Non-native English-speaking English language teachers: history and research

Although the majority of English language teachers worldwide are non-native English speakers, no research was conducted on these teachers until recently. After the pioneering work of Robert Phillipson in 1992 and Peter Medgyes in 1994, nearly a decade had to elapse for more research to emerge on the issues relating to non-native English teachers. The publication in 1999 of George Braine's book Nonnative educators in English language teaching appears to have encouraged a number of graduate students and scholars to research this issue, with topics ranging from teachers' perceptions of their own identity to students' views and aspects of teacher education. This article compiles, classifies, and examines research conducted in the last two decades on this topic, placing a special emphasis on World Englishes concerns, methods of investigation, and areas in need of further attention.

Atypical coordination of cortical oscillations in response to speech in autism.

Subjects with autism often show language difficulties, but it is unclear how they relate to neurophysiological anomalies of cortical speech processing. We used combined EEG and fMRI in 13 subjects with autism and 13 control participants and show that in autism, gamma and theta cortical activity do not engage synergistically in response to speech. Theta activity in left auditory cortex fails to track speech modulations, and to down-regulate gamma oscillations in the group with autism. This deficit predicts the severity of both verbal impairment and autism symptoms in the affected sample. Finally, we found that oscillation-based connectivity between auditory and other language cortices is altered in autism. These results suggest that the verbal disorder in autism could be associated with an altered balance of slow and fast auditory oscillations, and that this anomaly could compromise the mapping between sensory input and higher-level cognitive representations.

Los sectores agroalimentarios español y catalán, un análisis comparativo a través de la tabla input-output

En este trabajo se pretende ofrecer una visión del sector Agroalimentario (SAA) catalán, y muy especialmente, de cual es su situación comparativa dentro del SAA español. Analizando por medio de las tablas input-output aquellas ramas del SAA que actúan como motor en cada una de las economías estudiadas, al mismo tiempo que se detectan las analogías o divergencias entre las dos realidades, la autónoma y la nacional. Los indicadores utilizados para el estudio de la tabla input-output son: Chenery-Watanabe, Rasmussen, Backward linkages, Forward linkdages, multiplicador renta y multiplicador de las importaciones.

New genes for focal epilepsies with speech and language disorders.

The last 2 years have seen exciting advances in the genetics of Landau-Kleffner syndrome and related disorders, encompassed within the epilepsy-aphasia spectrum (EAS). The striking finding of mutations in the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor subunit gene GRIN2A as the first monogenic cause in up to 20 % of patients with EAS suggests that excitatory glutamate receptors play a key role in these disorders. Patients with GRIN2A mutations have a recognizable speech and language phenotype that may assist with diagnosis. Other molecules involved in RNA binding and cell adhesion have been implicated in EAS; copy number variations are also found. The emerging picture highlights the overlap between the genetic determinants of EAS with speech and language disorders, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders and more complex developmental phenotypes.

Forecasting a language shift based on cellular automata

Language extinction as a consequence of language shifts is a widespread social phenomenon that affects several million people all over the world today. An important task for social sciences research should therefore be to gain an understanding of language shifts, especially as a way of forecasting the extinction or survival of threatened languages, i.e., determining whether or not the subordinate language will survive in communities with a dominant and a subordinate language. In general, modeling is usually a very difficult task in the social sciences, particularly when it comes to forecasting the values of variables. However, the cellular automata theory can help us overcome this traditional difficulty. The purpose of this article is to investigate language shifts in the speech behavior of individuals using the methodology of the cellular automata theory. The findings on the dynamics of social impacts in the field of social psychology and the empirical data from language surveys on the use of Catalan in Valencia allowed us to define a cellular automaton and carry out a set of simulations using that automaton. The simulation results highlighted the key factors in the progression or reversal of a language shift and the use of these factors allowed us to forecast the future of a threatened language in a bilingual community.

Beneficial effects of word final stress in segmenting a new language: evidence from ERPs

Background: How do listeners manage to recognize words in an unfamiliar language? The physical continuity of the signal, in which real silent pauses between words are lacking, makes it a difficult task. However, there are multiple cues that can be exploited to localize word boundaries and to segment the acoustic signal. In the present study, word-stress was manipulated with statistical information and placed in different syllables within trisyllabic nonsense words to explore the result of the combination of the cues in an online word segmentation task. Results: The behavioral results showed that words were segmented better when stress was placed on the final syllables than when it was placed on the middle or first syllable. The electrophysiological results showed an increase in the amplitude of the P2 component, which seemed to be sensitive to word-stress and its location within words. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that listeners can integrate specific prosodic and distributional cues when segmenting speech. An ERP component related to word-stress cues was identified: stressed syllables elicited larger amplitudes in the P2 component than unstressed ones.