The study investigated the developmental trajectory of the speech act of request among L1 Greek-speaking children spanning the preschool and primary school years (ages 4–11), aiming to address the scarcity of pragmatic research within this age range in Greek. Seventy-three children participated in an experimental task that elicited oral requests based on scenarios systematically manipulating addressee status/familiarity and the cost of the requested action. Responses were analysed via a bottom-up coding method, which showed that three quarters of all utterances adhered to four highly conventionalised, interrogative request constructions: (i) Can-you V-<sub>SUBJUNCTIVE</sub>?, (ii) Will-you V?, (iii) Can-I V-<sub>SUBJUNCTIVE</sub>?, and (iv) V-<sub>PRESENT-YOU</sub>?. Notably, the direct Imperative mood was marginal even among the youngest participants. Results indicate a statistically significant variation in the distribution of these dominant patterns across age groups. Increasing age correlates with greater sensitivity to sociocultural parameters of communication, specifically the imposition/cost and the addressee’s face needs. This is further evidenced by a more elaborated repertoire of modifiers and supportive moves. We conclude that requestive behaviour progresses developmentally from largely underspecified directive forms toward a repertoire of more complex and contextually specified constructions, thereby providing empirical support for usage-based accounts of language acquisition.
Background: Targeted new-born hearing screening, based on high risk factors is recommended in the absence of universal new-born hearing screening in resource-constrained settings. The relevance of risk factors listed in the guidelines of high-income countries and used by low-middle income countries remains relatively unknown. Risk factors consistent with the epidemiological profile, evolution of risks and disease burden in these countries need to be considered.
Objectives: This study aimed to profile the frequency of risk factors and their manifestation in hearing outcomes of young children in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
Method: A chart review of N = 1433 patients’ archival audiology records was conducted, conveniently sampled from a single tertiary hospital (n = 351), a provincial assessment and therapy centre (n = 649), a university clinic (n = 291), and two schools for the deaf (n = 142).
Results: Overall, 56% of the participants presented with either a conductive, sensorineural or a mixed hearing loss; 62% of the children had between 1 and 2 risk factors present (Mean [M] = 1.1; standard deviation [s.d.] = 0.98). Admission to neonatal intensive care unit, maternal infections, bacterial and viral infections and chemotherapy, from the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing list of high risk factors were significantly associated with hearing loss (p 0.05). Known non-JCIH risks, emerging risks and other statistically significant contextually relevant risk factors were also noted.
Conclusion: Understanding the profile of high risk factors in a given context has implications for prevention, early hearing identification and intervention services.
Contribution: Targeted new-born hearing screening needs to be based on risk factors that are contextually relevant. This study is one of the first profiling high risk factors for hearing loss in children in KZN, the province with the second highest population in South Africa.
The article is devoted to the difficulties of mastering and errors in the use of foreign words in oral and written business (office) communication in Russian. The relevance of this topic is explained by the special speech responsibility of representatives of socially significant professions who use Russian as the state language, as well problems arising in the implementation as of the provisions of the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation” as amended on February 28, 2023. The article substantiates the thesis about the need to take into account not only the lack of Russian analogues, but also other factors when using borrowed words. Of great importance for collecting language material was the author’s many years of work experience at the Faculty of Additional Education at the North-Western Academy of Public Administration (now the North-Western Institute of Management of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation), in the executive authorities of Saint Petersburg and North-West Russia, in the Interregional Resource Center under the Administration of the Governor of Saint Petersburg. Theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, historicism) made it possible to identify subjective and objective difficulties in mastering, typical errors in the use of borrowed words, as well as update ways to overcome them, which can be of practical importance for the conscious implementation of this law and improving the culture of Russian business (official) speech.
Political institutions and public administration (General)
Ludovic Saint-Félix, Alexandre Vaz Machado, Monique Scalco
et al.
This article is part of a special series designed to help authors in the process of scientific writing and communication. The objective of the study was to provide tools and strategies to prepare and achieve effective forms of oral communication, especially related to posters and oral presentations. A non-systematic literature research (PubMed/Web of Science) was performed to retrieve relevant data about how to prepare posters, oral presentation and how to control anxiety caused by oral speeches. In addition, a brief overview of innovative and recent digital tools is also provided. The scientific literature proves some interesting recommendations for preparing a good poster or a slide show and to avoid public speech anxiety as well. A list of available digital tools for such preparation was also disclosed. The rules for oral or poster communication differ from those related to manuscript writing. The quality of oral scientific communication can be improved by following such rules.
BackgroundDysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by various neurological diseases, particularly stroke. Individuals with post-stroke dysarthria experience impaired speech intelligibility, communication difficulties, and a reduced quality of life. However, studies on the treatment of post-stroke dysarthria are lacking. Digital speech therapy applications have the advantages of being personalized and easily accessible. However, evidence for their efficacy is not rigorous. Moreover, no studies have investigated both the acute to subacute, and chronic phases of stroke. This study aims to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of digital speech therapy applications in addressing these gaps in dysarthria treatment.Methods and designThis study is a multicenter, prospective, randomized, evaluator-blinded non-inferiority trial. We aim to recruit 76 participants with post-stroke dysarthria. Eligible participants will be stratified based on the onset period of stroke into acute to subacute, and chronic phases. Participants will be randomized in a 1:1 to receive either a personalized digital speech therapy application or conventional therapy with a workbook for 60 min daily, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks. The primary outcome is the improvement in speech intelligibility. This will be measured by how accurately independent listeners can transcribe passages read by the participants. Secondary outcomes, which include speech function, will be evaluated remotely by speech-language pathologists. This includes the maximum phonation time, oral diadochokinetic rate, and percentage of consonants correct. Participants’ psychological well-being will also be assessed using self-report questionnaires, such as depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and quality of life (Quality of Life in the Dysarthric Speaker scale). The trial will also assess the feasibility, participant adherence, and usability of the application. Rigorous data collection and monitoring will be implemented to ensure patient safety.ConclusionThis trial aims to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of digital speech therapy applications for treating post-stroke dysarthria. The results could establish foundational evidence for future clinical trials with larger sample sizes.Clinical trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, identifier: NCT05865106.
Spatial neglect (SN) is a heterogeneous syndrome that occurs in individuals after acquired brain injury. It is a disorder of spatial attention, with a negative impact on the individual's functional status and independence psychosocial abilities, with adverse effects on rehabilitation outcomes.SN can be observed during reading and writing tasks in the Speech and Language Therapist's office. Because of the great variability of SN symptoms, it has been suggested that complex diagnostic methods for SN assessment should be utilised.The choice of the appropriate diagnostic tools can be key in revealing the type of neglect and subsequently in setting up an optimal therapeutic approach for SN treatment. However, the most widely used diagnostic tools have been paper-pencil tests, despite their inadequate sensitivity and inability to detect subvariants of SN, especially regarding the functional status of the individual.In addition, a wide number of SN treatment approaches have been described, yet there has been no clear consensus among professionals regarding the optimal SN treatment method selection. An example of the most frequently employed approaches is optokinetic stimulation. Another example that has gained substantial popularity in recent years is the prism adaptation treatment, that utilises the effect of lateral shifting of the visual field using prism lenses.
Nathalie Niederberger, Margaret Kehoe, Anne-Laure Bouchut
Cet article décrit un nouveau test de dépistage, le DRAP, qui permet d’évaluer de manière rapide l’articulation et la phonologie des enfants francophones âgés de 3 à 6 ans. Ses normes ont été établies à partir des réponses de 199 enfants, dont 159 bilingues, scolarisés en français soit dans un environnement linguistique francophone, soit dans un environnement linguistique anglophone. Les performances des enfants mettent en évidence un effet de l’âge sur les scores au test. En revanche, le fait d’être bilingue ou de vivre dans un environnement linguistique autre que le français ne semble pas déterminant. En conséquence, seul l’âge a été pris en compte dans la création des normes du test, sans distinguer des normes spécifiques pour les enfants monolingues et bilingues. L’apport de cette étude sur les connaissances actuelles de l’acquisition de la phonologie du français et de ses troubles est également discuté.
El texto explora el folklore estudiantil en su interconexión con el mundo digital y con el mantenimiento de anteriores formas de expresión del folklore. Mediante un estudio cualitativo que ha sido desarrollado a través de una etnografía colaborativa complementada con entrevistas semidirigidas a grupos de estudiantes de bachillerato y Universidad, se analiza el papel de los juegos juveniles, como los de beber y fumar, los llamados retos virales, cuyo relato va dirigido a jóvenes adolescentes, para terminar abordando la comunicación con memes como práctica social dentro del contexto de los grupos de Whatsapp.
Oral communication. Speech, French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature
The present paper intends to investigate oral communication between professionals in medical contexts. Apparently, this is quite a neglected area of research in the abundant literature on spoken medical English, which mainly focuses on doctor-patient encounters. Due to the difficulty in finding available data on real sequences in this domain, this study aims to analyse this type of specialised discourse, within the Multimodal Analysis framework and with a holistic approach, in two different American TV products, namely the medical drama Code Black (M. Seitzman, 2015-present), well known for its plausibility and verisimilitude as far as medical procedures are concerned, and the medical docuseries Boston Med (2010). On the verbal level, special attention will be paid to vocabulary, speech acts, register variation according to the participants’ role and to the level of emergency of the situation. Moreover, and most importantly, analysis will be carried out also on the non-verbal level through the multimodal annotator software ELAN (Wittenburg, Brugman, Russel, Klassmann & Sloetjes, 2006), thus integrating verbal and non-verbal cues (e.g. gaze direction, hand/arm gestures, etc.) to show how a multimodal approach can actually help to interpret a message, especially in situated communicative and specialised contexts
Resumen. En este artículo se presentan los préstamos de lenguas romances, principalmente del español, procedentes de la Península Ibérica que aparecen en el Vocabulista del P. Patricio de la Torre. La obra de este jerónimo fue escrita entre finales del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX en Tánger. Al mismo tiempo, ofrecemos datos etnográficos recogidos en ella relacionados con la Literatura oral y otros aspectos generales de la sociedad tangerina en la que vivió el autor.
Abstract. This article presents the loanwords from the Romance languages, mainly Spanish, proceeding from the Iberian Peninsula and featured in the Vocabulist by Father Patricio de la Torre. The work of this monk from the Order of St Jerome was written between the end of the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX century in Tangier. We also present ethnographic data gathered there, related to oral literature and other general aspects of the Tangerine society in which the author lived.
Oral communication. Speech, French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature
Este artículo ofrece una aproximación crítica a las principales labores de documentación y estudio de la lírica tradicional de Cataluña desde los primeros trabajos de campo hasta la actualidad.
Oral communication. Speech, French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature
Can the perception of a word be influenced by its grammatical gender? Can it happen that speakers of one language perceive an object to have masculine features, while speakers of another language perceive the same object to have feminine features? Previous studies suggest that this is the case, and also that there is some supra-language gender categorisation of objects as natural/feminine and artefact/masculine. This study was an attempt to replicate these findings on another population of subjects. This is the first Polish study of this kind, comparing the perceptions of objects by Polish- and French-speaking individuals. The results of this study show that grammatical gender may cue people to assess objects as masculine or feminine. However, the findings of some previous studies, that feminine features are more often ascribed to natural objects than artifacts, were not replicated.
Oral care is a crucial routine for patients with dysphagia that, when completed routinely, can prevent the development of aspiration pneumonia. There is no standardised protocol for oral care within government hospitals in South Africa. This study aimed to investigate the outcome of an oral care protocol. Participants were patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia, with either stroke or traumatic brain injury as the underlying medical pathology, and nurses. All participants were recruited from one tertiary level government hospital in Gauteng, South Africa. 139 nurses participated in the study and received training on the oral care protocol. There were two groups of participants with oropharyngeal dysphagia. Group one (study group, n = 23) was recruited by consecutive sampling, received regular oral care and were not restricted from drinking water; however, all other liquids were restricted. Group two (comparison group, n = 23) was recruited via a retrospective record review, received inconsistent oral care and were placed on thickened liquids or liquid restricted diets. Results showed that a regimen of regular oral care and free water provision when combined with dysphagia intervention did prevent aspiration pneumonia in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia. The article highlights two key findings: that regular and routine oral care is manageable within an acute government hospital context and a strict routine of oral care can reduce aspiration pneumonia in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia. An implication from these findings is confirmation that teamwork in acute care settings in developing contexts must be prioritised to improve dysphagia management and patient prognosis.