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An article that argues that a good way to become proficient in a foreign language is to practise writing in it.

In 1922, in " Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." The words that we have at our disposal affect what we see-and the more words there are, the better our perception.

Most Christians are Christianized enough to not tell big bold lies. We know better. It is morally wrong to not tell the truth. To willfully alter the truth to something that is not the truth should not be part of any Christian's game. The difference between truth-telling and lying is easy to discern.

Article abstract: Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health, in non-clinical and clinical populations. In the expressive writing paradigm, participants are asked to write about such events for 15-20 minutes on 3-5 occasions. Those who do so generally have significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who write about neutral topics. Here we present an overview of the expressive writing paradigm, outline populations for which it has been found to be beneficial and discuss possible mechanisms underlying the observed health benefits. In addition, we suggest how expressive writing can be used as a therapeutic tool for survivors of trauma and in psychiatric settings. This article provides a succinct review of relevant studies in this area, from 20 years ago to the present.

When people listen to a preferred or a favorite song, they are able to connect better to the part of the brain called the default mode network, which is tied to how humans are able to switch between thinking about what's going on around them and their self-referential thoughts.

China has sharply scaled back, and restricted, the teaching of languages spoken by ethnic minorities in its vast western regions in recent years, promoting instruction in Chinese instead as part of a broad push to encourage the assimilation of Tibetans, Uighurs and other ethnic minorities into the dominant ethnic Han culture. The Education Ministry says a goal is to "make sure that minority students master and use the basic common language." And some parents have welcomed the new emphasis on teaching Chinese because they believe it will better prepare their children to compete for jobs in the Chinese economy and for places at Chinese universities. But the new measures have also stirred anxiety and fueled resentment, with residents arguing that they threaten the survival of ethnic identities and traditions already under pressure by migration, economic change and the repressive policies of a government fearful of ethnic separatism.

Here's some good news for the bilingual folks. You may have a better chance of delaying the onset of several different dementias, just by speaking a second language, a new study says.

This article states that despite the logical belief that texting lingo is detrimental to conventional lingo, top linguists say that texting is beneficial to literary skills.

Original article can be found at this URL: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984220/Text-speak-makes-youngsters-spelling-BETTER-according-linguist-claims-technology-making-teenagers-read-ever.html

Students in South Africa are thought to be at a disadvantage since they switch from learning in their native language to learning in english. Researchers, however, believe that it is more advantageous to students to learn in the language in which they feel most comfortable. Switching between the mother tongue at home and English at school is shown to be a struggle for most children. Since the simplicity of the mother tongue has no ties to english, the children are basically learning two different languages at once, trying to apply the two to one another.

Research has proved repeatedly that children undoubtedly achieve much better when they start schooling in a language linked to one they can already use quite well. Using a familiar language for schooling is a big part of such success, which is why the late South African educationalist Neville Alexander advocated for mother tongue based-bilingual education.

I wanted to do my research on why English is so hard to learn and why it is beneficial to learn a second language as a child, however, these are two completely different research questions. This website combined the two and has allowed me to research why children should learn English when they are young as opposed to a different language. It goes in depth as to why English is so challenging as well as how children who learn a second language will be better suited for the world.

This article helps people who don't understand or think they understand what "feminism" is, to truly understand it. Listed in this article are a variety of words with definitions and some examples. Understanding the definitions of these words may help in a better understanding of the missions of the feminists and what they are up against.

This article talked about why reader's now-a-days aren't struggling because electronics, but more because of lack of knowledge. Our Reading comprehension over the years hasn't been getting any better, especially high school seniors. Many people blame the rise in social media and electronics, preventing our development, but it's more related to how people don't have enough basic knowledge.

A study was performed on a group of 47 nine-month-old infants to test if music could help babies learn language better. The results of the study showed that infants who listened to music were more responsive to speech than the babies who played with toys and did not listen to music. It was also concluded that music can help in social-emotional development. Two children who had never met before felt closer after they played music together. Babies were also "more likely to show helping behaviors toward an adult after the babies had been bounced in sync with the adult who was also moving rhythmically."

Great find, Kai!

This is about the "Mozart effect" and if it does indeed help babies become more intelligent by listening to classical music at a young age.

This BBC article notes how media totally misconstrued the modest results reported by the original UC Irvine study, which found that students who listened to Mozart did better at tasks where they had to create shapes in their minds. These students had stronger performance on spatial tasks: specifically, looking at folded up pieces of paper with cuts in them and predicting: how they would appear when unfolded. This effect, however, was sadly temporary: about fifteen minutes. A subsequent meta-analysis of sixteen different studies confirmed that listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to manipulate shapes mentally, but the benefits are short-lived and it doesn't make us more intelligent. In 2010 a larger meta-analysis of a greater number of studies again found a positive effect, but that other kinds of music worked just as well, provided that listeners enjoyed what they were listening to. The article concludes that what's crucial in performance is "cognitive arousal": getting your brain more alert, whether it's through music, a Starbucks frappacino, or shooting hoops.

James Harbeck talks about how your writing is kind of like your own fingerprint or DNA and how forensics can be able to identify a certain author. Whether it be using the same words or similar ideas, itʻs kind of like your own linguistic DNA. However, it is not that simple and there has to be extensive investigation, we are slowly getting better at figuring out anonymous authors like the resistance against President Trump.

The alveolar trill (rolled R) is a very difficult sound to produce and is often one of the last sounds that Spanish speaking children learn. The sound is also extremely prevalent in most romance languages and as a result special focus is applied to it in the classroom. The range-mapping technique is a very effective way to learn the rolling R. It is based off of cognitive research that suggests that having variation within the full range of a motor skill allows for better learning. The steps are as follow: develop tongue and mouth awareness, learn to create vibrations, and use the trill in words.

What does recent research say about the potential benefits of bilingual education? Here are the main 6 findings: 1. Attention: "[Bilinguals] can pay focused attention without being distracted and also improve in the ability to switch from one task to another," says Sorace. Do these same advantages accrue to a child who begins learning a second language in kindergarten instead of as a baby? We don't yet know. Patterns of language learning and language use are complex. But Gigi Luk at Harvard cites at least one brain-imaging study on adolescents that shows similar changes in brain structure when compared with those who are bilingual from birth, even when they didn't begin practicing a second language in earnest before late childhood. 2. Empathy: bilingual children as young as age 3, because they must follow social cues to figure out which language to use with which person and in what setting, have demonstrated a head start on tests of perspective-taking and theory of mind - both of which are fundamental social and emotional skills. 3. Reading (English): students enrolled in dual-language programs outperformed their peers in English-reading skills by a full school year's worth of learning by the end of middle school. 4. School performance and engagement: compared with students in English-only classrooms or in one-way immersion, dual-language students have somewhat higher test scores and also seem to be happier in school. Attendance is better, behavioral problems fewer, parent involvement higher. 5. Diversity and integration: Because dual-language schools are composed of native English speakers deliberately placed together with recent immigrants, they tend to be more ethnically and socioeconomically balanced. And there is some evidence that this helps kids of all backgrounds gain comfort with diversity and different cultures. 6. Protection against cognitive decline and dementia: actively using two languages seems to have a protective effect against age-related demen

Article discusses the findings of researchers who've documented and categorized the utterances of the dying (morbid, but true!) Author Michael Erard notes that more research should be done in this area, because "Even basic descriptions of language at the end of life would not only advance linguistic understanding but also provide a host of benefits to those who work with the dying, and to the dying themselves. Experts told me that a more detailed road map of changes could help counter people's fear of death and provide them with some sense of control. It could also offer insight into how to communicate better with the dying. Differences in cultural metaphors could be included in training for hospice nurses who may not share the same cultural frame as their patients."