Analysing Afrikaans-English bilingual children's conversational code switching

It has been observed that children mix languages more often if they have been exposed to mixed speech, especially if they are in bilingual company. Very little research, however, exists on the code switching (CS) of children brought up in multilingual contexts. The study discussed in this paper investigates the grammatical and socio-pragmatic characteristics of the conversational CS of three Afrikaans-English bilingual children and aims to contribute towards a better understanding of child CS. The study was conducted through the analysis of spontaneous conversational CS elicited during multiple play sessions. Data were analysed within the frameworks of the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model and Conversation Analysis (CA). The study accounts for the different types of CS that occur, and examines which grammatical and/or socio-pragmatic difficulties may drive children to use specific types of CS, while also considering whether the context of an utterance has an influence on how and why CS takes place.Keywords: code switching; child bilingual; Matrix Language Frame model; Conversation Analysi

A cross-sectional survey of mental health clinicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice relating to tobacco dependence among young people with mental disorders

BACKGROUND: Mental health services in England are smoke-free by law and expected to provide comprehensive support to patients who smoke. Although clinicians’ knowledge in this area is reported to be limited, research exploring the issue in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is lacking. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of clinicians working within specialist and highly specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) relating to tobacco dependence, its treatment and its relation to mental disorder. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of clinicians working across all CAMHS teams of a large UK National Health Service mental health Trust. RESULTS: Sixty clinicians (50% response rate) completed the survey. Less than half (48.3%) believed that addressing smoking was part of their responsibility, and half (50%) asserted confidence in supporting patients in a cessation attempt. Misconceptions relating to smoking were present across all staff groups: e.g. only 40% of respondents were aware of potential interactions between smoking and antipsychotic medications, although psychiatrists were more knowledgeable than non-medical clinicians (91.6% vs 27.1%; OR 3.4, p < .001). Self-reported attendance at smoking-related training was significantly associated with more proactive clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to improve clinicians’ knowledge, capacity and confidence in effectively identifying, motivating, supporting and treating young smokers in the context of treatment for mental disorders. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0618-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Treating tobacco dependence in older adults: a survey of primary care clinicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice

BACKGROUND: The benefits of smoking cessation among older people are well documented. Despite this, evidence suggests that older smokers are rarely engaged in smoking cessation efforts, and that existing tobacco dependence treatments require further tailoring to the specific needs of older smokers. This study assesses the knowledge, attitudes, and clinical practice of primary care clinicians in relation to addressing tobacco dependence among older people. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 427 NHS primary care clinicians in a large English city was conducted using modified version of a previously validated questionnaire. RESULTS: One hundred and seventy one clinicians (40 % response rate) completed the survey. While the majority (90.0 %) of respondents reported enquiring regularly about older patients’ smoking status, just over half (59.1 %) reported providing older patients with smoking cessation support. A lack of awareness in relation to the prevalence and impact of smoking in later life were apparent: e.g. only 47 % of respondents were aware of that approximately 10 life years are lost due to smoking related disease, and only 59 % knew that smoking can reduce the effectiveness of medication prescribed for conditions common in later life. Self-reported attendance at smoking-related training was significantly associated with proactive clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to improve clinicians’ knowledge, in relation to smoking and smoking cessation in older patients and to build clinician confidence in seizing teachable moments. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12875-015-0317-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Afrikaans as Standaard Gemiddelde Europees:Wanneer ‘n lid uit sy taalarea beweeg

A recent trend in the study of Standard Average European is the extraterritorial perspective of examining the extent to which non-European languages have converged with this Sprachbund as a result of contact with one or more of its members. The present article complements this line of research in that it investigates the extent to which a European language has diverged from Standard Average European after leaving the linguistic area. The focus is on Dutch, a nuclear member of the Sprachbund, and Afrikaans, its colonial offshoot. The two languages are compared with respect to twelve of the most distinctive linguistic features of Standard Average European. Afrikaans is found to share ten of them with Dutch, including anticausative prominence and formally distinguished intensifiers and reflexives, and could therefore still be considered a core member of the Sprachbund, despite deviations in the expression of negative pronouns and the grammaticality of external possessor constructions. This relatively low degree of divergence may be attributed to the continuity from Settler Dutch to at least the variety of Afrikaans on which the standard language is based and to the important role that Dutch continued to play in the history of Afrikaans

Uptake of self-management education programmes for people with type 2 diabetes in primary care through the embedding package: a cluster randomised control trial and ethnographic study

Background Self-management education programmes are cost-effective in helping people with type 2 diabetes manage their diabetes, but referral and attendance rates are low. This study reports on the effectiveness of the Embedding Package, a programme designed to increase type 2 diabetes self-management programme attendance in primary care. Methods Using a cluster randomised design, 66 practices were randomised to: (1) a wait-list group that provided usual care for nine months before receiving the Embedding Package for nine months, or (2) an immediate group that received the Embedding Package for 18 months. ‘Embedders’ supported practices and self-management programme providers to embed programme referral into routine practice, and an online ‘toolkit’ contained embedding support resources. Patient-level HbA1c (primary outcome), programme referral and attendance data, and clinical data from 92,977 patients with type 2 diabetes were collected at baseline (months − 3–0), step one (months 1–9), step 2 (months 10–18), and 12 months post-intervention. An integrated ethnographic study including observations, interviews, and document analysis was conducted using interpretive thematic analysis and Normalisation Process Theory. Results No significant difference was found in HbA1c between intervention and control conditions (adjusted mean difference [95% confidence interval]: -0.10 [-0.38, 0.18] mmol/mol; -0.01 [-0.03, 0.02] %). Statistically but not clinically significantly lower levels of HbA1c were found in people of ethnic minority groups compared with non-ethnic minority groups during the intervention condition (-0.64 [-1.08, -0.20] mmol/mol; -0.06% [-0.10, -0.02], p = 0.004), but not greater self-management programme attendance. Twelve months post-intervention data showed statistically but not clinically significantly lower HbA1c (-0.56 [95% confidence interval: -0.71, -0.42] mmol/mol; -0.05 [-0.06, -0.04] %; p < 0.001), and higher self-management programme attendance (adjusted odds ratio: 1.13; 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 1.25; p = 0.017) during intervention conditions. Themes identified through the ethnographic study included challenges for Embedders in making and sustaining contact with practices and providers, and around practices’ interactions with the toolkit. Conclusions Barriers to implementing the Embedding Package may have compromised its effectiveness. Statistically but not clinically significantly improved HbA1c among ethnic minority groups and in longer-term follow-up suggest that future research exploring methods of embedding diabetes self-management programmes into routine care is warranted

Ocrelizumab versus Interferon Beta-1a in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

Supported by F. Hoffmann–La Roche

The Pragmatic Markers Anyway, Okay, and Shame: A South African English Corpus Study

Pragmatic markers are “a class of short, recurrent linguistic items that generally have little lexical import but serve significant pragmatic functions in conversation” (Andersen 2001:39). While pragmatic markers are receiving growing consideration in the literature, pragmatic markers in South African English have been given little attention compared to other varieties of English. This paper provides a description of the distribution and functions of the pragmatic markers okay, anyway and shame as they occur in the spoken component of the South African version of the International Corpus of English (ICE). Using the commercially available Concordance program, WordSmith Tools, all instances of okay, anyway and shame were identified in the corpus and all non-pragmatic marker instances were then excluded. The remaining instances of okay, anyway and shame were then hand-coded to determine the primary functions that these elements exhibit. The classification of the functions of the pragmatic markers was carried out according to Fraser’s (1996, 1999, 2006) framework for identification of pragmatic markers. The findings of the corpus investigation included identifying the functions of okay as both a conversation-management marker and a basic marker, as well as its role in turn-taking. Anyway was found to function as an interjection, a mitigation marker, a conversation-management marker and a discourse marker. Shame, as a uniquely South African pragmatic marker, was found to function both as an interjection and as a solidarity marker, as an expression of sympathy or sentiment.Keywords: Discourse Markers, Pragmatic Markers, South African English, Corpus Linguistic

Afrikaans as an index of identity among Western Cape Coloured communities

In South Africa, reports on language shift have focused on instances of language shift from indigenous African languages to English. There is, however, also research that suggests that language shift is taking place from Afrikaans to English in the Western Cape. Anthonissen (2009), for example, notes in her research among Coloured communities that a shift has taken place from Afrikaans first language (L1), across three generations, to English L1. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates language shift in two semi-urban Western Cape Coloured communities; in particular, it examines what patterns of language shift/maintenance can be observed, and investigates sociolinguistic factors, such as age, language of schooling, socio-economic status and language attitudes, to which the observed patterns can be ascribed. The aim is to ascertain whether language shift, from Afrikaans to English has taken place, and which factors appear to encourage or discourage language shift in the two communities. Through the administration of a questionnaire to 50 households, 25 in each of the communities, the study this paper reports on examined language use across a number of domains: at home, in the community, in church, and in the workplace. It also explored the language attitudes of the participants (53 in total) towards Afrikaans in order to investigate the possibility that this language might be used for indexing their identity. The collected data does not provide any evidence of language shift from Afrikaans to English. However, there seems to be increased use of English in the public domains (such as the workplace and in the church), with Afrikaans being used almost exclusively in the intimate domains. It appears that Afrikaans remains a strong marker of identity in the two semi-urban Western Cape Coloured communities, despite English largely being regarded as the language of upward socioeconomic  mobility.Keywords: language shift, language maintenance, language attitudes, bilingualis