The Doctor and the Charlatan

We all know, in fact we are sure, that our medical practices are very different from those in the times of Molière or of Louis XVI. In one way or another medicine has today become ‘modern’ in the same way as the whole set of knowledges and practices that call themselves rational. This is obvious, but I would like to interrogate this obviousness. Not to debunk it so as to show that beyond these appearances nothing has changed, but in order to focus in a slightly clearer way on ‘what’ has changed. To be even more precise, I would like to focus on ‘what’ has changed for the doctor, the one who practises medicine

An interpreter advantage in executive functions? A systematic review

The aim of this systematic literature review was to answer the question of which executive function is most affected by interpreter training and experience. We used the 'unity and diversity' framework of executive functions to distinguish between three executive components: Response and Distractor Inhibition, Shifting, and Updating. Among the seventeen studies included in the review, we only found evidence for an interpreter advantage on Shifting and Updating, but with a different pattern for each of these. With regard to Updating, groups of interpreters scored better than comparison groups, but general trend in longitudinal studies did not show an improvement for interpreter trainees. In contrast, for Shifting, scores improved as a result of interpreting training. Our systematic review stresses the importance of understanding the diversity of executive processes when investigating the relationship between interpreting and cognitive performance

Does copying idioms foster their recall?

This paper describes an experiment that was set up to measure the relative mnemonic effects of enhanced attention to form versus attention to meaning during the acquisition of L2 figurative idioms. Intermediate L2 English students were presented with online exercises on a set of 25 English idioms that they were unfamiliar with. In the first series of exercises, all participants were invited to elaborate on the meaning of the idioms. Afterwards, half of the participants were requested to copy the idioms, the other group of participants was asked to rate the usefulness of the idioms, an activity relying mainly on semantically-oriented processing. Recall was measured after the treatment by means of a gap-fill exercise in which each idiom was presented in context with a keyword missing. The results of the experiment are discussed in light of the levels-of-processing theory (Craik & Lockhart 1972), the transfer appropriate processing theory (TAP)(Morris et al. 1977) and Barcroft’s transfer-of-processing-resources-allocation (TOPRA) model for lexical learning (2000). We also show that cognitive-style variables may enhance or constrain the proposed mnemonic effects

The mutation of writing habits and what it means for word learning

Although applied linguists agree that developing phonological and orthographic representations of new words is key to recalling word form and underpins the ability to process new language, research on the mnemonic benefits of writing down target words during L2 vocabulary acquisition has produced mixed results [1, 2, 3]. In addition, writing is facing increasingly keen competition from typing in the digital age. Today, paper-and pencil communication has had to make room for key-to-screen communication in educational as well as professional contexts. From research in educational psychology we know that taking notes on laptops instead of writing longhand involves shallower information processing which negatively affects performance on knowledge tests [4]. In the case of L2 word learning the phonological and orthographical processing that takes place when noting down new words might be sensitive to variations in the conditions under which this processing takes place, i.e. writing versus typing. In our study a classroom experiment was set up to look into the differential impact of writing or typing new words on immediate and delayed receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge as compared to a word learning condition that involved no production of output. The main goal of the study is to verify findings concerning the trade-off relation between semantic and structural processing when learning new words. A second research question is to investigate whether the structural elaboration processes that take place when writing new words lead to similar learning gains than when typing new words. Thirdly, we want to explore whether learners had a preferred learning condition. The main results of this study show that the words that had been typed showed less attrition in the delayed test than the words that had been written. This will be explained in light of the multimodality of the output condition

Evaluación de planteamientos didácticos para favorecer la comprensión y la memorización de locuciones idiomáticas en español L2

This paper contains the experimental design of an empirical study that aims to assess the relative effectiveness of a number of pedagogical approaches designed to boost the comprehension of new L2 Spanish idioms and foster their retention. Building on a previous study (Ureña Tormo 2019), we suggest testing three pedagogical treatments, with two of them encouraging the participants to guess the meaning of the target idioms, before or after receiving information on their semantic motivation, and the other one focusing on meaning inference from context. The target units are 15 Spanish idioms related to a range of topics and the participants are 90 English speaking learners of Spanish. The results that we obtain will allow for the assessment of the effectiveness of each pedagogical proposal, and will be compared to the ones obtained in Ureña Tormo (2019).Este artículo presenta el diseño experimental de un estudio empírico para facilitar la comprensión de locuciones españolas nuevas y favorecer su retención. Con el objetivo de mejorar y ampliar el alcance de un estudio previo (Ureña Tormo 2019), proponemos evaluar tres tratamientos pedagógicos distintos: dos de ellos invitan a los participantes a que adivinen el significado de las locuciones, antes o después de recibir información sobre su motivación semántica, y el otro se centra en inferir el significado a partir del contexto. Las unidades objeto de aprendizaje son 15 locuciones españolas y los participantes se corresponden con 90 estudiantes de español cuya lengua materna es el inglés. Los resultados que se obtengan de este experimento permitirán evaluar la efectividad de cada propuesta didáctica y podrán compararse con los obtenidos en Ureña Tormo (2019)

Acquisition of formulaic sequences in intensive and regular EFL programs. Language Teaching Research

This paper aims to analyze the role of time concentration of instructional hours on the acquisition of formulaic sequences in English as a foreign language (EFL). Two program types that offer the same amount of hours of instruction are considered: intensive (110 hours/one month) and regular (110 hours/seven months). The EFL learners under study are adults at the beginner (N=35), intermediate (N=44) and advanced levels (N=45). A group of native English speakers (N=12) served as a benchmark. The focus of this study is on the number and range of formulaic sequences the participants used while performing an oral narrative. The results of the statistical analyses show a slight advantage for the learners in the intensive program, especially at the intermediate level, both in terms of frequency and range of formulaic sequences produced. Moreover, results suggest that there are still marked differences between even the advanced EFL learners in our sample and the native speaker benchmarks, again both in terms of number and range of formulaic sequences

The cosmopolitical proposal

Stenger

Technology Use by Public Service Interpreters and Translators: The Link Between Frequency of Use and Forms of Prior Training

Abstract: In this article, the first results of a large-scale survey on the use of technological bridging instruments in contexts of multilingual service provision will be presented. We will focus on answers given by respondents working as public service interpreters and translators, abbreviated as PSITs (N=188). No restriction was set on specific domains of public service in this study (e.g. education, health, etc.). The article focuses on the question how forms of prior training of PSITs relate to the frequency of use of technological tools in their professional practice, such as computer-assisted translation (CAT) technology, machine translation (MT) systems, Instant Messaging (IM) technology, video conferencing technology (VC), termbase management systems (TB), and combinations thereof.Resumen: En este artículo, presentaremos los resultados preliminares de un estudio a gran escala sobre el uso de instrumentos tecnológicos utilizados para facilitar la comunicación para la provisión de servicios en entornos multilingües. Nos centraremos en las respuestas proporcionadas por sujetos que trabajan como traductores e intérpretes en los servicios públicos (PSITs, por sus siglas en inglés, N=188). No se realizó ninguna distinción entre los distintos dominios de los servicios públicos para este estudio (por ejemplo, educación, salud, etc.) Pretendemos averiguar la influencia del tipo de formación que los traductores e intérpretes han recibido sobre el uso de herramientas tecnológicas, como traducción asistida por ordenador, traducción automática, mensajería instantánea, videoconferencia y programas de gestión terminológica.

Is it possible to formulate least action principle for dissipative systems?

A longstanding open question in classical mechanics is to formulate the least action principle for dissipative systems. In this work, we give a general formulation of this principle by considering a whole conservative system including the damped moving body and its environment receiving the dissipated energy. This composite system has the conservative Hamiltonian $H=K_1+V_1+H_2$ where $K_1$ is the kinetic energy of the moving body, $V_1$ its potential energy and $H_2$ the energy of the environment. The Lagrangian can be derived by using the usual Legendre transformation $L=2K_1+2K_2-H$ where $K_2$ is the total kinetic energy of the environment. An equivalent expression of this Lagrangian is $L=K_1-V_1-E_d$ where $E_d$ is the energy dissipated by the friction from the moving body into the environment from the beginning of the motion. The usual variation calculus of least action leads to the correct equation of the damped motion. We also show that this general formulation is a natural consequence of the virtual work principle.Comment: 11 pages, no figur