930 research outputs found
Socio-economic status as a proxy for input quality in bilingual children?
This study investigates the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) as a proxy for input quality, in predicting language proficiency. Different operationalizations of SES are compared, including simple measures (parental education and parental occupation) and complex measures combining two dimensions (among parental education, parental occupation, and deprivation risk). All significantly predict overall English proficiency scores in a diverse group of 5- to 7-year-olds acquiring English and another language. The most informative SES measure in that respect is shown to be a complex measure combining parental education and parental occupation. That measure is used in a second set of analyses showing that different aspects of language are affected differently by variations in SES and in language exposure
Intervention effects in wh-chains: the combined effect of syntax and processing
This study in experimental syntax investigates the factors affecting the acceptability of embedded clauses featuring a left-dislocated phrase below a fronted wh-phrase. Sixty native speakers of French took part in an on-line acceptability judgment task including 45 critical items (with an intervening XP) and 20 baseline items (including grammatical and ungrammatical sentences with an embedded wh-dependency). Using Random Forest and Ordinal Regression analyses we demonstrate that Clitic Left Dislocated (CLLD) objects yield stronger intervention effects (except when they are pronouns) than CLLDed subjects. We argue this is due to excessive processing demands incurred when a wh-dependency features a CLLD chain that is not fully within its scope. A processing account also explains why pronouns are not disruptive of wh-chains
Complex asteroseismology of the Slowly Pulsating B-type star HD74560
We present the results of complex seismic modelling of the Slowly Pulsating
B-type star HD74560. The star pulsates in five frequencies detected in
photometric observations. For all these frequencies, we identify the mode
degree, . For two of them, found also in spectroscopic data, we are able
to derived the empirical values of the complex nonadiabatic parameter . We
test effects of chemical composition and opacity data. Our results show that
the properties of seismic models of SPB stars differ significantly from those
of the more massive Cephei stars.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, conference proceedings, to appear in ASS
Predicting language proficiency in bilingual children
Using advanced quantitative methods, this article demonstrates that cumulative exposure to the school language is the best language experience predictor of proficiency in that language (as indexed by sentence repetition, lexical semantic, and discourse semantic tasks) in a highly diverse group of 5- to 7-year-old bilingual children in monolingual education. An objective method is proposed to identify the amount of school language experience beyond which bilingual children are likely to perform within the monolingual range, and show that relative passivity in the home language does not translate into better school language proficiency. Socioeconomic status is shown to interact in complex ways with language exposure, such that it is only above a certain level of exposure to the school language that the benefits of a more privileged background have a tangible impact on school language proficiency. To tease apart the effect of environmental predictors from the effect of cognitive factors, memory and cognitive flexibility measures are included as covariates in all analyses
Opportunities and challenges in the analysis of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN)
The development of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) has no doubt contributed to prompting a renewed interest in children’s narratives. This carefully controlled test of narrative abilities elicits a rich set of measures spanning multiple linguistic domains and their interaction, including lexis, morphosyntax, discourse-pragmatics, as well as various aspects of narrative structure, communicative competence, and language use (such as code-switching). It is particularly well suited to the study of discourse cohesion, referential adequacy and informativeness, and of course to the study of narrative structure and richness, and the acquisition of a more formal or literary register. In this commentary article, I reflect on the five empirical papers included in the special issue. I focus on methodological challenges for the analysis of narratives and identify outstanding questions
Analysis of MERCATOR data Part I: variable B stars
We re-classified 31 variable B stars which were observed more than 50 times
in the Geneva photometric system with the P7 photometer attached to the
MERCATOR telescope (La Palma) during its first 3 years of scientific
observations. HD89688 is a possible beta Cephei/slowly pulsating B star hybrid
and the main mode of the COROT target HD180642 shows non-linear effects. The
Maia candidates are re-classified as either ellipsoidal variables or spotted
stars. Although the mode identification is still ongoing, all the
well-identified modes so far have a degree l = 0, 1 or 2.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in: Proceedings of JENAM 2005 'Distant
worlds', Communications in Asteroseismolog
Statistical analysis of inter-arrival times of rainfall events for Italian Sub-Alpine and Mediterranean areas
Abstract. In this work a set of time-series of inter-arrival times of rainfall events, at daily scale, was analysed, with the aim to verify the issue of increasing duration of dry periods. The set consists of 12 time-series recorded at rain gauges in 1926–2005, six of them belong to an Italian Sub-Alpine area (Piedmont) and six to a Mediterranean one (Sicily). In order to overcome the problem related to limited sample size for high values of inter-arrival times, the discrete probability polylog-series distribution was used to fit the empirical data from partial (20 yr) time-series. Moreover, a simple qualitative trend analysis was applied to some high quantiles of inter-arrival times as well as to the average extent of rain clusters. The preliminary analysis seems to confirm the issue of increasing duration of dry periods for both environments, which is limited to the ''cold'' season
High-Precision Spectroscopy of Pulsating Stars
We review methodologies currently available to interprete time series of
high-resolution high-S/N spectroscopic data of pulsating stars in terms of the
kind of (non-radial) modes that are excited. We illustrate the drastic
improvement of the detection treshold of line-profile variability thanks to the
advancement of the instrumentation over the past two decades. This has led to
the opportunity to interprete line-profile variations with amplitudes of order
m/s, which is a factor 1000 lower than the earliest line-profile time series
studies allowed for.Comment: To appear in Precision Spectroscopy in Astrophysics, Eds . Pasquini,
M. Romaniello, N.C. Santos, and A. Correia, Springer-Verlag series "ESO
Astrophysics Symposia". 4 pages, 1 figur
Discovery of Magnetic Fields in Slowly Pulsating B Stars
We present the first observations and conclusions of a magnetic survey with FORS 1 at the VLT of a sample of 25 Slowly Pulsating B stars. A clear mean longitudinal magnetic field of the order of a few hundred Gauss was detected in eleven SPBs. Among them several SPBs show a magnetic field that varies in time. It becomes clear that SPBs cannot be regarded anymore as non-magnetic stars
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