This study aimed to examine the potentials of the NLP approach in detecting discourse markers (DMs), namely okay, in transcribed spoken data. One hundred thirty-eight concordance lines were presented to human referees to judge the functions of okay in them as a DM or Non-DM. After that, the researchers used a Python script written according to the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the utility of two automated indices of lexical diversity, the Moving-Average Type-Token Ratio (MATTR) and the Word Information Measure (WIM), in predicting aphasia diagnosis and responding to differences in severity and aphasia subtype. Method: Transcripts of a single discourse task were analyzed…

Despite writing and speaking being related activities, their end-products are entirely different. However, previous studies have not shown consistency in terms of grammar use in these two modes. Accordingly, in the present study, I aim to define the syntactic characteristics in these two modes with large-scale data and organized research designs.…

There is a long-standing interrelationship between the military and medical spheres in society. Military actions rely on medical services to tend to casualties, and medical advances often come from the pressure of military campaigns that generate large numbers of patients. That interrelationship is a linear one of simple paired interaction.…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to advance the use of structured, monologic discourse analysis by validating an automated scoring procedure for core lexicon (CoreLex) using transcripts. Method: Forty-nine transcripts from persons with aphasia and 48 transcripts from persons with no brain injury were retrieved from the AphasiaBank database. Five…

Purpose: The Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system provides automated measures facilitating clinical and nonclinical research and interventions on language development, but there are only a few, scattered independent reports of these measures' validity. The objectives of the current systematic review were to (a) discover studies comparing…

Purpose: Corpus analyses of spontaneous language fragments of varying length provide useful insights in the language change caused by brain damage, such as caused by some forms of dementia. Sample size is an important experimental parameter to consider when designing spontaneous language analyses studies. Sample length influences the confidence…

Interpretation in cross-language qualitative research presents a range of methodological and ethical challenges. Among these are the interpreters' influence on data generation and interview power dynamics. Having translators review and/or produce an independent translation of recorded interview material for comparative purposes is regarded as one…

We examine the syntactic structures exhibited by persons with dementia in conversation. Traditionally, research on the linguistic abilities of persons with dementia is either observational (reports kept by caregivers) or experimental (e.g. based on comprehension tasks), and the focus is not on the syntactic competence of the speaker. We combine…

We propose that machine-learned computational models (MLCMs), in which the model parameters and perhaps even structure are learned from data, can complement extant approaches to the study of text and discourse. Such models are particularly useful when theoretical understanding is insufficient, when the data are rife with nonlinearities and…

This study aimed to examine the effects of combining task repetition with immediate post-task transcribing (TRIPT) on L2 learners' immediate and delayed oral repetitions of the same task in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). For this purpose, 38 intermediate Iranian learners were randomly assigned to two groups: TRIPT and task…

Studies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) indicate that the use of discourse markers (DMs) in the academic writing of second language learners improves the overall quality of these texts by contributing to their cohesion and comprehensibility (Saif Modhish 2012; Jalilifar 2008; Intaraprawat & Steffensen 1995). However, despite the…

A considerable body of research within the interaction framework (Long, 1996) has centred on the language-related episodes (LREs) which occur when learners topicalize a specific linguistic item while they are engaged in meaning-focused tasks. Several studies have shown that the production of LREs may be influenced by the proficiency level of the…

Delving into the linguistic performance of EFL learners with varying linguistic backgrounds and potentials appears to be of huge significance, particularly in EFL classrooms. The knowledge of the potential variations between monolingual and bilingual EFL learners might help teachers better meet the needs of these learners, for instance through…

Univocal discourse, characterized by its function of conveying information from one person to another, is common in mathematics classrooms but dialogic teaching aims at students coming to participate in dialogic discourse, that is, discourse functioning to generate new meaning within a community. Many mathematical practices are directed at the…