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

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)

A quantitative comparison of the English and Spanish repertoires of figurative idioms

In language teaching circles it is widely recognised that English is a very idiomatic language. But would that not hold for all natural languages? In this chapter we zoom in on one subcomponent of idiomaticity, and present a corpus-based quantitative comparison of the relative prevalence of figurative idioms in English and Spanish. The results of the study suggest that Spanish makes use of idioms as intensively as English does. There is thus no reason why Spanish idioms (and idioms in any other target language) should not be awarded the same attention as English idioms have received in cognitive-linguistics inspired pedagogy. However, cross-lingual differences can definitely be discerned at the level of the kinds of clusters of idioms (defined in terms of their experiential source domains) that are comparatively popular in either language (as reflected in their variety and frequency of occurrence). We argue that such quantitative differences (and similarities) at the level of idiom clusters can be a useful source of information for teachers and materials writers.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Attention Network in Interpreters: The Role of Training and Experience

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship found between interpreting training and experience and the attentional network components: Alerting, orienting, and executive attention using the Attention Network Test (ANT). In the current study we tested three groups of interpreting students, translation students, and professional interpreters as specific forms of multilingual expertise. The student groups were tested longitudinally at the beginning and the end of their Master’s programme. The professional interpreters were tested only one point in time. The results showed different attention network dynamics for the interpreting students compared to the translation students regarding alertness and executive network. First, the interpreting students showed a higher conflict effect when the alert cue was presented as well as a reduced accuracy compared to translation students. Second, the interpreting training had less effect on alerting than the translation training. Finally, two student groups showed a faster response time in conflict effect than the professional interpreters. In contrast, the professional interpreters scored a higher accuracy than two-student groups specifically in an incongruent alert condition, which confirms that they used a different responding strategy

Integrating virtual conference tools in interpreter and translator training

In this paper, we will present the preliminary results of an educational innovation project in which we assess the use of virtual meeting technologies in higher education programmes of interpreting and translation, more specifically the master programmes of interpreting and translation at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). One of the research objectives of the current project is to test the possibilities of virtual conference tools supporting situated learning activities, i. e. learning activities simulating the conditions of the professional reality in a learner-, situation- and experience-based environment. Our second research objective is to assess the usability of virtual conference tools as pedagogical tools to support translation and interpreting classes that are based on the premises of socio-constructivist teaching. The research is carried out in the context of two different courses which were supported by a virtual conference tool: in particular an interpreting workshop and a group feedback session in a translation workshop.status: Published onlin

Does 'chunking' foster chunk-uptake?

Several foreign-language teaching methodologists have in recent years made proposals for a lexical-phrase oriented pedagogy. One of these is Michael Lewis' (1993, 1997, 2000) Lexical Approach. The key activity in this approach is called 'chunking', i.e. students are helped to take notice of the lexical phrases (also called chunks) in the texts they get to read in the classroom. It is hoped that, once the students' awareness of the ubiquity of chunks is raised in the classroom, they will start picking up chunks independently from samples of L2 discourse they meet elsewhere too. To gauge the efficiency of pedagogical chunking as a means of helping students expand their chunk-repertoires, we ran two parallel controlled experiments in the course of a school year, one experiment involving two groups of non-native students of English and the other involving two groups of non-native students of Spanish. Per target language, one group repeatedly engaged in in-class chunking activities. Before and after the treatment, the participants' active and receptive chunk knowledge was assessed. The results yielded no evidence of a differential uptake of chunks between the conditions, which suggests that teacher-led noticing activities alone do not suffice to adequately foster chunk acquisition.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Variables in the mnemonic effectiveness of pictorial elucidation

In this chapter we examine ways in which the pictorial elucidation of the literal sense of a word or expression can help learners remember its figurative usages. We report a series of experiments the results of which reveal the interplay of a number of variables in the pedagogical effectiveness of this CL-inspired imagery approach. One of those variables is the cognitive style of the learners. Learners who have a relatively strong inclination to think in mental pictures appear generally to be more susceptible to the mnemonic benefits offered by CL-inspired pedagogy. Encouragingly, learners who tend to show a preference for thinking in words can be helped to reap similar mnemonic rewards if input is supplemented with pictures. Our data suggest though that pictorial elucidation of target expressions is beneficial mostly for learners' retention of meaning. As for recollection of form, it appears that pictorial elucidation may even have a counter-facilitative, distractive effect, especially in the case of expressions which are relatively long and complex. Much may depend, however, on where in a sequence of learning activities the pictures are presented.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

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

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.status: publishe

Typographic enhancement of multiword units in second language text

This study examines the effect of typographic enhancement on L2 learners’ intake of multiword units from reading. EFL learners read texts in one of three versions: (1) with many multiword units underlined; (2) with half of these multiword units underlined; and (3) without any underlining. The learners were subsequently asked to identify the multiword units they remembered encountering in the texts. The purpose of the text version in which only half of the target units were underlined was to explore whether enhancement of a small number of word strings in a text also stimulates intake of others from that text. As expected, enhanced multiword units were remembered better than unenhanced ones, but there was no evidence that the benefit extended beyond the enhanced items.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe