Words R Us

This article talks about how AI-generated texts can be distinguished from human writing. It explains why it is essential for us to tell them apart and why it is still not able to perfectly mimic humans.

This article discusses some of the ways AI-generated text can differ from sentences written by humans.

This paper discusses a brief history of Hokkien (Fujian) migrants into the Philippines and how their culture, language, and food has survived in a new, syncretized form in the Philippines. The article gives a few examples that can be seen in Binondo, a Chinese district in Manila, Philippines.

This paper talks about Chinese loanwords in selected Southeast Asian languages (Khmer, Thai, Hmong, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Indonesian) and compares how different Chinese words got into different SEA languages depending on how the Chinese integrated with the local population.

This article details the impact of effective technology and the accessibility that comes with communication methods. The article also describes the way that iPads and tablets have become a part of the way that special education teachers communicate with their students and the newfound independence of non-verbal students.

This article discusses the impact of special communication apps for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and how they help non-verbal students communicate with the teachers and classmates.

This paper discusses how the gene FOXP2 is related to certain speech and language disorders, such as apraxia, or difficulty coordinating parts of the mouth to form speech. This research is important when placed into the wider debate of Nature Vs. Nurture, as it demonstrates that genetics may have the capacity to influence language acquisition.

This seminal paper by Dr. Jean Berko Gleason introduces the Wug Test, a unique way to study childhood language acquisition by asking young children to pluralize nonsense words, put them past tense, and more.

A new longitudinal study, led by Mary E. Brushe, a researcher at the Telethon Kids Institute at the University of Western Australia, gathered data from 220 families across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland with children who were born in 2017. Once every six months until they turned 3, the children wore T-shirts or vests that held small digital language processors that automatically tracked their exposure to certain types of electronic noise, as well as language spoken by the child, the parent or another adult. The researchers were particularly interested in three measures of language: words spoken by an adult, child vocalizations and turns in the conversation. They modeled each measure separately and adjusted the results for age, sex and other factors, such as the mother's education level and the number of children at home. Researchers found that at almost all ages, increased screen time squelched conversation. When the children were 18 months old, each additional minute of screen time was associated with 1.3 fewer child vocalizations, for example, and when they were 2 years old, an additional minute was associated with 0.4 fewer turns in conversation. The strongest negative associations emerged when the children were 3 years old - and were exposed to an average of 2 hours 52 minutes of screen time daily. At this age, just one additional minute of screen time was associated with 6.6 fewer adult words, 4.9 fewer child vocalizations and 1.1 fewer turns in conversation.

This article details a study that analyzed the parts of the brain involved in producing and understanding sign language. A main conclusion of this study was that both spoken and sign languages utilize the same areas of the brain.

This article delves into the grammatical structure of sign languages and highlights the differences between spoken and signed languages. It places an emphasis on the primary differences between them, which is the fact that signed symbols can be delivered simultaneously instead of in a linear fashion.

The article explores how abbreviations, particularly in scientific communication, can be alienating to unfamiliar audiences and are often unnecessary. It argues that many scientific abbreviations are mentally taxing.

This article explains how words we use to describe addiction can actually greatly affect people's willingness to receive treatment. Certain words or phrases continue to stigmatize the illness.

This article explains trends surveyed Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers noticed in students' writing due to digital technology. There are many impacts, both positive and negative.

This article explains a study conducted to analyze how modern technology affects linguistic education. Based on data from 1990 to 2015, it concluded that technology interventions support language learning.

This article explains to us why we favor, or think one language sounds "nicer", or "beautiful compared to others and how our brain reacts.

This article gives us an inside look into why we yell, and what parts of our brain react to it.