Formal linguistic approaches to heritage language acquisition: bridges for pedagogically oriented research

The goal of this chapter is to lay out the central themes of heritage language acquisition research adopting a formal/theoretical linguistic perspective.  Specifically, we aim to provide a detailed discussion of the nature of heritage language grammars. In doing so, we will address the debates on how to explain heritage speaker competence differences from monolingual baselines and more. This chapter will not be limited to discussions of Spanish as a heritage language, but rather will highlight the important role that Spanish has played and will continue to play in the development of heritage language acquisition studies. Finally, we will offer some comments/insights on how the information covered regarding the formal linguistic properties of heritage speaker knowledge should be considered for and implemented in heritage language pedagogies and thus dealing with heritage speakers in the classroom setting.

Wavelet-based cepstrum calculation

In this paper we present a new wavelet-based algorithm for low-cost computation of the cepstrum. It can be used for real time precise pitch determination in automatic speech and speaker recognition systems. Many wavelet families are examined to determine the one that works best. The results confirm the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed technique for pitch extraction. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hesitations and repair in German

The occurrence of pauses and hesitations in spontaneous speech has been shown to occur systematically, for example, "between sentences, after discourse markers and conjunctions and before accented content words." (Hansson [15]) This is certainly plausible in English, where pauses and hesitations can and often do occur before content words such as nominals, for example, "uh, there's a … man." (Chafe [8]) However, if hesitations are, in fact, evidence of "deciding what to talk about next," (Chafe [8]) then the complex grammatical system of German should render this pausing position precarious, since pre-modifiers must account for the gender of the nominals they modify.In this paper, I present data to test the hypothesis that pre-nominal hesitation patterns in German are dissimilar to those in English. Hesitations in German will be shown, in fact, to occur within noun phrase units. Nevertheless, native speakers most often succeed in supplying a nominal which conforms to the gender indicated by the determiner or pre-modifier. Corrections, or repairs, of infelicitous pre-modifiers indicate that the speaker was unable to supply a nominal of the same gender which the choice of pre-modifier had committed him/her to. The frequency of such repairs is shown to vary according to task, with fewest repairs occurring in elicited speech which allows for linguistic freedom and therefore is most like spontaneous speech. The data sets indicate that among German native speakers, hesitations occurring before noun phrase units (pre-NPU hesitations) indicate deliberation of what to say, while hesitations within or before the head of the noun phrase (pre-NPH hesitations) indicate deliberation of how to say what has already been decided (cf. Chafe [8]).

Acoustic Variability in the Production of English Vowels by Native and Non-Native Speakers

The features of non-native speech which distinguish it from native speech are often difficult to pin down. It is possible to be a native speaker of any of a vast number of varieties of English. These varieties each have their phonetic characteristics which allow them to be identified by speakers of the varieties in question and by others. The phonetic differences between the accents represented by these varieties are very great. It is impossible to indicate any particular configuration of vowels in the acoustic vowel space or set of consonant articulations which all native-speaker varieties of English have in common and which non-native speakers do not share. This study considers the vowel quality in a single word by native and non-native speakers.

Language Dominance in Early and Late Bilinguals

The proposed presentation is a progress report from a project which is aimed at establishing some phonetic correlates of language dominance in various kinds of bilingual situations. The current object of study is Swedish students starting in classes which prepare for the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. The IB classes in Sweden are taught in English, except for classes in Swedish and foreign languages. This means that after they enter the programme the students are exposed to and speak a good deal more English than previously.The assumption made by many students that they will, on the one hand not “damage” their Swedish, and on the other will dramatically improve their English simply by attending an English-medium school will be tested. The linguistic background of the students studied and their reasons for choosing the IB programme will be established. Their English and Swedish proficiency will be tested according to various parameters (native-like syntax, perceived foreign accent, the timing of vowels and consonants in VC sequences, vocabulary mobilisation) on arrival at the school, and again after one and three years at the school. The initial recordings are now underway.In a preliminary study involving just three young people who were bilingual in Swedish and English, the timing of the pronunciation of (C)VC syllables in Swedish and English was studied. The results of this investigation indicate that it may be possible to establish language dominance in bilingual speakers using timing data. It was found that the three subjects differed systematically in their pronunciation of the target words. One subject (15 years old), who was apparently native-like in both languages, had the V-C timing of both Swedish and English words of a native speaker of English. His brother (17 years old), who had a noticeable Swedish accent in English, pronounced both Swedish and English words in this respect like a native speaker of Swedish. The boys’ sister (9 years old) apparently had native-like timing in both languages.

Temporal indicators of language dominance in bilingual children

In the field of bilingualism it is of particular interest to stablish which, if any, of a speaker’s languages is dominant. Earlier research has shown that immigrants who acquire a new language tend to use elements of the timing patterns of the new language in their native language. It is shown here that measurements of timing in the two languages spoken by bilingual children can give information about the relative dominance of the languages for the individual speaker.

Representations of culture in EIL : Cultural representation in Swedish EFL textbooks

The English language has become an international language and is globally used as a lingua franca. Therefore, there has been a shift in English-language education toward teaching English as an interna-tional language (EIL). Teaching from the EIL paradigm means that English is seen as an international language used in communication by people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. As the approach to English-language education changes from the traditional native-speaker, target country context, so does the role of culture within English-language teaching. The aim of this thesis is to in-vestigate and analyse cultural representations in two Swedish EFL textbooks used in upper-secondary school to see how they correspond with the EIL paradigm. This is done by focusing on the geograph-ical origin of the cultural content as well as looking at what kinds of culture are represented in the textbooks. A content analysis of the textbooks is conducted, using Kachru’s Concentric Circles of English as the model for the analysis of the geographical origin. Horibe’s model of the three different kinds of culture in EIL is the model used for coding the second part of the analysis. The results of the analysis show that culture of target countries and "Culture as social custom" dominate the cultural content of the textbook. Thus, although there are some indications that the EIL paradigm has influ-enced the textbooks, the traditional approach to culture in language teaching still prevails in the ana-lysed textbooks. Because of the relatively small sample included in the thesis, further studies need to be conducted in order to make conclusions regarding the Swedish context as a whole.

Ne videt, ne znat – det direkta objektets kasus vid två negerade ryska verb

This essay examines the case of the direct object in Russian sentences with the negated verbs не видеть and не знать. For each verb, 50 contexts were downloaded from the newspaper corpus of the Russian National Corpus and analysed with respect to the semantic properties of the direct object and the negated verb. The theories and concepts used for the analysis have been outlined in Padutjeva, 2006. The analysis of не видеть suggests that the main difference between the genitive and the ac-cusative case is to be found in the notion of non-existence or absence implicated by the verb’s semantics. In utterances with не видеть as a predicate, this notion is always present and is expressed by the genitive case. The speaker may also choose to ignore it by using the accusa-tive and thus emphasize some other aspect of the described situation. The examined properties of reference, definiteness and denotative status of the direct object seem to play a secondary role for how case is used. Their influence is to delimit the meaning of the objective genitive to either non-existence or absence. No similar conclusions could be drawn from the examination of не знать. The reason for this is that the concept of private sphere, used by Padutjeva to explain the use of objective geni-tive with this verb, could not be properly established during the analysis. Just as the notion of absence is crucial for the understanding of the objective genitive when it occurs with не видеть, the concept private sphere seems to be the key to understand it when it occurs with не знать.

Bennett Archambault Portrait

Portrait of Bennett Archambault who was a speaker at the evening school graduation of the New York Trade School in 1949. From a press release attached to the portrait: "Walter Weir, Inc., 250 West 57th Street, New York 19, N.Y., John Black, Public Relations & Publicity Department, Plaza 7-0140, May 23, 1949, For Release: Friday, May 27, 1949, BENNETT ARCHAMBAULT: Member of the Board of Trustees, New York Trade School, and Treasurer, The M.W. Kellogg Company, who reviewed the school's long history and drew an impressive picture of its future, in an address at the 68th Annual Evening School Graduation, held last night (May 26) in the school building on East 67th Street, New York." Black and white photograph.

Perspective: LaGuardia Community College Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 3

"A newsletter published periodically to keep the faculty, students, staff, and community informed about the activities taking place on the campus of LaGuardia Community College." No date [1973]; Vol. 1, No. 3; 4 pages; Color (green, black & white); black & white photographs. Cover article: “COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER NAMED, SHIRLEY CHISHOLM TO DELIVER GRADUATION ADDRESS”. Other entries include: “FIORELLO FUNDS COMMITTEE ANNOUNCES F INAL AWARDS;” “’TOWN MEETINGS’ PROGRAMS TO BEGIN ON TELEVISION MARCH 17;” “Highights of BLACK HISTORY WEEK.”

Do falar quilombola à fala falquejada : um estudo de variação estilística

O objetivo deste trabalho é elucidar as atitudes lingüísticas de um líder de uma comunidade de remanescentes de quilombo, localizada no interior do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, nos domínios públicos e privados. A análise da fala de nosso informante está apoiada nas abordagens teóricas de Attention to Speech, Audience Design e Speaker Design. As gravações da fala pública e privada da fala de nosso informante foram realizadas em 2001 e 2003 em eventos sociais em sua própria comunidade. Nossas hipóteses centrais previam que nas situações de fala pública, nosso informante apresentaria níveis de concordância verbal similares aos encontrados na fala de informantes escolarizados. Previam também que nas situações de fala privada nosso informante apresentaria traços da variedade rural do português e características de crioulização prévia de seu dialeto. A análise dos resultados da fala do líder comunitário demonstra que sua variação estilística esta relacionada não só aos diferentes domínios, mas também aos seus interlocutores. Os resultados também sugerem que entre 2001 e 2003 nosso informante adquiriu traços da fala culta e do português padrão. Uma das motivações centrais para a realização deste trabalho foi a observação de que não existiam trabalhos sociolingüísticos a respeito de comunidades afro-descendentes na região sul do Brasil. Diante deste quadro, um dos objetivos deste trabalho é instigar a realização de outras pesquisas sociolingüísticas sobre esta importante parcela da população da região sul do Brasil.

Renovando os sentidos: percepção e escrita etnográfica na etnomusicologia

MENDES, Jean Joubert Freitas. Renovando os sentidos: percepção e escrita etnográfica na etnomusicologia. In: ANPPOM, 17. Rio de Janeiro, 2005. Anais... Rio de Janeiro: UFRN/ANPPOM, 2005.

Análise da sobre-reação e sub-reação nos ativos de primeira e segunda lina do mercado acionário brasileiro

The Behavioral Finance develop as it is perceived anomalies in these markets efficient. This fields of study can be grouped into three major groups: heuristic bias, tying the shape and inefficient markets. The present study focuses on issues concerning the heuristics of representativeness and anchoring. This study aimed to identify the then under-reaction and over-reaction, as well as the existence of symmetry in the active first and second line of the Brazilian stock market. For this, it will be use the Fuzzy Logic and the indicators that classify groups studied from the Discriminant Analysis. The highest present, indicator in the period studied, was the Liabilities / Equity, demonstrating the importance of the moment to discriminate the assets to be considered "winners" and "losers." Note that in the MLCX biases over-reaction is concentrated in the period of financial crisis, and in the remaining periods of statistically significant biases, are obtained by sub-reactions. The latter would be in times of moderate levels of uncertainty. In the Small Caps the behavioral responses in 2005 and 2007 occur in reverse to those observed in the Mid-Large Cap. Now in times of crisis would have a marked conservatism while near the end of trading on the Bovespa speaker, accompanied by an increase of negotiations, there is an overreaction by investors. The other heuristics in SMLL occurred at the end of the period studied, this being a under-reaction and the other a over-reaction and the second occurring in a period of financial-economic more positive than the first. As regards the under / over-reactivity in both types, there is detected a predominance of either, which probably be different in the context in MLCX without crisis. For the period in which such phenomena occur in a statistically significant to note that, in most cases, such phenomena occur during the periods for MLCX while in SMLL not only biases are less present as there is no concentration of these at any time . Given the above, it is believed that while detecting the presence of bias behavior at certain times, these do not tend to appear to a specific type or heuristics and while there were some indications of a seasonal pattern in Mid- Large Caps, the same behavior does not seem to be repeated in Small Caps. The tests would then suggest that momentary failures in the Efficient Market Hypothesis when tested in semistrong form as stated by Behavioral Finance. This result confirms the theory by stating that not only rationality, but also human irrationality, is limited because it would act rationally in many circumstances

Aí marcador de especificidade de SN indefinidos: um estudo funcionalista com implicações para o ensino

This body of work aims to describe and analyze the behavior of the Aí specificity marker of indefinite Noun Phrases (NP), one of the many functions this linguistic item is developing in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. From the Functional Linguistic theory perspective, the North American declivity, this project intends to outline the possible grammaticalization trajectory taken by the Aí specificity marker. It will be followed from its function as a spatial deitic up to its integration of indefinite NP, and the action of the fundamental principles of the theory, such as iconicity and informativity, will be observed on the use of this item. Following this, Aí specificity marker behavior will be described in respect to various linguistic and social factors: type of text where the occurrence is encountered, language modality in which the latter is produced, syntactic function developed by the NP specified by Aí , the existence or lack of material intervening between Aí and the NP nuclear noun, informational status of the NP adjugated to Aí , and finally, sex, education and age of the speaker. The occurrence of conversational implicatures will also be verified (GRICE, 1982) within the contexts of Aí specificity marker use. Reflections on the teaching of grammar will be made, as well as on the possibility and validity of working with noun phrase specificity markers in elementary and high school Portuguese language classes. The data used in this research project stem from Corpus Discurso & Gramática A língua falada e escrita na cidade do Natal (FURTADO DA CUNHA, 1998), and from Corpus Discurso & Gramática A língua falada e escrita na cidade do Rio de Janeiro (VOTRE; OLIVEIRA, 1995)