Journal Description
Languages
Languages
is an international, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal on interdisciplinary studies of languages published monthly online by MDPI. The European Society for Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Dialogue (ESTIDIA) is affiliated with Languages and its members receive discounts on the article processing charges.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science), ERIH Plus, and other databases.
- Journal Rank: CiteScore - Q2 (Language and Linguistics)
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 52.7 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 8.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2023).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Impact Factor:
0.9 (2022)
Latest Articles
Re-Thinking the Principles of (Vocabulary) Learning and Their Applications
Languages 2024, 9(5), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050160 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
Making vocabulary stick in your memory involves dedicating attention to what needs to be learned. There are three main factors involved (focus, quantity, and quality) which can be expressed as six principles (focus, accuracy, repetition, time-on-task, elaboration, and analysis). When we include motivation
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Making vocabulary stick in your memory involves dedicating attention to what needs to be learned. There are three main factors involved (focus, quantity, and quality) which can be expressed as six principles (focus, accuracy, repetition, time-on-task, elaboration, and analysis). When we include motivation in this description, then there are two more principles (motivation and self-efficacy). These principles apply to both incidental and deliberate learning, and apply to a wide range of learning focuses beyond vocabulary. These principles are well supported by research evidence. We can use the principles for re-examining teaching and learning, Technique Feature Analysis, understanding research, developing autonomy in learning, guiding curriculum design, and determining future research needs. The factors and principles provide a simple and clear view of what is needed for learning to occur from the viewpoint of attention.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vocabulary Studies in L1 and L2 Development: The Interface between Theory and Practice)
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Home Language Experience Shapes Which Skills Are Used during Unfamiliar Speech Processing
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Susannah V. Levi
Languages 2024, 9(5), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050159 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
Speech mixed with noise and speech that is of an unfamiliar variety both make the task of understanding more difficult. Children are often more negatively affected by these situations than adults. Numerous studies have examined the cognitive and linguistic skills that support spoken
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Speech mixed with noise and speech that is of an unfamiliar variety both make the task of understanding more difficult. Children are often more negatively affected by these situations than adults. Numerous studies have examined the cognitive and linguistic skills that support spoken language processing. In the current study, we examine the contribution of linguistic exposure and various cognitive and linguistic skills for spoken word recognition of an unfamiliar variety of speech (German-accented English). The Ease of Language Understanding model predicts that working memory skills are needed in the most difficult listening situations. Two groups of school-age children were drawn from a larger sample: those with exposure to multiple languages in the home and those exposed to only English in the home. As predicted, working memory skills predicted performance for children with less varied linguistic experience (those only exposed to English in the home), but not for children with varied linguistic exposure. In contrast, linguistic skills predicted performance for children with more varied linguistic experience, even though the two groups did not differ overall in any of the assessed skills. These findings support the Ease of Language Understanding model of language processing.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Language Experience on Speech Perception and Speech Production)
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Predictive Language Processing in Russian Heritage Speakers: Task Effects on Morphosyntactic Prediction in Reading
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Olga Parshina, Nina Ladinskaya, Lidia Gault and Irina A. Sekerina
Languages 2024, 9(5), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050158 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
This study investigates the effect of task demands on the predictive processing of morphosyntactic cues (word class, noun/adjective gender, case, and number) in reading among Heritage Speakers of Russian (N = 29), comparing them with Russian language learners (N = 29) and monolingual
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This study investigates the effect of task demands on the predictive processing of morphosyntactic cues (word class, noun/adjective gender, case, and number) in reading among Heritage Speakers of Russian (N = 29), comparing them with Russian language learners (N = 29) and monolingual Russian speakers (N = 63). Following the utility account of bilingual prediction, we hypothesized that the predictive use of morphosyntactic cues would be more evident in a less-demanding reading cloze task (Experiment 1) than in a more-challenging eye-tracking reading task (Experiment 2), and for cues that RHSs regard as more reliable (word class and number vs. gender and case cues). The results confirmed our predictions: In Experiment 1, Heritage Speakers (and L2 learners) used all cues predictively to generate the upcoming lexical item, with higher accuracy for word class and number cues compared to gender and case cues. In Experiment 2, in contrast to monolingual readers, neither Heritage Speakers nor L2 learners used gender cues on adjectives to anticipate the gender of the upcoming noun. The results are discussed in respect to the interplay between task demands, cue weight, oral fluency, and Russian literacy experience.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Russian Bilingualism across the Lifespan)
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Use of Embedded Clauses in Heritage and Monolingual Russian
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Maria Martynova, Yulia Zuban, Natalia Gagarina and Luka Szucsich
Languages 2024, 9(5), 157; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050157 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
This study investigates the production of clausal embeddings by 195 Russian speakers (67 monolingually raised speakers, 68 heritage speakers in the US, and 60 heritage speakers in Germany) in different communicative situations varying by formality (formal vs. informal) and mode (spoken vs. written).
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This study investigates the production of clausal embeddings by 195 Russian speakers (67 monolingually raised speakers, 68 heritage speakers in the US, and 60 heritage speakers in Germany) in different communicative situations varying by formality (formal vs. informal) and mode (spoken vs. written). Semi-spontaneous data were manually annotated for clause type and analyzed using a binomial generalized mixed-effects model. Our results show that heritage speakers of both groups and monolingually raised speakers behave alike regarding their use of embedded clauses. Specifically, all speaker groups produce embedded clauses more frequently in formal situations compared to informal situations. Mode was not found to influence the production of embedded clauses. This behavior suggests an underlying register awareness in heritage speakers of Russian. Such register awareness might be a result of the high involvement of heritage speakers with Russian. This study contributes to our understanding of linguistic outcomes of heritage speakers and highlights the influence of communicative situations on language production.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Russian Bilingualism across the Lifespan)
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Radio-Lect: Spanish/English Code-Switching in On-Air Advertisements
by
Roshawnda A. Derrick
Languages 2024, 9(5), 156; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050156 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
The 2020 census reports that 61.2 million Latinxs live in the US, totaling around 19% of all residents, forming the country’s largest minority population. With the growing number of Latinxs, there has been a higher level of contact between Spanish and English leading
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The 2020 census reports that 61.2 million Latinxs live in the US, totaling around 19% of all residents, forming the country’s largest minority population. With the growing number of Latinxs, there has been a higher level of contact between Spanish and English leading to language mixing or code-switching (CS) in mainstream American culture. This paper examines the Spanish/English CS in radio advertisements on Los Angeles’s 96.3 La Mega, a bilingual radio station geared towards today’s youth. Using Derrick’ 2015 sentential framework for the linguistic analysis of multilingual sentences, I carry out a sentence-by-sentence analysis of the linguistic nature of the on-air bilingual advertisements. I explore both national advertisements, as well as DJ-endorsed advertisements, to discern whether they follow the patterns previously pointed out in the literature for positive consumer evaluations of Spanish/English bilingual advertisements. Furthermore, I am interested in if these advertisements are in line with the ethos of 96.3 La Mega, which prides itself on being fully bilingual. This research will shed light on the linguistic nature of contemporary strategies being used in bilingual advertisements for the US Latinx community and marketing tactics designed to encourage their consumerism.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spanish in the US: A Sociolinguistic Approach)
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Language Processing Units Are Not Equivalent to Sentences: Evidence from Writing Tasks in Typical and Dyslexic Children
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Georgeta Cislaru, Quentin Feltgen, Elie Khoury, Richard Delorme and Maria Pia Bucci
Languages 2024, 9(5), 155; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050155 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
Despite recent research on the building blocks of language processing, the nature of the units involved in the production of written texts remains elusive: intonation units, which are evidenced by empirical results across a growing body of work, are not suitable for writing,
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Despite recent research on the building blocks of language processing, the nature of the units involved in the production of written texts remains elusive: intonation units, which are evidenced by empirical results across a growing body of work, are not suitable for writing, where the sentence remains the common reference. Drawing on the analysis of the writing product and process, our study explores how children with and without dyslexia handle sentences. The children were asked to write a short story and the writing process was recorded using keystroke logging software (Inputlog 7 & 8). We measured the number of pauses, the nature of the language sequences segmented by pauses, and the revision operations performed throughout the process. We analyzed sentences both in product and process. Our results showed that both the written product and the writing process reflect the establishment of a syntactic schema during language processing in typical children, in line with the first functional step in processing. This was not clearly evidenced in the case of dyslexic children, due to their limited production: beyond spelling, syntactic elaboration was also affected. In contrast, it appeared that the units of language processing cannot be equated with sentences in writing: the information flow is produced through usually smaller bursts that each carry part of the meaning or correspond to a specific operation of text crafting and revision.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adult and Child Sentence Processing When Reading or Writing)
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Visual Cues to Speakers’ Religious Affiliation and Listeners’ Understanding of Second Language French Speech
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Sara Kennedy, Pavel Trofimovich, Rachael Lindberg and Oguzhan Tekin
Languages 2024, 9(5), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050154 - 24 Apr 2024
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Previous research has shown that speakers’ visual appearance influences listeners’ perception of second language (L2) speech. In Québec, Canada, the context of this study, pandemic mask mandates and a provincial secularism law elicited strong societal reactions. We therefore examined how images of speakers
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Previous research has shown that speakers’ visual appearance influences listeners’ perception of second language (L2) speech. In Québec, Canada, the context of this study, pandemic mask mandates and a provincial secularism law elicited strong societal reactions. We therefore examined how images of speakers wearing religious and nonreligious coverings such as medical masks and headscarves influenced the comprehensibility (listeners’ ease of understanding) and intelligibility of L2 French speech. Four L2 French women from first language (L1) Arabic backgrounds wore surgical masks while recording 40 sentences from a standardized French-language speech perception test. A total of 104 L1 French listeners transcribed and rated the comprehensibility of the sentences, paired with images of women in four visual conditions: uncovered face, medical mask, hijab (headscarf), and niqab (religious face covering). Listeners also completed a questionnaire on attitudes toward immigrants, cultural values, and secularism. Although intelligibility was high, sentences in the medical mask condition were significantly more intelligible and more comprehensible than those in the niqab condition. Several attitudinal measures showed weak correlations with intelligibility or comprehensibility in several visual conditions. The results suggest that listeners’ understanding of L2 sentences was negatively affected by images showing speakers’ religious affiliation, but more extensive follow-up studies are recommended.
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Metalinguistic Commentary on Forms of Address in a Finnish Autobiographical Novel Series
by
Hanna Lappalainen and Maija Saviniemi
Languages 2024, 9(5), 153; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050153 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article examines the metalinguistic commentary on address practices in a Finnish autobiographical novel series, the 26-volume Iijoki-sarja ‘Iijoki Series’ (1971–1998) by Kalle Päätalo. Our aim is to show how the forms of address affect the protagonist and other characters. The study is
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This article examines the metalinguistic commentary on address practices in a Finnish autobiographical novel series, the 26-volume Iijoki-sarja ‘Iijoki Series’ (1971–1998) by Kalle Päätalo. Our aim is to show how the forms of address affect the protagonist and other characters. The study is anchored in previous sociopragmatic research on address and in folk linguistics. The analysis is based on searches in the digital corpus of the whole series by means of keywords related to forms of address. The analysis proceeds chronologically, from Kalle’s childhood and adolescence to his marriage and working life, including his social rise from a poor country boy to a full-time novel writer. Our results show that Kalle, the fictional protagonist of the series, mirrors his own and others’ choices in address practices throughout his life against the norms he has learned in his childhood. These choices are explained by the (relative) age, sex, status and regional background of the interlocutors. Metalinguistic comments reflect the characters’ social relations and changes in them during the protagonist’s linguistic biography. We argue that fiction can open up perceptions and contexts related to address practices that are not easily accessible by other methods or datasets.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Perception and Processing of Address Terms)
Open AccessArticle
Online Assessment of Cross-Linguistic Similarity as a Measure of L2 Perceptual Categorization Accuracy
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Juli Cebrian and Joan C. Mora
Languages 2024, 9(5), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9050152 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
The effect of cross-linguistic similarity on the development of target-like categories in a second or additional language is widely attested. Research also shows that second-language speakers may access both their native and the second-language lexicons when processing second-language speech. Forty-three Catalan learners of
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The effect of cross-linguistic similarity on the development of target-like categories in a second or additional language is widely attested. Research also shows that second-language speakers may access both their native and the second-language lexicons when processing second-language speech. Forty-three Catalan learners of English performed a perceptual assimilation task evaluating the perceived similarity between English and Catalan vowels and also participated in a visual world eye-tracking experiment investigating between-language lexical competition. The focus of the study was the English vowel contrasts /iː/-/ɪ/ and /æ/-/ʌ/. The perceptual task confirmed that English /iː/ and /æ/were perceptually closer to native Catalan categories than English /ɪ/ and /ʌ/. The results of the spoken word recognition task indicated that learners experienced greater competition from native words when the target words contained English /iː/ and /æ/, illustrating a close link between the two types of tasks. However, differences in the magnitude of cross-language lexical competition were found to be only weakly related to learners’ degree of perceived similarity to native categories at an individual level. We conclude that online tasks provide a potentially effective method of assessing cross-linguistic similarity without the concerns inherent to more traditional offline approaches.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Speech Analysis and Tools in L2 Pronunciation Acquisition)
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Gestural Alignment in Spoken Simultaneous Interpreting: A Mixed-Methods Approach
by
Inés Olza
Languages 2024, 9(4), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040151 - 21 Apr 2024
Abstract
Cognitive and behavioral alignment plays a major role in simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter centrally monitoring and accommodating his/her behavior to that of the speaker-source. In parallel, the place of gesture in the interpreters’ practice, as well as its degree of convergence with respect
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Cognitive and behavioral alignment plays a major role in simultaneous interpreting, the interpreter centrally monitoring and accommodating his/her behavior to that of the speaker-source. In parallel, the place of gesture in the interpreters’ practice, as well as its degree of convergence with respect to the gestures of the speaker-source, has been scarcely analyzed until very recently. The multimodal data for this study were collected under (quasi-)experimental conditions in a real court interpreting setting during spoken training exercises performed by two novice interpreters. In this exploratory study, the gestural performance of the interpreters, including their degree of gestural alignment towards the speaker-source, is analyzed and compared using a mixed-methods approach to a randomized sample of the recorded data. The analysis combines a basic descriptive quantification of body movements and a qualitative and comparative analysis of the gesture types performed by the speaker-source and the interpreters. The results show that, in spite of individual differences in interpreting fluency and gestural styles, both interpreters tend to align with the speaker-source’s gestural behavior in several ways, and thus a basic taxonomy of gestural convergence between the speaker-source and the interpreters is defined according to several criteria (mainly, gesture presence and gesture type). Our conclusions also allow us to formulate new research questions and hypotheses to be tested in future studies (e.g., types of gestures by the speaker-source that prompt a higher degree of alignment).
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Non-Verbal Communication in the 21st Century)
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Robustness and Complexity in Italian Mid Vowel Contrasts
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Margaret E. L. Renwick
Languages 2024, 9(4), 150; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040150 - 18 Apr 2024
Abstract
Accounts of phonological contrast traditionally invoke a binary distinction between unpredictable lexically stored phonemes and contextually predictable allophones, whose patterning reveals speakers’ knowledge about their native language. This paper explores the complexity of contrasts among Italian mid vowels from a multifaceted perspective considering
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Accounts of phonological contrast traditionally invoke a binary distinction between unpredictable lexically stored phonemes and contextually predictable allophones, whose patterning reveals speakers’ knowledge about their native language. This paper explores the complexity of contrasts among Italian mid vowels from a multifaceted perspective considering the lexicon, linguistic structure, usage, and regional variety. The Italian mid vowels are marginally contrastive due to a scarcity of minimal pairs alongside variation in phonetic realization. The analysis considers corpus data, which indicate that the marginal contrasts among front vowels vs. back vowels are driven by different sources and forces. Functional loads are low; while front /e ɛ/ have the weakest lexical contrast among all Italian vowels, back /o ɔ/ are separated by somewhat more minimal pairs. Among stressed front vowels, height is predicted by syllable structure and is context-dependent in some Italian varieties. Meanwhile, the height of back mid vowels is predicted by lexical frequency, in line with expectations of phonetic reduction in high-frequency contexts. For both front and back vowels, the phonetic factor of duration predicts vowel height, especially in closed syllables, suggesting its use for contrast enhancement. The results have implications for a proposed formalization of Italian mid vowel variation.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phonetic and Phonological Complexity in Romance Languages)
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Full Transfer and Segmental Emergence in the L2 Acquisition of Phonology: A Case Study
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Anaer Nulahan and Yvan Rose
Languages 2024, 9(4), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040149 - 18 Apr 2024
Abstract
In this paper, we discuss a child Kazakh speaker’s acquisition of English as her second language. In particular, we focus on this child’s development of the English segments |f, v, θ, ð, ɹ, ʃ, ʧ|, which are not part of the Kazakh phonological
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In this paper, we discuss a child Kazakh speaker’s acquisition of English as her second language. In particular, we focus on this child’s development of the English segments |f, v, θ, ð, ɹ, ʃ, ʧ|, which are not part of the Kazakh phonological inventory of consonants. We begin with a longitudinal description of the patterns that the child displayed through her acquisition of each of these segments. The data reveal patterns that range from extremely rapid to rather slow and progressive acquisition. The data also reveal patterns that were unexpected at first, for example, the slow development of |ʧ| in syllable onsets, an affricate that occurs as a contextual allophone in syllable onsets in Kazakh. We analyze these patterns through the Phonological Interference hypothesis, which was recently extended into the Feature Redistribution and Recombination hypothesis. These models predict the transfer into the L2 of all of the relevant phonological features present within the learner’s first language and their recombination to represent segments present in the L2. We also discuss contexts where feature-based approaches to L2 acquisition fail to capture the full range of observations. In all such contexts, we show that the facts are modulated by phonetic characteristics of the speech sounds present in either the child’s L1 or her L2.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Investigating L2 Phonological Acquisition from Different Perspectives)
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On the Functional Convergence of Pragmatic Markers in Arizona Spanish
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Brandon Joseph Martínez
Languages 2024, 9(4), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040148 - 17 Apr 2024
Abstract
Tags, compared to other types of pragmatic markers (PMs), are typically considered as separate yet related phenomena and are usually differentiated by their syntactic positions and discourse functions, among other factors. The current work explores this differentiation utilizing 36 sociolinguistic interviews with Spanish-English
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Tags, compared to other types of pragmatic markers (PMs), are typically considered as separate yet related phenomena and are usually differentiated by their syntactic positions and discourse functions, among other factors. The current work explores this differentiation utilizing 36 sociolinguistic interviews with Spanish-English bilinguals in southern Arizona, USA. Standard language variation and change (LVC) methodologies were used in the extraction, coding, and statistical analyses of this dataset (n = 591), with four PM variants identified for study through an exploratory methodology: the tags no and qué no and the discourse markers (DMs) you know and saber. The results of our analyses indicate that, while utterance position, self-reported gender, and length of residence were all significant in the multivariate analysis, discourse function was dropped from the statistical model. Therefore, we interpret this finding as an indication that functional differences between these two pragmatic resources have been levelled through grammaticalization, demonstrating that for Arizona Spanish, tags and DMs belong in the same functional category of PMs. Furthermore, an analysis of codeswitching behavior triggered by the incoming variant you know demonstrates that it is becoming incorporated into the Spanish pragmatic system, patterning similarly to its counterpart saber in terms of function and position, without attrition of the native variant.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Language Contact in Borderlands)
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Open AccessSystematic Review
Prime Surprisal as a Tool for Assessing Error-Based Learning Theories: A Systematic Review
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Judit Fazekas, Giovanni Sala and Julian Pine
Languages 2024, 9(4), 147; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040147 - 16 Apr 2024
Abstract
Error-based learning theories of language acquisition are highly influential in language development research, yet the predictive learning mechanism they propose has proven difficult to test experimentally. Prime surprisal—the observation that structural priming is stronger following more surprising primes—has emerged as a promising methodology
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Error-based learning theories of language acquisition are highly influential in language development research, yet the predictive learning mechanism they propose has proven difficult to test experimentally. Prime surprisal—the observation that structural priming is stronger following more surprising primes—has emerged as a promising methodology for resolving this issue as it tests a key prediction of error-based learning theories: surprising input leads to increased structure repetition as well as learning. However, as prime surprisal is a relatively new paradigm, it is worth evaluating how far this promise has been fulfilled. We have conducted a systemic review of PS studies to assess the strengths and limitations of existing approaches, with 13 contributions selected out of 66 search results. We found that alongside inconsistency in statistical power and how the level of surprisal is measured, the limited scope of current results cast doubt on whether PS can be used as a general tool to assess error-based learning. We suggest two key directions for future research: firstly, targeting the scope of the prime surprisal effect itself with reliable statistical power and appropriate surprisal measurements across a greater variety of languages and grammatical structures; and secondly, using the prime surprisal method as a tool to assess the scope of an error-based learning mechanism utilising conditions in which prime surprisal has been reliably established.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Syntactic Adaptation)
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An Early Intervention in Gestural Communication in Chilean Children from Psychosocially At-Risk Backgrounds and Its Impact on Language Skills at 18 Months Old
by
Chamarrita Farkas
Languages 2024, 9(4), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040146 - 16 Apr 2024
Abstract
The emergence of symbolic gestures is a solid milestone in early childhood development. Interventions that intentionally promote them have contributed to children’s language, cognitive, and socioemotional development. However, these studies have mainly been conducted in the USA with middle-SES families, and such research
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The emergence of symbolic gestures is a solid milestone in early childhood development. Interventions that intentionally promote them have contributed to children’s language, cognitive, and socioemotional development. However, these studies have mainly been conducted in the USA with middle-SES families, and such research has considerably decreased in recent years. This study aimed to assess the effects of an intentional intervention for promoting symbolic gestures in the expressive and comprehensive language of Chilean children who were aged 18 months. Sixty-nine highly psychosocially at-risk children were assessed at 5–9 months and then at 18 months. Teachers from half of the nurseries involved in the study received the intervention. The assessment included a report on the children’s gestural vocabulary, the CDI, and the language scale of BSID-III. The results showed that the children in the intervention group had a significantly greater gestural vocabulary at 18 months and they performed better in their expressive language than the children in the control group did. Additionally, this study aimed to analyze if this intervention affected children differentially in consideration of their language development (adequate and at-risk). The results showed that children with adequate development improved their language when they received the intervention, but those from the at-risk group did not. The implications of these results for the design of interventions at an early age are discussed while considering children from different sociocultural backgrounds and with different language development.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Non-Verbal Communication in the 21st Century)
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Use and Function of Gestures in Persuasive Business Communication: A Contrastive Study between Spanish and English
by
Ana M. Cestero Mancera and Mercedes Díez-Prados
Languages 2024, 9(4), 145; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040145 - 15 Apr 2024
Abstract
This study sheds light on the types and frequencies of kinesic signs used in business pitches by entrepreneurs in Spanish and English, as well as the functions these nonverbal signs fulfil to contribute to the persuasiveness of their presentations. The corpus consists of
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This study sheds light on the types and frequencies of kinesic signs used in business pitches by entrepreneurs in Spanish and English, as well as the functions these nonverbal signs fulfil to contribute to the persuasiveness of their presentations. The corpus consists of 20 pitches (10 in each language) from two equivalent TV programs (the reality shows Dragons’ Den and Tu Oportunidad from the UK and Spain, respectively). A specific method of analysis previously developed by Cestero Mancera is used to identify signs in an inductive, qualitative way that allows us to apply a quantitative methodology to distinguish among the different subpopulations of the subjects studied (male and female presenters in Spanish and English presentations). The results show that facial gesturing is the most frequent type used by all presenters, although speakers of each language seem to have diverse preferences for the rest of the signs (head, hand and other body gestures). Kinesic signs apparently display the same pragmatic functions in Spanish and English, although they are more frequently used in Spanish (63.78% of the 784 signs found) than English (36.22%). Gender may be considered an influential factor when observed within the same language but not as a variable; furthermore, gender preferences are reversed when associated with language (i.e., female Spanish presentations display the most signs, while English presentations by females display the least; male presentations are in between these, there being more in Spanish than in English presentations).
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Non-Verbal Communication in the 21st Century)
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Open AccessArticle
Bilingual Texting in the Age of Emoji: Spanish–English Code-Switching in SMS
by
Cecilia Montes-Alcalá
Languages 2024, 9(4), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040144 - 15 Apr 2024
Abstract
Technology and computer-mediated communication (CMC) have quickly transformed the means of interaction among monolingual and bilingual individuals alike, especially in the younger generations. While e-mail once replaced traditional “snail mail”, today’s youth networks mainly via social media and short message services (SMS). Digital
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Technology and computer-mediated communication (CMC) have quickly transformed the means of interaction among monolingual and bilingual individuals alike, especially in the younger generations. While e-mail once replaced traditional “snail mail”, today’s youth networks mainly via social media and short message services (SMS). Digital communication has thus become a fertile ground for sociolinguistic research. The present study aims to contribute to the field of “electronic” code-switching, specifically in the emerging area of text messaging. To this end, I analyze The Bilingual Youth Texts Corpus, a collection of text messages among urban emergent Spanish–English bilinguals in New York City. The main findings indicate that (1) although it is not the most common practice, participants do engage in code-switching when texting each other; (2) their language mixing obeys most of the socio-pragmatic and communicative patterns attested in oral production (such as emphasis, elaboration, lexical need and, especially, tag switches) along with other functions (textisms) which are idiosyncratic to CMC; and (3) the language choices made by these bilinguals reveal a linguistic and a cultural belonging to two worlds where they may and must use both languages to fully express themselves online just like in real life.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spanish in the US: A Sociolinguistic Approach)
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NN and VV Coordinate Compounds
by
Akiko Nagano and Masaharu Shimada
Languages 2024, 9(4), 143; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040143 - 15 Apr 2024
Abstract
Broadly speaking, binominal and biverbal lexical constructions have been studied independently in different research traditions and frameworks. It is true that the two do not necessarily have overlapping areal distributions, but the fundamental question remains whether Indo-European NN compounds and Transeurasian VV compounds
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Broadly speaking, binominal and biverbal lexical constructions have been studied independently in different research traditions and frameworks. It is true that the two do not necessarily have overlapping areal distributions, but the fundamental question remains whether Indo-European NN compounds and Transeurasian VV compounds have nothing in common. Against this background, a cross-categorial comparison, not within but across languages, is made of coordinative binominal and biverbal constructions. NN and VV coordinate compounds from English and Japanese are examined in detail using the methodology of contrastive morphology and decompositional lexical semantics. It is shown that dvandva is possible not only in NN but also in VV coordinate compounds and, furthermore, that the dvandva–appositive distinction in NN coordinate compounds recurs in VV coordinate compounds. Cross-categorial formal analyses of the two types, i.e., dvandva and appositive, are presented in the Lexical Semantic Framework.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Word-Formation Processes in English)
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Open AccessArticle
Variant Choices of Future Time Reference in Galician: The Grammaticalization of [haber (de) + infinitive] as a Window to Diachronic Change
by
Esther L. Brown and Javier Rivas
Languages 2024, 9(4), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040142 - 15 Apr 2024
Abstract
Compared to neighboring Romance languages, Galician currently maintains a more ubiquitous usage of the construction [haber (present) + (de) + infinitive] as a future marker in variation with the periphrastic construction with ir ‘go’ and the morphological
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Compared to neighboring Romance languages, Galician currently maintains a more ubiquitous usage of the construction [haber (present) + (de) + infinitive] as a future marker in variation with the periphrastic construction with ir ‘go’ and the morphological future. We examine this under-studied construction to gain a better understanding of Galician grammar and also contribute new data with which to consider diachronic change regarding the grammaticalization of the future from obligation markers. We conduct a variationist analysis of 1589 tokens of future forms in recorded conversations (CORILGA) in order to determine the frequency of usage, patterns of variation, linguistic conditioning and degree of grammaticalization of the periphrastic forms with haber and ir in contrast to the morphological variant. We find evidence to suggest that the periphrastic construction with haber is highly grammaticalized as a future marker and we identify factors of the production context that modulate the grammaticalization process.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Developments in Galician Linguistics)
Open AccessSystematic Review
A Systematic Review of Eye-Tracking Technology in Second Language Research
by
Xin Hu and Vahid Aryadoust
Languages 2024, 9(4), 141; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040141 - 12 Apr 2024
Abstract
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Eye-tracking has become increasingly popular in second language (L2) research. In this study, we systematically reviewed 111 eye-tracking studies published in 17 L2 journals to explore the application and replicability of eye-tracking technology in L2 research. The results revealed eight areas of application
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Eye-tracking has become increasingly popular in second language (L2) research. In this study, we systematically reviewed 111 eye-tracking studies published in 17 L2 journals to explore the application and replicability of eye-tracking technology in L2 research. The results revealed eight areas of application of eye-tracking in L2 research, among which grammar and vocabulary were the most frequently examined lines of inquiry. We also identified three types of cognitive mechanisms investigated in L2 eye-tracking studies: attention, higher cognitive processes, and cognitive load. Attention was predominantly measured via fixation temporal indices, while higher cognitive processes were frequently measured by using fixation count and fixation temporal measures. In addition, the measures adopted to assess cognitive load mainly depended on the task type. Finally, with respect to the replicability of the studies, transparent reporting practices were evaluated based on 33 features of replicable studies. We found that more than 95% of the reviewed studies reported less than 70% of the information essential for future replication studies. We suggest that the reporting of the information critical to conducting replicable L2 eye-tracking research needs improvement in transparency and completeness. The implications of this study are discussed.
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