33 research outputs found
Blogging: Teaching tool of the 21st century
No full textIn this age of technology, blogging is rampant not just amongst the IT savvy, but even the most "novice" of PC users might have dabbled with blogging. Teachers should try, in fact many have done so, to move away from the traditional pen-and-paper assignments and get their students to blog instead. You will be surprised how motivated students can become and how, by some miracle, they quit complaining about homework.Published versio
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Effects of ageing and bilingualism in pragmatic inferences and executive functions
No full textThe twenty-first century is witnessing a shift in attitude towards the acquisition of
more than one language. Bilingualism that was once considered to lower the
intelligence of the 'afflicted' is now being suggested as contributing to better cognitive
abilities, and delaying the onset of dementia. The other pressing issue that the 21st
century is facing in many parts of the developed world is a rapidly ageing population.
Thus, the present study examined the effects of age(ing) and bilingualism on two
important aspects of human life: our ability to infer nonliteral meaning (i.e. pragmatic
inferences) and executive functions (EF). The present study also explored the
relationship between pragmatic inferences and executive functions, and has
documented a small number of case studies on EF and pragmatic inferring in AD. Four
groups of participants made up of young {17 -23 years) and old {60- 83), and
monolinguals (English speakers in the UK) and bilinguals {English-Tamil speakers in
Singapore) were put through a set of linguistic tasks (pragmatic inferring tasks that
included nonconventional indirect requests, conventional metaphors and novel
metaphors) and non-linguistic tasks (Simon, Stroop Arrow, Spatial N-Back, ColourShape
etc.) that recorded the participants' pragmatic inferential abilities and
executive functioning (namely, inhibition, updating and switching). The present study
has found that there was a bilingual advantage in pragmatic inference-making for
some nonliteral language types. There was an age effect on pragmatic inferencemaking,
but, again, not for all nonliteral language types. There was no bilingualism
effect on executive functions, but young bilinguals were found to have a smaller
Mixing Cost than the young monolinguals and old bilinguals, presumably due to their greater code-switching frequency. An age effect w.a s found for inhibition (where old
participants obtained better accuracy scores than the young) and updating, but none
for Switching/Shifting, except for the Mixing Cost.
It was also found that updating was predominantly a significant contributor to
pragmatic inference-making. And lastly, there were relationships between updating
and pragmatic inference-making, but only for some non literal language types and that
too, for bilingual participants. While past studies have found effects of bilingualism in
inhibition, the present study has shown that updating seems to be an important EF
resource for bilinguals in discourse processing. In addition, as predicted in the study,
frequent code-switching contributed positively to better global sustained control
mechanisms
Comprehending non-literal language: effects of aging and bilingualism
No full textA pressing issue that the 21st century is facing in many parts of the developed world is a rapidly aging population. Whilst several studies have looked at aging older adults and their language use in terms of vocabulary, syntax and sentence comprehension, few have focused on the comprehension of non-literal language (i.e. pragmatic inference-making) by aging older adults, and even fewer, if any, have explored the effects of bilingualism on pragmatic inferences of non-literal language by aging older bilinguals. Thus, the present study examined the effects of age(ing) and the effects of bilingualism on aging older adults’ ability to infer non-literal meaning. Four groups of participants made up of monolingual English-speaking and bilingual English-Tamil speaking young (17–23 years) and older (60– 83 years) adults were tested with pragmatic tasks that included non-conventional indirect requests, conversational implicatures, conventional metaphors and novel metaphors for both accuracy and efficiency in terms of response times. While the study did not find any significant difference between monolinguals and bilinguals on pragmatic inferences, there was a significant effect of age on one type of non-literal language tested: conventional metaphors. The effect of age was present only for the monolinguals with aging older monolinguals performing less well than the young monolinguals. Aging older bilingual adults were not affected by age whilst processing conventional metaphors. This suggests a bilingual advantage in pragmatic inferences of conventional metaphors
Sundaray et al., 2021. A remote intervention to enhance child-directed speech: an RCT for infants and toddlers.
No full textConference paper presented at SRCD April 7-9 2021 Virtual Biennial Meetin
Characterization of Enzymes Produced by Bacillus species
No full textThis Dissertation / Report is the outcome of investigation carried out by the creator(s) / author(s) at the department/division of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore mentioned below in this page
Characterization of Polyhydroxyalkanoates Producing Bacillus species
No full textThis Dissertation / Report is the outcome of investigation carried out by the creator(s) / author(s) at the department/division of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore mentioned below in this page
Media Optimization for Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates by Bacillus species
No full textThis Dissertation / Report is the outcome of investigation carried out by the creator(s) / author(s) at the department/division of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore mentioned below in this page
Characterization of Polyhydroxyalkanoates Produced by Bacillus spp. from Starch Containing Medium
No full textThis Dissertation / Report is the outcome of investigation carried out by the creator(s) / author(s) at the department/division of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore mentioned below in this page
Principals and teachers' perspectives of their school libraries and implications for school library policy
No full textResearch has demonstrated that school librarians can make a meaningful contribution to student reading proficiency, learning and academic achievement. This study examines the perspectives of school leaders and teachers in Singapore schools to better understand how they use their school library, their attitudes toward the library collection and environment, and their perception of their library coordinators' roles. Findings suggest that school leaders and teachers under-utilize the library, perceive it to be mainly a study space for students, feel that the library space and book collection should be improved and were not clear about the roles of their library staff. The study suggests that it is crucial to implement policy and professional development courses to support collaboration between principals, teachers and school librarians.Accepted versionSUG 5/17 LC
