage-based perspective

Aims and objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate language contact from a usage-based perspective. In particular, we test the explanatory power of a schematicity continuum, one of the central assumptions within usage-based approaches, in regard to these contact effects. In doing so, we aim to better understand how schematicity influences language transfer as well as learn more about the cognitive mechanism of schematicity itself. Design: The empirical focus of this study is on native German speakers living in the Netherlands who tend to experience a lot of language transfer from their second language Dutch to their native language German. The experiment consists of a production task containing constructions that differ in regard to their potential level of schematicity (i.e., lexically specific, partially schematic, fully schematic) and in the type of transfer that they might trigger (i.e., covert and overt transfer). Data and analysis: We compare production data of native German speakers living in the Netherlands ( N = 60) with those of a control group of speakers not in contact with Dutch ( N = 60), to establish whether the language use of these two groups differs. In addition, we analyze both speaker and item variation for the different constructions. Findings/conclusions: The speakers with Dutch contact show a number of contact effects, such as covert and overt transfer as well as hypercorrection regarding the use of certain constructions. Originality: The variation analysis reveals individual differences in how speakers use the different constructions. Some of these differences can be attributed to their mental levels of schematicity. Significance/implications: The study shows that transfer depends on schematicity. In doing so, it provides direct evidence for different levels of schematicity in speakers’ mental representations, demonstrating the usefulness of studying cognitive mechanisms within a language contact setting.

Cross-linguistic influence meets diminished input: A comparative study of heritage Russian in contact with Hebrew and English

While it is known that heritage speakers diverge from the homeland baseline, there is still no consensus on the mechanisms triggering this divergence. We investigate the impact of two potential factors shaping adult heritage language (HL) grammars: (1) cross-linguistic influence (CLI), originally proposed for second language acquisition (SLA), and (2) background factors associated with input. To assess the role of CLI and input we compared two groups of adult heritage speakers of Russian ( n = 66) with two typologically distinct societal languages (SLs), Hebrew and American English. Their production was evaluated for three morphosyntactic phenomena: adjective–noun agreement, accusative case morphology, and numerical phrases. Using self-rating and baseline vocabulary tasks as proficiency measures, we conducted controlled experiments to assess mastery of the target phenomena. Our results show that, while CLI is the main mechanism behind HL grammar maintenance, increased input and proficiency can modulate performance in the absence of grammatical similarities between the HL and SL. An analysis of non-target responses revealed systematic patterns, including reliance on default, or unmarked, forms in both groups, in line with previous research. These findings contribute to the literature on the mechanisms of HL grammar formation and maintenance.

The impact of bilinguality and language context on the understanding of epistemic adverbs in health communication: the case of English and Russian.

To explore how English epistemic adverbs, as used in health communication, are understood by speakers depending on their first language (L1) and language context. We used an online dissimilarity rating task with paired doctors' opinions which differed only with respect to the embedded epistemic adverbs (e.g., This treatment definitely has side effects vs. This treatment possibly has side effects). In order to evaluate the possible effect of one's L1, we compared the ratings of English-speaking monolinguals and Russian-English bilinguals in Australia (Study 1). To evaluate the impact of language context, we compared the ratings of Russian-English bilinguals in Australia and Russia (Study 2). The data were interpreted using classical multidimensional scaling (C-MDS) analysis, complemented by cultural consensus analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The C-MDS analyses returned statistically acceptable results. Intragroup consensus was evident for all speaker groups. They all clustered the high confidence adverbs (clearly, definitely, and obviously) and the hearsay adverbs (presumably and supposedly) similarly. Effects of L1 were seen: for example, unlike the monolinguals, the Russian bilinguals did not include evidently with the high confidence adverbs (Study 1). An effect of context was also evident: Russian-English bilinguals in Australia most resembled the monolinguals in their understanding of epistemic adverbs. The way Russian-based bilinguals clustered epistemic adverbs reflected a less nuanced understanding (Study 2). The subtle differences in how adverbs of likelihood and doubt are understood in health communication suggest extra care is needed when conveying risk and uncertainty to patients from diverse linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds to ensure mutual understanding and mitigate against miscommunication. The impact of L1 and language context on one's understanding highlights the need to explore more widely how epistemic adverbs are understood by diverse populations and, in doing so, improve healthcare communication practices.

Foot duration and polysyllabic shortening among Arab speakers of English

This study investigates a neglected aspect of second language acquisition. It compares the timing patterns adopted by speakers of English as a foreign language with those of English native speakers. The paper aims to explore the extent to which Arab speakers, whose L1 is not as stress-timed as English is, can acquire the mechanisms of polysyllabic shortening in English. Three groups (English native speakers and two groups of Jordanian speakers of English) were requested to read three sets of monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words in a carrier sentence. The total length of the word and the vowel duration in all the words were measured. Clear differences between the native speaker group and the non-native speaker groups were attested. Results show that isochronous foot duration and polysyllabic shortening are a tendency in English speech timing, rather than a fundamental process. Furthermore, acquiring the timing patterns of the stress-timed English rhythm is challenging to Arab speakers.

Phonetic variation in Italian L2: An acoustic analysis of sibilant fricatives in the speech of L1 Spanish learners

The present study investigates the acoustic features of Italian sibilant fricatives (/s/, /z/ and /ʃ/) in the speech of L1 Spanish learners. Segmental duration, degree of voicing and place of articulation of learners’ productions are analysed alongside those of a control group of L1 Italian speakers to investigate the fine-grained phonetic differences between native and non-native pronunciation. Results from a quantitative analysis suggest that factors such as the degree of typological markedness of the phoneme and the influence of the L1 in perception and production affect L2 pronunciation to a different extent for each of the target sounds.

Speakers are more cooperative and less individual when interacting in larger group sizes.

Cooperation, acoustically signaled through vocal convergence, is facilitated when group members are more similar. Excessive vocal convergence may, however, weaken individual recognizability. This study aimed to explore whether constraints to convergence can arise in circumstances where interlocutors need to enhance their vocal individuality. Therefore, we tested the effects of group size (3 and 5 interactants) on vocal convergence and individualization in a social communication scenario in which individual recognition by voice is at stake. In an interactive game, players had to recognize each other through their voices while solving a cooperative task online. The vocal similarity was quantified through similarities in speaker i-vectors obtained through probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA). Speaker recognition performance was measured through the system Equal Error Rate (EER). Vocal similarity between-speakers increased with a larger group size which indicates a higher cooperative vocal behavior. At the same time, there was an increase in EER for the same speakers between the smaller and the larger group size, meaning a decrease in overall recognition performance. The decrease in vocal individualization in the larger group size suggests that ingroup cooperation and social cohesion conveyed through acoustic convergence have priority over individualization in larger groups of unacquainted speakers.

Telicity judgments in L2 English by L1 Slovak speakers

Abstract The study investigates the acquisition of telicity in L2 English by L1 Slovak speakers as a function of L2 proficiency (measured by a cloze test score), exposure (operationalized as length of stay in an English-speaking country) and instruction type (monolingual vs. bilingual). Telicity judgments were collected from Slovak learners of L2 English (n = 50) and a control group of American English native speakers (n = 15) in two offline acceptability judgment tasks. Two types of telicity encoding were examined: (1) the contribution of the [±quantized] feature of the object argument to predicate telicity, which involves processes in narrow syntax; and (2) the contribution of adverbial modifiers to telicity interpretations, including coercion contexts, which involve processes of aspectual reinterpretation. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that the contribution of the [±quantized] feature of the object argument to predicate telicity, which is a syntactic phenomenon, will be easier to acquire than aspectual coercion by means of adverbial modifiers, which relies on pragmatic cues. The results indicate that the most significant predictor of telicity judgments based on syntactic cues is L2 proficiency, while length of stay affects telicity judgments in predicate categories involving coercion contexts.

Competing factors in SLA: how the CASP model of SLA explains the acquisition of English restrictive relative clauses by native speakers of Arabic and Korean

Abstract The Complex Adaptive Systems Principles (CASP) model of SLA claims that L1 transfer results when language processing effort is minimized. This claim was investigated by a self-paced on-line sentence judgment task in which L1 Arabic and Korean speakers and a control group of L1 English speakers read and judged English subject, direct object, and oblique relative clauses (RCs) in gapped and resumptive pronoun (RP) conditions. It was hypothesized that L1 influence would cause the Arabic speakers to accept English RCs with RPs more frequently than Korean speakers because RPs are acceptable in Arabic direct object and oblique RCs, whereas Korean bans RPs in these RC types. It was also hypothesized that the L2 English speakers would accept RPs more often than the L1 English speakers because RPs would ease L2 sentence processing. As predicted, L1 Arabic speakers accepted RPs more frequently than L1 Korean speakers, a transfer effect, and both L2 English groups accepted RPs more frequently than L1 English speakers, a processing effect. The results thus support the CASP model’s claim that L1 transfer is conditioned by language processing and other complex SLA processes that interact with one another.

(060) Pilot Student-Led Gender Affirming Care Elective for First- and Second-Year Medical Students

Abstract Introduction In 2022, it is estimated that over 1.6 million adults and young people over 13 years old in the U.S. identify as transgender (UCLA Williams Institute). Members of the transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) population face unique health disparities when compared to cisgender individuals, indicating a unique need for medical care. However, there is a dearth of gender-affirming care (GAC) education in undergraduate medical curricula. To address this lack of GAC in medical education, we developed our own curriculum for GAC education utilizing a 7-week student-run elective course for MS1s and MS2s. Objective The objective of this study was to provide a pilot course presenting introductory GAC education to MS1s and MS2s. We sought to assess the efficacy of this course by measuring student engagement with course material and soliciting student feedback in survey form. Methods Classes were held via Zoom on Monday evenings for two hours. Each class structure consisted of a guest speaker and a facilitator-led activity or lecture. Our class topics included terminology, history, and current affairs; intersectionality and healthcare issues pertinent to the LGBTQIA+ population; STIs, sexual health and trauma-informed care; medical specialties and GAC; HRT and surgery; fertility, family planning and intersex care; and provider and patient panels. Students interacted with course material and each other through a variety of platforms, including D2L, PollEverywhere, and Microsoft Whiteboard. Student feedback was gathered using an anonymous Google Forms survey. Questions included short answer, multiple choice, and linear scale prompts. Results There were 32 students who participated in the elective. Upon assessment of student engagement through D2L, we found that 25% (8/32) of the class interacted with 70-100% of the learning materials provided. 90.6% (29/32) of students viewed at least one of the seven learning materials. Upon completion of the course, 34.4% (11/32) of students also completed the feedback survey. 72.7% (8/11) of students surveyed said that student participation was appropriate while 27.3% (3/11) felt that it was too sparse. 81.8% (9/11) of students surveyed felt that time spent hearing from guest speakers was appropriate, while 9.1% (1/11) felt that it was too frequent and 9.1% (1/11) felt that it was too sparse. 100% (11/11) of students surveyed felt that the amount of pre-work was appropriate. Common themes that emerged from student responses were appreciation that most speakers were part of the LGBTQIA+ community and a difference in desired class material; some students thought the class was too introductory while others felt that they learned a lot, indicating differences in student baseline knowledge prior to the course. Common areas for growth that emerged were the need for increased student participation and class discussion and more interaction with pre-work during class. Conclusions This course serves as a blueprint for other medical students who may want to provide information on GAC to their peers. We hope to employ the above areas for growth in next year’s course and have a more diverse group of speakers. In the future, this content could be adopted into the our school's standard curriculum, addressing the gap in coursework on GAC. Disclosure No

Exploring individual variation in Turkish heritage speakers’ complex linguistic productions: Evidence from discourse markers

AbstractResearch on multilingual speakers is often compared to monolingual baselines which are commonly treated as if they were homogeneous across speakers. Despite recent research showing that this homogeneity does not hold, these practices reproduce native-speakerism and monolingualism. Heritage language research, which established itself in the past two decades, is no exemption. Focusing on three predefined linguistic groups, namely Turkish speakers which are framed as monolingual in Turkey as well as two heritage bilingually framed groups in Germany and the USA, we ask: (1) Do heritage speakers of Turkish produce more discourse and fluency markers (FMs) than monolingual speakers? (2) Are the groups homogeneous, or is there wide variation between speakers across groups? We focus on the variation between and within groups using Bayesian Linear Regression with a multilevel model for speakers and heritage groups. Our findings confirm that the use of discourse and FMs is largely defined through individual variation, and not through the belonging to a certain speaker group. By focusing on variation across groups rather than between groups, our study design supports the growing body of literature that questions common heritage language research practices of today and shows alternative paths to understanding heritage grammars.

When two cultures meet

The present study investigated the use of strategies by Chinese learners of English and English learners of Chinese in making requests in both Chinese and English. Three factors affecting request strategies were also examined, including social power, social distance and degree of imposition. A total of 12 Chinese-speaking and 12 English-speaking students were recruited to complete Chinese and English versions of an oral discourse completion task (ODCT). Request behaviour was examined in both the subjects’ native and non-native languages. The results show that the learner and native speaker groups performed differently in making Chinese requests but employed comparable strategies in making English requests. Moreover, social distance was found to be more influential than social power and degree of imposition in making Chinese requests. However, the influence of these factors was similar in making English requests. The findings suggest that it was easier for the learners of Chinese to master English requests than for the learners of English to acquire Chinese requests.

Introduction: language contact and linguistic dynamics – speakers, speaker groups, and linguistic structures

Abstract The introductory paper to the special issue summarises key aspects of contact-related linguistic dynamics such as the communicative interfaces of modern complex societies, the multi-layered textual and discoursal repertoire of their speaker groups and the role of the speakers’ cognitive mechanisms, social identity, and interactional strategies in settings of language contact. Giving an overview of the contributions, it aims to connect classic topics of language contact research with recent theoretical and methodological approaches investigated in the papers, and to highlight interconnections and interdisciplinary links that can stimulate further research on linguistic variation and change.

Says who? Language regard towards speaker groups using English loanwords in Dutch

Abstract This paper contributes to the ongoing Cognitive Linguistic turn in research on lexical borrowing: rather than searching for objective and universal linguistic criteria to demarcate different contact phenomena, we prioritize language users’ subjective perception of contact-induced change. In particular, combining insights from folk linguistics and social role theory, this paper presents the results from a survey targeting 177 Belgian Dutch respondents’ expectations on the use of English loanwords. The survey uncovers variation in these expectations, depending on the age of the projected speaker (RQ1), on the social role of the projected speaker (RQ2), and whether (unexpected) use of English by projected social role actors leads to negative evaluations (RQ3). Results reveal shared expectations regarding the use of English loans by age, with a perceived peak in late adolescence. Regarding the use of English by social role actors, we find high anticipated use of English loans for modern roles (e.g. rapper, gamer), whilst the expectation on English use for public (e.g. primary school teacher) and traditional roles (e.g. farmer) is significantly lower. Finally, our results indicate that role violation only seems to trigger negative evaluations when the role actor is a public figure with social responsibility. The discussion reflects on the implications of the results, contrasting the top-down or bottom-up emergence of shared beliefs on speaker groups and contact-induced variation.

Functional Variation of German Also across Registers and Speaker Groups

Abstract This study investigates the variation of the polyfunctional linguistic item also across registers and language contact settings. I present findings from a corpus study using the corpus of the Research Unit Emerging Grammars, RUEG for short (Wiese et al., 2019), which provides comparable, register-differentiated data of bilingual and monolingual speakers of German in Germany and bilingual heritage speakers of German in the US. The data suggest that functional variation of a specific lexical item reflects the use of functional features in specific communicative situations. The data further indicate an impact of the societal status that a language occupies in the larger society (majority vs. heritage language) on the distribution of such functions.

Using self-paced reading in research with heritage speakers: a role for reading skill in the online processing of Spanish verb argument specifications.

Relatively little is known about how heritage speakers process language in real time, despite recent calls for the use of online methods such as self-paced reading, eyetracking, and ERPs (event-related potentials) in research on this early bilingual population. The present study addressed this gap with an empirical study of the online processing of heritage speakers of Spanish in the U.S. using self-paced reading, which is the online method that is most accessible to a wide body of researchers because it does not require specialized equipment. The processing target was related to the online integration of verb argument specifications, which was chosen because it does not involve ungrammatical sentences and therefore may be less likely to involve metalinguistic knowledge and less likely to put heritage speakers at a disadvantage than measures that rely on the recognition of grammatical errors. More specifically, this study examined an effect that occurs when a noun phrase appears after an intransitive verb, which can cause processing difficulty relative to a comparison condition in which the verb is transitive. The participants were 58 heritage speakers of Spanish and a comparison group of 16 first-generation immigrants raised in Spanish-speaking countries. Both groups showed the expected transitivity effect on the post-verbal noun phrase during self-paced reading, but the heritage speaker group also showed a spillover effect on the post-critical region. Among the heritage speakers, these effects were associated with lower self-ratings for reading skill in Spanish and with slower average reading speed during the experiment. Three theoretical accounts of the apparent susceptibility to spillover effects among heritage speakers are proposed: that it is a characteristic of shallow processing, that it is due to underdeveloped reading skill, and that it is an artifact of the self-paced reading method. The latter two possibilities are especially consistent with a role for reading skill in these results.

Co-Occurrence, Extension, and Social Salience: The Emergence of Indexicality in an Artificial Language.

We investigated the emergence of sociolinguistic indexicality using an artificial-language-learning paradigm. Sociolinguistic indexicality involves the association of linguistic variants with nonlinguistic social or contextual features. Any linguistic variant can acquire "constellations" of such indexical meanings, though they also exhibit an ordering, with first-order indices associated with particular speaker groups and higher-order indices targeting stereotypical attributes of those speakers. Much natural-language research has been conducted on this phenomenon, but little experimental work has focused on how indexicality emerges. Here, we present three miniature artificial-language experiments designed to break ground on this question. Results show ready formation of first-order indexicality based on co-occurrence alone, with higher-order indexicality emerging as a result of extension to new speaker groups, modulated by the perceived practical importance of the indexed socialfeature.

Reinforcement learning for autonomous vehicle movements in wireless multimedia applications

We develop a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DeepRL)-based, multi-agent algorithm to efficiently control autonomous vehicles that are typically used within the context of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), in order to boost application performance. As an application example, we consider wireless acoustic sensor networks where a group of speakers move inside a room. In a traditional setup, microphones cannot move autonomously and are, e.g., located at fixed positions. We claim that autonomously moving microphones improve the application performance. To control these movements, we compare simple greedy heuristics against a DeepRL solution and show that the latter achieves best application performance.As the range of audio applications is broad and each has its own (subjective) performance metric, we replace those application metrics by two immediately observable ones: First, quality of information (QoI), which is used to measure the quality of sensed data (e.g., audio signal strength). Second, quality of service (QoS), which is used to measure the network’s performance when forwarding data (e.g., delay). In this context, we propose two multi-agent solutions (where one agent controls one microphone) and show that they perform similarly to a single-agent solution (where one agent controls all microphones and has a global knowledge). Moreover, we show via simulations and theoretical analysis how other parameters such as the number of microphones and their speed impacts performance.

The Relationship Between Acoustic and Kinematic Vowel Space Areas With and Without Normalization for Speakers With and Without Dysarthria.

Few studies have reported on the vowel space area (VSA) in both acoustic and kinematic domains. This study examined acoustic and kinematic VSAs for speakers with and without dysarthria and evaluated effects of normalization on acoustic and kinematic VSAs and the relationship between these measures. Vowel data from 12 speakers with and without dysarthria, presenting with a range of speech abilities, were examined. The speakers included four speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD), four speakers with brain injury (BI), and four neurotypical (NT) speakers. Speech acoustic and kinematic data were acquired simultaneously using electromagnetic articulography during a passage reading task. Raw and normalized VSAs calculated from corner vowels /i/, /æ/, /ɑ/, and /u/ were evaluated. Normalization was achieved through z score transformations to the acoustic and kinematic data. The effect of normalization on variability within and across groups was evaluated. Regression analysis was used across speakers to assess the association between acoustic and kinematic VSAs for both raw and normalized data. When evaluating the speakers as three different groups (i.e., PD, BI, and NT), normalization reduced the standard deviations within each group and changed the relative differences in average magnitude between groups. Regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between normalized, but not raw, acoustic and kinematic VSAs, after the exclusion of an outlier speaker. Normalization reduces the variability across speakers, within groups, and changes average magnitudes affecting speaker group comparisons. Normalization also influences the correlation between acoustic and kinematic measures. Further investigation of the impact of normalization techniques upon acoustic and kinematic measures is warranted. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22669747.

Comprehension of English Loanwords in Japanese by Japanese and English Speakers

This study addresses our understanding of English loanwords in the modern Japanese language. It aims to investigate the two types of English loanwords and made-in-Japan loanwords among Malaysian English speakers and native Japanese. The proposed study utilized a quantitative approach to determine the understanding of two groups of speakers; 60 Japanese speakers in Japan and 60 English speakers in Malaysia. The data collection of this research was completed using two questionnaires. The two questionnaires consist of 14 sentences with these two types of English loanwords selected from Japanese textbooks and other sources. The findings reflected correct responses to the meaning of English loanwords and made-in-Japan loanwords for Japanese speakers. The English speakers showed correct responses for English loanwords, however, they were discrepancies in responses when it comes to made-in-Japan loanwords. This research breaks ground on the issue of the comprehension of English loanwords and made-in-Japan among Native Japanese speakers and Malaysian English speakers. This study incorporates the theory of language contact by Thomason (2001). The contact occurs where the mutual influence of languages happens leading to code-switching, borrowing, and loanwords formed by the social setting and the contact environment. It also employs the theory of language awareness to support second language learning and develop the learner’s comprehension. The significance of the study emphasizes English language learning benefits and the importance of the learners’ understanding of the differences between English loanwords to utilize them in vocabulary building.

Production, acceptability, and online comprehension of Spanish differential object marking by heritage speakers and L2 learners.

We analyzed the production, acceptability and online comprehension of Spanish differential object marking (DOM) by two groups of bilingual speakers living in the U.S.: heritage speakers and L2 learners. DOM is the overt marking of direct objects that are higher on the animacy and referentiality scales, such as animate and specific objects in Spanish, marked by the preposition a (Juan ve a María 'Juan sees DOM María'). Previous studies have reported variability and high omission rates of obligatory DOM in bilingual situations where Spanish is in contact with a non-DOM language.Our study combined different methodologies to tap knowledge of DOM in the two groups. The results showed that heritage speakers and L2 learners (1) exhibited variability with DOM in production (in two oral tasks), comprehension (in an acceptability judgement task), and processing (in an eye-tracking reading task); (2) can integrate DOM into their production, judgments and processing, but they do so inconsistently, and (3) type of task and type of sentence each have an effect on speakers' use of DOM.