Feature Channels: Speech & Language

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When you insist you’re not racist, you may unwittingly be sending the opposite message.

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Small children learn language at a pace far faster than teenagers or adults. One explanation for this learning advantage comes not from differences between children and adults, but from the differences in the way that people talk to children and adults.

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Conversations between seriously ill people, their families and palliative care specialists lead to better quality-of-life. Understanding what happens during these conversations – and how they vary by cultural, clinical, and situational contexts – is essential to guide healthcare communication improvement efforts. To gain true understanding, new methods to study conversations in large, inclusive, and multi-site epidemiological studies are required. A new computer model offers an automated and valid tool for such large-scale scientific analyses.

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Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Arts have jointly developed the “Thai Speech Emotion Recognition Data Sets and Models”, now available for free downloads, to help enhance sales operations and service systems to better respond to customers’ needs.

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El Cancer Research Institute anunció hoy que ha lanzado su primer website en español para conectar a los pacientes hispanos y sus cuidadores con la información más reciente sobre la inmunoterapia contra el cáncer y las opciones de tratamiento.

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The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) announced today that is has launched its first-ever Spanish-language information hub to connect Hispanic patients and caregivers with the latest cancer immunotherapy research and treatment options.

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DETROIT – Henry Ford Health System is using the healing power of singing to help patients with voice disorders that result from various medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke and vocal cord paralysis to help improve their voices. Patients in a therapeutic choir called the Motor City Upbeats regain their vocal strength and range and breathing through a series of simple exercises and techniques taught in a welcoming, cheerful environment where just hearing the sound of your voice is music to the ears.

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A new study from archaeologists at University of Sydney and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, has provided important new evidence to answer the question "Who exactly were the Anglo-Saxons?"

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A first-of-its kind study in U.S.-born children from Spanish-speaking families finds that minority language exposure does not threaten the acquisition of English by children in the U.S. and that there is no trade-off between English and Spanish. Rather, children reliably acquire English by age 5, and their total language knowledge is greater to the degree that they also acquire Spanish. Children’s level of English knowledge was independent of their level of Spanish knowledge.

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It is possible to re-create a bird’s song by reading only its brain activity, shows a first proof-of-concept study from UC San Diego. Reproducing the songbird’s complex vocalizations – down to the pitch, volume and timbre of the original – lays the foundation for building vocal prostheses for humans who have lost their ability to speak.

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Language is one of our species' most important skills, as it has enabled us to occupy nearly every corner of the planet.

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According to the World Health Organization, more than 264 million people worldwide have Major Depression Disorder and another 20 million have schizophrenia. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Carol Espy-Wilson from the University of Maryland,will discuss how a person's mental health status is reflected in the coordination of speech gestures. The keynote lecture, "Speech Acoustics and Mental Health Assessment," will take place Tuesday, June 8.

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Many voice actors use a variety of speech vocalizations and patterns to create unique and memorable characters. How they create those amazing voices could help speech pathologists better understand the muscles involved for creating words and sounds. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Colette Feehan from Indiana University will talk about how voice actor performances can lead to better understanding about the speech muscles under our control. The session, "Articulatory and acoustic phonetics of voice actors," will take place Tuesday, June 8.

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Variations in children's speech has traditionally been attributed to developmental delays. Recent work suggests the reasons for variability are not so clear, and an immediate call for treatment may need to be reconsidered. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Margaret Cychosz from the University of Maryland will discuss the need to better understand these variations. Her presentation, "Reconsidering variability in child speech production," will take place Tuesday, June 8.

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A better understanding of the impacts of face masks and shields on acoustic transmission in classrooms could help optimize educational settings. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Laura and Rich Ruhala from Kennesaw State University will talk about how various types of face coverings may affect students' understanding of their teacher. Their presentation, "Acoustical transmission of face coverings used to reduce coronavirus transmission in a classroom environment," will take place Tuesday, June 8.

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Press conferences at the 180th ASA Meeting will cover the latest in acoustical research during the Acoustics in Focus meeting. The virtual press conferences will take place each day of the meeting and offer reporters and outlets the opportunity to hear key presenters talk about their research. To ensure the safety of attendees, volunteers, and ASA staff, Acoustics in Focus will be hosted entirely online.

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Older Chinese immigrants who adjust to their new cultural environment by learning the language, following the country’s media and socializing with local residents can reduce acculturation gap with their adult children and protect their cognitive function, according to a Rutgers study.

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At Boston University, a team of researchers is working to better understand how language and speech is processed in the brain, and how to best rehabilitate people who have lost their ability to communicate due to brain damage caused by a stroke, trauma, or another type of brain injury.

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Children of Latinx immigrants who take on adult responsibilities exhibit higher levels of political activity compared with those who do not, according to University of Georgia researcher Roberto Carlos.

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The Enneagram is a powerful psychometric assessment that can shed light on the core beliefs which influence an individual’s view of the world around them.

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Is that raspy voice a sign of seasonal allergies, or could it be something else? Speech language pathologist Carrie Ruggiero explains the causes of hoarseness – and the health conditions it might be masking.

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How people consume news and take actions based on what they read, hear or see, is different than how human brains process other types of information on a daily basis, according to researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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The Acoustical Society of America will hold its 180th meeting June 8-10. To ensure the safety of attendees, volunteers, and ASA staff, the June meeting, "Acoustics in Focus," will be hosted entirely online with new features to ensure an exciting experience for attendees. Reporters are invited to attend the meeting at no cost and participate in a series of virtual press conferences featuring a selection of newsworthy research.

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The 'missing link' that helped our ancestors to begin communicating with each other through language may have been iconic sounds, rather than charades-like gestures - giving rise to the unique human power to coin new words describing the world around us, a new study reveals.

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Biologists have identified specific neural firing patterns that can induce stuttering and stammering in songbirds. The discovery offers a model system that could enable researchers to uncover the origins of speech dysfunction in humans, and possible treatment to restore normal speech.

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From the impact of COVID-19 on parents, to speech differences between English- and Spanish-learners, and advanced ear surgery techniques, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine hearing professionals presented their latest studies at CI2021, the annual conference of the American Cochlear Implant (ACI) Alliance, from April 28 to May 1.

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If you really want to understand literature, don’t start with the words on a page – start with how it affects your brain.

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An analysis of Twitter activity between March 1 and Aug. 1, 2020, found strong support by U.S. users for wearing face coverings and that a media focus on anti-mask opinions fueled the rhetoric of those opposed, report University of Oregon researchers.

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Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2021 — Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of language science at the University of California, Irvine, has been elected a fellow by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The 241st class of inductees includes more than 250 extraordinary people across America and around the world who help solve the world’s most urgent challenges, create meaning through art, and contribute to the common good from every field, discipline and profession.

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Douglas Wilbur '14, a visiting Ph.D. scholar in the Department of Communication at UTSA, has published a study that shows how researchers can craft message campaigns to protect individuals from adopting extremist views.

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A team led by UC Davis Health researchers tested and validated elaborated language sampling (ELS) as a set of procedures for collecting, measuring and analyzing the spoken language of youth with Down syndrome in a naturalistic setting. They found that ELS is a reliable and feasible tool that can be used to detect meaningful changes in communication skills of individuals with Down syndrome.

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The digital revolution is built on a foundation of invisible 1s and 0s called bits. As decades pass, and more and more of the world’s information and knowledge morph into streams of 1s and 0s, the notion that computers prefer to “speak” in binary numbers is rarely questioned.

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Multilingual people have trained their brains to learn languages, making it easier to acquire more new languages after mastering a second or third.

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Autistic adults can be wrongly perceived as deceptive and lacking credibility, Flinders University researchers say, with this working against many caught in the legal system.

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As our planet warms, seas rise and catastrophic weather events become more frequent, action on climate change has never been more important.

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Babies can recognise combinations of words even before they have uttered their first word, a study suggests, challenging ideas of how children learn language.

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A study with first-time learners of Japanese has measured how brain activity changes after just a few months of studying a new language. The results show that acquiring a new language initially boosts brain activity, which then reduces as language skills improve.

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It can be hard to resist lapsing into an exaggerated, singsong tone when you talk to a cute baby.

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A study of Japanese university students and recent graduates has revealed that writing on physical paper can lead to more brain activity when remembering the information an hour later.

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"MALLO” mobile application endorsed by a silver medal from the 2020 Taiwan Kaohsiung International Invention and Design Expo that curates a variety of English- learning applications that users can add or delete at will is a great answer to digital-age learners who wish to set their own fun study plans.

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A new study found that college students are challenging traditional ideas of where and how they invest their time. They are preparing for the future by investing in relationships and leveraging the “fear of missing out,” or FoMO, as a reminder to seize the day.

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Amy Crockford, the coordinator of Buffalo State College's American Sign Language program, will soon have the opportunity to introduce students to the intricacies of deaf and hard-of-hearing life through a new elective, SLP 330: Deaf Culture in America.

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Researchers with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have created an acronym, RAPIDO™, to move forward much-needed efforts to address stroke sign and symptom awareness among at-risk Spanish-speaking individuals.

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Third grade literacy has improved in Michigan according to a new report on Michigan’s Read by Grade 3 law from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, the strategic research partner of the Michigan Department of Education. But progress is threatened because of insufficient targeted funding and concerns that students have fallen behind during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The original goal of human-like artificial intelligence was abandoned long ago in favor of less ambitious approaches, two cognitive scientists argue in a new book. If that initial vision is to be realized, they say, AI systems will require a full understanding of language and meaning.

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MALLIE, a complete English–learning game chatbot, the latest innovation from Chula’s Faculty of Education received Gold Award from the “2020 Kaohsiung International Invention and Design EXPO, Taiwan.

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Travellers looking to book a hotel should trust their gut instinct when it comes to online reviews rather than relying on computer algorithms to weed out the fake ones, a new study suggests.

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After a year of racial unrest due to the killing of unarmed Black men and women and the upending of our regular lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many have forged a new outlook on life. Two Black Rutgers female faculty share their reflections on the past year and their hopes for the future.

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Neandertals -- the closest ancestor to modern humans -- possessed the ability to perceive and produce human speech, according to a new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including Binghamton University anthropology professor Rolf Quam and graduate student Alex Velez.