Effects of Pinyin and First Language Words in Learning of Chinese Characters as a Second Language

This study examined the roles of pinyin and English words as stimulus prompts in the learning of Chinese characters. Recall for naming of English words and pronunciation was enhanced under conditions in which each character was presented first and its prompts were given as feedback, in contrast to simultaneous presentation conditions. Pronunciation was also recalled more in the written pinyin conditions than the verbal pronunciation conditions. These data were interpreted in terms of (a) interference which can occur when learners attend to multiple inputs simultaneously, and (b) the beneficial effects of attending to character prior to their prompts. It was concluded that the presentation of a character first and the provision of its associated prompts as a feedback improves learning.     

二语词汇熟悉度在双语者语义通达中的调节作用

先前很多研究表明熟练双语者可以直接通达其二语词汇的概念意义,非熟练双语者需要借助一语词汇间接通达其二语词汇的概念意义,这很可能是双语者二语词汇的熟悉度在其中发挥了调节作用。本研究使用跨语言重复启动范式考察了双语者对不同熟悉程度的二语词汇的语义通达方式。实验１以非熟练中英双语者为被试,实验２以熟练中英双语者为被试。总的结果发现,无论非熟练双语者还是熟练双语者,其在通达二语词汇概念意义时采用哪一种方式受词汇熟悉度的调节,当词汇熟悉度较高时,选择直接通达,当词汇熟悉度较低时,选择间接通达。本研究进一步支持和丰富了晚期双语者双语记忆表征中的语义通达方式从本质上属于经验性变化的观点。     

Working Memory Capacity and Self-Repair Behavior in First and Second Language Oral Production

This study explores the relationship between working memory capacity and self-repair behavior in first (L1) and second language (L2) oral production. 40 Iranian intermediate EFL learners participated in this study. Their working memory capacity was measured via a version of listening span test. The participants performed two oral narrative tasks, one in their L2 (English) and one in their L1 (Farsi). Then, they were asked to listen to their own narrations and comment on the repairs they made in their speech. Self-repairs were analyzed and categorized taking into account the participants’ stimulated recall comments. Results of the analyses pointed to positive correlations between the participants’ working memory capacity and self-repairs in the L2 but not in the L1. Also, results revealed that whereas in the case of L1, the participants effectuated different-information and appropriacy repairs more than error-repairs, in the case of L2 more error-repairs were made.     

Recognition of Inflected Words in a Morphologically Limited Language: Frequency Effects in Monolinguals and Bilinguals

The effect of word frequency on the processing of monomorphemic vs. inflected words was investigated in a morphologically relatively limited language, Swedish, with two participant groups: early Finnish–Swedish bilinguals and Swedish monolinguals. The visual lexical decision results of the monolinguals suggest morphological decomposition with low-frequency inflected nouns, while with medium- and high-frequency inflections, full-form processing was apparently employed. The bilinguals demonstrated a similar pattern. The results suggest that morpheme-based recognition is employed even in a morphologically limited language when the inflectional forms occur rarely. With more frequent inflectional forms, full-form representations have developed for both mono- and bilingual speakers. In a comparable study employing a morphologically rich language, Finnish, Lehtonen and Laine (2003, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 213–225) observed full-form access only at the high-frequency range and only for monolinguals. These differences suggest that besides word frequency and language background, the morphological richness of a language affects the processing mode employed with polymorphemic wordsThis study was financially supported by a grant (#20010) from the Joint Committee of the Nordic Social Science Research Councils (NOS-S). We are grateful for Jonna Kortelahti- Brunnsteiner for recruitment and testing of part of the bilingual participants     

The Impact of Text-Structure Strategy Instruction on the Text Recall and Eye-Movement Patterns of Second Language English Readers

Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of the Text Structure Strategy for improving text recall. The strategy emphasizes the identification of text structure for encoding and recalling information. Traditionally, the efficacy of this strategy has been measured through free recall. The present study examined whether recall and eye-movement patterns of second language English readers would benefit from training on the strategy. Participants’ free recall and eye-movement patterns were measured before and after training. There was a significant increase in recall at posttest and a change in eye-movement patterns, reflecting additional processing time of phrases and words signaling the text structure.     

Second Language Vocabulary Gains from Listening Versus Reading Comprehension Input: A Comparative Study

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This study aims to investigate the acquisition of vocabulary recognition and vocabulary production in the short—and- long-term via listening and reading...     

Things in Words: Ferenczi and Language

Ferenczi defends the mimesis between words and things from the moment he enters the psychoanalytical movement. He emphasizes the sensitive dimension of language and the magical experience of words. This paper intends to view such use of language by contemporary patients in a non-pathologizing, constructive way, avoiding characterizing them as deficient in their capacity to symbolize and create metaphors.     

Changes in Children's Episodic Narratives Through Long-Term Repeated Recall: Longitudinal Case Studies1

This study aimed to investigate whether a child's narrative of a particular past episode would change in repeated reporting over the long term, and if so, how it would change. To answer these questions, I conducted longitudinal case studies of episodic reports by children every 2–6 months, from their early childhood to the age of 10–15 years. Criteria for inclusion were set in advance; seven episodic narratives meeting these criteria were analyzed. Two types of changes in the narratives were observed, as expected: that of including other information, and that of an event suddenly being reported after no recall for several years. Information from the children's surroundings seemed to be substantially involved in these changes in their episodic narratives. The present results also indicate that mothers' episodic memories are not always reliable and that the schema children have can influence their episodic memories.     

Recall and Recognition Measures of Paired Associate Learning in Healthy Aging

ABSTRACT

Associate-recognition has received little attention as a potential clinical tool for detecting early Alzheimer's disease (AD). As an important preliminary stage to investigating the paradigm's diagnostic utility, we designed and administered a verbal associate-recognition task to healthy elderly participants (n?=?62) and compared their performance to that on traditional cued-recall PAL. In both test conditions, the stimulus list comprised of a mixture of highly imageable and less imageable word pairs. Overall, performance on the associate-recognition task was superior to that on the cued-recall analogue. This ‘recognition advantage’ was not attributable to the higher baseline or chance guessing rate in the associate-recognition condition, as the size of the recognition advantage varied across learning trials and stimulus imageability. In comparison to performance on the imageable stimuli, performance on the less imageable stimuli was poor in both associate-recognition and cued-recall conditions. Across the delay, performances were more likely to drop in the cued-recall condition than the associate-recognition condition. These results suggest that verbal associate-recognition may be clinically efficacious and better tolerated in elderly populations than traditional cued-recall paradigms. Although these results are encouraging, further research is required to examine the utility of associate-recognition in clinical populations, particularly early AD.     

How Does the Linguistic Distance Between Spoken and Standard Language in Arabic Affect Recall and Recognition Performances During Verbal Memory Examination

The current research examined how Arabic diglossia affects verbal learning memory. Thirty native Arab college students were tested using auditory verbal memory test that was adapted according to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and developed in three versions: Pure spoken language version (SL), pure standard language version (SA), and phonologically similar version (PS). The result showed that for immediate free-recall, the performances were better for the SL and the PS conditions compared to the SA one. However, for the parts of delayed recall and recognition, the results did not reveal any significant consistent effect of diglossia. Accordingly, it was suggested that diglossia has a significant effect on the storage and short term memory functions but not on long term memory functions. The results were discussed in light of different approaches in the field of bilingual memory.     

第二语言阅读中的元认知

在第二语言习得领域,元认知自20世纪90年代中后期开始引起了研究者的关注并逐渐被应用于阅读、写作、听力和口语等各种教学实践中。该文以元认知结构的二分法为框架,说明了心理学研究者致力于探讨第二语言学习者通过元认知监控来使用元认知知识的内部加工过程的特点,并从影响第二语言阅读的自我观念、文本内容和策略使用意识等方面系统介绍了元认知知识、监控与第二语言阅读的关系,最后对元认知的研究方法进行了归纳和展望     

不同英语水平学习者英语派生词和屈折词记忆加工差异

中等水平和高级水平英语学习者对以视觉、听觉和视听觉混合方式呈现的派生词和规则变化屈折词的自由回忆成绩表明,他们对这两种多词素词的识别加工存在词素自动分解过程,但比较而言对屈折词的分解加工倾向更大一些。和中等水平学习者相比,高级水平学习者发展有更强的屈折词或派生词构词意识。     

第二语言学习中的反馈

在第二语言学习中,反馈指针对学习者的言语行为给予学习者的评价性信息。该文阐释了反馈的概念、类型以及反馈在第二语言学习中的角色,并从反馈的时机与对象、对学习者注意力的引导、学习者认知资源的限制、情感支持等方面分析了有效反馈的特征,最后对反馈研究对我国第二语言学习与教学的意义及以后的研究方向进行了探讨     

语境和构词法线索对外国学生汉语词义猜测的作用

要求学习汉语的欧美和日本留学生对三种条件下(只有词没有语境、只有语境没有词、既有词也有语境)的语义半透明的双音复合词进行猜测, 考察语境和构词法线索在欧美和日本留学生汉语生词猜测中的作用。结果显示：在猜测词义中语境和构词法线索分别都能提供一定的信息, 但同时提供两种信息能得到更好的猜测; 语境和构词法线索在生词猜测过程中所起的作用不同, 语境能提供更多句法上的信息, 构词法能提供更多语义上的信息; 目标词的结构方式对生词猜测产生影响, 与动宾式生词相比, 偏正式生词的猜测较为容易且构词法线索在其中的作用较大; 母语文字背景可能影响词义猜测的效果, 日本留学生对于构词法、语境线索以及两者的整合都比欧美留学生好。     

Direct Comparison of Episodic Encoding and Retrieval of Words: An Event-related fMRI Study

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare directly episodic encoding and retrieval. During encoding, subjects studied visually presented words and reported via keypress whether each word represented a pleasant or unpleasant concept (intentional, deep encoding). During the retrieval phase, subjects indicated (via keypress) whether visually presented words had previously been studied. No reliable differences were found during the recognition phase for words that had been previously studied and those that had not been studied. Areas preferentially active during encoding (relative to retrieval) included left superior frontal cortex, medial frontal cortex, left superior temporal cortex, posterior cingulate, left parahippocampal gyrus, and left inferior frontal gyrus. Regions more active in retrieval than encoding included bilateral inferior parietal cortex, bilateral precuneus, right frontal polar cortex, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and right inferior frontal/insular cortex.     

目的语在第二语言习得中的迁移

该文在概要说明迁移在第二语言习得中表现后,着重分析了目的语自身在习得第二语言过程中的三种迁移形式,分析了这三种形式发生的原因.正迁移往往发生在所使用的规则和迁移的规则相同或者接近的条件下,负迁移常发生在学习者把第二语言的特殊规则当作一般规则来使用.零迁移常常是因为第二语言规则较难,或学习者没有信心用好该规则.该文还对迁移在第二语言习得中的应用及国内的有关研究进行阐述和评介.     

Affecting Factors in Second Language Learning

The present study investigated the influence of sex, handedness, level in second langua ge (L2) and Faculty choice on the performance of phonological, syntactical and semantic tasks in L2. Level in L2 and sex were the most affecting factors. Subjects who achieved higher scores on L2 tasks had strong second language aptitude skills since they were those who had obtained a professional degree in the second language. Females performed better than males in syntax and semantics which is explained by the general female superiority on verbal tasks based on differences in hemispheric specialization for language functions between the sexes. Handedness and Faculty choice on the part of the participants had an impact on our results but only when combined with other factors.     

Conversion Symptoms and Psychoanalysis in a Second Language

Abstract

Conversion symptoms involve a regression, where the patient appears to have lost access to previously available modes of verbal expression. Instead movements, sensations, postures, gestures, and visceral processes express emotions and unconscious wishes directly. Patients who are analyzed in a language other than their mother tongue, without access to the language of their early years, may rely on the body to express powerful affect and fantasies. A patient who displayed pseudoseizures on the couch is presented, looking specifically at how this man's conversion reaction may relate to the fact that the language of the analysis is not his mother tongue.