Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English

The increasing number of experimental studies on second language (L2) processing, frequently with English as the L2, calls for a practical and valid measure of English vocabulary knowledge and proficiency. In a large-scale study with Dutch and Korean speakers of L2 English, we tested whether LexTALE, a 5-min vocabulary test, is a valid predictor of English vocabulary knowledge and, possibly, even of general English proficiency. Furthermore, the validity of LexTALE was compared with that of self-ratings of proficiency, a measure frequently used by L2 researchers. The results showed the following in both speaker groups: (1) LexTALE was a good predictor of English vocabulary knowledge; 2) it also correlated substantially with a measure of general English proficiency; and 3) LexTALE was generally superior to self-ratings in its predictions. LexTALE, but not self-ratings, also correlated highly with previous experimental data on two word recognition paradigms. The test can be carried out on or downloaded from www.lextale.com

Asymmetric memory for birth language perception versus production in young international adoptees

Adults who as children were adopted into a different linguistic community retain knowledge of their birth language. The possession (without awareness) of such knowledge is known to facilitate the (re)learning of birth-language speech patterns; this perceptual learning predicts such adults' production success as well, indicating that the retained linguistic knowledge is abstract in nature. Adoptees' acquisition of their adopted language is fast and complete; birth-language mastery disappears rapidly, although this latter process has been little studied. Here, 46 international adoptees from China aged four to 10 years, with Dutch as their new language, plus 47 matched non-adopted Dutch-native controls and 40 matched non-adopted Chinese controls, undertook across a two-week period 10 blocks of training in perceptually identifying Chinese speech contrasts (one segmental, one tonal) which were unlike any Dutch contrasts. Chinese controls easily accomplished all these tasks. The same participants also provided speech production data in an imitation task. In perception, adoptees and Dutch controls scored equivalently poorly at the outset of training; with training, the adoptees significantly improved while the Dutch controls did not. In production, adoptees' imitations both before and after training could be better identified, and received higher goodness ratings, than those of Dutch controls. The perception results confirm that birth-language knowledge is stored and can facilitate re-learning in post-adoption childhood; the production results suggest that although processing of phonological category detail appears to depend on access to the stored knowledge, general articulatory dimensions can at this age also still be remembered, and may facilitate spoken imitation

Triggered codeswitching : Lexical processing and conversational dynamics

Acknowledgements. This research was supported by a Small Research Grant from the British Academy awarded to the first and second authors. Writing was supported by a Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), awarded to the first author. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the Bangor Bilingualism Centre. We also want to express our gratitude to our reviewers, whose insightful comments and creative suggestions have greatly contributed to the improvement of this paper; we have enjoyed the exchangePeer reviewedPublisher PD

Effects of the Native Language on the Learning of Fundamental Frequency in Second-Language Speech Segmentation

This study investigates whether the learning of prosodic cues to word boundaries in speech segmentation is more difficult if the native and second/foreign languages (L1 and L2) have similar (though non-identical) prosodies than if they have markedly different prosodies (Prosodic-Learning Interference Hypothesis). It does so by comparing French, Korean, and English listeners’ use of fundamental-frequency (F0) rise as a cue to word-final boundaries in French. F0 rise signals phrase-final boundaries in French and Korean but word-initial boundaries in English. Korean-speaking and English speaking L2 learners of French, who were matched in their French proficiency and French experience, and native French listeners completed a visual-world eye-tracking experiment in which they recognized words whose final boundary was or was not cued by an increase in F0. The results showed that Korean listeners had greater difficulty using F0 rise as a cue to word-final boundaries in French than French and English listeners. This suggests that L1–L2 prosodic similarity can make the learning of an L2 segmentation cue difficult, in line with the proposed Prosodic-Learning Interference Hypothesis. We consider mechanisms that may underlie this difficulty and discuss the implications of our findings for understanding listeners’ phonological encoding of L2 words

Variability in L2 phonemic learning originates from speech-specific capabilities : an MMN study on late bilinguals

People differ in their ability to perceive second language (L2) sounds. In early bilinguals the variability in learning L2 phonemes stems from speech-specific capabilities (Díaz, Baus, Escera, Costa & Sebastián-Gallés, 2008). The present study addresses whether speech-specific capabilities similarly explain variability in late bilinguals. Event-related potentials were recorded (using a design similar to Díaz et al., 2008) in two groups of late Dutch-English bilinguals who were good or poor in overtly discriminating the L2 English vowels /[...]-æ/. The mismatch negativity, an index of discrimination sensitivity, was similar between the groups in conditions involving pure tones (of different length, frequency, and presentation order) but was attenuated in poor L2 perceivers for native, unknown, and L2 phonemes. These results suggest that variability in L2 phonemic learning originates from speech-specific capabilities and imply a continuity of L2 phonemic learning mechanisms throughout the lifespan.This work was supported by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under REA grant agreement n° 32867 and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (Juan de la Cierva fellowship) to B.D., a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) toM.B., a grant from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- 2013): ERG grant agreement number 323961 (UNDER CONTROL) and Collaborative grant FP7-2013-613465 (ATHEME) to N.S.G. and by grants from the SpanishMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad (PSI 2012 – 34071; SEJ2009-09072) and the Catalan Government (SGR 2014–1210; SGR2009-11) awarded to N.S.G. and C.E. N.S.G. and C.E. received the prize ‘ICREA Acadèmia’ for excellence in research, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The authors want to thank Xavier Mayoral for his technical support and Robert F. de Menezes for comments on the manuscript.peer-reviewe

Learning minimally different words in a third language: L2 proficiency as a crucial predictor of accuracy in an L3 word learning task

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of proficiency in the L2 (English) and L3 (Dutch) on word learning in the L3. Learners were 92 L1 Spanish speakers with differing proficiencies in L2 and L3, and 20 native speakers of Dutch. The learners were divided into basic and advanced English and Dutch proficiency groups according to their scores on general listening comprehension language tests. Participants were trained and subsequently tested on the mapping between pseudo-words and pictures of non-objects. The analysis revealed that, surprisingly, English proficiency but not Dutch proficiency affected word learning in Dutch. We argue that the expansion of the vowel inventory during L2 learning facilitates L3 word learning

UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Learning minimally different words in a third language: L2 proficiency as a crucial predictor of accuracy in an L3 word learning task

Learning minimally different words in a third language: L2 proficiency as a crucial predictor of accuracy in an L3 word learning task Simon, E.; Escudero, P.; Broersma, M. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. ISBN: 978-83-928167-9-9 Learning minimally different words in a third language: L2 proficiency as a crucial predictor of accuracy in an L3 word learning task ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of proficiency in the L2 (English) and L3 (Dutch) on word learning in the L3. Learners were 92 L1 Spanish speakers with differing proficiencies in L2 and L3, and 20 native speakers of Dutch. The learners were divided into basic and advanced English and Dutch proficiency groups according to their scores on general listening comprehension language tests. Participants were trained and subsequently tested on the mapping between pseudo-words and pictures of non-objects. The analysis revealed that, surprisingly, English proficiency but not Dutch proficiency affected word learning in Dutch. We argue that the expansion of the vowel inventory during L2 learning facilitates L3 word learning

Caught between Innovation and Tradition: Young Journalists as Normative Change Agents in the Journalistic Field

The necessity of innovation within the newsroom, and the rise of entrepreneurial initiatives outside it, have become increasingly apparent in the past decade. A common thread in this discourse is the desire for young journalists to be “change agents” who foster innovation and thus stretch existing boundaries in the profession. Employers hope new hires, seen as attuned to their generation’s news use and as offering fresh knowledge and insights, will be able to drive new journalism initiatives that can attract a younger audience and so improve the enterprise’s odds for economic sustainability. Using a longitudinal three-wave survey among students enrolled in two leading journalism programs in Britain and the Netherlands, we explore whether students’ perceptions of innovation and entrepreneurialism are in line with this optimistic industry discourse. Do students perceive themselves as change agents who will be challenging and potentially shifting the boundaries of journalism? Or do they adhere to traditional ideas about norms and behaviors that have been ingrained in the doxa and habitus of the journalistic field over previous decades? We find that although journalism students favor the idea of “innovation” and see the value of engaging audiences, they define change predominantly in terms of technology rather than more substantive cultural transformation

What is the value of entrepreneurship?: a review of recent research

This paper examines to what extent recent empirical evidence can collectively and systematically substantiate the claim that entrepreneurship has important economic value. Hence, a systematic review is provided that answers the question: What is the contribution of entrepreneurs to the economy in comparison to non-entrepreneurs? We study the relative contribution of entrepreneurs to the economy based on four measures that have most widely been studied empirically. Hence, we answer the question: What is the contribution of entrepreneurs to (i) employment generation and dynamics, (ii) innovation, and (iii) productivity and growth, relative to the contributions of the entrepreneurs counterparts, i.e. the control group? A fourth type of contribution studied is the role of entrepreneurship in increasing individuals utility levels. Based on 57 recent studies of high quality that contain 87 relevant separate analyses, we conclude that entrepreneurs have a very important but specific function in the economy. They engender relatively much employment creation, productivity growth and produce and commercialize high quality innovations. They are more satisfied than employees. More importantly, recent studies show that entrepreneurial firms produce important spillovers that affect regional employment growth rates of all companies in the region in the long run. However, the counterparts cannot be missed either as they account for a relatively high value of GDP, a less volatile and more secure labor market, higher paid jobs and a greater number of innovations and they have a more active role in the adoption of innovations