Private Speech as Social Action

An important theoretical construct within the Vygotskian sociocultural approach to second language learning is private speech. Within a conversation-analytic framework, an agnostic stance is taken in this paper toward the possible intrapsychological function(s) of private speech in order to (1) illustrate how private speech can be identified within the details of talk-in-interaction and (2) how private speech can be understood as social action. It is argued that attention to the details of how private speech is produced is important in order to show how private speech has been identified as such; that viewing private speech as social action allows for a more emic perspective; and that, at least within interaction, private speech is social not just in origin, but each time that it is produced

Avoiding initiation of repair in L2 conversations-for-learning

Using audio-recorded data from second language (L2) English conversations-for-learning between an L2 user of English and a first language (L1) user of English (the researcher), this study analyzes cases in which the L1 user avoids initiation of repair. In each case, the L2 user appears to have misunderstood something said by the L1 user. Instead of initiating repair in next turn on the L2 user’s talk, or in third position on his own talk, the L1 user goes along, at least briefly, with the direction set by the L2 user. Often, the L1 user, sooner or later, returns to the misunderstood talk. Avoidance of repair initiation is one way in which the L1 user contributes to the construction of the L2 user as interactionally competent to participate in conversations-for-learning

Sharing is caring vs. stealing is wrong: a moral argument for limiting copyright protection

Copyright is at the centre of both popular and academic debate. That emotions are running high is hardly surprising – copyright influences who contributes what to culture, how culture is used, and even the kind of persons we are and come to be. Consequentialist, Lockean, and personality interest accounts are generally advanced in the literature to morally justify copyright law. I argue that these approaches fail to ground extensive authorial rights in intellectual creations and that only a small subset of the rights accorded by copyright law is justified. The pared-down version of copyright that I defend consists of the right to attribution, the right to have one’s non-endorsement of modifications or uses of one’s work explicitly noted, and the right to a share of the profit resulting from the commercial uses of one’s work. I also cursorily explore whether contribution to another person’s work gives rise to moral interests

The Nesterov-Todd Direction and its Relation to Weighted Analytic Centers

The subject of this report concerns differential-geometric properties of the Nesterov-Todd search direction for linear optimization over symmetric cones. In particular, we investigate the rescaled asymptotics of the associated flow near the central path. Our results imply that the Nesterov-Todd direction arises as the solution of a Newton system defined in terms of a certain transformation of the primal-dual feasible domain. This transformation has especially appealing properties which generalize the notion of weighted analytic centers for linear programming

High pressure gas filter system Patent

Developing high pressure gas purification and filtration system for use in test operations of space vehicle

High pressure helium purifier Patent

Apparatus and method capable of receiving large quantity of high pressure helium, removing impurities, and discharging at received pressur