Musical training improves the brain's ability to discern the components of sound - the pitch, the timing and the timbre. "To learn to read, you need to have good working memory, the ability to disambiguate speech sounds, make sound-to-meaning connections," said Professor Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University. "Each one of these things really seems to be strengthened with active engagement in playing a musical instrument."

Bilingual TV shows and networks have just begun popping up in the past few years. For some, it's important to serve the bilingual audience. For others, it seems unnecessary because bilingual people can already enjoy both Spanish and English-language shows.

Members of Congress are often criticized for what they do - or rather, what they don't do. But what about what they say and, more specifically, how they say it? It turns out that the sophistication of congressional speech-making is on the decline, according to the open government group the Sunlight Foundation.

Here's a follow-up on the same study, examining the speech of Hawaii's senators and representatives: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/157017545.html?id=157017545. U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka speaks at a college sophomore level, according to an analysis of his speeches by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington group that pushes for government transparency. The analysis ranks Akaka in the top five among members of Congress for his use of longer sentences and more complex words. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye isn't far behind. His speeches use words and sentences on the level of a college freshman. U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono speaks at the level of a high school senior, while U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa's speeches are at the high school freshman level, according to the study. Of course, longer sentences and more complex vocabulary use don't necessarily make for better communication, nor indicate effectiveness in re: serving one's constituents.

Dr. Derald Wing-Sue examines the demeaning meta-communications or hidden messages in comments addressed to people of color. Though it should be noted that microaggressions can also be levied at white people, e.g. when Hawaii born-and-raised whites are asked "Where are you from?", and then when told "Here", persist: "No, I meant originally." ;-)

Interesting article on racialized "microaggressions" directed towards gaijin living in Japan.

Our brains are set up to do two things at once, but not three, a French team reports in the journal Science. Their experiment examined an area of the brain involved in goals and rewards and tested people's abilities to accomplish up to three mental tasks at the same time. When volunteers were doing just one task, there was activity in goal-oriented areas of both frontal lobes, suggesting that the two sides of the brain were working together to get the job done. But when people took on a second task, the lobes divided their responsibilities. Since the brain has only two frontal lobes, researchers surmised there might be a limit to the number of goals and rewards it can handle. Indeed, when people started a third task, one of the original goals disappeared from their brains. Also people slowed down and made many more mistakes.

Controlling angry people is challenging, but there are several effective anger management strategies you can use to avoid verbal confrontations and protect yourself or the people you love from angry people.

This NYT article reports findings of a recently released study, which concluded that computers are capable of scoring essays on standardized tests as well, or possibly better, than humans. However, Les Perelman, a director of writing at MIT and a tester of the Educational Testing Services E-Rater program disagrees, arguing that the system can be easily "gamed".

A new study finds that software designed to automatically read and grade essays can do as good a job as humans - maybe even better. The robo-readers are efficient, as well, and can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. The caveats, however: computers don't do as well on comprehension, ascertaining facts vs. fiction, and assessing certain genres, like poetry.

Making specific references to print in books while reading to children -- such as pointing out letters and words on the pages, showing capital letters, and showing how you read from left to right and top to bottom on the page--promotes greater literacy achievement in the long-term.

Learning to play a musical instrument leads to changes in the brain's auditory system. The resulting auditory fitness may aid in other forms of communication, such as speech, reading, learning a foreign language, and understanding speech in a noisy environment.

The increased acceptance of the word "hopefully" to modify an entire sentence symbolizes a battle over the evolving English language: prescriptivism vs. descriptivism again.

Wallace's erudite essay explores the conflict between prescriptivists and descriptivists. Lengthy, but a worthy read!.

Prescriptivist vs. descriptivist views of language. Grammatical rules are akin to dress codes: They were once dogma, but now are in a constant flux.

Language describes reality. That is its primary, most self-evident function. We use words to define for ourselves, and communicate to others, what's going on out there. Less evident, but almost as potent, is language's role in shaping reality. The meaning of what is out there changes with the words we choose to describe it.

Thanks to Jesse Huang for this article, which discusses the recent shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch member, and the ensuing investigation as to whether the shooting was done in self-defense. Using software that examines characteristics like pitch and the space between spoken words to analyze voices, forensic audio experts are comparing a 911 call to a previous voice recording of Zimmerman and attempting to determine whether the background screams are that of Martin or Zimmerman. The article also includes discussion as to the reliability of this type of "voiceprint" analysis.

In a nod to changing social norms and the rise of feminism, France expurgates "mademoiselle" from its list of acceptable social honorifics. One of my former students, a Francophile living in Europe, snarkily notes that while the French are at it, they should reinstate "mondemoiseau"--a title designating men who'd not reached "chevalier", or knightly status.

Being bilingual makes you smarter and can have a profound effect on your brain.

Blast from the past: diagramming sentences!

Mali, teacher and slam poet, delivering a humorous take on "uptalk".