Cambridge Extra at LINGUIST List

Time 2020-07-07 15:06:03

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Black Lives MatterBy Rachel, on June 11th, 2020Written by Karen Stollznow, author of On the Offensive What do people mean when they say, “Black Lives Matter?”“Black Lives Matter” is a slogan and a social movement in response to the historical and current social and systemic racism and violence perpetuated against Black people.Where did the phrase come from?In 2012, 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin was walking home in Sanford, Florida, having just purchased a packet of Skittles from a convenience store. He was spotted by local resident George Zimmerman who reported Martin to local police as “suspicious.” Martin was innocent of any crime, although Zimmerman confronted the young man and fatally shot him, claiming the act was in self-defense. He was acquitted of his crime. Following this incident the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter . . . Read More: Black Lives Matter Leave a comment Sociolinguistics Words on the loose: The power of “premium”By Katie, on January 27th, 2020Blog post written by Crispin Thurlow based on a new article published in Language in Society In a new paper for Language in Society, I open with the following anecdote about the disingenuous power of everyday language games. On a work trip to Stockholm several years ago, I needed to take my two sons along with me. My local colleagues had kindly accommodated us in one of Sweden’s “Elite” hotels. On arrival day, my sons and I checked in and made our way up to the room. As we stepped across the threshold my oldest son declared, with genuine disappointment, “But this isn’t elite!” After I pressed him, he explained that the room was just not big enough. Evidently, he had already learned . . . Read More: Words on the loose: The power of “premium” Leave a comment Language in Society Language, Language in Society Educating the global citizen or the global consumer?By Katie, on January 16th, 2020Blog post written by Claire Kramsch based on an article published in Language TeachingMy views on the impact that globalization has had on the learning and teaching of foreign languages have been very much influenced by my French upbringing. In the fifties in France I learned and then studied German not in order to find a job in Germany, nor to go and visit the country, nor even to make friends with Germans, but to enjoy German literature and to immerse myself in German poems and fairytales. The language for me was indissociable from texts on the page and the imaginary worlds they opened up for me.  Not that I had consciously intended it to be that way. The teaching of German . . . Read More: Educating the global citizen or the global consumer? Leave a comment Language Teaching Product co-creation: together we can build something wonderfulBy Katie, on December 2nd, 2019Originally posted on the Cambridge Core Blog. Written by Victoria Drummond, Director of Online Customer Experience at Cambridge University PressCo-creation is not a new idea. For years companies have been seeking advice from their customers about how they can improve their products and services, either by asking directly, by quietly listening, or by learning from data. But what is fast becoming more popular is the desire for companies to openly collaborate with customers from conception to delivery, with the single aim of creating something that is truly usable and useful. Gone are the days of assumption driven development; knowledge driven development is where it’s at.What is co-creation?At its core co-creation is a methodology which involves companies working directly with their customer community . . . Read More: Product co-creation: together we can build something wonderful Leave a comment Updates Interview with Susan HunstonBy Katie, on November 25th, 2019Susan Hunston is Professor of English Language at the University of Birmingham, UK. She has been involved in Corpus Linguistics for many years and has written extensively on corpora, discourse, and the lexis-grammar interface. She is probably best known as the author of Corpora in Applied Linguistics (2002, Cambridge University Press). Susan is currently co-editor, with Carol Chapelle, of the Cambridge Applied Linguistics series.Cambridge Extra asked her about the new Elements in Corpus Linguistics series and the benefits of this new publishing format. Interview by Rebecca Taylor.Please could you tell us about the new series, Elements in Corpus Linguistics, and its aims?The Elements in Corpus Linguistics series covers all aspects of Corpus Linguistics, from applied research to technical and statistical aspects. . . . Read More: Interview with Susan Hunston Leave a comment New Publications An interview with Peter TrudgillBy Katie, on October 14th, 2019Peter Trudgill, FBA, is one of the world’s best-known sociolinguists and dialect experts.  I interviewed him ahead of the publication of his latest Cambridge book, ‘Millennia of Language Change: Sociolinguistic Studies in Deep Historical Linguistics’.Can you tell us about ‘Millennia of Language Change’?Millennia of Language Change takes a (very) long view of important historical sociolinguistic developments which occurred during the thousands of years stretching from the Old Stone Age, through the Neolithic era and the Classical Age, and on to the Early Middle Ages, concentrating on processes involved in long-term linguistic change and long-distance migration and contact, with examples from a wide range of – in particular – European, Pacific Ocean and native North American languages.What new things are we going to . . . Read More: An interview with Peter Trudgill Leave a comment Historical Linguistics, Sociolinguistics What are the linguistic consequences of Brexit?By Katie, on July 19th, 2018Blog post written by Gordana Lalic-Krstin and Nadezda Silaski, authors of the article From Brexit to Bregret: An account of some Brexit-induced neologisms in English recently published in English Today.What are the linguistic consequences of Brexit? Judging by the material we collected from news media (broadcast and online), Facebook and Twitter, blogs and internet forums, the event  has generated a myriad of neologisms in English, using Brexit as a model or as a source word.Brexit  was modelled after Grexit, a word coined to denote the possibility of Greece leaving the Eurozone, giving rise to at least two more similarly coined blends, Spexit and Itexit, referring to the prospect of the same event in Spain and Italy. However, this was just a beginning . . . Read More: What are the linguistic consequences of Brexit? Leave a comment English Today Q A: Registered Reports from Journal of Child LanguageBy Jen Malat, on March 30th, 2018Beginning in summer 2018, Journal of Child Language will publish a new article format: Registered Reports. We asked two of the journal s associate editors, Melanie Soderstrom and Elizabeth Wonnacott, a few questions about the introduction of this format.What inspired the introduction of the Registered Reports?MELANIE: Registered reports are a relatively new phenomenon in our research community, although to my understanding they come from a similar approach in the medical research community that has been around for many years for clinical trials. They are one part of the research community s broad-based response to the so-called Replication Crisis . In early 2016, we were approached by the Center for Open Science requesting that we consider bringing this format to Journal of Child Language, and the . . . Read More: Q A: Registered Reports from Journal of Child Language Leave a comment Journal of Child Language Journal of Child Language, Language, linguistics, psycholinguistics Q A with new English Today Editor Andrew MoodyBy Katie, on March 28th, 2018Welcome on board as Editor of English Today. What was it about the journal that attracted you to the post?Thank you for the warm welcome from CUP, and to the support and assistance I have been given in the month leading up to the formal installation as Editor of English Today. The journal is one of the most important journals of formal and functional description of English varieties, and this is the primary attraction to working with the journal. The journal also has a very different ‘look’ from other academic publications, and it is easy to see that English Today’s readership comes from many diverse disciplines and orientations toward the English language, and I find that to be an especially appealing feature . . . Read More: Q A with new English Today Editor Andrew Moody Leave a comment Uncategorized World Englishes or English as a Lingua Franca: Where does English in China stand?By Dr Fan (Gabriel) Fang, on March 13th, 2018Blog post based on an article in English Today The spread and development of the English language has triggered debates about issues related to language ideology, identity, and ELT. China is an important context where the popularity of English use and English learning has generated various debates. In this paper, I discuss the use of the English language in China from the perspective of Global Englishes (GE) and I explore the debate about whether it should be positioned from the paradigm of World Englishes (WE) or English as a lingua franca (ELF).Essentially, the WE paradigm investigates different varieties of English in order to understand the various features of the language (including phonology, morphology, and syntax) as it is used in many post-colonial . . . Read More: World Englishes or English as a Lingua Franca: Where does English in China stand? Leave a comment English Today, Free Article Access Rihanna Works Her Multivocal Pop Persona: Morpho-syntactic and Accent Variation in Rihanna’s Singing StyleBy Lisa Jansen and Michael Westphal, on February 27th, 2018Based on an article in English TodayPop music surpasses national and linguistic boundaries. It creates a marketplace of various linguistic resources that artists use in their music performances to create their pop personas. Performers are mobile, transnational linguistic agents. They do not only physically travel worldwide and spread their multivocality, but their products are distributed and consumed internationally via a multitude of media channels. They transport mobile standard and non-standard varieties into new spaces and make them accessible to a broad audience.Rihanna is a globally successful artist with Caribbean roots who combines different musical styles (R’n’B, hip-hop, reggae, pop) and the performance codes associated with these genres (African American English, Jamaican Creole, Standard American English). Her single “Work” stirred up attention: . . . Read More: Rihanna Works Her Multivocal Pop Persona: Morpho-syntactic and Accent Variation in Rihanna’s Singing Style Leave a comment English Today, Journals Applied Linguistics Journal of Child Language Special Issue Call for PapersBy Jen Malat, on February 1st, 2018Call for Papers: The influence of input quality and communicative interaction on language developmentGuest Editors: Elma Blom and Melanie SoderstromWhile studies on the influence of the input on language development have often focused on the quantity of input, there is a growing recognition of the importance of qualitative aspects of the input and the characteristics of communicative interaction. Papers for the special issue would include studies of any qualitative input and interaction-based aspects of language development in diverse populations of children and youth.Relevant topics and questions that papers could address are the following:● Input quality, communicative interaction and language development: What is the role of qualitative characteristics of the input (e.g. child-directed speech, joint attention, responsiveness, turn-taking, reading vs. screentime, computer-mediated . . . Read More: Journal of Child Language Special Issue Call for Papers Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Updates call for papers, cfp, Journal of Child Language, language development JLG Call for Co-EditorBy Charlotte Cox, on April 11th, 2017Journal of Linguistic Geography (JLG) is an online-only refereed journal of international scope publishing the highest quality scholarship on dialect geography and the spatial distribution of language relative to questions of variation and change. The journal examines topics in dialectology, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, language in its sociocultural environment, typology, and investigations of the theoretical contributions by geographically based studies to general linguistics. The journal also welcomes articles inclusive of maps, sound files, and data sets, as may be appropriate. JLG was co-founded by Bill Labov and Dennis Preston. Professor Labov has recently stepped into the role of Senior Editorial Advisor. The journal actively seeks applications for a new co-editor to work alongside Dennis Preston, preferably holding a tenured position at . . . Read More: JLG Call for Co-Editor Leave a comment Journal of Linguistic Geography, Journals Call for Co-Editor, editor, Journal of Linguistic Geography, linguistics “Analysing English Sentences” A. RadfordBy James McKellar, on March 28th, 2017By Susan E. HoltMy love affair (and it really is love) with linguistics began back as a nine year old watching “My Fair Lady” for the first time.  After the initial romance, it was time to make a serious commitment and that came in the form of saying “I do” to a university place at Durham studying English Language and Linguistics.  This marriage was solemnized in the presence of a holy book: “Analysing English Sentences” by Andrew Radford.So my venture into the book began in the first week of university.  The heaviest of all  the books on our booklist, myself and my new linguistics friends quickly (and correctly) figured it must be important.  During first year syntax, the red book was . . . Read More: “Analysing English Sentences” A. Radford Leave a comment Books, Grammar and Syntax English Entrainment of prosody in the interaction of mothers with their young childrenBy Katie, on May 11th, 2016Blog post based on an article in Journal of Child Language Written by Written by Melanie Soderstrom in consultation with article co-authors Eon-Suk Ko, Amanda Seidl, and Alejandrina CristaIt has long been known that adults’ speech patterns unconsciously become more similar over the course of a conversation, but do children converge in this way with their caregivers? Across many areas of child development, children’s imitation of caregivers has long been understood to be an important component of the developmental process. These concepts are similar, but we tend to think of imitation as one-sided and static, while convergence is more dynamic and involves both interlocutors influencing each other. In our study, we set out to examine how duration and pitch characteristics of vocalizations by . . . Read More: Entrainment of prosody in the interaction of mothers with their young children Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals (Un)separated by a common language?By Katie, on May 5th, 2016Blog post supplementary to an article in English Today written by © M. Lynne MurphyLast night, I wondered ‘aloud’ on Twitter if British-American English dictionaries are the worst lexicographical products out there. This was after flipping through The Anglo-American Interpreter: a word and phrase book by H. W. Horwill (1939). At first, when I read Horwill’s claims that Americans ask for the time with What time have you?, I thought ‘Wow, American English has changed a lot since 1939’. But as I kept reading the unexpected items in the American column on each page, the British column sounded more and more like contemporary American English. I started to suspect something was amiss. And in the preface I found it: ‘The present book is . . . Read More: (Un)separated by a common language? One comment English Today, Journals Checking in on grammar checkingBy Katie, on April 29th, 2016‘Checking in on Grammar Checking’ by Robert Dale is the latest Industry Watch column to be published in the journal Natural Language Engineering.Reflecting back to 2004, industry expert Robert Dale reminds us of a time when Microsoft Word was the dominant software used for grammar checking. Bringing us up-to-date in 2016, Dale discusses the evolution, capabilities and current marketplace for grammar checking and its diverse range of users: from academics, men on dating websites to the fifty top celebrities on Twitter.Below is an extract from the article, which is available to read in full here.An appropriate time to reflectI am writing this piece on a very special day. It’s National Grammar Day, ‘observed’ (to . . . Read More: Checking in on grammar checking Leave a comment Natural Language Engineering computer science, grammar, Industry watch, Language, Natural Language Engineering SSLA Announces the 2016 Albert Valdman Award WinnerBy Janise Lazarte, on April 8th, 2016Cambridge University Press and Studies in Second Language Acquisition are pleased to announce that the recipients of the 2016 Albert Valdman Award for outstanding publication in 2015 are Gregory D. Keating and Jill Jegerski for their March 2015 article, “Experimental designs in sentence processing research: A methodological review and user s guide”, Volume 37, Issue 1.  Please join us in congratulating these authors on their contribution to the journal and to the field.Post written by Gregory D. Keating and Jill JegerskiWe wish to express our utmost thanks and gratitude to the editorial and review boards at SSLA for selecting our article, Research designs in sentence processing research: A methodological review and user s guide, (March, 2015) for the Albert Valdman Award for outstanding publication. The two . . . Read More: SSLA Announces the 2016 Albert Valdman Award Winner Leave a comment Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, Journals, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Uncategorized Mouse tracking reveals that bilinguals behave like expertsBy Katie, on April 5th, 2016 Blog post written by Sara Incera and Conor T. McLennan based on an article in the journal Bilingualism: Language and CognitionWe analyzed how participants moved a computer mouse in order to compare the performance of bilinguals and monolinguals in a Stroop task. Participants were instructed to respond to the color of the words by clicking on response options on the screen.  For example, if the word blue appeared in the center of the screen and was presented in the color yellow, he or she was supposed to click on the response option containing yellow, which appeared in one of the top corners of the screen, and not on the response option containing blue, which appeared in the opposite corner. The ability to . . . Read More: Mouse tracking reveals that bilinguals behave like experts Leave a comment Bilingualism, Journals English and international students in China todayBy Katie, on March 30th, 2016Blog post written by Werner Botha based on an article in English Today Between 2009 and 2010, and again between 2012 and 2014, I visited a number of higher education institutes in China in order to research the role of English in the Chinese higher education system. One interesting finding from this research was that China has evidently started promoting itself as a hub for international education. Although the largest proportion of foreign students in China today are attracted by Chinese language programmes, an increasing number of such students are signing up for full degree courses in subjects such as medicine and engineering. An interesting phenomenon is that some university degree programmes in the country are being offered as English-medium degrees to foreign . . . Read More: English and international students in China today Leave a comment English Today, Journals Figurative and non-figurative motion in the expression of result in EnglishBy Katie, on March 23rd, 2016Blog post written by Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez and Alba Luzondo Oyón based on and article in the journal Language and Cognition There is a variety of ways in which English can express resulting events. Some take the form of non-figurative changes of state, as in Cold temperatures froze the river solid, which is an example of the intransitive resultative constructions. Others, like the intransitive motion syntactic frame (e.g. The horse jumped over the fence) and the caused-motion configuration (e.g. Tom kicked the ball into the net) depict literal changes of location. Interestingly enough, many outcome events require a figurative interpretation. Some cases in point are the following: changes of state expressed in terms of figurative motion (e.g. Miners drank themselves into oblivion); self-instigated . . . Read More: Figurative and non-figurative motion in the expression of result in English Leave a comment Journals, Language and Cognition Who could have imagined this kind of success for a scientific blog on bilingualism?By Katie, on March 18th, 2016François Grosjean is interviewed about his Psychology Today blog, Life as a bilingual , by Ewa Haman, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw.The Polish translation appeared under the title, Nie mógłbym nawet marzyć o takiej liczbie czytelników on dwujęzyczność.info. Why did you choose to write a blog for Psychology Today?When Carlin Flora, Editor at Psychology Today, wrote to me in the summer of 2010 to ask me if I would be willing to have a blog on bilingualism, I asked for a few weeks to think about it. The reason was that as an academic I mainly write scholarly papers, chapters, and books. Blog posts seemed a bit short at first (800-1000 words per post as compared to tens of pages for papers!) . . . Read More: Who could have imagined this kind of success for a scientific blog on bilingualism? One comment Bilingualism Infant engagement and early vocabulary development: a naturalistic observation study of Mozambican infants from 1;1 to 2;1By Katie, on March 16th, 2016Blog post written by J. Douglas Mastin and Paul Vogt based on an article in Journal of Child Language This study analyzes how individuals in rural and urban Mozambican engage with infants during naturalistic observations. We assess how the proportion of time spent at 13-months in different types of engagement (i.e., being alone, observing others, interacting with and without goals) relates to infants’ language development over the second year of life. We created an extended version of Bakeman and Adamson’s (1984) categorization of infant engagement, and investigated how a more detailed analysis of infant engagement can contribute to our understanding of vocabulary development in natural settings.In addition, we explored how different engagements relate to vocabulary size, and how these differ between the rural . . . Read More: Infant engagement and early vocabulary development: a naturalistic observation study of Mozambican infants from 1;1 to 2;1 Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals A deserted desertBy Katie, on March 9th, 2016Blog post written by Michael Bulley based on an article in the journal English Today Why that title? Well, desert is one of those spellings, like defect, where a change of stress-pattern alters the meaning, the quality of one of the vowels and the grammatical category. Also, desert, the noun, has the same etymological origin as desert, the verb, though we do not nowadays think of a desert as a place people have deserted. Those two words also belong to a smallish group in English that begin with the prefix de- followed by s and a vowel. That group is the topic of my article.Leaving out rare words and obvious derivations, the list I came up with is this:desalinate, desaturate, desecrate, desegregate, deselect, . . . Read More: A deserted desert Leave a comment English Today, Journals Keep off the grass? No way!By Katie, on March 2nd, 2016Blog post written by Hu Xiao Qiong based on an article in the journal English Today China’s rapid economic development is constantly making English more widely used in China. One convincing piece of evidence is the bilingual use of Chinese and English public signs, which has become “an attractive linguistic landscape”.This paper discusses the ‘appropriateness’ of two possible translations of a public sign “小草微微笑，劝君绕弯道”: one is the literal translation “The grass is smiling. Please walk on the path”; the other presents an indirect translation that conveys the basic meaning of the sign “Keep off the grass”. Many Chinese researchers approve of this indirect translation. The author of this paper, however, considers the literal translation to be more culturally appropriate as . . . Read More: Keep off the grass? No way! Leave a comment English Today, Journals A comparison of the effectiveness of EFL students’ use of dictionaries and an online corpus for the enhancement of revision skillsBy Katie, on February 24th, 2016Blog post written by Natalia Jacobsen and Charles Mueller based on an article in the journal ReCALLThe use of corpora for second language learning and teaching has been gaining increasing popularity in recent decades. Previous research has documented a number of contexts in which corpora can be used successfully for correction of grammar and lexical errors. On a related note, corpora were identified as particularly useful for helping advanced learners understand and acquire appropriate patterns of idiomatic and phraseological usage. However, many studies investigating the applications of corpora to L2 contexts were largely qualitative and restricted to one proficiency level – namely, the advanced L2 learner.Despite positive evidence for advanced learners, the use of corpora among learners with lower proficiency has been not . . . Read More: A comparison of the effectiveness of EFL students’ use of dictionaries and an online corpus for the enhancement of revision skills Leave a comment Journals, ReCALL Bilinguals more likely to spot the difference? New research shows that speaking a second language may improve visual attentionBy Katie, on February 22nd, 2016Based on an article in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition A new study indicates that people who speak two languages (bilinguals) are more visually attentive than those who only speak English (monolinguals).The research, published today [20 January, 2016] in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, was led by Dr Roberto Filippi and Professor Peter Bright from Anglia Ruskin University.The study, which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, investigated the possible effects of bilingualism on visual short-term memory.Adult bilingual and monolingual speakers were presented with two pictures (the original and a slightly modified version) of various scenes and required to press a key as soon as they could identify the difference.The study found that the bilingual participants were significantly faster (2.9 seconds) . . . Read More: Bilinguals more likely to spot the difference? New research shows that speaking a second language may improve visual attention 2 comments Bilingualism, Journals Dynamic conceptualizations of threat in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)By Katie, on February 17th, 2016Blog post written by Olivia Knapton based on an article in the journal Language and CognitionObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe mental health problem of a heterogeneous nature.  While OCD is characterised by distressing obsessions and repetitive compulsions, the nature of the obsessions and compulsions can vary greatly between individuals.  Recent clinical work has thus sought to define coherent subtypes of OCD in order to improve diagnosis, treatment and hopefully recovery rates. The overwhelming majority of this clinical work adopts quantitative approaches that ask participants to respond to questionnaires and inventories.  In contrast, this research article published in Language and Cognition adds to discussions on OCD subtypes through a qualitative, cognitive linguistic analysis.In cognitive linguistics, it is argued that linguistic patterns can . . . Read More: Dynamic conceptualizations of threat in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) One comment Journals, Language and Cognition Rare passives develop a special useBy Katie, on February 10th, 2016Blog post written by Elisabet Engdahl based on an article in Nordic Journal of LinguisticsEnglish and the mainland Scandinavian languages share a typologically rare feature: complements of prepositions can be promoted to subjects in so called prepositional passives, as in the often cited English example this bed has been slept in by George Washington. Several researchers have proposed that prepositional passives are restricted by a notion of affectedness; the passive verb phrase typically expresses a significant property, or a change in a significant property, of the subject-referent.A detailed study of 3600 potential prepositional passives in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish reveals that affectedness is relevant also in these languages – but it is a different notion of affectedness. The prepositional passive subject . . . Read More: Rare passives develop a special use Leave a comment Journals, Nordic Journal of Linguistics How do adolescents with ASD respond to shared knowledge with a conversational partner?By Katie, on February 4th, 2016Blog post written by Ashley de Marchena based on an article in Journal of Child Language People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with imagining or understanding another person’s perspective or state of mind, so-called “theory of mind abilities.” Such individuals also have difficulties with social and conversational language (termed “pragmatic” skills). Research on ASD has been guided by the assumption that pragmatic difficulties are a simple reflection of problems with theory of mind. Thus, we might imagine that someone with ASD may not tailor his language based on what another person already knows (such as when conversational partners share background knowledge).Our recent study published in the Journal of Child Language unveils a more complicated and perhaps surprising picture of conversational interactions . . . Read More: How do adolescents with ASD respond to shared knowledge with a conversational partner? Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals English language teaching research in South Korea: A review of recent studies (2009–2014)By Katie, on January 27th, 2016Blog post written by Ian Moodie based on an article in the latest issue of Language TeachingThis article (written by Hyun-Jeong Nam and myself) reviewed recent research published on English language teaching (ELT) in South Korea (Korea, hereafter). Language Teaching provided a platform for sharing the vast corpus of local ELT research with international readers, while also suggesting future research directions to local scholars. Beginning with a pool of 1,200 articles from 60 journals that published research on English education, we bound the review to discuss 95 studies focused on public sector ELT in Korea. Using broad themes from the national curriculum to organize the review, the discussion covered the following topics:(1) Second language teacher education,(2) Communicative language teaching,(3) Language use and interaction . . . Read More: English language teaching research in South Korea: A review of recent studies (2009–2014) One comment Journals, Language Teaching Deaf children’s bimodal bilingualism and educationBy Katie, on January 20th, 2016Blog post written by Ruth Swanwick based on an article published in the  latest issue of Language TeachingThis paper provides an overview of the research into deaf children’s bilingualism and bilingual education through a synthesis of published studies over the last 15 years. The practice of educating deaf children bilingually through the use of sign language alongside written and spoken language initially developed during the 1980s in Scandanavia, the USA and the UK. This approach developed as a response to concerns about deaf children’s attainments within traditional spoken language approaches and research demonstrating sign languages to be naturally evolving rule-governed languages.There is no one globally agreed-upon definition for the bilingual education of deaf children. However, there is a common philosophy and . . . Read More: Deaf children’s bimodal bilingualism and education Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals My Linguistic Political AwakeningBy James McKellar, on January 15th, 2016Credit to https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanbaptisteparis/Blog post by Neil Smith, co-author of  the recently published third edition of Chomsky: Ideas and IdealsNeil Smith disuses his experience of the 60 s and explains what Chomsky s lectures at MIT were really like 1962: I had embarked on a linguistics PhD on the Northern Nigerian language Nupe. To do the necessary fieldwork I hitch-hiked to Nigeria and lived in a mud hut for a year. It was an exhilarating if sometimes lonely time.1964: On the basis of my PhD I was given the position of lecturer in West African languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London – it was easier in those days to get a tenured University job than it is now to . . . Read More: Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals My Linguistic Political Awakening Leave a comment Uncategorized Scandinavian prosody – same, but different!By Katie, on January 13th, 2016Blog post written by Sara Juul Clausen and Line Burholt Kristensen based on an article published in Nordic Journal of Linguistics Can you hear the difference between the two Danish words mor and mord? (Click on the blue links to listen to the sound files)mor (‘mother’) [moɐ̯]mord (‘murder’) [moɐ̯ˀ]Mord contains a stød /ˀ/, whereas mor doesn’t. Stød is a unique prosodic feature of Standard Danish: a creaky voice that is lexically distinctive. Though uniquely Danish in some sense, the stød/non-stød distinction can also be seen as a parallel to Swedish and Norwegian word tones (Accent 1 vs. Accent 2).In terms of distribution, stød resembles Accent 1: If a particular Danish word is pronounced with stød, the Swedish and Norwegian equivalents of this word form . . . Read More: Scandinavian prosody – same, but different! Leave a comment Journals, Nordic Journal of Linguistics A note from the Editor of Journal of Child Language Johanne ParadisBy Katie, on January 6th, 2016A note from the Editor of Journal of Child Language Johanne ParadisI consider it an honour to have been asked to serve as editor of JCL, one of the long-standing and core journals in our field. JCL has a solid and growing Impact Factor and an impressive volume size with 6 issues each year.With early online publication – FirstView, green open access policy for all articles, an option for authors to choose full open access at a competitive fee, and the continued production of print copies, JCL offers a healthy mix of both traditional and innovative publishing practices.The breadth of papers published in JCL is one its greatest strengths. Among the top  cited JCL articles for the Impact Factor, there are . . . Read More: A note from the Editor of Journal of Child Language Johanne Paradis Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals The Press Language Research team confirms the growing consumerism of ChristmasBy Katie, on December 16th, 2015Post written by Louisa Ackermann, Communications Executive, Cambridge University PressThe Language Research Team at Cambridge University Press have investigated the language surrounding Christmas and they have confirmed that the way we talk about the festive season has become increasingly consumerist.The researchers have reviewed more than 2 billion words from their English Language Corpus and compared the language we use about Christmas today with data collected in the 1990s. They found that twenty years ago, people across the English-speaking world were far more likely to mention carols, pantomimes, pudding, stockings and crackers when they referred to Christmas.But today, the words sales, spend, shopping and retailers were amongst the most highly associated with Christmas.The study identified that excess is now on our minds in . . . Read More: The Press Language Research team confirms the growing consumerism of Christmas Leave a comment Uncategorized Microsoft Grammar and Style Checker (‘Consider Revising’)By Katie, on December 14th, 2015Blog post written by  Viktorija Kostadinova based on an article int he journal English Today One might assume that usage books and style manuals are the reference sources for those seeking advice on correct grammar or proper language usage. However, computers have changed the ways in which we communicate, and grammar and usage have not been spared. Language advice now comes in various forms on the Internet, and grammar rules and style recommendations are incorporated in grammar and style checkers in word-processing software. This raises all sorts of interesting questions regarding the effects of grammar and style checkers on language use and attitudes to language usage.Users of Microsoft Word, the most widespread word-processing software, are likely to be familiar with the green squiggly . . . Read More: Microsoft Grammar and Style Checker (‘Consider Revising’) One comment English Today, Journals Mobile technology in second language classrooms: Insights into its uses, pedagogical implications, and teacher beliefsBy Katie, on December 9th, 2015Blog post written by Benjamin Van Praag based on an article in the journal ReCALLThe use of mobile technology is becoming more and more prevalent, almost ubiquitous, in our everyday lives with devices such as mobile phones pervading every aspect of our daily routines and becoming as much part of the language classroom as pens, paper and course books. Adopting a multiple-case, multiple-method design, including background interviews, classroom observation and video-based stimulated recall interviews, the authors of this article explored mobile technology usage in second language classrooms.The study investigated the practices of three experienced second language teachers in a UK-based language institute in classes of multilingual and multicultural adult learners. The findings, based on analysis of the participants’ rationales, stated beliefs and classroom actions, . . . Read More: Mobile technology in second language classrooms: Insights into its uses, pedagogical implications, and teacher beliefs Leave a comment Journals, ReCALL Introducing a new special issue of Language Cognition on “Cognitive Linguistics and interactional discourse”By Katie, on December 7th, 2015Blog post written Elisabeth Zima based on a new issue of the journal Language and CognitionUsage-based theories hold that the sole resource for language users’ linguistic systems is language use. It is a well-established fact that the primary setting for language use is interaction, with spontaneous face-to-face interaction playing a primordial role. Although researchers working in the usage-based paradigm, which is often equated with cognitive-functional linguistics, seem to widely agree on this, the overwhelming majority of the literature in Cognitive Linguistics does not deal with the analysis of dialogic data or with issues of interactional conceptualization. One may find that this is at odds with the interactional foundation of the usage-based postulate.The papers in this special issue of Language Cognition argue . . . Read More: Introducing a new special issue of Language Cognition on “Cognitive Linguistics and interactional discourse” Leave a comment Journals, Language and Cognition English Spelling Variation and Change in Newspapers of Mainland China, Hong Kong and TaiwanBy Katie, on December 4th, 2015Blog post written by Yonghou Liu and Ye Zhao based on an article in English TodayEnglish spelling variation and change in the Greater China have been left inadequately explored. This study investigates the spelling preferences for Standard British English (BrE) or Standard American English (AmE) of China Daily (Mainland China), The Standard (Hong Kong) and Taipei Times (Taiwan) over a 10-year period, 2001 through 2010. Occurrences of six representative spelling pairs (-our/-or, -ise/-ize, -ll/-l -re/-er, en-/in- and -mme/-m) are calculated in a corpus of 1080 passages from the three newspapers. The findings are: (1) Inter-newspaper synchronic spelling variation once existed. BrE spellings were preferred in both China Daily and The Standard. Both of them witnessed a preference shift from BrE spelling . . . Read More: English Spelling Variation and Change in Newspapers of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Leave a comment English Today, Journals They parked two buses’: a corpus study of a football expressionBy Katie, on November 18th, 2015Blog post written by Mark Wyatt based on an article in English Today The football expression ‘to park the bus’, meaning for one team to play in a negative, boring, defensive way, focused on making it so difficult for the other team to score that it was as if there was a bus parked in front of the goal, is popularly attributed to the Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, who complained to the media about Spurs playing in this way in a game in 2004. Our research into the history of the expression using tools of corpus linguistics supports this popular understanding.In our article, we explore how the expression has developed in English since that time, spreading around the world through English and helped . . . Read More: They parked two buses’: a corpus study of a football expression Leave a comment English Today, Journals The Atoms of LanguageBy Katie, on November 11th, 2015Article written by Bozhil Hristov based on an article in Journal of Linguistics In line with what is expected of this type of publication, my review article of Anna Kibort Greville G. Corbett (eds.), Features: Perspectives on a key notion in linguistics (Oxford Linguistics). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xi + 333, sets itself several targets. The primary goal is to summarise and assess the book, while also seeking to take up and further develop some of the central ideas. In addition, it places the book in its wider linguistic context by drawing attention to some of the current debates and preoccupations of the field.The opening sections summarise and evaluate the contents of the edited volume, attempting to do justice . . . Read More: The Atoms of Language Leave a comment Journal of Linguistics, Journals Graphs and Natural Language ProcessingBy Robert Driver, on November 10th, 2015Blog post written by Vivi Nastase based on the special issue ‘Graphs and Natural Language Processing’ in the journal Natural Language Engineering.Graph structures naturally model connections. In natural language processing (NLP) connections are ubiquitous, on anything between small and web scale: between words as structural/grammatical or semantic connections; between concepts in ontologies or semantic repositories; between web pages; between entities in social networks. Such connections are relatively obvious and the parallel with the graph structures straight-forward. While less obvious, with a little mathematical imagination, graphs can be applied to typo correction, machine translation, document structuring, sentiment analysis and more.Graphs can be extremely useful for revealing regularities and patterns in the data. Graph formalisms have been adopted as an unsupervised learning . . . Read More: Graphs and Natural Language Processing Leave a comment Natural Language Engineering Replication in interaction and working memory researchBy Katie, on November 4th, 2015Blog post written by Lorena Valmori based on an article in Language TeachingSeveral empirical studies have shown that L2 interaction promotes L2 learning. However, recent research has also shown that individual differences, such as working memory capacity, can impact the benefits of feedback.  Working memory capacity is argued to be responsible for storing and processing incoming input and has been measured with a number of elicitation methods such as phonological short-term memory (digit and non-word span), reading span, and operation span. We argue that the time is right to replicate studies that unify the research areas of working memory capacity and L2 learning.We selected and analyzed two recent studies (Révész 2012 and Goo 2012) that investigated how working memory capacity mediates . . . Read More: Replication in interaction and working memory research Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching Research into practice: The influence of discourse studies on language descriptions and task design in published ELT materialsBy Katie, on October 28th, 2015Blog post written by Alex Gilmore based on an article in the latest issue of Language Teaching  Discourse studies is a vast, multidisciplinary, and rapidly expanding area of research, embracing a range of approaches including discourse analysis, corpus analysis, conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, critical discourse analysis, genre analysis and multimodal discourse analysis. Each approach offers its own unique perspective on discourse, focusing variably on text, context or a range of semiotic modes. Together, they provide foreign language teachers and material designers with new insights into language, and are beginning to have an observable impact on published English Language Teaching (ELT) materials. This paper looks at the ways in which the four approaches with the strongest links to the ELT profession (corpus . . . Read More: Research into practice: The influence of discourse studies on language descriptions and task design in published ELT materials Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching Studying Error Correction in Second Language WritingBy Katie, on October 22nd, 2015How Models from Past Research Can Inform Future ResearchBlog post written by Dana Ferris based on an article in Language TeachingThe title of an important 2008 study by Andrea Lunsford and Karen Lunsford is “Mistakes are a fact of life.” “Mistakes” are also natural part of any learning process, but when it comes to student writing, teachers worry that if language errors—such as problems with verb tense or missing word endings or incomplete sentences (fragments) or incorrect punctuation—are left uncorrected, students will never learn from those mistakes. Teachers also worry that students’ ideas, competence, and work ethic will be harshly judged by later real-world audiences, such as graduate school professors or future employers, if young writers do not learn to self-edit . . . Read More: Studying Error Correction in Second Language Writing Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching Acceleration in the bilingual acquisition of phonological structure: Evidence from Polish–English bilingual childrenBy Katie, on October 20th, 2015Blog post written by Marco Tamburelli based on an article in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition The Polish language is well known for its broad range of consonant sequences. Among other things, Polish words may begin with consonant sequences that in languages like English are only allowed in word-medial or word-final position. The sequence /pt/, for instance, is found in the middle and at the end of English words such as raptor or apt, but never at the beginning. In Polish, however, we find words such as ptak (meaning ‘bird’), with the sequence /pt/ occurring word-initially. English does have some types of word-initial sequences that are similar to the /p/ type, notably /st/ as in “stain”,  /sp/ as in “spin”, and /sk/ as in “skate”, . . . Read More: Acceleration in the bilingual acquisition of phonological structure: Evidence from Polish–English bilingual children Leave a comment Uncategorized Parents Mixing Languages has No Impact on Children s Vocabulary DevelopmentBy Katie, on October 13th, 2015Post from the University of Maryland College of Behavioural and Social Sciences Blog The SolutionMany adults speak more than one language, and often “mix” those languages when speaking to their children, a practice called “code-switching.” An eye-opening study by researchers in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences has found that this “code-switching” has no impact on children’s vocabulary development. The study, “Look at the gato! Code-switching in speech to toddlers” appears in the Journal of Child Language.Professor Rochelle S. Newman, chair of the department, and then-graduate students Amelie Bail and Giovanna Morini studied 24 parents and 24 children aged 18 to 24 months during a 15-minute play session.Key Findings:•Every parent in the study switched languages at least once during a . . . Read More: Parents Mixing Languages has No Impact on Children s Vocabulary Development Leave a comment Free Article Access, Journal of Child Language, Journals The bilingual advantage in phonetic learningBy Katie, on October 8th, 2015Blog post written by Mark Antoniou and Patrick Wong based on an article in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition Fundamental questions concerning language learning remain unanswered. Some foreign learners are able to acquire a foreign language very successfully, whereas others are frustrated by their lack of progress. It is not clear why some learners flourish while others in the same setting struggle. Our study, published in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition sought to shed some light on this topic.Numerous factors are thought to be advantageous for non-native language learning although they are typically investigated in isolation, and the interaction between them is not understood. Firstly, it is often claimed that it is easier for bilinguals to acquire a third language than it is for monolinguals . . . Read More: The bilingual advantage in phonetic learning Leave a comment Bilingualism, Journals Differences in Language Exposure and its Effects on Memory Flexibility in Monolingual, Bilingual, and Trilingual InfantsBy Katie, on October 2nd, 2015Blog post written by Natalie H. Brito based on an article in the journal Bilingualism: Language and CognitionAlthough the majority of multilingual children learn languages sequentially, typically learning their first language in the home and their second language from school, a number of children are exposed to two or even three languages in the home from birth. Studies have found differences between infants exposed to one language vs. two on tasks tapping memory flexibility – as early as 6-months of age (Brito Barr, 2014). Memory flexibility is the ability to retrieve past memories despite changes in cues and context, and memory flexibility has been tested using the deferred imitation memory generalization task. In this task, the experimenter demonstrates a series of actions . . . Read More: Differences in Language Exposure and its Effects on Memory Flexibility in Monolingual, Bilingual, and Trilingual Infants Leave a comment Bilingualism, Journals Exploring the Indo-European Roots (Part 1)By James McKellar, on September 16th, 2015Blog post written by Asya Pereltsvaig author of Languages of The World  co-author of The Indo-European Controversy.Image: www.flickr.com/photos/paulsimpson1976/3629546523 via Creative Commons.In 1767, the year when the British first sighted Pitcairn Island and visited Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean, another monumental discovery was being made back in London, in the study of one James Parsons. Comparing the numerals ‘one’ through ‘ten’ in various languages of Europe, Parsons “was insensibly led on to attempt following them to their source”. The book in which this phrase first appeared, The Remains of Japhet, being Historical Enquiries into the Affinity and Origins of the European Languages, was as long-winded as its title, and Parsons himself retired shortly after its publication. As a result his work remained . . . Read More: Exploring the Indo-European Roots (Part 1) Leave a comment Books, Historical Linguistics Historical Linguistics Does the motor system contribute to the perception and understanding of actions?By Katie, on September 11th, 2015Reflections on Gregory Hickok’s The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition Blog post written by David Kemmerer based on an article in the latest issue of Language and CognitionIt has been said that mirror neurons are “the most hyped concept in neuroscience” (Jarrett, 2012). In his book The myth of mirror neurons: the real neuroscience of communication and cognition (2014), Gregory Hickok does the field a great service by cutting through this hype and showing that, contrary to the views of many laypeople as well as some experts, mirror neurons are not the fundamental ‘basis’ of action understanding.In this article I argue, however, that he takes his critique too far by effectively denying that the motor system . . . Read More: Does the motor system contribute to the perception and understanding of actions? Leave a comment Uncategorized Words, Words, Words,By Katie, on September 9th, 2015Blog post written by Simon Elmes based on an article in English Today They fill the airwaves, and whirl around our breakfast, lunch and dinner tables… those legions of words that pour from the radio and the television hourly, daily – every second. And they get crunched, munched and bunched by their utterers, perhaps caught on the hop on a live microphone, or maybe who’ve made the mangling of the English language a life’s work. John Prescott, for one, was famed for his outspokenness and the interesting grammar with which he articulated it.‘Speaking proper’, as the celebrated Colloquy by the monk, Aelfric one of the earliest records of what medieval spoken English may have resembled – shows, has been a nagging . . . Read More: Words, Words, Words, Leave a comment English Today, Journals How can a parent, a dedicated teacher or a speech-language pathologist improve memory performance of a child?By Katie, on September 4th, 2015Post written by Michal Icht and Yaniv Mama based on an article in Journal of Child Language How can a parent, a dedicated teacher or a speech-language pathologist improve memory performance of a child? How can we help a kid better remember study material, such as new vocabulary?A promising and straightforward technique may be simply saying the relevant material aloud. This simple method is based on the ‘Production Effect’ in memory. This effect refers to a memory advantage (of about 20%) for words that were read aloud over words that were silently read. Reading aloud was found to enhance memory for other types of material, such as sentences (text), and was proven useful for students and older adults.Although many other types of . . . Read More: How can a parent, a dedicated teacher or a speech-language pathologist improve memory performance of a child? Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Grab that mat, Bat Rat, said Fat Cat! How rhyming words help children with phonological disordersBy Katie, on August 27th, 2015Blog post written by Judith A. Gierut based on an article in the latest issue of Journal of Child LanguageIt has long been thought that children’s acquisition of the sound system of a language follows directly from lexical learning. Indeed, some words are better than others in promoting mastery of new sounds and generalized productive use of those sounds across the lexicon. In particular, rhyming words (dubbed lexical neighbors) provide distinct advantages to phonological learning, but the learning mechanism responsible for the effect is not well understood. Some suppose that rhyming words afford a naturalistic case of long-term auditory priming, such that repeated exposure to similar sounding words of the input enhances phonemic distinctiveness. Others suggest that rhyming words benefit phonological . . . Read More: Grab that mat, Bat Rat, said Fat Cat! How rhyming words help children with phonological disorders Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Social networks and language change in Tudor and Stuart London – only connect?By Katie, on August 19th, 2015Blog post written by Terttu Nevalainen based on an article in the latest issue of English Language and Linguistics Social media and mobile technology have increased and accelerated human interconnectedness and social networking on a global scale. It is a common observation that new words and expressions travel fast in these networks. But our primary medium of communication is still spoken interaction, and this is how language is transmitted to the next generation. Linguists have long been interested in the influence of social networks on language learning, use and, ultimately, on language change. They have shown how people either tend to maintain the language they once acquired or become more apt to change it depending on the kinds of social network relationships . . . Read More: Social networks and language change in Tudor and Stuart London – only connect? Leave a comment English Language and Linguistics, Journals 2014 Christopher Brumfit Award winner talks to Cambridge ExtraBy Katie, on July 29th, 2015Blog post written by Hilde van Zeeland, winner of the 2014 Christopher Brumfit AwardMost L2 vocabulary research has focused on learners’ knowledge of written, rather than spoken, words. In my thesis, I identified and addressed two gaps in the field: 1) how many spoken (versus written) words L2 learners know, i.e. their vocabulary knowledge in listening, and 2) how successful learners are at learning new words from spoken input, i.e. their vocabulary knowledge from listening.The first two studies from my thesis (one published, one under review) focused on vocabulary knowledge in listening. Little is known about how many words learners know when they hear them in their spoken form, and in particular, if knowledge found on written tests (e.g. the VLT, VST, and . . . Read More: 2014 Christopher Brumfit Award winner talks to Cambridge Extra One comment Journals, Language Teaching NLP meets the cloudBy Katie, on July 23rd, 2015In his latest industry watch column, Robert Dale, Chief Technology Officer for Arria NLG, takes a look at what’s on offer in the NLP microservices space, reviewing five SaaS offerings as of June 2015Below is an extract from the columnWith NLP services now widely available via cloud APIs, tasks like named entity recognition and sentiment analysis are virtually commodities. We look at what s on offer, and make some suggestions for how to get rich.Software as a service, or SaaS the mode of software delivery where you pay a monthly or annual subscription to use a cloud-based service, rather than having a piece of software installed on your desktop just gets more and more popular. If you re a user of Evernote . . . Read More: NLP meets the cloud Leave a comment Journals, Natural Language Engineering No, the rise of the emoji doesn t spell the end for languageBy Katie, on July 17th, 2015Editor of the journal Language and Cognition and author of several Cambridge books including the forthcoming The Crucible of Language Vyv Evans has been in the news recently discussing the increase in the use of emojis.In this post for Cambridge Extra Vyv summaries the main themes and also provides links to some great videos and essays.The emoji has become one of the fastest growing forms of communication in history. But those who are worried that its growth could mean the death of written language are wrong – emojis are being used to enhance, rather than replace words in our digital communications.An emoji is an iconic, visual representation of an idea, entity, feeling, status or event, that is used alongside or instead . . . Read More: No, the rise of the emoji doesn t spell the end for language Leave a comment Uncategorized A literary history of the strange expression ‘what is it like?By Katie, on July 14th, 2015Blog written by Anne Seaton based on an article in the journal English Today It was when I was working on Chambers Universal Learners’ Dictionary in the late ’70s that I suddenly focused on the weirdness of the expression ‘what is it like?’ Why ask for a comparison when you want a description? I managed to squeeze it into the dictionary at W (for what), since it had missed the boat at L (for like). Desk dictionaries seemed not to bother with it. But the 1933 OED pinpointed its function with notable precision: ‘The question what is he (or it) like? means ‘What sort of man is he?’, ‘What sort of thing is it?’, the expected answer being a description, and not at . . . Read More: A literary history of the strange expression ‘what is it like? Leave a comment English Today, Journals Evolving and adapting to global changes regarding EnglishBy Katie, on July 7th, 2015English language teaching in the Siberian city of IrkutskBlog post written by Valerie Sartor based on a recent article in the journal English TodayThe Russian Federation, established after the breakup of the USSR in the early 1990s, is the largest country in the world, and until recently, a nation that did not encourage foreigners to enter in order to teach English to the native population. Moscow and St Petersburg remain the two main intellectual and cultural capitals. During the Soviet era (1917-1990), however, cities in the western provinces, such as Kiev and Riga, were also held in high regard for education, with specialized universities dedicated to making contributions to science and technology, as well as the arts and sciences. Very little, however, . . . Read More: Evolving and adapting to global changes regarding English Leave a comment English Today, Journals Talker familiarity and spoken word recognition in school-age childrenBy Katie, on June 30th, 2015Blog post written by Susannah Levi based on an article in Journal of Child Language When people listen to speech, they hear two types of information:  what is being said (such as “That’s a ball”) and who said it (such as MOMMY).Prior studies have shown that when adults understand speech better when it is spoken by a familiar voice. In this study, we tested whether school-age children also understand speech better when listening to a familiar voice. First, children learned the voices of three previously unknown speakers over five days. Following this voice familiarization, children listened to words mixed with background noise and were asked to tell us what they heard. These words were spoken both by the now familiar speakers and by . . . Read More: Talker familiarity and spoken word recognition in school-age children Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Measuring a very young child’s language and communication skills in developing countriesBy Katie, on June 23rd, 2015Blog post written by Katie Alcock based on an article in Journal of Child Language The best way to find out about a very young child’s language and communication is to ask their parents – but in developing countries parents can’t always fill in a written questionnaire – so we have created a very successful interview technique to do this.To start with, we wanted to visit homes close to the Wellcome Trust Unit in Kilifi Town, Coastal Kenya but even in town, there are few paved roads.  We went out in a four-wheel-drive from the Unit in to a Kiswahili-speaking family home; homes here range from concrete to mud walls, from tin to thatch rooves.Families in Kilifi are used to nosy questions from . . . Read More: Measuring a very young child’s language and communication skills in developing countries Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals How do children who have recently begun to learn English map new L2 words into their existing mental lexicon?By Katie, on June 16th, 2015Blog post written by Greg Poarch based on an article in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition How do children who have recently begun to learn English map new L2 words into their existing mental lexicon? We tested the predictions of the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll Stewart, 1994), originally introduced to explain language production processes and the relative strengths of the underlying connections between L1 and L2 word forms and the corresponding concepts. To examine how children map novel words to concepts during early stages of L2 learning, we tested fifth grade Dutch L2 learners with eight months of English instruction.In Study 1, the children performed a translation recognition task, in which an English word (bike) was shown followed by a Dutch word . . . Read More: How do children who have recently begun to learn English map new L2 words into their existing mental lexicon? Leave a comment Bilingualism, Journals Caregivers provide more labeling responses to infants pointing than to infants object-directed vocalizationsBy Katie, on June 3rd, 2015Blog post written by Julie Gros-Louis based on an article in a recent issue of Journal of Child LanguageOne main context for language learning is in social interactions with parents and caregivers. Infants produce vocal and gestural behaviors and caregivers respond to these behaviors, which supports language development. Prior studies have shown a strong relationship between infants’ pointing gestures and language outcomes. One reason for this association is that parents translate the apparent meaning of infants’ points, thus providing infants with language input associated with their pointing behavior. In contrast to the relationship between pointing and language development, infants’ overall vocal production is not related to language outcomes. One possible explanation for the different association between pointing and language outcomes, compared to vocalizations . . . Read More: Caregivers provide more labeling responses to infants pointing than to infants object-directed vocalizations Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Research trends in mobile assisted language learning from 2000 to 2012By Katie, on May 29th, 2015Blog post written by Guler Duman based on an article in the latest issue of ReCALLThe widespread ownership of sophisticated but affordable mobile technologies has extended opportunities for making language teaching and learning available beyond the traditional classroom. Researchers have therefore begun to investigate new uses for various mobile technologies to facilitate language learning. It is not surprising, then, that a growing body of research into using these technologies for language learning has been documented over the past several decades, making mobile assisted language learning (MALL) an emerging research field. We believe that a comprehensive analysis of MALL-related literature is necessary for those interested in MALL research tounderstand current practices and to direct future research in the field.In order to trace how MALL . . . Read More: Research trends in mobile assisted language learning from 2000 to 2012 Leave a comment Journals, ReCALL Losing a language in childhoodBy Katie, on May 20th, 2015Blog post written by Cristina Flores based on an article in the latest issue of Journal of Child LanguageWhat happens if a bilingual child with immigration background moves (back) to the country of origin of his/her family and loses contact with the language that until this moment was his/her dominant language? Does the non-used language disappear from the child’s mind?This new paper analyses such a situation of remigration of a bilingual child and its consequence for language development. The analysis is based upon a longitudinal study of language attrition in a bilingual child, Ana, who grew up in Germany and moved to the country of origin of her parents, Portugal, at the age of nine. Since she has few opportunities to . . . Read More: Losing a language in childhood One comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Is the Portuguese version of the passage ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ phonetically balanced?By Katie, on May 14th, 2015Blog post written by Luís Jesus based on an article in Journal of the International Phonetic AssociationThose who have worked over the years on Portuguese have often wondered if there was a standard phonetically balanced text that could be used for research. There is no easy answer to this, and one is not able to find any consensus.We had been wondering for a while if (perhaps with some luck) the Portuguese version of “The North Wind and the Sun” passage would be phonetically balanced (sometimes the solution is just around the corner…).The same concerns about other languages, not least English, have also been raised and discussed for a long time. This discussion has recently been revitalised by Martin Ball at wordpress.com . . . Read More: Is the Portuguese version of the passage ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ phonetically balanced? Leave a comment Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Journals Language use affects proficiency in Italian–Spanish bilinguals irrespective of age of second language acquisitionBy Katie, on April 13th, 2015Blog post written by Fabrizio De Carli based on an article in the latest issue of Bilingualism: Language and CognitionAge is considered an important factor for the acquisition of new skills in the domain of language and in other perceptual and cognitive competences. Clear evidence of age of acquisition (AoA) effects has been found in the development of sensory systems, supporting the idea that specific brain functions can develop only during an early critical period, characterized by brain plasticity. The crucial role of infancy for the acquisition of basic language competences is supported by clear findings involving first language (L1) but its extension to second (L2) and further languages is controversial. Can adult people learn new languages and reach native-like skills? . . . Read More: Language use affects proficiency in Italian–Spanish bilinguals irrespective of age of second language acquisition One comment Bilingualism, Journals A Fuss about the OctopusBy Katie, on April 7th, 2015Blog post written by Inge Otto based on an article in English Today If I ask you to think of one octopus, then of two, of three even – what word comes to your mind as the plural form of ‘octopus’? If you were to think about your choice longer, is there another word you could use for the same purpose? In theory, you could come up with three options. The plurals octopuses, octopi, and octopodes are all attested in English, and thus could all be used to refer to more than one octopus.When you look at these plurals from a purely descriptive point of view, they are thus equally useful and acceptable. However, to prescriptivists some of the plurals are better . . . Read More: A Fuss about the Octopus Leave a comment English Today, Journals L3 Acquisition: A Focus on Cognitive ApproachesBy Katie, on April 1st, 2015Blog post written by Maria Del Pilar Garcia Mayo, introducing a new special issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition Most available evidence suggests that, when acquiring a new language, our brains make the automatic and unconscious assumption that, at some or all levels, it ‘works’ like one of the languages we already know. Since this is not necessarily the case for all properties, when our mental processor ‘transfers’ the previously acquired language this may have positive or negative (and sometimes downright comical) results with respect to target-like performance. How does the brain determine this source of transfer? Which language should it choose? In second language acquisition this question need not be asked, but what if the learner already speaks more than one language? . . . Read More: L3 Acquisition: A Focus on Cognitive Approaches Leave a comment Bilingualism, Journals Does the socio-cultural context influence the way Chinese people write business English?By Katie, on March 30th, 2015Blog post written by Marisa Carrió and Rut Muñiz based on an article in the latest issue of English TodayAs China has emerged as an economic giant and has established business relationships worldwide, the use of English has become essential in every day communication. New digital written genres such as emails are used every day in a globalized business context. We think that this current setting encourages participants to experiment with communication, changing and adapting language to their own comfort, using a more direct style, and prioritizing instant communication over grammatical and style correctness.We believe that it is necessary to take into account the cultural background of the speaker when interpreting meaning in a business context in order to understand the . . . Read More: Does the socio-cultural context influence the way Chinese people write business English? Leave a comment English Today, Journals Authenticity as a ContinuumBy Katie, on March 27th, 2015Blog post written by Richard Pinner based on an article in English TodayAuthenticity is a familiar and well used term in language teaching.  It is also a loaded term, with connotations that go deeper than the origin of a particular material, but all the way to philosophical conceptualizations of self. For this reason, the ‘classic’ and inevitably culturalist definition of authenticity, as something from a target language culture whose original purpose was not for learning, can actually work negatively against people who are not intimately associated with the target culture. Simply put, there is still an embedded and implied connection to ‘native speaker’ countries when authenticity is discussed in terms of language teaching. This native speakerist conceptualization of authenticity rears its . . . Read More: Authenticity as a Continuum Leave a comment English Today, Journals SSLA Announces the Albert Valdman Award WinnerBy Janise Lazarte, on March 20th, 2015Cambridge University Press and Studies in Second Language Acquisition announce the Albert Valdman Award.This new annual award, in honor of Founding Editor Professor Albert Valdman, is for an outstanding paper in the previous year s volume.The 2015 award is given to Dr. Sible Andringa, University of Amsterdam, The Use of Native Speaker Norms in Critical Period Hypothesis Research, Volume 36, Issue 3.Post written by Dr. Sible Andringa, Amsterdam, February 2015When I heard my paper ‘The use of native speaker norms in critical period hypothesis research’ won the Albert Valdman award for outstanding publication in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, I was truly surprised. I didn’t know the award existed.  It turns out the award is new and that my paper is the . . . Read More: SSLA Announces the Albert Valdman Award Winner Leave a comment Conferences, Journals, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Updates Language perception in the East Midlands in EnglandBy Katie, on March 18th, 2015Investigating East Midlands adolescents perception of language variation in the UKPost written by Natalie Braber based on an article in English TodayThe concept of identity in the East Midlands can be relatively problematic as it is not immediately clear what is included in the region and where it fits in the North-South divide in the UK. It is an interesting area linguistically, because of its shared features with northern varieties, as well as southern varieties of English. It has also been argued that the Midlands form a transition zone between North and South and that a clear North/South divide cannot be made. There has been relatively little survey of the local dialects but despite this lack of empirical evidence, anecdotally it . . . Read More: Language perception in the East Midlands in England One comment English Today, Journals Cognitive Discourse Analysis: What language use can reveal about mental representations and conceptsBy Katie, on March 16th, 2015Post written by Thora Tenbrink based on an article in Language and Cognition What do we actually see when we observe a picture or a scene, or watch an event unfold? How do we solve complex problems, and what are the steps of thought that we go through? How can we learn about such thoughts, as we cannot access people s minds directly? Questions such as these have a lot to do with our everyday life, and they are quite relevant to many fields in cognitive science as well as applied research, for example design cognition or pedagogy.  Cognitive Discourse Analysis (CODA) is a methodology that helps identifying people s thoughts in a systematic way. People are asked to speak out lout what they re thinking; . . . Read More: Cognitive Discourse Analysis: What language use can reveal about mental representations and concepts One comment Journals, Language and Cognition An update from the incoming Editors of the Nordic Journal of LinguisticsBy Katie, on March 11th, 2015Blog post written by the incoming Editors of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics: Gunnar Ólafur Hansson, Marit Julien Matti MiestamoThe last few years have been a transition period in the editorship of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics (NJL). Sten Vikner and Catherine Ringen, who have served as editors since 2001, are stepping down and a new editorial team is taking over. A few years ago it was agreed that in order to avoid an abrupt change in the editorship, Gunnar Ólafur Hansson, Matti Miestamo and Marit Westergaard would join the editorial team first as associate editors, and accordingly, in 2012-2014, the team had five members. Now the time has come for the new editors to take over completely, and from . . . Read More: An update from the incoming Editors of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics One comment Journals, Nordic Journal of Linguistics Why does English have words like “pièce de résistance” and “coup de grace”?By Katie, on March 9th, 2015Blog post written by Drew Nevitt based on an article in the latest issue of English Today Why does English have words like “pièce de résistance” and “coup de grace”? They are clearly not of English origin. They are borrowings from French, as many know. It might seem a perfectly reasonable question to ask why we continue to use these foreign terms rather than simply using their English translations. After all, these terms can be confusing and difficult to pronounce to those who are not familiar with them. However, we must then ask the question of what words do count as truly English. “Garage” was borrowed into English from French in the twentieth century, and “zeitgeist” from German not long before that. . . . Read More: Why does English have words like “pièce de résistance” and “coup de grace”? Leave a comment English Today, Journals Can Audio Storybooks Improve Children’s Second-Language Accent?By Katie, on March 3rd, 2015Blog post written by Terry Kit-Fong Au based on an article in the latest issue of Journal of Child Language With globalization, speaking more than one language is useful.  No wonder many children are learning a second or even a third language.  The younger children are when they start geting input from native speakers, the better their accent will be.  Yet because of resource constraints, interaction with native speakers is not always possible – especially for children learning a foreign language that is not the societal language (e.g., children learning English in much of Asia and Latin America).  Audios are commonly used as an affordable substitute.  But do they work?Research recently published in the Journal of Child Language has revealed the usefulness of audio . . . Read More: Can Audio Storybooks Improve Children’s Second-Language Accent? Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Research into Practice: Cultural and intercultural awarenessBy Katie, on February 25th, 2015Blog post written by Will Baker based on an article in the latest issue of Language TeachingIt is commonly claimed that the main goal of learning and teaching a second language is for communication.  While this would seem both appropriate and beneficial, the goal and associated processes for learning are most accurately described as intercultural communication rather than just communication.   One of the consequences of this lack of interest in the intercultural in L2 teaching (or L3, L4 etc…), is that too often teaching and learning has focused on a fixed code or set of linguistic structures with little consideration of the wider intercultural communicative practices they are part of. This has been addressed in recent decades, in part, by the increasing . . . Read More: Research into Practice: Cultural and intercultural awareness Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching Durational properties of emphatically lengthened consonants in JapaneseBy Katie, on February 23rd, 2015Blog post written by Shigeto Kawahara based on an article in the latest issue of Journal of the International Phonetic AssociationWhen sounds are “different”, such that swapping one sound for the other changes a word’s meaning  (for example, “pat” vs. “bat”), this difference is usually *binary*.  In other words, the sounds can easily be classified into *two* distinct categories, rather than belonging to a continuum from one sound to the other.In the case of “pat” and “bat”, the first consonants of each word differ in terms of their voicing”: whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating.  (Try it: if you put your hand on your throat, you can feel your vocal cords vibrate when you say “zzzzz”, but not when you say . . . Read More: Durational properties of emphatically lengthened consonants in Japanese Leave a comment Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Journals The ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisitionBy Katie, on February 18th, 2015Blog post written by Ben Ambridge based on an article in the latest issue of Journal of Child Language Pretty much every kind of human (and, for that matter, animal) learning shows frequency effects: the more we hear or see something, the better we learn it, remember it, and even like it. But in the domain of children’s language acquisition, both the existence and meaningfulness of frequency effects have proved controversial, particularly because they have implications for the (in)famous nature-nurture debate. In this target article, we argue that frequency effects can be found absolutely everywhere in language acquisition, from the level of abstract strings to the level of abstract syntactic cues. In fact, high frequency items are not only early-acquired and resistant to . . . Read More: The ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisition Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals He drug the box to the door before he snuck into the room…or he dragged the box to the door before he sneaked into the room?By Katie, on February 16th, 2015Post written by Camilla Søballe Horslund based on an article in English Today What is the past tense form of the verb to sneak? Some say snuck and others say sneaked. According to dictionaries, sneaked is the more formal form. Likewise the past tense form of the verb to drag varies between the forms drug and dragged, but while snuck is considered acceptable in informal speech, drug is described as non-standard and is generally not accepted by people with high socio-economic status. Despite the apparent similarity with former forms like holp and clomb, snuck and drug are newer than their regular counterparts sneaked and dragged. In fact, sneak and drag were originally regular verbs with the past tense forms sneaked and dragged but have . . . Read More: He drug the box to the door before he snuck into the room…or he dragged the box to the door before he sneaked into the room? Leave a comment English Today, Journals, Uncategorized Are Idioms Metaphorical?By Katie, on February 9th, 2015Blog Post Written by Daniel Sanford, based on an article in Language and CognitionIdiom is so interesting to linguists because it exists at the intersection of the study of figurative language and of syntax effects, and has proven a singularly problematic issue in both areas of inquiry. For syntacticians who have challenged the Chomskyan model of language that’s been dominant since the 1960s, idiom has demonstrated the impossibility of drawing a clear distinction between lexical items and rules which operate upon them. Cognitive linguists and student of figurative language, meanwhile, have asked about the relationship between idiom and metaphor: Are idioms processed, on the fly, as metaphors? Or is the role of metaphor purely historical, with idiomatic meaning accessed simply as lexical . . . Read More: Are Idioms Metaphorical? Leave a comment Journals, Language and Cognition The Acquisition of Syntactic Structure: Animacy and Thematic AlignmentBy James McKellar, on February 2nd, 2015Post written by author Misha Becker discussing her recently published book The Acquisition of Syntactic Struture .Young children are fascinated by animals and captivated when inanimate things are made to come alive. Is there some way their understanding of the difference between “alive” and “not alive” can help them learn language?In this book I explain a well-known puzzle in linguistic theory by arguing just that. Children expect the sentence subject (often the “do-er” of an action) to be animate, alive. So when they encounter a sentence where the subject is the rock or the house they are led to revise their understanding of the sentence to create a more complex underlying structure. This is what helps them understand the difference between a sentence like . . . Read More: The Acquisition of Syntactic Structure: Animacy and Thematic Alignment Leave a comment Applied Psycholinguistics, Books The Language of Organizational StylingBy James McKellar, on January 26th, 2015Post written by author Lionel Wee discussing his recently published book The Language of Organizational StylingOrganizations are interesting because of the promise and problems they represent. They have promise because they allow individuals to pool their resources and scale up their activities, thus making it possible to achieve things at a supra-individual level. In fact, one might say that this is the very reason why organizations exist at all. At the same time, there is great irony in the fact that, having been created, many organizations then go on to acquire an existence and independence beyond the goals and wishes of their founders. Especially when constituted as virtual persons, organizations can make claims and exert rights that sometimes come into conflict with those . . . Read More: The Language of Organizational Styling Leave a comment Books, Sociolinguistics, Uncategorized The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass LiteracyBy James McKellar, on January 14th, 2015Post written by author Deborah Brandt discussing her recently published book The Rise of Writing The belief that writing ability is a subsidiary of reading ability runs deep in society and schooling. You can only write as well as you can read. The best way to learn how to write is to read, read, and read some more. Commonplaces like these are easy to find in the advice of teachers and often well-known authors as well. Reading is considered the fundamental skill, the prior skill, the formative skill, the gateway to writing. At minimum, reading is thought to teach the techniques of textuality, the vocabulary, diction, spelling, punctuation, and syntax that any aspiring writer must master. Even more . . . Read More: The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy Leave a comment Books, English Language and Linguistics, Uncategorized Co-editor Françoise Blin reflects on the changes at ReCALLBy Katie, on January 7th, 2015Co-editor Françoise Blin reflects on the changes at ReCALL during 2014. As the last issue of 2014 goes to Press, long-serving Editor June Thompson prepares to retire. June has tirelessly managed submissions and reviews, edited and copy-edited issues of the journal. In particular, ReCALL authors have greatly benefited from her careful editing. We wish her well with all her future plans.With receipt of an average of 100 submissions per year, ReCALL now benefits from the services of two Editors (Blin and Alex Boulton), journal administrator Sylvie Thouësny, and an online submission system. The pool of reviewers is also steadily increasing. Blind peer-reviewing is a time consuming activity that usually remains invisible, yet is a fundamental principle governing scientific publication today. Reviewers . . . Read More: Co-editor Françoise Blin reflects on the changes at ReCALL Leave a comment Journals, ReCALL W(h)ither the /r/ in Britain?By Katie, on December 15th, 2014Weighing up a new style of pronunciationPost written by Michael Bulley, based on an article in the latest issue of English Today In this article, I express my disapproval of a recent development in pronunciation found in an increasing proportion of native speakers of British English. I thereby run the risk not only of offending those who have the feature I criticize but also of being frowned upon by linguistics professionals who think aesthetic judgements have no place in the discipline.The sound in question is a pronunciation of the letter ‘r’, in words like ring, bread and around, that is closer to a /w/ than to a ‘traditional’ /r/. The BBC television news contains many presenters and reporters who exhibit this feature. Academic . . . Read More: W(h)ither the /r/ in Britain? 2 comments English Today, Journals English in rural BangladeshBy Katie, on December 8th, 2014Blog piece by Elizabeth J. Erling based on an article written by Elizabeth J. Erling, Philip Seargeant and Mike Solly in the latest issue of English TodayHaving worked in an educational project that sought to enhance English language teaching across Bangladesh brought me to visit schools in rural areas. Once there, I sometimes wondered: what is the value of English learning for these communities? The schools often didn’t have electricity, the villages were difficult to access, or even impossible during certain parts of the year. Literacy rates in the country still hover around 55 per cent, and 30 per cent of the population live below the international poverty line. Surely there were more pressing development needs than English language learning?With this . . . Read More: English in rural Bangladesh Leave a comment English Today, Journals The dangling participle – a language myth?By Katie, on December 2nd, 2014Article written by Carmen Ebner based on an article in the latest issue of English TodayIn our research project Bridging the Unbridgeable: linguists, prescriptivists and the general public at Leiden University we would like to encourage a critical discussion of so-called usage problems between the three involved groups. What constitutes a usage problem, however, is not always an question with an easy and straightforward answer.In my English Today feature I am discussing the dangling participle, which is often said to cause ambiguity and misunderstandings due to the lack of a suitable subject in the participle clause. I have conducted an online questionnaire which includes an example of the dangling participle. The results of this survey show that the acceptability of using the . . . Read More: The dangling participle – a language myth? Leave a comment English Today, Journals, Uncategorized ‘[The Irish] find much difficulty in these auxiliaries […], putting will for shall with the first person’By Katie, on November 25th, 2014Blog post written by Kevin McCafferty based on an article in the latest issue of  English Language and LinguisticsThe decline of first-person shall in Ireland, 1760–1890The Irish just don’t use first-person shall, and they never have. They’ve always said Will I close the window? and We will be there soon. That’s the consensus of grammarians and other commentators from the eighteenth century onwards. And linguists who have studied Irish English in recent decades agree that shall is virtually non-existent in the English of the Irish. So ingrained is this view that the decline of shall in North America – which is now affecting British English, too – is even attributed to the influence of Irish immigrants.This study uses the Corpus of Irish . . . Read More: ‘[The Irish] find much difficulty in these auxiliaries […], putting will for shall with the first person’ Leave a comment English Language and Linguistics, Journals Bilingual Cognitive Advantage: Where Do We Stand?By Katie, on November 18th, 2014Linguistic experience and its effect on cognition.The following post by Dr. Aneta Pavlenko appeared on the Psychology Today blog, “Life as a bilingual”Like all other walks of life, academia is not immune to fashions. In the study of bilingualism, one such trend has been the study of “the bilingual cognitive advantage”, the theory that experience of using two languages – and selecting one, while inhibiting the other – affects brain structure and strengthens ‘executive control’ akin to other experiences, such as musical training, navigation, and even juggling. This strengthening has been linked to a variety of findings: the superiority of bilingual children and adults in performance on tasks requiring cognitive control, resistance of bilingual brains to cognitive decline, and the delayed . . . Read More: Bilingual Cognitive Advantage: Where Do We Stand? One comment Applied Psycholinguistics, Bilingualism, Journals Repetitions which are not repetitions: The non-redundant nature of tautological compoundsBy Katie, on November 10th, 2014Blog post written by Réka Benczes, based on an article in the latest issue of English Language and Linguistics One of the most intriguing – and least studied – areas of English word-formation are so-called “tautological compounds” that are formed out of synonyms (such as subject matter), or where one of the constituents is already included in the meaning of the other constituent (such as oak tree).Their oddity can be attributed to two main reasons. First, as their name, “tautological compound” implies, at face value such combinations can be considered as prime examples for the redundancy of language. Second, they do not follow normal compound-forming rules in the sense that both constituents can function as the semantic head – as opposed to . . . Read More: Repetitions which are not repetitions: The non-redundant nature of tautological compounds 2 comments English Language and Linguistics, Journals Left edge topics in Russian and the processing of anaphoric dependenciesBy Katie, on November 3rd, 2014Post written by based on an article in Eric Potsdam the latest issue of Journal of Linguistics In this paper we investigate the the relative cost of processing syntactic versus extra-syntactic dependencies. The results support the hypothesis that syntactic dependencies require less processing effort than discourse-derived dependencies do, as proposed in work by Eric Reuland and Arnout Koornneef. We do this by investigating a novel paradigm in Russian in which a preposed nominal stranding a numeral can show number connectivity (PAUCAL) with a gap following the numeral or can appear in a non-agreeing (PLURAL) form:(1) a. Sobora-a v gorodke bylo tri sobor-acathedral-PAUCAL in town was three.PAUCAL (Connectivity)b. Sobor-ov v gorodke bylo tri procathedral-PLURAL in town was three.PAUCAL (Non-agreeing form)Numerous syntactic diagnostics confirm that . . . Read More: Left edge topics in Russian and the processing of anaphoric dependencies Leave a comment Journal of Linguistics, Journals Bilingual children cope well in noisy classroomsBy Katie, on October 14th, 2014Youngsters who speak two languages maintain their focus better than monolinguals A new study, published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, has found that bilingual primary school children learn more effectively than monolinguals within noisy environments such as classrooms.Anglia Ruskin University’s Dr Roberto Filippi carried out research in Cambridge primary schools, focusing on children aged between seven and 10.The study discovered that bilingual children were more able to maintain focus on a main task, which in this case was the identification of the subject within a short sentence in the presence of noise.Pupils who only speak one language did not reach the same level of efficiency, showing that noise negatively affects their ability to sustain attention, especially when comprehending more difficult . . . Read More: Bilingual children cope well in noisy classrooms One comment Bilingualism, Journals bilingual children, bilingualism Sounds Interesting: Observations on English and General PhoneticsBy Katie, on September 16th, 2014In this insightful talk John C Wells, Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London, discusses his latest book with Cambridge University Press, Sounds Interesting: Observations on English and General Phonetics , along with his research interests and, of course, his acclaimed phonetics blog (the content of which has helped to populate this new book).Please click on the image to watch . . . Read More: Sounds Interesting: Observations on English and General Phonetics Leave a comment Books How can ESL students make the best use of learners dictionaries?By Katie, on September 2nd, 2014Blog post written by Alice Chan, based on an article in the latest issue of English TodayWhat will you do if you have problems understanding how a word is used?Will you just surf the web or will you check a dictionary?How useful is a learner s dictionary to you?A lot of people say that learners dictionaries are useful for self-learning, but why are there so many complaints about the usefulness and user-friendliness of a learner s dictionary? Some of you may wonder: Even after checking a dictionary before using a word, I still cannot use the word correctly. Why? Is there something wrong with me or with the dictionary? Yes. You may have some wrong assumptions about a word or about what a . . . Read More: How can ESL students make the best use of learners dictionaries? Leave a comment English Today, Journals Vowel insertion in Scottish GaelicBy Katie, on August 29th, 2014Post written by Michael Hammond, Natasha Warner, Andréa Davis, Andrew Carnie, Diana Archangeli and Muriel Fisher,University of ArizonaBased on an article recently published in the journal PhonologyScottish Gaelic has a process whereby a vowel is inserted into a hetero-organic cluster when the preceding vowel is short, the first consonant is a sonorant, and the second consonant is not a voiceless stop, e.g. arm`army /arm/ - [aram], seanmhair`grandmother /ƪɛnvɛr/ - [ɛnɛvɛr], etc.These have been cited as instances of excrescent vowels (Hall, 2006). One of the defining properties of such vowels is that they are phonologically inert and are not motivated by-nor do they contribute to-the syllable structure of a language. The basic idea is that excrescent vowels are essentially gestural transitions from one . . . Read More: Vowel insertion in Scottish Gaelic One comment Journals, Phonology Apostrophe: the most disputed punctuation mark in English since the eighteenth century onwardsBy Katie, on August 26th, 2014Blog post written by Morana Lukač based on an article in the latest issue of English TodayIn the research project Bridging the Unbridgeable: linguists, prescriptivists and the general public at the Leiden Centre for Linguistics, we are building the Hyper Usage Guide of English or HUGE database currently made up of 76 usage guides. One of our aims within the project is to explore the popularity and to track the history of English usage items by using the database. In this English Today feature I briefly look into the history of the apostrophe, the most disputed punctuation mark in the English language.Since its introduction in the eighteenth century, the possessive apostrophe became a topic of interest for the authors of usage guides. . . . Read More: Apostrophe: the most disputed punctuation mark in English since the eighteenth century onwards Leave a comment English Today, Journals In her last Editorial June talks about her work on ReCALL and the community more widelyBy Katie, on August 21st, 2014Volume 26 of ReCALL marks the retirement of Editor June Thompson. Although I have only been lucky enough to work with her for the last three years her hard work and commitment to the journal is evident and a testimony to her work is the health of the journal.Blog post written by June ThompsonAs this is my last opportunity to write an editorial in ReCALL, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the journal’s progress over the past seven years and outline its current position. In ReCALL Volume 18 (2) in November 2006 I reported on ReCALL’s early beginnings at the CTI Centre for Modern Languages at the University of Hull in 1990, its relationship with EUROCALL and eventually . . . Read More: In her last Editorial June talks about her work on ReCALL and the community more widely Leave a comment Journals, ReCALL 2013 Christopher L. Brumfit Award Prize Runner-up AnnouncedBy Katie, on August 19th, 2014We are delighted to announce that the runner-up of this year’s prize is Alastair Henry.We asked Alastair to provide Cambridge Extra with a summary of his winning work.As a language teacher and language teacher educator it really is a great honour that my thesis ‘L3 Motivation’ was selected as runner-up for the 2013 Christopher Brumfit Award. In addition to my supervisors at the University of Gothenburg, and of course the panel of referees, the editor and members of the editorial board at Language Teaching, I would like to thank Professor Zoltán Dörnyei who generously agreed to review the thesis, providing guidance, advice and insights that were invaluable in enabling me to improve the work and sharpen some of the . . . Read More: 2013 Christopher L. Brumfit Award Prize Runner-up Announced Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching 2013 Christopher L. Brumfit Award Prize Winner AnnouncedBy Katie, on August 15th, 2014We are delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s prize is Ellen Serafini.We asked Ellen to provide Cambridge Extra with a summary of her prize winning work.I am humbled to be recognized by Language Teaching and Cambridge University Press as the recipient of the 2013 Christopher Brumfit award and sincerely thank all those involved for this great honor. In the apt words of my mentor, Dr. Cristina Sanz, my thesis research attempts to look at the forest rather than the trees in its comprehensive approach to understanding the complexities of second language (L2) learning in adults.My principal motivation was to explain variability in L2 development between adult L2 learners of Spanish by considering the role of learner individual differences . . . Read More: 2013 Christopher L. Brumfit Award Prize Winner Announced Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching English Language and Linguistics Special Issue on Genitive Variation in EnglishBy Katie, on August 13th, 2014Blog post written by John Payne and Eva BerlageEverything you ever wanted to know about the genitive alternation in English! The choice that speakers have between the s-genitive and the of-genitive (e.g. the production’s new director vs the new director of the production) has been the subject of much detailed research, starting with historical studies in the earlier part of the twentieth century and culminating in recent large-scale synchronic studies using modern statistical techniques. It is, as Anette Rosenbach suggests in the volume, “arguably the best researched of all syntactic alternations in English”.This special edition, arising from a workshop organised by John Payne (Manchester) and Eva Berlage (Hamburg) at the ISLE conference in Boston in 2011, collects together four new papers. The . . . Read More: English Language and Linguistics Special Issue on Genitive Variation in English One comment English Language and Linguistics, Journals Plagiarism in second-language writingBy Katie, on August 8th, 2014Blog post written by Diane Pecorari based on an article from the latest issue of Language TeachingEveryone has a view on plagiarism, and it s often a strong one, as seen by the frank and free commentary on cases which attract public attention. For example, after the revelation that a prominent German politician had plagiarised in his doctoral thesis, the theses of other politicians in Germany and elsewhere have been subjected to scrutiny. This has led, in a number of cases, to further accusations of plagiarism, sharp criticism of the politicians involved and to responses ranging from embarrassed apology to resignations. These high-profile cases have received significant attention in the news, in blogs like Shake, Copy and Paste, and in staff-room discussions.Plagiarism is . . . Read More: Plagiarism in second-language writing 2 comments Journals, Language Teaching Language history questionnaire (LHQ 2.0): A new dynamic web-based research toolBy Katie, on August 5th, 2014Post written by Ping Li based on a recent article in the journal Bilingualism: Language and CognitionLanguage history question-naire (LHQ) is an important tool for assessing the linguistic background of language learners (background), the context and habits of language use (usage), proficiency in multiple languages (proficiency), and dominance and cultural identity of the acquired languages (dominance). Outcomes from such assessments have often been used to predict or correlate with learners’ linguistic performance in cognitive and behavioral tests. Previous researchers have often relied on LHQs that their own research groups develop, depending on whether their study is concerned with the background, usage, proficiency, or dominance of the bilingual learner. The lack of a standardized, easy-to-use, and web-based LHQ inspired some researchers to . . . Read More: Language history questionnaire (LHQ 2.0): A new dynamic web-based research tool Leave a comment Bilingualism, Journals Vocabulary size research at Victoria University of Wellington, New ZealandBy Katie, on July 24th, 2014Blog post written by Paul Nation based on an article in Language TeachingHow many words in English do you know? How many words do your students know? What words should our learners be focusing on? Do native speakers at primary and secondary school need vocabulary-focused instruction? These questions and others like them have been of concern to researchers in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS) at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand for well over thirty years. One of the results of this concern has been a range of vocabulary tests which have been made available for general use.It may seem a straightforward job to make a vocabulary test. However, vocabulary size testing is probably the most . . . Read More: Vocabulary size research at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Leave a comment Journals, Language Teaching The acquisition of future temporality by L2 French learnersBy Katie, on July 23rd, 2014Blog post written by Dalila Ayoun based on an article in Journal of French Language Studies The investigation of the acquisition of temporal systems by second language (L2 ) learners has created an impressive body of work that informs our understanding of their developing competence because they involve all aspects of a language – pragmatic, lexical, syntactic, morphological (e. g., Ayoun Salaberry2005; Salaberry2008; Salaberry Comajoan, 2013). However, most empirical studies have focused on past temporal reference, neglecting future temporal reference with a few exceptions (e.g., Benati, 2001) aside from ESL learners (Bardovi-Harlig 2004 a, 2004 b). The future is interesting because it differs from the past and the present in encompassing both temporality and modality. Intentionality is its most common reading, . . . Read More: The acquisition of future temporality by L2 French learners Leave a comment Journal of French Language Studies, Journals She refers therefore she is: Morphosyntax and pragmatics in referential communicationBy Katie, on July 11th, 2014Post written by Aylin C. Küntay, Koç University, Istanbul Utrecht University, UtrechtBased on an upcoming keynote talk to be given at IASCL 2014 this week (14th 18th July, Amsterdam)Referential communication is talking about things and people, an essential ability upon which many human communicative interactions build. To be able to communicate effectively, speakers and addressees should concur on what they are talking about. Although this sounds trivial, even adults sometimes have trouble in pinpointing exactly what their interlocutor has in mind, or might fail to express their referential intentions in the clearest way.The evidence we have about children’s referential abilities is mixed. An 18-month-old can be quite effective in making us pick the right diaper with the desired picture out from . . . Read More: She refers therefore she is: Morphosyntax and pragmatics in referential communication Leave a comment Journal of Child Language, Journals Uptalk: power and prejudiceBy Katie, on July 7th, 2014Post written by Editor of English Today Clive Upton based on his Editorial in the latest issue From time to time the media pick up on instances of English language use which do not carry over entirely happily from one variety to another. One of the most well-known of these must be the feature – variously known by such labels as ‘high rising terminal’ (HRT), ‘Australian question intonation’ (AQI), or ‘uptalk’ – which sees an upward inflection being introduced to utterances that are not actually questions. Long unremarkable in Australia, and increasingly unremarkable elsewhere in the English-speaking world, especially among younger speakers, this feature nevertheless annoys a lot of people who do not use it themselves. A recent online discussion of this . . . Read More: Uptalk: power and prejudice One comment English Today, Journals What could possibly be the relevance of nativelike hedging strategies in EFL instruction?By Katie, on July 3rd, 2014Blog post written by Sergio Torres-Martínez based on an article in English TodayThe answer seems to be obvious from the perspective of, say, ELF research. Yet things are less clear-cut in expanding circle regions where nativelikeness is increasingly a hallmark of language proficiency, success and status. This article hinges precisely on the assumption that specific speech functions such as hedging (used to express vagueness or non-assertiveness) are important assets in the construction of language proficiency in ELF classrooms. Thus, a case for hedging strings (HSs)-a set of formulaic sequences with pragmalinguistic relevance to the teaching of spontaneous speech functions in EFL- is presented.Formulaic sequences such as sort of/kind of, usually disregarded as downtoners, are revisited, further classified into three main categories (utterance . . . Read More: What could possibly be the relevance of nativelike hedging strategies in EFL instruction? Leave a comment English Today, Journals

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