La loquacité, la variété et la grammaticalité dans l’acquisition d’une langue seconde

Cet article passe en revue trois types de mesures du niveau d’acquisition d’une langue seconde : des indices de loquacité, de variété et de grammaticalité, employés dans l’analyse de corpus de langage spontané. Nous soutenons, en particulier, que les mesures de grammaticalité sont plus aptes que les autres types d’indices à distinguer les apprenants selon leur niveau de compétence dans la langue seconde. Les autres types de mesures traités ont des propriétés importantes et des rapports intéressants entre eux, surtout s’il s’agit de déceler les composants du profil linguistique des locuteurs. Les mesures de grammaticalité ont, cependant, une place à part dans la détermination du degré d’acquisition des règles et conditions spécifiques à la langue seconde.This article discusses three types of mesures of L2 acquisition, used in the analyses of spontaneous speech: loquacity, variety and well-formedness measures. In particular, we argue that well-formedness measures are the better indicators of distinct levels of competence specific to the L2. Loquacity and variety measures are interesting in themselves, show interesting relations to each other, and reflect characteristics of speakers which differentiate their linguistic profiles. We claim, however, that well-formedness measures are necessary to determine the extent to which the learner has acquired the rules and rule conditions specific to the second language, i.e., the extent to which he approaches native speech

The Meanings of Pronominal-Verbal Constructions for Speakers and Learners of French

This article reports on a study of the interpretations of French pronominal-verbal constructions, and on the classification of those interpretations as 'reflexive', 'reciprocal', 'intrinsic', or 'passive'. Nineteen Francophone and 19 non-Francophone students in university degree programmes in English French translation interpreted 20 sentences with pronominal-verbal constructions having, out of context, one or more of the four possible readings. To do this, they wrote a translation or a paraphrase corresponding to each reading. They also identified each of the readings which they recognized as reflexive, reciprocal, intrinsic, or passive, having been given a written and oral explanation of these interpretation types. The results of the study showed greater correctness in rendering and identifying reflexive and reciprocal readings, on the one hand, than for intrinsic and passive readings, on the other. One major source of difficulty was the metalinguistic aspect of the task: there was a great tendency to misclassify correct non-reflexive interpretations as reflexive. Another was the preference among Francophones for paraphrase over translation as the means to express an interpretation. This posed the greatest problem in the case of the intrinsic, which must be interpreted by a verb lexically different from that in the reflexive, reciprocal, and/or passive reading. This requirement was best met by translating, not paraphrasing, the specifically intrinsic reading, since within one language, there are no perfect synonyms

The Employed Homeless: A Crisis in Public Policy

Departing from the conventional wisdom of who constitutes the homeless, the employed homeless emerge as a subgroup of the homeless population in a state-wide Maryland Study (n= 178) at 25 shelter facilities. Twenty-four percent. of the homeless were found to work fulltime and eleven percent part-time. Gender disability, health, previous mental health hospitalization, military experience and education were significantly associated with employment status in the bivariate analysis. From these exploratory findings a theory of economic dislocation is hypothesized

Effect of Curcuminoids in Turmeric on Developing Zebrafish Treated with Ethanol

poster abstractThis experiment was designed with the intention of determining whether turmeric could act as a rescue agent to prevent or mitigate the extent of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) caused by early ethanol exposure using zebrafish as a model system. A range of turmeric concentrations were made from a stock solution of turmeric dissolved in ethanol (1mg turmeric in 5mL ethanol). The active agents in turmeric are the curcuminoids: Curcumin, Desmethoxycurcumin, and Bisdemethoxycurcumin. The curcuminoids concentration was estimated using liquid chromatography. These agents were present in the turmeric stock solution at the following concentrations: Bisdemethoxycurcumin: 36.6 +/- 0.1 ug/mL, Desmethoxycurcumin: 43.4 +/- 0.1 ug/mL, and Curcumin: 124.1 +/- 0.2 ug/mL. Untreated zebrafish embryos were placed in embryo medium, ethanol treated embryos in 100mM ethanol containing embryo medium, and turmeric co-supplemented medium with differing concentrations of turmeric. Since the turmeric stock solution was dissolved in ethanol, the concentration of ethanol was kept at a constant 100mM ethanol and the amount of turmeric solution added. The concentrations of the test plates were then based on this solution and made to be 100 mM ethanol and 1.16 uM curcuminoids, 100 mM ethanol and 1.74 uM curcuminoids, and 100 mM ethanol and 2.32 uM curcuminoids. The developing embryos were treated with the turmeric solution and/or ethanol during 2-24 hours post fertilization (hpf). These embryos were imaged at 72 hpf and their body length and eye diameter were measured. The embryos supplemented with curcuminoids showed a significant rescue effect on the body length and eye diameter compared to ethanol treated embryos. This indicates that the curcuminoids acted as a rescue agent to reduce the effects that are typical of FASD in developing zebrafish

Turmeric Extract Rescues Ethanol‐Induced Developmental Defect in the Zebrafish Model for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

Prenatal ethanol exposure causes the most frequent preventable birth disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The effect of turmeric extracts in rescuing an ethanol‐induced developmental defect using zebrafish as a model was determined. Ethanol‐induced oxidative stress is one of the major mechanisms underlying FASD. We hypothesize that antioxidant inducing properties of turmeric may alleviate ethanol‐induced defects. Curcuminoid content of the turmeric powder extract (5 mg/mL turmeric in ethanol) was determined by UPLC and found to contain Curcumin (124.1 ± 0.2 μg/mL), Desmethoxycurcumin (43.4 ± 0.1 μg/mL), and Bisdemethoxycurcumin (36.6 ± 0.1 μg/mL). Zebrafish embryos were treated with 100 mM (0.6% v/v) ethanol during gastrulation through organogenesis (2 to 48 h postfertilization (hpf)) and supplemented with turmeric extract to obtain total curcuminoid concentrations of 0, 1.16, 1.72, or 2.32 μM. Turmeric supplementation showed significant rescue of the body length at 72 hpf compared to ethanol‐treated embryos. The mechanism underlying the rescue remains to be determined