Word Spelling Research Articles

AUTOMATIC TEXT TRANSLATION SYSTEM FOR ARTIFICIAL LLANGUAGES

The growing number and variety of artificial languages leads to the need and relevance of creating automatic dictionaries for their translation in order to facilitate human communication. Such languages include languages where vocabulary, phonetics, and grammar have been specifically designed to achieve specific goals and to communicate with a group of people by interests or place of residence. These languages can be distributed among people of certain professions or among neighboring nations. Examples are slang and surzhik. The common for them is that there is a basic language (literary), the intersection in spelling and meaning of words and phrases with which is quite large. The main goal of the project is to create a system of automatic translation of words and texts from / into arbitrary languages, including hybrid, artificial and slang ones. The proposed model shows the interaction and partial interdependence of the creation and adjustment modules and the translation module of the dictionary, which is explained by tacking the approach of reverse propagation of the translation error. To perform experiments and analyze the performance of the proposed approach to the organization of automatic translation of texts from and into arbitrary language, a software application was developed, which includes a subprogram of initial word processing for dictionary organization, one for creating a working dictionary and one for two-way improvement of created dictionary by the inclusion of new texts in order to improve the quality of translation, including the search for word phrases, idiom, and translation for them, the subprogram of dividing the dictionary into sub-dictionaries with a small percentage of text, the subprogram of the translator itself. To test and analyze the results of the proposed generalized model, three types of source texts were used: literary poetry translation, literary prose translation, literal prose translation. The results of the experiments showed that the proposed approach provides a high level of translation (up to 98,8%) in similar languages (between such languages as Ukrainian-Russian, or Ukrainian - Ukrainian-Russian surzhik wih equal word order in the sentence), especially with a literally translated source text. It has become known that the use of artistic texts to generate dictionaries is possible, but not very effective.

Interaction between orthographic and graphomotor constraints in learning to write

We investigated the combined effects of orthographic and graphomotor constraints as a function of handwriting proficiency in children. Twenty-four first graders, 20 third graders, and 21 fifth graders wrote single five-letter words in cursive writing on a sheet of paper affixed to a digitizing tablet. The words were chosen according to two orthographic constraints, namely their lexical frequency and the graphemic complexity of the last three letters, and one graphomotor constraint resulting from the motor difficulty of tracing the first letter. In addition to massive improvements of handwriting with grade, the results revealed, in the youngest group only, an interaction between first-letter difficulty and lexical frequency. This finding suggests that, before handwriting movement becomes automated, the cognitive resources needed for retrieving word spelling interferes with motor processing while writing a difficult letter. When students start learning to write, they are particularly sensitive to the combination of orthographic and graphomotor constraints.

Does a truly symmetrically transparent orthography exist? Spelling is more difficult than reading even in an orthography considered highly transparent for both reading and spelling

Although we know that spelling develops more slowly than reading in asymmetrically transparent orthographies, such as Italian, we do not know whether spelling lags behind reading in orthographies considered symmetrically transparent for both spelling and reading. This is because reading and spelling skills are rarely tested on the same lexical items, which impedes their direct comparison. This study aimed to address this issue by comparing children’s reading and spelling accuracy on the same lexical items in Turkish, which is highly transparent for both reading and spelling. The study also examined an exceptional case, namely letter Ğ, which can cause phonemic ambiguity and potentially complicate spelling but not reading accuracy in Turkish. Through two experiments, children’s reading and spelling accuracy rates were tested on the same nonword and real word items at grade 1 (Experiment 1, N = 40, Mage = 80.93 months, SD = 2.79 months; Experiment 2, N = 39; Mage = 80.97 months, SD = 2.80 months). The consistent findings from nonwords and words (with Ğ or without Ğ) confirmed that spelling development lagged behind reading development in Turkish and that Ğ reduced spelling accuracy but had no effect on reading accuracy. These findings raise questions about the notion of symmetrical transparency: spelling is less transparent and cognitively more demanding than reading even in orthographies considered highly transparent for both reading and spelling. The case of Ğ highlights that even the most transparent orthographies may have exceptional cases that can differentially affect reading and spelling accuracy and therefore the developmental trajectories of reading and spelling skills. Clearly, spelling words as they are heard may not always result in accurate spellings even in Turkish and children should be explicitly taught about the phonemic ambiguity that Ğ may cause.

Gepo with a G, or Jepo with a J? Skilled Readers Generate Orthographic Expectations for Novel Spoken Words Even When Spelling is Uncertain.

English‐speaking children and adults generate orthographic skeletons (i.e., preliminary orthographic representations) solely from aural exposure to novel words. The present study examined whether skilled readers generate orthographic skeletons for all novel words they learn or do so only when the words have a unique possible spelling. To that end, 48 Spanish adults first provided their preferred spellings for all novel words that were to appear in the experiment. Critically, consistent words had only one, while inconsistent words had two possible spellings. Two weeks later, they were trained on the pronunciations of the novel words through aural instruction. They then saw the spellings of these newly acquired words, along with a set of untrained words, in a self‐paced sentence reading task. Participants read previously acquired consistent and inconsistent words presented in their preferred spellings faster than inconsistent words with unpreferred spellings. Importantly, no differences were observed in reading untrained consistent and inconsistent words (either preferred or unpreferred). This suggests that participants had generated orthographic skeletons for trained words with two possible spellings according to their individual spelling preferences. These findings provide further evidence for the orthographic skeleton account and show that initial orthographic representations are generated even when the spelling of a newly acquired word is uncertain.

EP247: Pathogenic variant in valosin-containing protein causing inclusion body myopathy associated with Paget disease of bone and frontotemporal dementia

Inclusion body myopathy associated with Paget disease of bone and frontotemporal dementia (IBMPFD, OMIM: 167320) is a rare multisystem degenerative autosomal dominant disorder which is characterized by adult onset proximal and distal muscle weakness, early-onset Paget disease and premature frontotemporal dementia. Pathogenic variants in the VCP gene are responsible for the majority of the cases, although there have been reported cases secondary to pathogenic variants in the HNRNPA1 and HNRNPA 2B genes. Phenotypically, proximal muscle myopathy is the earliest and most common symptom. Paget’s disease and frontotemporal dementia are the second and third most common phenotypes, with approximately one-half and one-third of patients developing each, respectively. Dilated cardiomyopathy has been described in some families with IBMPFD later on in the disease. Following diagnosis, baseline evaluations that are recommended include assessment of muscle strength, echocardiogram, pulmonary function tests, bone scan studies followed by x-rays and neuropsychological studies of behavior and mental status. Use of a multi-disciplinary team is beneficial; treatment is aimed at symptomatic management of muscular dystrophy, Paget’s disease and surveillance of cardiac, lung, bone and neurologic functions. Average lifespan in patients diagnosed with IBMPFD is 50-60 years old. A 38-year-old male was referred for genetics evaluation in consideration of a suspected hereditary neuromuscular disorder. The patient had a past medical history of a tremor, both resting and intentional, in addition to congenital bicuspid aortic valve diagnosed in childhood. Symptoms emerged 3 years prior to presentation with progressive proximal muscle weakness and cognitive dysfunction characterized by difficulty spelling words, difficulty recalling names and performing simple math calculations. The patient also reported small joint pain of the hands, chronic back pain, and headaches. Family history was notable for affected maternal family members. His mother passed away at age 50 due to neuromuscular problems, with muscle weakness manifesting in her 40s, progressive in nature, eventually requiring a walker a couple of years prior to passing. The patient’s maternal grandfather also passed away in his 50s. He had progressive neuromuscular disease and was wheelchair bound. His maternal great-grandfather, as well as two great aunts, also had progressive neuromuscular disease. Diagnostic evaluation included EMG, identifying median motor nerve latency with prolongation of the sensory action potential; CPK level was slightly elevated at 370 U/L and metabolic was non-diagnostic. Comprehensive metabolic panel was notable for elevated alanine transferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase levels, at 145 IU/L, 267 IU/L and 150 IU/L respectively. MRI of the spine, previously performed due to chronic back pain, was notable for mottled signal in the L4 region, suggestive of hemangioma or Paget’s disease of the bone. Genetic testing included a chromosomal microarray analysis which identified a 15q13.1q13.2 microdeletion, which is a variant of uncertain significance and not associated with known disorders. Subsequent neuromuscular disorder gene panel testing identified a heterozygous pathogenic change in the VCP gene, NM_007126.3:c.463C>T p.(Arg155Cys), which is associated with IBMPFD. On discussion of the results, the patient was encouraged to continue care with his current care team, as well as to establish care with a tertiary care center. Screening and diagnostic tests included a nuclear bone scan, which was consistent with Paget’s disease of the bone. The patient was advised to discuss the results of his testing with family members at risk and to seek genetic counseling and testing. IBMPFD is a rare genetic disorder, with a broad range of differentials, including limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and other muscular dystrophies. It is likely that IBMPFD is under-diagnosed, as many individuals are misdiagnosed with ALS or another type of dystrophy. It is important to recognize the potential presence of IBMPFD in the differential of patients presenting with muscular dystrophies, given that early recognition can lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment implementation. Additionally, extended genetic testing for family members at risk can help identify heterozygote individuals and provide resources for appropriate supportive treatment and surveillance. Further research into the field will also potentially yield novel therapies and provide more detailed characterization of the different phenotypes of the disorder.

What Teachers Need to Know and Do to Teach Letter–Sounds, Phonemic Awareness, Word Reading, and Phonics

AbstractA hallmark of skilled reading is recognizing written words automatically from memory by sight. How beginning readers attain this skill is explained. They must acquire foundational knowledge, including phonemic segmentation, grapheme–phoneme knowledge, decoding, and spelling skills. When these skills are applied, spellings of words become bonded to pronunciations and meanings and stored in memory. Suggestions for teaching these skills are offered. These include picture mnemonics to teach letters, articulation to teach phonemic segmentation, and sound streaming to teach decoding. It is important to teach decoding with grapheme–phoneme subunits rather than syllabic units. It is important to read words in text to bond meanings to spellings in memory. It is important for beginners to read words in text aloud rather than silently. Showing students spellings of new vocabulary words when they are taught improves their memory for the words. Students progress through four alphabetic phases in acquiring these skills. Systematic phonics instruction facilitates movement through the phases.

An Introduction to Afrikaans Art Songs: A Guide to Lyric Diction

An Introduction to Afrikaans Art Songs: A Guide to Lyric Diction Christian Bester (bio) and Bronwen Forbay (bio) LANGUAGE AND DICTION BASIC AFRIKAANS GRAMMAR The second half of this two-part presentation (see "An Introduction to Afrikaans Art Song Literature: Origins and Repertoire," pp. 471–482) aims to provide singers and teachers with a basic overview of the formation and pronunciation of authentic Afrikaans vowels and consonants. Phonetic transcription rules using the IPA will help guide students and teachers in their correct application. Written Afrikaans utilizes the same twenty-six letters as the English alphabet. Afrikaans sounds closest to Dutch, but uses considerably simpler spellings by comparison, a characteristic that makes it more accessible than many other Germanic languages. Although Afrikaans shares many cognates with English, it is characterized by the frequent use of diminutives (inherited from Dutch), numerous diphthongs, a lack of gender distinction, and simplicity in its verbal system. Verbs are not conjugated, but remain the same within a specific tense regardless of person or number. This particular characteristic makes Afrikaans lyric diction considerably easier to master than other Germanic languages. Afrikaans is predominantly a phonetic language with a limited number of exceptions. Closed syllables are more common than open syllables.1 Where two dissimilar consonants or double consonants separate syllables, the division usually falls between the two consonants, resulting in the first syllable being closed. Exceptions to this rule include the consonant combinations: tr, kw, dr, kl, and kr, which are divided before the initial consonant.2 Word Stress Indigenous Afrikaans words generally receive stress on the first syllable.3 Prefixes and suffixes usually remain unstressed, while the root portion of a word is emphasized.4 Exceptions include either words of foreign origin, borrowed words where stress shifts to the final syllable, or separable compound words where stress shifts to the prefix.5 Since a number of exceptions exist for which no rule can be provided,6 the use of a reliable dictionary such as the Madeline du Plessis et al., Pharos Afrikaans-Engels Woordeboek (Pharos Afrikaans-English Dictionary) published in 2005 is highly recommended. Diacritical Marks The four diacritical marks in Afrikaans are: • Acute accent on é Indicates syllabic stress but does not modify the vowel.7 Example: dié [di] (this/that) [End Page 497] Note: Although the spelling of the example word is almost identical to that of the definite article die (the), the acute accent indicates not only that the syllable is emphasized but also that a different meaning of the word is present. • Grave accent on è Indicates that the vowel is stressed, open, and of long duration.8 It is found mostly over short exclamation words. Incidentally, there are only four indigenous Afrikaans words that are compulsorily written with a grave accent; dè [dɛ:] (take this); hè [ɦɛ:] (really?); nè [nɛ:] (n'est-ce pas?/ isn't it? /not so?/yes?); and appèl [aˈpɛ:l] (appeal).9 • Circumflex accents on ê, î, ô, and û All stress the syllable in which they appear and result in long open vowels pronounced [ɛ:], [ə:], [ɔ:], and [œ:], respectively.10 Examples: sê [sɛ:] (say); wîe [ˈvə:ʱə] (wedge); môre [ˈmɔ:rə] (morning/tomorrow) and brûe [ˈbrœ:ʱə] (bridges). The circumflex accent does not appear above a vowels in Afrikaans.11 • Dieresis This occurs on ë, ï, ö, and ü vowels.12 The accent does not function as a German umlaut as no vowel modification occurs. Called a deelteken [ˈdeᵊlˌteᵊkən] in Afrikaans, it serves as a divisional sign or vowel separator. This diacritical mark ensures that the second vowel in the word is not assimilated into the overall sound, but is sounded separately from the vowel preceding it. Syllabification occurs immediately before the dieresis. As a result, the vowel preceding it is always in an open syllable. Example: oë [ˈo:ᵊǝ] (eyes); haël [ˈɦa:əl] (hail) Note: The dieresis can occur on ä in rare circumstances when "in combination with a preceding a, to indicate the start of a new syllable, such as in lilaägtig, Kanaän, and a number of technical (mostly scientific) terms where a suffix starting with a follows a stem ending on a."13 Example: Aäron [aˈa:ron] Afrikaans Vowel Sounds Afrikaans has five pure vowel sounds...

An Analysis of Students' Ability in Writing Descriptive Composition in Vocational High School

In writing descriptive composition students still experience deficiencies, where some students still find it difficult to write. The purpose of study is to find out the students' abilities in writing descriptive composition and what that difficulties students face in writing descriptive composition in Vocational High School. This research was conducted by qualitative research using descriptive method. The subject of this research are students of class X OTKP in one of private school in Cirebon. There are 19 students in the class and researcher choses 14 students with a random technique. Furthermore, the researcher used student writing and interviews as instruments. The researcher analyzed the data, and the researcher found some finding in the field. First, it was found that the students' ability in writing descriptive compositions was at a low level. This is supported by the second finding, the results of interviews with students, namely that students' difficulties are the generic structure of descriptive composition which consists of describing objects in detail and grammar. In addition, most students have difficulty in arranging words into sentences and writing the correct spelling of words. In addition, the lack of vocabulary makes them write many repetitions of words in their writing.

Prephonological spelling and its connections with later word reading and spelling performance

Before children are able to invent phonologically plausible spellings of words, they may produce strings of letters that do not seem to be motivated by the sounds in words. To examine the nature of these prephonological spellings and their relationship to later literacy performance, we administered a test in which children spelled a series of words using preformed letters, together with other literacy-related tests, to 106 U.S. 3- to 5-year-olds who had not received formal literacy instruction. We then followed the children into the first years of school, administering standardized spelling and word reading tests yearly for the subsequent 3 years. We used quantitative procedures to identify children who were prephonological spellers at Time 1. Although these children did not use phonologically plausible letters at a rate above that expected by chance, their spellings demonstrated some knowledge about common letters and digrams—graphotactic knowledge. The prephonological spellers also showed some knowledge of the alphabet and some phonological awareness, indicating that these skills do not suffice for phonological spelling. Children who were prephonological spellers at Time 1 were poorer readers and spellers at the later testing points, on average, than children who were not. This result reveals the continuity between children’s early spelling attempts and their later literacy skills and the importance of phonology in spelling. We did not find, as Kessler et al. [Journal of Learning Disabilities (2013), Vol. 46, pp. 252–259] did in a study where children wrote words by hand, that better graphotactic knowledge among prephonological spellers is associated with better spelling during later years.

Relating Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming to Phonological and Orthographic Processing of Written Words: Cross‐sequential Evidence from French

ABSTRACTFew previous studies have directly linked the contribution of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) to the development of phonological processing and orthographic processing in reading. These studies are predominantly cross‐sectional and focus on reading development predictors, with relatively little emphasis on spelling achievement. The present study aims to address these issues with a cross‐sequential design conducted among French‐speaking beginning readers. Participants from kindergarten (n = 66) and Grade 1 (n = 87) were assessed with PA and RAN objects considering accuracy and speed. One year later, in Grade 1 or Grade 2, they were tested in word reading and spelling. ANOVAs showed a developmental change occurring in word reading and spelling between Grade 1 and Grade 2, going from phonological processing to orthographic processing. Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that both PA and RAN predicted word reading and spelling in Grade 1, with a stronger proportion of the variance explained by RAN. In Grade 2, only PA explained the literacy outcomes, with a greater amount of the word spelling variance explained compared to the word reading variance. Our findings showed that PA and RAN contribute distinctively to word reading and spelling acquisition, suggesting that they represent independent processes. RAN's greater importance for early literacy skills (Grade 1) suggests that it accounts for the early processes implied in phonological processing. The longer‐lasting predictive value of PA (Grades 1 and 2) provides evidence of its importance for phonological and orthographic processing, especially in spelling.

Meningkatkan Kemampuan Mengenal Huruf dengan Menggunakan Flash Card pada Anak Sekolah Dasar di SD Negeri Wasur Merauke

Language skills are a basic need for elementary school children to be able to communicate and socialize with each other. One of the most basic language skills is recognizing letters in order to enter the reading stage. This study aims to improve the ability of students to recognize letters, spell words, and recognize pictures. The method used in this research is to use a flash card. By using flash cards, the learning method will be more creative and not monotonous so that students will be more enthusiastic in the teaching and learning process. Flash card digunakan sebagai alat bantu agar anak mampu mengenal huruf, mengeja kata dan mengenal gambar. Dalam menganalisis data, peneliti menggunakan metode observasi dan wawancara. Observation method is used to analyze the ability of students during class research. While interviews are used to determine the development of each child during the research. This research was conducted at Wasur State Elementary School. The object of this research is the 1st grade elementary school students. The reason the researcher chooses the first grade elementary school students is because the first grade elementary school students aged around 7-8 years are children who have beginner language skills. so that researchers hope that with this research, grade 1 elementary school students at Wasur State Elementary School can improve their language skills, namely letter recognition, spelling words, and recognizing pictures.

Spelling performance of 6- and 8-year-old Irish children; Is it or ?

The association of phonological and lexical-semantic processes with spelling ability in children has received scant research interest even though uncovering such associations can increase our understanding of literacy development. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 42 6- and 8t-year-old children in the southeast of Ireland. The children took part in tasks assessing reading, letter-sound knowledge, phonological ability, phonological short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming. They also completed an assessment of spelling ability involving regular words, irregular words, and pseudowords. Analyses revealed that, for both age groups, and for all three word types, spelling accuracy was strongly associated with phonological ability scores. In contrast, phonological short-term memory was found to be significantly associated with regular word and total word spelling for the younger group. For the older group, rapid automatized naming was associated with all word categories. Qualitative analysis of the spelling errors revealed that an increase in spelling ability was accompanied by greater prevalence of phonologically appropriate errors. Our findings have important implications for teaching and assessment practices for spelling.

Computer Analysis of New Language Norms Usage in Ukrainian Online Mass-Media

Introduction. In 2019, a new version of spelling was approved in Ukraine. However, Ukrainian mass media experiences some problems with the new norms. Meanwhile, the correct usage of language in mass media is extremely important, because journalistic texts have a large audience and can be used by readers as a certain model. Thus, it’s important to discover specifics of new norms usage in online mass media to understand the level of the norms compliance. Relevance and purpose. The purpose of the article is to propose an algorithm for computer analysis of texts, which allows to investigate compliance with new spelling norms by leading Ukrainian online media, as well as to determine whether the situation in the media changes over time. This study is relevant, because a comprehensive study of the new language norms usage in online massmedia is lacking, scientists focused their attention on individual norms and the number of texts in sample wasn’t large. Methodology. Computer analysis: with Python programs more than 8 thousand news items were collected from the leading online media. Vocabularies with old and new language norms were designed. Comparative analysis: usage of foreign components, variable spelling changes, spelling of the international sites and Internet resources, spelling of certain words were compared in the mass media in 2019 and 2021. Results. It was determined that the authors of the publications did not adapt to the variable spelling changes. Regarding mandatory changes, problems were observed with the spelling of the names of international websites and Internet resources, as well as some words. The situation with the use of feminine forms was the most stable. Spelling of words with the first foreign component, as well as with part «half/piv-» was observed in two versions: old and new spelling. Conclusions. The situation with the new spelling in Ukrainian online media is improving over time, although the acceptance of the new norms is still very slow. Moreover, this situation is observed precisely in the segment of quality Ukrainian media, which adhere to professional standards and are an example for many journalists to follow. With this in mind, we recommend that the editors of the online mass-media take measures to improve the situation.

CHALLENGES OF THE INTERFERENCE IN TEACHING FUTURE INTERPRETERS

Annotation. The article examines the problems that arise in the process of learning foreign languages by future translators, in particular the phenomenon of linguistic interference in oral and written speech. The aim of the work is to identify the peculiarities of overcoming linguistic interference in the process of teaching students by analyzing the causes of this phenomenon and effective methods of avoiding it. Based on the analysis of scientific works, it is established that interference can be viewed from three different points of view: as a result of the interaction of two or more systems, as a process of this interaction and as prerequisites for it.  It is emphasized that no languages interact by themselves as language systems, i.e., interference occurs in a certain social group, and the preconditions for certain processes and results of interference are largely determined by the properties of the members of this group. The authors used the methods of monitoring students studying English, German and Ukrainian as foreign languages, as well as the analysis of informants involving teachers of Ukrainian, German and English. Based on the results of observations of foreign and Ukrainian students studying a foreign language, the phonetic conditionality of phonological processes is established, which is manifested in the absence of a difference between the sounds of the native and foreign languages - possible errors are determined by the sensory and perceptual characteristics of the speaker; and with an adequate perceptual assessment, correct realization may stop working due to the influence of the properties of the articulation base of the native language - errors are of a motor nature. The article deals with orthographic, grammatical (morphological, syntactic and punctuation), lexical, semantic, stylistic and intra-linguistic interference. Orthographic interference is the negative influence of similar words in another language on the spelling of words in one language. The influence of the grammatical structure of the native language on the second language of a bilingual is manifested in mixed case values, in the function of prepositions, in the violation of word order, inconsistency of genders, numbers and cases. Lexical interference is defined as the borrowing of foreign language lexemes during bilingualism, which is expressed either in the transfer of phonemic sequence from one language to another, or in the violation of the structure of the meaning of a native language lexeme or in formations modeled on foreign language words.  Semantic interference is manifested at the level of word meaning. It is emphasized that in case of incorrect choice of a particular language situation, it is a stylistic interference.

Research on College English Vocabulary Teaching Combined with POA and Word Formation Teaching

Vocabulary is the foundation of learning any language. The richer the vocabulary mastery, the better the learners' ability and level of language learning. However, combined with the actual situation of teaching, it is not uncommon for learners to memorize learning methods by rote. The development of modern science and technology has made some advanced teaching methods integrated into college English teaching. To improve the English level of college students, the improvement of their vocabulary is the foundation, and mastering a certain number of idioms is of great significance to improve students' language knowledge and ability, cross-cultural communication awareness and ability. If you simply repeat the spelling and Chinese translation of the memorized words, few students can persist for a long time, and it is easy to cause students to have a one-sided understanding of the meaning of the words. Such complex language phenomena as deformation have brought great challenges to vocabulary teaching and learning. However, in the traditional college English vocabulary teaching, students are not very motivated to memorize a large number of English vocabulary. The article analyzes the optimization and innovation of college English vocabulary teaching under the advanced teaching concept of POA (output-oriented method). Taking the network technology and hardware resources as the carrier, the learning resources are called and integrated to effectively improve the participation of students and the teaching effect.

Spelling-Aware Word-Based End-to-End ASR

We propose a new end-to-end architecture for automatic speech recognition that expands the “listen, attend and spell” (LAS) paradigm. While the main word-predicting network is trained to predict words, the secondary, speller network, is optimized to predict word spellings from inner representations of the main network (e.g. word embeddings or context vectors from the attention module). We show that this joint training improves the word error rate of a word-based system and enables solving additional tasks, such as out-of-vocabulary word detection and recovery. The tests are conducted on LibriSpeech dataset consisting of 1000 h of read speech.

Between Proper Name and Appellative: Lexicography of Words with Borderline Status (Exemplified by Neologism Brexit)

The problems of lexicography of new words that appeared in the Russian language in the 21 st century are considered based on the materials of the upcoming thematic Explanatory Dictionary of Unity and Enmity in the Russian Language of 2000–2020. The author of the article is one of the dictionary compilers. It is stated that the difficulties of describing new borrowed lexical units, that are at the stage of usage, are associated with the establishment of their lexical, grammatical and stylistic characteristics. Criteria for their determination are proposed. The principles of choosing the variant of heading word spelling in a dictionary entry are argued. Based on the methods of definitional, linguoculturological and content analysis using textual material extracted from mass media resources, a methodology for compiling a dictionary entry has been developed, which makes it possible to give a detailed description of the lexical, grammatical, stylistic, paradigmatic and pragmatic characteristics of current borrowings. As a result of this technique application, a dictionary entry of Brexit neologism is presented, reflecting the unstable position of this lexeme in the Russian language system, the status of which fluctuates between a proper name and an appellative. The material and methodology for its systematization can be considered when compiling explanatory dictionaries of new words in the Russian language.

AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

This research is aimed to find out the ability and difficulties of public school students in Jebus, Bangka in writing descriptive text. The method used in this research is descriptive quantitative. The researcher used writing test as the instrument. The sample of this research was the second grade of a public school in Jebus which consists of 30 students selected by using purposive sampling. The finding indicated that the students’ ability in writing descriptive text was classified into very poor. The students’ writing ability in content categories was 2,63, in organization was 2,09, in vocabulary was 2,93, in grammar was 1,75. And in mechanic was 2,33. They were all classified very poor. While the students’ difficulties in writing was language features of descriptive text which consist of describing object in detail, lack of vocabulary and grammar mastery. Therefore, the majority of students was found it difficult to write correct spelling words and create sentences. Based on the results, the researcher concluded that the students did not have good understanding and ability in writing descriptive text.

Consoantes róticas duplas em contexto inicial de palavra nas cantigas medievais: casos de hipossegmentação

This article reflects on the cases of hyposegmentation that involve double rhotic consonants in an initial context of words and clitics in Ancient Portuguese (AP). The objective of the study is to map, in the troubadour era, the hyposegmentation cases of the rhotic consonant in the initial word position. The mapping indicates a slight variation in the spelling of words that begin with this consonant and the lack of blanks is systematically found in the context of the presence of clitic followed by the studied consonant.

Teaching Spanish Spelling in Grades 2–3: A Cross-National Approach

This study aimed to explore instructional practices used to teach words with irregular spelling patterns by Spanish-speaking teachers in 2nd and 3rd grade of elementary school. A sample of 320 teachers from Guatemala, Ecuador, and Spain answered an online survey, which included the Spelling Instructional Practices Scale. Item Response Theory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were used to analyze the construct validity and reliability of the Spelling Instructional Practices Scale. Results pointed out adequate fit indexes of the proposed models. Spelling instructional practices used by teachers were finally grouped into three factors. Results indicated that Spanish-speaking teachers teach irregular spelling words using a combination of instructional practices. Differences in the informed use of spelling instructional practices according to the teachers’ home countries were explored. Significant differences were found between Spanish and Latin-American teachers in the reported use of those instructional practices based on memorization and some materials to teach spelling. However, most teachers reported following a similar pattern when teaching irregular spelling to their students. Limitations and directions for future research are described.