A meta-analysis of the correlation between heritage language and ethnic identity

The interaction between heritage language (HL) and ethnic identity has gained increasing scholarly attention over the past decades. Numerous quantitative studies have investigated and vindicated this interaction within certain contexts. Nevertheless, quantitative evidence on this interaction across contexts is absent to date. The current meta-analysis aims to make a contribution in this regard. By integrating relevant studies, this meta-analysis presents a powerful estimation of the reality in relation to the interaction between HL and ethnic identity. By virtue of certain retrieval strategies and selection criteria, the meta-analysis includes 43 data-sets emerging from 18 studies that have addressed the statistical correlation between the proficiency of HL and the sense of ethnic identity associated with different ethnic groups. When contrasted to one another, the results of these included studies are significantly different. However, when combined together, these studies point to a statistically significant moderate positive correlation between sense of ethnic identity and proficiency of HL across different ethnic groups. This result has a medium effect. The meta-analysis also inspires some methodological and theoretical discussions.

Digging into signs: Developing standard annotation practices for cross-linguistic, quantitative analysis of sign language data. Final Report.

For sign languages used by deaf communities, linguistic corpora have until recently been unavailable, due to the lack of a writing system and a written culture in these communities, and the very recent advent of digital video. Recent improvements in video and computer technology have now made larger sign language datasets possible; however, large sign language datasets that are fully machine-readable are still elusive. This is due to two challenges. 1. Inconsistencies that arise when signs are annotated by means of spoken/written language. 2. The fact that many parts of signed interaction are not necessarily fully composed of lexical signs (equivalent of words), instead consisting of constructions that are less conventionalised. As sign language corpus building progresses, the potential for some standards in annotation is beginning to emerge. But before this project, there were no attempts to standardise these practices across corpora, which is required to be able to compare data crosslinguistically. This project thus had the following aims: 1. To develop annotation standards for glosses (lexical/word level) 2. To test their reliability and validity 3. To improve current software tools that facilitate a reliable workflow Overall the project aimed not only to set a standard for the whole field of sign language studies throughout the world but also to make significant advances toward two of the world’s largest machine-readable datasets for sign languages – specifically the BSL Corpus (British Sign Language, http://bslcorpusproject.org) and the Corpus NGT (Sign Language of the Netherlands, http://www.ru.nl/corpusngt).

A Game-Theoreteic Analysis of Minority Language Use in Multilingual Societies

This chapter studies multilingual democratic societies with highly developed economies. These societies are assumed to have two languages with official status: language A, spoken by every individual, and language B, spoken by the bilingual minority. We emphasize that language rights are important, but the survival of the minority language B depends mainly on the actual use bilinguals make of B. The purpose of the present chapter is to study some of the factors affecting the bilingual speakers language choice behaviour. Our view is that languages with their speech communities compete for speakers just as fi rms compete for market share. Thus, the con ict among the minority languages in these societies does not take the rough expressions such as those studied in Desmet et al. (2012). Here the con flict is more subtle. We model highly plausible language choice situations by means of choice procedures and non-cooperative games, each with different types of information. We then study the determinants of the bilinguals ' strategic behaviour with regard to language. We observe that the bilinguals' use of B is shaped, essentially, by linguistic conventions and social norms that are developed in situations of language contact.

Description and Theoretical Analysis (Using Schemata) of Planner: A Language for Proving Theorems and Manipulating Models in a Robot

Planner is a formalism for proving theorems and manipulating models in a robot. The formalism is built out of a number of problem-solving primitives together with a hierarchical multiprocess backtrack control structure. Statements can be asserted and perhaps later withdrawn as the state of the world changes. Under BACKTRACK control structure, the hierarchy of activations of functions previously executed is maintained so that it is possible to revert to any previous state. Thus programs can easily manipulate elaborate hypothetical tentative states. In addition PLANNER uses multiprocessing so that there can be multiple loci of changes in state. Goals can be established and dismissed when they are satisfied. The deductive system of PLANNER is subordinate to the hierarchical control structure in order to maintain the desired degree of control. The use of a general-purpose matching language as the basis of the deductive system increases the flexibility of the system. Instead of explicitly naming procedures in calls, procedures can be invoked implicitly by patterns of what the procedure is supposed to accomplish. The language is being applied to solve problems faced by a robot, to write special purpose routines from goal oriented language, to express and prove properties of procedures, to abstract procedures from protocols of their actions, and as a semantic base for English.

Modular average case analysis: Language implementation and extension

Motivated by accurate average-case analysis, MOdular Quantitative Analysis (MOQA) is developed at the Centre for Efficiency Oriented Languages (CEOL). In essence, MOQA allows the programmer to determine the average running time of a broad class of programmes directly from the code in a (semi-)automated way. The MOQA approach has the property of randomness preservation which means that applying any operation to a random structure, results in an output isomorphic to one or more random structures, which is key to systematic timing. Based on original MOQA research, we discuss the design and implementation of a new domain specific scripting language based on randomness preserving operations and random structures. It is designed to facilitate compositional timing by systematically tracking the distributions of inputs and outputs. The notion of a labelled partial order (LPO) is the basic data type in the language. The programmer uses built-in MOQA operations together with restricted control flow statements to design MOQA programs. This MOQA language is formally specified both syntactically and semantically in this thesis. A practical language interpreter implementation is provided and discussed. By analysing new algorithms and data restructuring operations, we demonstrate the wide applicability of the MOQA approach. Also we extend MOQA theory to a number of other domains besides average-case analysis. We show the strong connection between MOQA and parallel computing, reversible computing and data entropy analysis.

Second language processing: an analysis of theory, problems and possible solutions

Second Language Processing examines the problems facing learners in the second language classroom from the theoretical perspectives of Processing Instruction (structured input) and Enhanced Input. These two theories are brought to bear on a variety of processing problems, such as the difficulty of connecting second language grammatical forms encoding tense and mood as well as noun-adjective agreement with their meaning. Empirical studies examine a range of languages including Japanese, Italian and Spanish, through which the authors suggest practical solutions to these processing problems.

"The Heart of Irish-Language Proverbs": A Linguo-Stylistic Analysis of Explicit Metaphor

Metaphor has featured frequently in attempts to define the proverb (see Taylor 1931, Whiting 1932, Mieder 1985, 1996), and since the advent of modern paremiological scholarship, it has been identified as one of the most salient markers of ‘proverbiality’ (Arora 1984) across a broad spectrum of world languages. Significant language-specific analyses, such as Klimenko (1946), Silverman-Weinreich (1981), and Arora (1984) have provided valuable qualitative information on the form and function of metaphor in Russian, Yiddish, and Spanish proverbs respectively. Unfortunately, no academic scholarship has engaged with the subject of metaphor in Irish proverbs. This study builds on international paremiological research on metaphor and provides for the first time a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the form, frequency, and nature of linguistic metaphors in Irish proverbs (1856-1952). Moreover, from the perspective of paremiology, it presents a methodological template and result-set that can be applied cross-linguistically to compare metaphor in the proverbs of other languages.

Personalising Crime and Crime-fighting in Factual Television:an Analysis of Social Actors and Transitivity in Language and Images

This article addresses the lack of work on media and crime in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), using an example of a factual television crime report. The existing research in media studies and criminology points to the way that the media misrepresents crime by distorting public understandings and backgrounding structural issues, such as poverty, which are related to crime thereby legitimising a criminal justice system that serves the interests of the powerful in society. Using social actor and transitivity analysis, this article shows how multimodal CDA can make an important contribution as it reveals the more subtle linguistic strategies and visual representations by which this process is accomplished, showing how each plays a part in the recontextualisation of social practice. This programme backgrounds which crimes are committed but foregrounds mental states and the neutrality of policing.

An in-depth analysis of real and perceived barriers to speech and language program participation for children with speech and language delays : a question of barriers to service?

The current study investigated the effects that barriers (both real and perceived) had on participation and completion of speech and language programs for preschool children with communication delays. I compared 36 families of preschool children with an identified communication delay that have completed services (completers) to 13 families that have not completed services (non-completers) prescribed by Speech and Language professionals. Data findings reported were drawn from an interview with the mother, a speech and language assessment of the child, and an extensive package of measures completed by the mother. Children ranged in age from 32 to 71 mos. These data were collected as part of a project funded by the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Networks of Centres of Excellence. Findings suggest that completers and non-completers shared commonalities in a number of parenting characteristics but differed significantly in two areas. Mothers in the noncompleting group were more permissive and had lower maternal education than mothers in the completing families. From a systemic standpoint, families also differed in the number of perceived barriers to treatment experienced during their time with Speech Services Niagara. Mothers in the non-completing group experienced more perceived barriers to treatment than completing mothers. Specifically, these mothers perceived more stressors and obstacles that competed with treatment, perceived more treatment demands and they perceived the relevance of treatment as less important than the completing group. Despite this, the findings suggest that non-completing families were 100% satisfied with services. Contrary to predictions, there were no significant differences in child characterisfics and economic characteristics between completers and non-completers. The findings in this study are considered exploratory and tentative due to the small sample size.

A conceptual analysis of research literature on teachers' ideology and literacy practices: extending the dialogue through a secondary analysis of high school English as an additional language contexts /

This thesis provides a conceptual analysis of research literature on teachers' ideology and literacy practices as well as a secondary analysis of three empirical studies and the ways in which the ideologies of the English as an Additional Language (EAL) (Street, 2005) teachers in these contexts impact the teaching of literacy in empowering/disabling ways. Several major theoretical components of Cummins (1996, 2000), Gee (1996, 2004) and Street (1995, 2001) are examined and integrated into a conceptual triad consisting of three main areas: power and ideology, validation of students ' cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and teaching that empowers. This triad provides the framework for the secondary analysis of three empirical studies on the ideologies of secondary EAL teachers. Implications of the findings from the conceptual and secondary analyses are examined in light of the research community and secondary school teachers of EAL.