This paper links self-domestication and cross-modality, using a task intended to enhance participants’ prosociality and measuring their sensitivity to linguistic cross-modal associations.
DOCUMENT
This chapter will focus on the deep evolutionary history of the cognitive capacities underlying linguistic iconicity. The complex capacity for linguistic iconicity has roots in a more general cross-modal ability present throughout the animal kingdom, cross-modal transfer. Cross-modal transfer is the ability to make basic inferences about sensory properties of an object in multiple modalities based on experience from only one. This situates iconicity as a fundamentally cross-modal phenomenon; part of a broader, uniquely human cross-modal cognitive suite which includes relatively rare phenomena like synesthesia, alongside more ubiquitous phenomena like sensory metaphor and cross-modal correspondences. Evidence suggests the evolutionarily deep capacity for cross-modal transfer was honed into more sophisticated capacities underlying iconicity by an evolutionary ratchet of increased prosociality during human self-domestication. This period provided strong selective pressures for increasingly complex cross-sensory communication, and eventually, the predominantly arbitrary symbolic systems that underpin modern human language. This is a peer-reviewed preprint of the work below.Cuskley, Christine and Kees Sommer (forthcoming). The evolution of linguistic iconicity and the cross-modal cognitive suite. To appear in Olga Fisher, Kimi Akita, and Pamela Perniss (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
DOCUMENT
ion of verb agreement by hearing learners of a sign language. During a 2-year period, 14 novel learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) with a spoken language background performed an elicitation task 15 times. Seven deaf native signers and NGT teachers performed the same task to serve as a benchmark group. The results obtained show that for some learners, the verb agreement system of NGT was difficult to master, despite numerous examples in the input. As compared to the benchmark group, learners tended to omit agreement markers on verbs that could be modified, did not always correctly use established locations associated with discourse referents, and made characteristic errors with respect to properties that are important in the expression of agreement (movement and orientation). The outcomes of the study are of value to practitioners in the field, as they are informative with regard to the nature of the learning process during the first stages of learning a sign language.
DOCUMENT
The aim of this dissertation is to examine how adult learners with a spoken language background who are acquiring a signed language, learn how to use the space in front of the body to express grammatical and topographical relations. Moreover, it aims at investigating the effectiveness of different types of instruction, in particular instruction that focuses the learner's attention on the agreement verb paradigm. To that end, existing data from a learner corpus (Boers-Visker, Hammer, Deijn, Kielstra & Van den Bogaerde, 2016) were analyzed, and two novel experimental studies were designed and carried out. These studies are described in detail in Chapters 3–6. Each chapter has been submitted to a scientific journal, and accordingly, can be read independently.1 Yet, the order of the chapters follows the chronological order in which the studies were carried out, and the reader will notice that each study served as a basis to inform the next study. As such, some overlap in the sections describing the theoretical background of each study was unavoidable.
MULTIFILE
Worldwide, pupils with migrant backgrounds do not participate in school STEM subjects as successfully as their peers. Migrant pupils’ subject-specific language proficiency lags behind, which hinders participation and learning. Primary teachers experience difficulty in teaching STEM as well as promoting required language development. This study investigates how a professional development program (PDP) focusing on inclusive STEM teaching can promote teacher learning of language-promoting strategies (promoting interaction, scaffolding language and using multilingual resources). Participants were five case study teachers in multilingual schools in the Netherlands (N = 2), Sweden (N = 1) and Norway (N = 2), who taught in primary classrooms with migrant pupils. The PDP focused on three STEM units (sound, maintenance, plant growth) and language-promoting strategies. To trace teachers’ learning, three interviews were conducted with each of the five teachers (one after each unit). The teachers also filled in digital logs (one after each unit). The interviews showed positive changes in teachers’ awareness, beliefs and attitudes towards language-supporting strategies. However, changes in practice and intentions for practice were reported to a lesser extent. This study shows that a PDP can be an effective starting point for teacher learning regarding inclusive STEM teaching. It also illuminates possible enablers (e.g., fostering language awareness) or hinderers (e.g., teachers’ limited STEM knowledge) to be considered in future PDP design.
LINK
Abstract van prestentatie. According to Roy and Napier (2015), the earliest research on sign language interpreting dates to the mid-1970s. More recently we have acknowledged the need for research to be part of sign language interpreter (SLI) education programs (Winston, 2013). At present, educators feel an urgent need to embed research in their SLI programs with two goals: first, to firmly base their teaching in evidencebased practice, and second, to teach future interpreters how to continuously improve their practice
DOCUMENT
In this paper we describe our work in progress on the development of a set of criteria to predict text difficulty in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). These texts are used in a four year bachelor program, which is being brought in line with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001). Production and interaction proficiency are assessed through the NGT Functional Assessment instrument, adapted from the Sign Language Proficiency Interview (Caccamise & Samar, 2009). With this test we were able to determine that after one year of NGT-study students produce NGT at CEFR-level A2, after two years they sign at level B1, and after four years they are proficient in NGT on CEFR-level B2. As a result of that we were able to identify NGT texts that were matched to the level of students at certain stages in their studies with a CEFR-level. These texts were then analysed for sign familiarity, morpheme-sign rate, use of space and use of non-manual signals. All of these elements appear to be relevant for the determination of a good alignment between the difficulty of NGT signed texts and the targeted CEFR level, although only the morpheme-sign rate appears to be a decisive indicator
DOCUMENT
This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sign language interpreting profession drawing on data from a fourth and final survey conducted in June 2021 as part of a series of online “living surveys” during the pandemic. The survey, featuring 331 respondents, highlights significant changes in the occupational conditions and practices of sign language interpreters due to the sudden shift towards remote video-mediated interpreting. The findings reveal a range of challenges faced by interpreters, including the complexities of audience design, lack of backchanneling from deaf consumers, the need for heightened self-monitoring, nuanced conversation management, and team work. Moreover, the study highlights the physical and mental health concerns that have emerged among interpreters as a result of the shift in working conditions, and a need for interpreters to acquire new skills such as coping with the multimodal nature of online interpreting. While the blend of remote, hybrid, and on-site work has introduced certain advantages, it also poses new challenges encompassing workload management, online etiquette, and occupational health concerns. The survey’s findings underscore the resilience and adaptability of SLIs in navigating the shift to remote interpreting, suggesting a lasting transformation in the profession with implications for future practice, training, and research in the post-pandemic era.
DOCUMENT
Abstract In this paper several meaningful audio icons of classic arcade games such as Pong, Donkey Kong, Mario World and Pac-Man are analyzed, using the PRAAT software for speech analysis and musical theory. The analysis results are used to describe how these examples of best practice sound design obtain their meaning in the player's perception. Some aspects can be related to the use of tonal hierarchy (e.g. Donkey Kong and Mario World) which is a western culture related aspect of musical meaning. Other aspects are related to universal expressions of meaning such as the theory of misattribution, prosody, vocalization and cross-modal perceptions such as brightness and the uncanny valley hypothesis. Recent studies in the field of cognitive neuroscience support the universal and meaningful potential of all these aspects. The relationship between language related prosody, vocalization and phonology, and music seems to be an especially successful design principle for universally meaningful music icons in game sound design.
DOCUMENT
When teaching grammar, one of the biggest challenges teachers face is how to make their students achieve conceptual understanding. Some scholars have argued that metaconcepts from theoretical linguistics should be used to pedagogically and conceptually enrich traditional L1 grammar teaching, generating more opportunities for conceptual understanding. However, no empirical evidence exists to support this theoretical position. The current study is the first to explore the role of linguistic metaconcepts in the grammatical reasoning of university students of Dutch Language and Literature. Its goal was to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of students’ grammatical conceptual knowledge and reasoning and to investigate whether students’ reasoning benefits from an intervention that related linguistic metaconcepts to concepts from traditional grammar. Results indicate, among other things, that using explicit linguistic metaconcepts and explicit concepts from traditional grammar is a powerful contributor to the quality of students’ grammatical reasoning. Moreover, the intervention significantly improved students’ use of linguistic metaconcepts.
DOCUMENT
