In-depth analysis of the Naming Game dynamics: the homogeneous mixing case

Language emergence and evolution has recently gained growing attention through multi-agent models and mathematical frameworks to study their behavior. Here we investigate further the Naming Game, a model able to account for the emergence of a shared vocabulary of form-meaning associations through social/cultural learning. Due to the simplicity of both the structure of the agents and their interaction rules, the dynamics of this model can be analyzed in great detail using numerical simulations and analytical arguments. This paper first reviews some existing results and then presents a new overall understanding.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures (few in reduced definition). In press in IJMP

Did social cognition evolve by cultural group selection?

Abstract Cognitive gadgets puts forward an ambitious claim: language, mindreading, and imitation evolved by cultural group selection. Defending this claim requires more than Heyes' spirited and effective critique of nativist claims. The latest human “cognitive gadgets,” such as literacy, did not spread through cultural group selection. Why should social cognition be different? The book leaves this question pending. It also makes strong assumptions regarding cultural evolution: it is moved by selection rather than transformation; it relies on high-fidelity imitation; it requires specific cognitive adaptations to cultural learning. Each of these assumptions raises crucial yet unaddressed difficulties

Development of social learning and play in BaYaka hunter-gatherers of Congo.

High-fidelity transmission of information through imitation and teaching has been proposed as necessary for cumulative cultural evolution. Yet, it is unclear when and for which knowledge domains children employ different social learning processes. This paper explores the development of social learning processes and play in BaYaka hunter-gatherer children by analysing video recordings and time budgets of children from early infancy to adolescence. From infancy to early childhood, hunter-gatherer children learn mainly by imitating and observing others' activities. From early childhood, learning occurs mainly in playgroups and through practice. Throughout childhood boys engage in play more often than girls whereas girls start foraging wild plants from early childhood and spend more time in domestic activities and childcare. Sex differences in play reflect the emergence of sexual division of labour and the play-work transition occurring earlier for girls. Consistent with theoretical models, teaching occurs for skills/knowledge that cannot be transmitted with high fidelity through other social learning processes such as the acquisition of abstract information e.g. social norms. Whereas, observational and imitative learning occur for the transmission of visually transparent skills such as tool use, foraging, and cooking. These results suggest that coevolutionary relationships between human sociality, language and teaching have likely been fundamental in the emergence of human cumulative culture

Social networks and cultural transmission

Language is a complex dynamical system that is shaped not just through biological evolution but by the way it is used in a social context. Sociolinguists have long understood that the structure of a society strongly affects the nature of the languages that emerge. Computational models of language evolution, however, generally neglect the effect of social structure by modelling extremely simple population dynamics. This study explores the coevolution of language and social structure using a simple, abstract model of language learning and a plausible mechanism for network growth, namely homophily. Evolved networks are found to possess the characteristic measures of social networks: assortative mixing, transitivity and prominent community structure. The effect of embedding language-learners in the network is found to be significant. This model may also provide a platform on which existing theories and computational models of language evolution can be evaluated

Examining Temporal Bias in Abusive Language Detection

The use of abusive language online has become an increasingly pervasive problem that damages both individuals and society, with effects ranging from psychological harm right through to escalation to real-life violence and even death. Machine learning models have been developed to automatically detect abusive language, but these models can suffer from temporal bias, the phenomenon in which topics, language use or social norms change over time. This study aims to investigate the nature and impact of temporal bias in abusive language detection across various languages and explore mitigation methods. We evaluate the performance of models on abusive data sets from different time periods. Our results demonstrate that temporal bias is a significant challenge for abusive language detection, with models trained on historical data showing a significant drop in performance over time. We also present an extensive linguistic analysis of these abusive data sets from a diachronic perspective, aiming to explore the reasons for language evolution and performance decline. This study sheds light on the pervasive issue of temporal bias in abusive language detection across languages, offering crucial insights into language evolution and temporal bias mitigation

Foreign Language: Examining systemic attitudes, xenophobia, and foreign language anxiety

With the focus on the systemic attitudes, this study examines previous background in foreign language, attitudes about language in general, and the relation of language to identity. This study stresses the defining process in the making of American as a national and cultural identity, and how it has changed over the years. It examines the role of xenophobia and xenoglossophobia in the context of American identity, and through its evolution in past and current sociopolitical believes impacting an overall disinterest in foreign language. The disinterest in foreign language is investigated to discover the reasons why foreign language programs are being cut, why people are not studying them, and why they are not growing despite the presented humanistic, economic, and social benefits. It explores the historical background of interest and disinterest in foreign language and how that is tied to an establish pattern of nativist attitudes that include aspects such as English-only policies. This study surveyed 100 participants about their perspectives on foreign language and how it relates to identity, their ability to speak another language, and what factors prevent someone from learning another language. With these results, this study is a call to action for foreign language education in the United States and awareness of differences in cultural attitudes, norms, and beliefs tied to language

Probing into the Historical and Geographical Variants of Mandarin: A Computational Approach

This computational study reveals the primacy of language contact in the variation of language (Sarah Grey Thomason 2003). The visualization and further analysis confirm the reconceptualization of Chinese linguistic history with the theory of Horizontal Transmission (Shen 2016). Horizontal Transmission situates the development of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects in a sociopolitical landscape as a cultural complex and introduces imperfect learning to the time-capsulated process of Language Shift as an inevitable social phenomenon. The nature of language largely determines how it can change(Janda and Joseph 2003). We have to ruminate on the fact that the grammar of language is a symbolic system of representation while living language is a complex adaptive system generated and regenerated by individuals (Shen 2015). The descriptive capacity of Shen’s theory is compatible with the nature of language being dynamic idiolects alongside a real linguistic history embodied by individual speakers in time and space. The descriptive capacity of Shen’s theory is compatible with the nature of language being dynamic idiolects alongside a real linguistic history embodied by individual speakers in time and space. Only by understanding the change mechanism of Chinese from the perspective of language contact and through the lens of language shift, the variation of Mandarin and emergence of Chinese dialects find their explanations in a salient chain of logic to create a holistic account of Chinese evolution where the intertwined influence of languages finds its manifestation

Understanding Language Evolution in Overlapping Generations of Reinforcement Learning Agents

Available from MIT Press via the DOI in this recordUnderstanding how the dynamics of language learning and language change are influenced by the population structure of language users is crucial to understanding how lexical items and grammatical rules become established within the context of the cultural evolution of human language. This paper extends the recent body of work on the development of term-based languages through signalling games by exploring signalling game dynamics in a social population with overlapping generations. Specifically, we present a model with a dynamic population of agents, consisting of both mature and immature language users, where the latter learn from the former's interactions with one another before reaching maturity. It is shown that populations in which mature individuals converse with many partners are more able to solve more complex signalling games. While interacting with a higher number of individuals initially makes it more difficult for language users to establish a conventionalised language, doing so leads to increased diversity within the input for language learners, and that this prevents them from developing the more idiosyncratic language that emerge when agents only interact with a small number of individuals. This, in turn, prevents the signalling conventions having to be renegotiated with each new generation of language users, resulting in the emerging language being more stable over subsequent generations of language users. Furthermore, it is shown that allowing the children of language users to interact with one another is beneficial to the communicative success of the population when the number of partners that mature agents interact with is low

Multimodality in English for specific purposes: Reconceptualizing meaning-making practices

The rapid evolution from print-based to multimodal information has still not received sufficient attention from the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This paper advocates the need to re-conceptualize ESP through multimodal practice for new opportunities of interactive learner engagement. For the purpose, qualitative, exploratory research was conducted on multimodal ESP practice carried out with post-graduate students at the University of Calabria in Italy. The study addresses the issues of how multimodal environments can affect ESP and how a multimodal assignment can influence learner motivation, engagement and awareness. A theoretical multimodal semiotic approach was combined with multimodal pedagogy to investigate the benefits of learners’ engagement in creating artefacts with content-specific language, as well as developing awareness of their meaning-making processes. A questionnaire survey revealed learners’ active involvement determined by intrinsic, extrinsic and achievement motivation of working in a multimodal environment. Learner artefacts showed their ability to produce content-specific language in specialized contexts of use and to creatively combine the linguistic elements with other semiotic resources. In their explanations of meaning-making processes, learners further manifested their awareness of how multimodality can stimulate motivation in learning, foster critical thinking and decision-making skills, enhance natural and flexible language learning, as well as the use of prior specialized knowledge in switching between linguistic and other semiotic modes. The study suggests that ESP development can benefit more from a multimodal pedagogy which is grounded in the principles of learner-centredness, constructivist learning and social interaction compared to the traditional instructivist approach.

Second language learning at a distance: Metacognition, affect, learning strategies and learner support in relation to the development of autonomy. Volume 1: Introduction to the published work

This work is based on nine articles, two book chapters and one set of conference proceedings published between 1998 and 2007 on independent language learning in universities. I also refer to papers I have published that are concerned exclusively with language learning and teaching in adult education in order to contextualise my research. The publications selected for this work chart my evolution as a researcher and teacher, moving from a conventional adult education setting to self-access in a new university and finally distance learning at the Open University, UK. At each stage of this educational journey, autonomy took on an increasingly significant role, with distance learning at the extreme end of the spectrum, a setting which required autonomy to be firmly embedded in theory and practice. The thesis is divided into two main parts: (1) autonomy (2) metacognition and affect, strategies and learner support. The narrative draws together these themes, and explores links between the constructs, and their interrelationships. Publications 1-5 focus on the concept of autonomy and the issues it raises for learners and teachers in both self access and distance learning settings. The first three articles investigate autonomy in self-access contexts. The fourth and fifth publications concentrate more specifically on the distance language learning context. These five articles and chapters examine definitions and interpretations of autonomy; its psychological and social dimensions; its relationship to critical reflection; its place in successful language learning; and its function as a key transferable skill for vocational and other purposes. Finally, the role of autonomy and its practical application – self-regulation or self-management – is discussed in specific relation to distance language learning. Publications 6-12 explore metacognition and affect in independent learning settings, the role of language learning strategies to promote self-regulation in the development of autonomy, and issues for learner support. In this section, the focus is mainly on distance language learning, (reflecting my move to the Open University, UK), although many of the arguments are equally applicable to independent language learning settings in general. The role of metacognition is discussed from the dual perspective of knowledge of self, and skills used to manage the learning process (Flavell, 1976). Affective factors, notably beliefs, anxiety and motivation, are explored in relation to the special characteristics of the distance language learning environment, in particular the call on affective resources in the absence of a teacher. This leads naturally to an examination of the strategies that distance learners employ to cope with the demands of their learning setting, and to implications for learner support. This work makes an important contribution to the field of distance language learning through its focus on the centrality of the learner, the processes involved in second language acquisition (SLA) at a distance, and the need to explore related concepts from the learner's perspective. The empirical studies I have carried out using both quantitative and qualitative research instruments take forward the state of current knowledge in the field by offering original insights into the perceptions, thoughts and feelings of distance language learners and the strategies they use to manage in a distance context. Underpinning my research is a view shared by a growing number of researchers in applied linguistics today that 'language learning, more than almost any other discipline, is an adventure of the whole person, not just a cognitive or metacognitive exercise' (Oxford & Burry-Stock, 1995: 18)