Issues in Acquisitional Pragmatics

This paper aims at a comprehensive review of the growing body of research in L2 pragmatic acquisition, including both theoretical discussions and empirical studies to date. To this end, the paper deals with a number of issues which are grouped into four broad categories: the essential constituents of pragmatic competence, models of pragmatic development, major processes of pragmatic competence, and various factors affecting pragmatic development. Throughout the paper, it is shown that cultural knowledge is of central importance in pragmatic competence and that such knowledge can be acquired through language-mediated social interactions. Furthermore, a learner’s unconditional adoption of a new set of cultural beliefs and values is unrealistic due to the unresolved conflict between L2 norms of speaking and the learner’s needs and beliefs about the ways of being in the world. Given these perspectives, this paper points to the need for a holistic approach to L2 pragmatic development, taking into account both the intra-learner, psychological and the inter-learner, sociocultural aspects of learning. The paper concludes with the suggestion that L2 pragmatic competence be discussed in terms of intercultural competence involving the learner’s continuous identity and attitude formation, rather than the acquisition of prescribed behavioral rules of speaking

Overburdening associations: the dependency of psychopathy- related acquisitional learning deficits on processing load

Psychopathic personality traits have been identified as an important individual predictor of associative learning capacity. Prior work has associated psychopathy with deficits when adapting learned associations in response to novel information. However, findings are inconsistent and are hypothesised to vary as a function of the processing load created by different experimental paradigms. We tested this hypothesis by examining the association between psychopathic traits and Stimulus-Response-Outcome contingency learning whilst manipulating contextual processing load. In experiment one and two, participants completed three versions of a configural object discrimination task that required participants to use increasingly multidimensional learning cues. Across both experiments, it was found that elevated levels of psychopathic traits were associated with a lesser capacity to form S-R-O associations in the bidimensional but not tridimensional versions of the learning task. This suggests psychopathy-related learning deficits may vary as a function of processing load inherent to the bidimensional learning environment, rather than the type of learning taking place. This provides some of the first experimental evidence that psychopathic learning deficits are detectable during the acquisition phase of learning

Enabling Ontology-based data access to streaming sources

The availability of streaming data sources is progressively increasing thanks to the development of ubiquitous data capturing tech- nologies such as sensor networks. The heterogeneity of these sources in- troduces the requirement of providing data access in a uni ed and co- herent manner, whilst allowing the user to express their needs at an ontological level. In this paper we describe an ontology-based streaming data access service. Sources link their data content to ontologies through s2o mappings. Users can query the ontology using sparqlStream, an ex- tension of sparql for streaming data. A preliminary implementation of the approach is also presented. With this proposal we expect to set the basis for future e orts in ontology-based streaming data integration

Pedagogical and Acquisitional Implications of the Intonational Map Provided by Korean Textbook Example Conversations

Through the analyzation of a corpus of K-ToBI annotated speech taken from beginning level textbook conversation recordings, this paper aims to determine the global attributes of Slow, Clear Speech (SCS) on Korean prosody production, and to implicate these effects in the pedagogy of beginning-level Korean. In an analysis of the features that make Korean SCS distinct, four common themes emerged. First, there is final lengthening on Accentual Phrases (APs). Second, there are additional pauses and breaks between APs. Third, there is broad use of pitch reset and of focus in small syntactic frames. And fourth, boundary tones are typically flat and disaffected. Intonation plays a key role in the pursuit of L2 Korean intelligibility and is integral to strong acquisition of Korean. However, instructors rarely speak at normal speech rates (SR) with normal articulation, and typically use SCS with their beginning students. Students will recall frequently heard or salient intonational patterns, so instructors must take care to use intonational patterns intentionally. Thus, it is proposed that instructors of beginner students give explicit instruction and direct feedback on intonation and show natural speech examples often from various speakers, among other strategies to mitigate the effects of SCS on student intonational acquisition

Teachers’ professional learning: perspectives and reflections of practising teachers

This thesis uses a case study to explore teachers’ professional learning in one secondary school in the south of England. An interpretive, qualitative case study approach was adopted. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and staff biographies to explore the key research questions. These investigated how the teachers perceive their own learning and development, what teachers think they learn and develop and what activities impact teachers’ learning and development. A review of the conceptual frameworks focused on three different areas. Firstly, a consideration of how teachers and adults define their own learning. Secondly teachers’ knowledge and skills base were explored; looking in particular at what authors argue constitute teachers’ knowledge. Finally, there was an overview of the varied activities and experiences that affect and impact teachers’ learning. Analysis of the data indicated that secondary school teachers perceive their learning through the lens of acquisition and a new perspective described by participants as ‘developmental’. The teachers in the study also showed that those who had been teaching for longer had different perceptions of learning from those with less experience. A teacher’s knowledge base was considered to consist of knowledge and skills related to the school, subject and personal efficacy of the teacher. The content of teachers’ knowledge, however, was influenced by external factors such as policy and social changes in education. Finally, the study found that teachers learnt from a wide range of formal and informal activities. Formal activities tended to be less successful if the aims were not shared and the teachers felt the learning was imposed. Informal activities were more successful as they were normally instigated by staff with their own professional development in mind. Drawing together these findings the study proposes a new model of teacher learning

Automatic application object migration in sensor networks

Object migration in wireless sensor networks has the potential to reduce energy consumption for a wireless sensor network mesh. Automated migration reduces the need for the programmer to perform manual static analysis to find an efficient layout solution. Instead, the system can self-optimise and adjust to changing conditions. This paper describes an automated, transparent object migration system for wireless sensor networks, implemented on a micro Java virtual machine. The migration system moves objects at runtime around the sensor mesh to reduce communication overheads. The movement of objects is transparent to the application developer. Automated transparent object migration is a core component of Hydra, a distributed operating system for wireless sensor networks that is currently under development. Performance of the system under a complex performance test scenario using a real-world dataset of seismic events is described. The results show that under both simple and complex conditions the migration technique can result in lower data traffic and consequently lower overall energy cost