Effect of spoken language on primary care choice refugee health assessment program patients seen at Boston Medical Center

PURPOSE: There are approximately 21.3 million refugees worldwide. Connection to primary care is essential for these patients because of the potential for long-term and complex care that they require. Primary care and continuity of care also leads to better health outcomes. This study examined what effect primary language had on primary care choice by Refugee Health Assessment Program (RHAP) patients seen at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and whether patients who chose non-BMC primary care eventually returned to BMC. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted examining RHAP patients’ primary language, and whether those patients continued care at BMC or sought care elsewhere. RESULTS: Significant results were seen among subjects who identified Chinese, Haitian Creole, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese as their primary language. Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese speakers had greater odds of seeking care outside of BMC. Haitian Creole and Somali speakers had greater odds of seeking care at BMC compared to English speakers. 80% of subjects returned to BMC after seeking care elsewhere. CONCLUSIONS: Primary language does effect choice of primary care provider within the refugee population. Providers should use these results to encourage refugee patients less likely to seek care to connect with a primary care provider

Front vowels of Spanish: A challenge for Chinese speakers

This research proposes to define the timbre of front vowels [e] and [i] in the spontaneous speech of the Spanish interlanguage spoken by Chinese people and to determine the convergent and divergent features of Peninsular Spanish. Variables such as gender, level of Spanish proficiency and the (a)tonicity of the vowels will also be assessed to see the extent to which these factors influence the pronunciation of the learners. A corpus of 1,489 front vowels produced by 36 Chinese speakers and a corpus of 420 vowels produced by 79 Spanish speakers were used for this study. The mean F1 and F2 values were calculated for each vowel. According to the statistical analysis of spontaneous speech, the interlanguage and the target language are similar in that the sounds [i] and [e] are significantly different, the atonic and tonic [i] show no significant differences and the tonic [e] is more open than the atonic [e] in both genders. However, the interlanguage diverges more from the target language because the timbre of the front vowels is more dispersed, that of [i] is more closed and fronted and that of [e] is more open and fronted, in both males and females, tonic and atonic. Finally, the study reveals that the level of language proficiency and tonicity are factors that influence the acquisition of pronunciation

Reflections on the Use of Nonverbal communication in teaching Spanish to sino-speakers

The increased interest in Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL) has meant that in China alone there are 25,000 university students taking Spanish courses (Instituto Cervantes, 2013). The demand for Spanish language and culture courses has yet to be met by adequate numbers of teachers with a good understanding of Chinese culture, especially if we question the uniformity of that culture over all regions of Sino-speakers (in particular China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Traditionally Chinese values have been linked to the works of Confucius and are often reflected in nonverbal communication (NVC). In FL teaching the implications of nonverbal communication are often not properly understood, despite their importance to thinking (McNeill and Duncan, 2000), to creating immediacy with students (Mehrabian, 1972), and in ensuring that students of the FL are accepted by native speakers of the language (Neu, 1990). We argue that FL teachers should understand the importance of NVC in the classroom, although it is not usually included in textbooks, and be aware of cultural differences among Sino-speakers, and of how these affect NVC and so communication.

Some acoustic and articulatory correlates of phrasal stress in Spanish

All spoken languages show rhythmic patterns. Recent work with a number of different languages (English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and French) suggests that metrically (hierarchically) assigned stress levels of the utterance show strong correlations with the amount of jaw displacement, and corresponding F1 values. This paper examines some articulatory and acoustic correlates of Spanish rhythm; specifically, we ask if there is a correlation between phrasal stress values metrically assigned to each syllable and acoustic/articulatory values. We used video recordings of three Salvadoran Spanish speakers to measure maximum jaw displacement, mean F0, mean intensity, mean duration, and mid-vowel F1 for each vowel in two Spanish sentences. The results show strong correlations between stress and duration, and between stress and F1, but weak correlations between stress and both mean vowel intensity and maximum jaw displacement. We also found weak correlations between jaw displacement and both mean vowel intensity and F1

Reading comprehension of machine translation output: what makes for a better read?

This paper reports on a pilot experiment that compares two different machine translation (MT) paradigms in reading comprehension tests. To explore a suitable methodology, we set up a pilot experiment with a group of six users (with English, Spanish and Simplified Chinese languages) using an English Language Testing System (IELTS), and an eye-tracker. The users were asked to read three texts in their native language: either the original English text (for the English speakers) or the machine-translated text (for the Spanish and Simplified Chinese speakers). The original texts were machine-translated via two MT systems: neural (NMT) and statistical (SMT). The users were also asked to rank satisfaction statements on a 3-point scale after reading each text and answering the respective comprehension questions. After all tasks were completed, a post-task retrospective interview took place to gather qualitative data. The findings suggest that the users from the target languages completed more tasks in less time with a higher level of satisfaction when using translations from the NMT system

LEXTALE_CH: A quick, character-based proficiency test for Mandarin Chinese

Research in second language acquisition suggests that objective performance-based assessments may provide more reliable and valid measures of second language proficiency than subjective self-ratings. To measure proficiency in English as a second language, a quick, vocabulary-based test called LexTALE (Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English) was developed and shown to be able to differentiate between various levels of English proficiency. Following in the line of adaptations of this test for other languages, we created a character-based adaptation for Mandarin Chinese: LEXTALE_CH. In this paper, we discuss the development and validation of LEXTALE_CH in detail. In short, LEXTALE_CH can discriminate between high and low levels of Mandarin proficiency and is sensitive to the significant differences in vocabulary size between native speakers and second language learners of Mandarin; further, it takes only a few minutes to administer and is simple to score, making it a practical tool for low-stakes estimation of Mandarin proficiency.http://www.lingref.com/bucld/42/BUCLD42-09.pdfPublished versio

Predicting Native Language from Gaze

A fundamental question in language learning concerns the role of a speaker's first language in second language acquisition. We present a novel methodology for studying this question: analysis of eye-movement patterns in second language reading of free-form text. Using this methodology, we demonstrate for the first time that the native language of English learners can be predicted from their gaze fixations when reading English. We provide analysis of classifier uncertainty and learned features, which indicates that differences in English reading are likely to be rooted in linguistic divergences across native languages. The presented framework complements production studies and offers new ground for advancing research on multilingualism.Comment: ACL 201

Language Barriers in Health Care Settings: An Annotated Bibliography of Research Literature

Provides an overview of resources related to the prevalence, role, and effects of language barriers and access in health care

The perception of English-accented polish – a pilot study

•Does familiarity with a specific foreign language facilitate the recognition and identification of that accent in foreign-accented Polish

Language and Culture

Language pervades social life. It is a primary means by which we gain access to the contents of others\u27 minds and establish shared understanding of the reality. Meanwhile, there is an enormous amount of linguistic diversity among human populations. Depending on what counts as a language, there are 3,000 to 10,000 living languages in the world, although a quarter of the world’s languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers and half have fewer than 10,000 (Crystal, 1997). Not surprisingly, a key question in culture and psychology research concerns the role of language in cultural processes. The present chapter focuses on two issues that have received by far the greatest amount of research attention from cultural researchers. First, how does language and human cultures co-evolve? Second, what are the non-linguistic cognitive effects of using a certain language? Does speaking different languages orient individuals to see and experience the external reality differently? The scope of the present chapter does not permit a comprehensive review of all pertinent research; only a selected sample of studies will be used to illustrate the main ideas in the present chapter