How childhood languages shape future language knowledge, language use, anxiety and cultural orientation

In this paper we investigate the effect that parents’ language use (English, Spanish-English or Spanish) had on self-perceived proficiency, frequency of use, language anxiety, code-switching and cultural orientation of 206 Spanish-English bilinguals and multilinguals (174 females, 32 males) who were students at Texas A&M International University. English is the dominant language in Texas, with a strong presence of Spanish, the minority language. Our results showed that languages that parents had used with their children had a privileged status: bilinguals and multilinguals reported higher levels of proficiency, more frequent use, less anxiety (except for English) and a stronger cultural orientation. The effect was strongest for parents with Spanish-speaking parents. The scores of the simultaneous bilinguals were generally situated between the scores of the sequential Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals from monolingual families. Referring to the butterfly effect in Chaos theory, we conclude that relatively more or less use of a particular language in a family home will lead to significant differences in the grown-up children’s future language use and cultural orientation

Impacto de la aplicación del fair value en la volatilidad de la banca Brasileña: un estudio empírico

En este paper es analizado el impacto que ha tenido la adopción del valor razonable sobre la volatilidad de los resultados y fondos propios en los bancos de Brasil. La muestra estuvo constituida por 73 bancos que representaban, a Junio del 2002, el 95,93% del total de activos del sistema nacional. Se realizo un análisis comparativo entre las volatilidades, con y sin los efectos de la nueva regulación, e se indago para conocer si existe algún síntoma de utilización de prácticas para el alisamiento de los beneficios, relacionadas con las partidas de ajustes a valor razonable. Los resultados de esta investigación revelan que, al contrario de lo que se espera, el nuevo criterio en cuestión no ha incrementado las volatilidades y, por otro lado, han puesto en manifiesto síntomas de alisamiento de beneficios.<br>In this paper, we analyze the impact of the adoption of fair value on the volatility of the results and reserves of Brazilian banks. The sample consisted of 73 banks, which represented, in June 2002, 95.93% of total assets in the national system. We conducted a comparative analysis between the volatilities, with and without the effects of the new regulation, and investigated if there is some symptom of utilization of practices for smoothing the benefits, related to the items of adjustments to fair value. The results of our research revealed that, as opposed to expectations, the new criterion in question has not increased volatility but, on the opposite, has exhibited symptoms of smoothing of benefits