Impact of transcranial electrical stimulation on serum neurotrophic factors and language function in patients with speech disorders

BACKGROUND Speech disorders have a substantial impact on communication abilities and quality of life.Traditional treatments such as speech and psychological therapies frequently demonstrate limited effectiveness and patient compliance.Transcranial electrical stimulation(TES)has emerged as a promising non-invasive treatment to improve neurological functions.However,its effectiveness in enhancing language functions and serum neurofactor levels in individuals with speech disorders requires further investigation.AIM To investigate the impact of TES in conjunction with standard therapies on serum neurotrophic factor levels and language function in patients with speech disorders.METHODS In a controlled study spanning from March 2019 to November 2021,81 patients with speech disorders were divided into a control group(n=40)receiving standard speech stimulation and psychological intervention,and an observation group(n=41)receiving additional TES.The study assessed serum levels of ciliary neurotrophic factor(CNTF),glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor(GDNF),brainderived neurotrophic factor(BDNF),and nerve growth factor(NGF),as well as evaluations of motor function,language function,and development quotient scores.RESULTS After 3 wk of intervention,the observation group exhibited significantly higher serum levels of CNTF,GDNF,BDNF,and NGF compared to the control group.Moreover,improvements were noted in motor function,cognitive function,language skills,physical abilities,and overall development quotient scores.It is worth mentioning that the observation group also displayed superior perfor CONCLUSION This retrospective study concluded that TES combined with traditional speech and psychotherapy can effectively increase the levels of neurokines in the blood and enhance language function in patients with speech disorders.These results provide a promising avenue for integrating TES into standard treatment methods for speech disorders.

Multi-scale context-aware network for continuous sign language recognition

The hands and face are the most important parts for expressing sign language morphemes in sign language videos.However,we find that existing Continuous Sign Language Recognition(CSLR)methods lack the mining of hand and face information in visual backbones or use expensive and time-consuming external extractors to explore this information.In addition,the signs have different lengths,whereas previous CSLR methods typically use a fixed-length window to segment the video to capture sequential features and then perform global temporal modeling,which disturbs the perception of complete signs.In this study,we propose a Multi-Scale Context-Aware network(MSCA-Net)to solve the aforementioned problems.Our MSCA-Net contains two main modules:(1)Multi-Scale Motion Attention(MSMA),which uses the differences among frames to perceive information of the hands and face in multiple spatial scales,replacing the heavy feature extractors;and(2)Multi-Scale Temporal Modeling(MSTM),which explores crucial temporal information in the sign language video from different temporal scales.We conduct extensive experiments using three widely used sign language datasets,i.e.,RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather-2014,RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather-2014T,and CSL-Daily.The proposed MSCA-Net achieve state-of-the-art performance,demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.

Embracing different languages and local differences:Coconstructive patient simulation strengthens host countries’clinical training in psychiatry

BACKGROUND Global education in psychiatry is heavily influenced by knowledge from Western,high-income countries,which obscures local voices and expertise.AIM To adapt a human simulation model to psychiatric education in a context that is specific to local languages and cultures.METHODS We conducted an observational study consisting of six human simulation sessions with standardized patients from two host countries,speaking their native languages,and following an adaptation of the co-constructive patient simulation(CCPS)model.As local faculty became increasingly familiar with the CCPS approach,they took on the role of facilitators—in their country’s native language.RESULTS Fifty-three learners participated:19 child and adolescent psychiatry trainees and 3 faculty members in Türkiye(as a group that met online during 3 consecutive months);and 24 trainees and 7 faculty in Israel(divided into 3 groups,in parallel in-person sessions during a single training day).Each of the six cases reflected local realities and clinical challenges,and was associated with specific learning goals identified by each case-writing trainee.CONCLUSION Human simulation has not been fully incorporated into psychiatric education:The creation of immersive clinical experiences and the strengthening of reflective practice are two areas ripe for development.Our adaptations of CCPS can also strengthen local and regional networks and psychiatric communities of practice.Finally,the model can help question and press against hegemonies in psychiatric training that overshadow local expertise.

Language Assessment Feedback Towards Pedagogical Conversational Agent

Continuous development of technology provides an opportunity to incorporate feedback in online assessments.The mode of online instruction during the pandemic was the most significant survival change.Technology enabled every teacher and student to enter a virtual classroom to make sense of education.Feedback is part of language instruction and is a powerful key to improving students’learning performance.Feedback plays an influential and crucial role in teaching and learning.Feedback is an invaluable,ultimate learning tool for learners that aids them in not committing the same error again and creates impetus.Thus,knowing about formative exam feedback is students’right because quality feedback allures them.Given students’eagerness,providing feedback is considered a good practice to be followed by all the teaching faculty.Apropos of online feedback,the present study attempts to study how pedagogical agents provide online feedback in language assessments.The study also considers the characteristics of pedagogical conversational agents that are suitable for providing feedback in online language assessment.Simply put,the study encapsulates that screen agents play an essential role in students’motivation and acceptability of learning through feedback.

An Empirical Study on Foreign Language Majors’Needs for Ideological and Political Education Elements in Chinese Universities

The paper takes 2076 undergraduate students majoring in foreign languages from 15 Chinese universities as the research subjects to investigate their demand for ideological and political education elements in foreign language courses.The results show that:(1)Students have high needs for ideological and political education elements in foreign language courses;(2)There are differences in students’needs for ideological and political education elements across different dimensions.Students have higher demand for dimensions such as personal qualities,cultural literacy,moral cultivation,and patriotism,while their demand for dimensions related to constitutional law and political identity is relatively low.Therefore,foreign language majors in Chinese universities should optimize the supply of ideological and political education elements in their courses according to students’needs,and improve the effectiveness of moral education in these courses.

On the Teaching Design of Graduates’EAP Course:Enhancing Language Proficiency and Critical Thinking Skills

This paper explores the integration of the bridge-in,objectives,pre-assessment,participatory activities,post-assessment and summary(BOPPPS)teaching model within the context of the post-graduates Academic English course.It discusses how this structured approach can effectively enhance students’language proficiency,foster critical thinking skills,and align with the multifaceted objectives of advanced English language education.The study provides a detailed examination of each BOPPPS component as applied to the post-graduates Academic English curriculum,supported by theoretical underpinnings and practical implications.

The Auxiliary Role of Large Language Models in Clinical Dialogues

In recent years,large language models(LLMs)have made significant progress in natural language processing(NLP).These models not only perform well in a variety of language tasks but also show great potential in the medical field.This paper aims to explore the application of LLMs in clinical dialogues,analyzing their role in improving the efficiency of doctor-patient communication,aiding in diagnosis and treatment,and providing emotional support.The paper also discusses the challenges and limitations of the model in terms of privacy protection,ethical issues,and practical applications.Through comprehensive analysis,we conclude that applying LLMs in clinical dialogues is promising.However,it requires careful consideration and caution by practitioners in practice.

An Empirical Study on Students’Evaluation of Moral Education in Foreign Language Education in China

Students’evaluation of moral education is of great significance for improving the quality of teaching.Through a survey of 2715 undergraduates majoring in foreign languages,this paper analyzes their evaluation of the moral education.Findings show that students speak highly of teachers’competence in moral education,teaching methods and the integration of moral education in the textbooks,but not in the course assessment and the overall effect of moral education.Suggestions were proposed accordingly to improve moral education of foreign language education in China.

An Analysis of the Musicality of Yong Liu’s Yulinling:Farewell in Autumn Based on the Perspective of Language Musicology

From the perspective of linguistic musicology,this paper discusses the musical features of Yulinling:Farewell in Autumn,a representative work of Yong Liu,a famous lyricist of the Song Dynasty.Through a systematic analysis of the core elements of the poem,such as rhyme,timbre,key,and rhythm,it reveals the intrinsic connection between poetry and music and proposes a new way of thinking about the modern interpretation of ancient poetic songs.This paper not only enriches the understanding of Yong Liu’s works but also provides new theoretical support for modern music education of classical poetry.In addition,this paper explores the practical application value of poetic musicality analysis in cultural inheritance and modern adaptation of classical poems,providing new insights into the contemporary inheritance of cultural heritage.

Adapter Based on Pre-Trained Language Models for Classification of Medical Text

We present an approach to classify medical text at a sentence level automatically.Given the inherent complexity of medical text classification,we employ adapters based on pre-trained language models to extract information from medical text,facilitating more accurate classification while minimizing the number of trainable parameters.Extensive experiments conducted on various datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Research on the Status Quo and Improvement Needs of Foreign Language Teachers’ Teaching Competence in Curriculum-Based Ideological Education in Xinjiang Colleges and Universities

This study investigated the status quo and further improvement needs of foreign language teachers’teaching competence in curriculum-based ideological education(CIE)in Xinjiang colleges and universities.The results show that the teachers’teaching competence in CIE is generally good,with the“cultivating quality”being the highest and the“scientific research quality”the lowest;there still exist several problems,such as teachers’lack of theoretical knowledge in CIE,lack of teaching resources,and insufficient abilities in teaching design and research.It is hoped that with the support and efforts from university administrations,teachers can improve their teaching competence in CIE through various approaches adopted and multiple measures taken,thus optimizing their teaching effectiveness,promoting the construction of CIE in Xinjiang colleges and universities in the new era,and contributing to Xinjiang’s high-quality development.

A Study on the Pedagogical Application of Chinese New Year Culture in International Chinese Language Education

Culture teaching is an inseparable part of International Chinese Language Education,and it has great significance in international Chinese language teaching.Students can enhance their interest in Chinese language learning and improve their learning effect through understanding the excellent traditional Chinese culture,at the same time,culture teaching can help to disseminate the Chinese culture and promote the development of a multicultural world.Taking the teaching of Chinese New Year culture as an example,we analyze the current teaching materials involving Chinese New Year culture with high popularity and acceptance,put forward effective teaching methods matching the feasibility of teaching Chinese New Year culture,and then present the specific teaching design of Chinese New Year culture,in order to provide references for the teaching of culture in International Chinese Language Education.

Art Language of Urban Ecological Landscape

Under the background that urban ecological landscape as an important component of urban ecological construction has received social attention,ecological landscape should be introduced into the city naturally,so that people can be close to,feel and cognize nature.It is considered that the ecological effect of landscape should be highlighted and many artistic techniques should be integrated when ecological landscape is planned and designed.Then,it has analyzed relevant skills and principles,creation and reproduction,and medias and forms of urban ecological landscape.Based on all ecological theories,many art languages have been used in urban ecological landscape,and its multiple traits have been presented.The urban ecological landscape will be full of vitality,and a more livable modern ecological city will be constructed.

Language Awareness and Second Language Learning:A Critical Review

Beginning with the history,definition and levels of Language Awareness,this paper reviewed and analyzed two views:1) Language awareness is one necessary condition in language learning,or 2) Language learning can be achieved without Language Awareness.It pointed out the problems existing in these studies:1) Limitations in sample choice,concerning the adult beginning learners instead of the learners in different learning stages;2) Limitations in methodology,preferring cross-sectional researches to longitudinal case studies;and 3) Limitations in material choice,focusing on "word" level rather than other levels or aspects of language learning.This paper argued that language awareness is dynamic in the whole process of language learning.

Pedagogical Implications for Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition is influenced by various factors,among which age and environment are two major factors.Language acquisition and language learning are two different concepts,but they are correlated and they interact with each other.Therefore,in second language teaching teachers and researchers should follow the rules of second language acquisition and second language learning and analyze the factors such as learners' possible errors,motivation,learning strategies and personalities.

The Analysis of Lexical Approach in Language Teaching

I.IntroductionThe study of the.lexical approach focuses on the understanding ofa lexical-grammatical unit,which was called lexical phrase by Nattinger and Decarrieo and was called chunks by Michel Lewis.It is a multi-word unit of varying lengths,which has a fixed orrelatively fixed structure and expresses a certain meaning.It is prefabri-cated and frequently used.As a language teacher I think chunks arevery useful in language teaching and the lexical approach is a way of improving my teaching.They make sense in the classroom as they

A Research of Language Planning in Singapore and Its Implications for China from the Ecological Perspective

Language planning plays a very important role in this world of globalization and multilingualism.With globalization,English has become a lingua franca for the whole world,whereas there seems to be an urgent need to preserve and protect local languages and cultures.How to linguistically achieve the aim of unity in diversity is of great significance to both linguists and soci?olinguists.This article intends to explore how to create a harmonious language ecology.From the perspective of language ecolo?gy,the article firstly discusses such issues as language planning and Language Ecology.It is then dedicated to the study of language planning and policy in Singapore by giving an account of the development of language policy in Singapore,how various languag?es coexist harmoniously,its bilingual policy,and illustrating how multilingualism and multiculturalism have been successfully prac?ticed in Singapore.Finally,some implications for language planning in China in dealing with the protection of minority languag?es,and solutions to intractable language problems in the execution of One Belt One Road policy are provided.

A Critical Review of Anne Pomerantz and Nancy D.Bell's Learning to Play,Playing to Learn:FL Learners as Multicompetent Language Users

A smattering of articles on the importance of language play to second language acquisition and language teaching pedagogy have begun to appear in both academic journals and conferences in recent years.Anne Pomerantz and Nancy D.Bell's Learning to Play,Playing to Learning:FL Learners as Multicompetent Language Users reconsiders how instances of spontaneous,creative language play can be of help to language learning.This paper first briefly summarizes the main idea of the article,then it makes a critical point-to point review.

Critical language awareness and English language teaching

Critical Language Awareness (CLA) is an approach to language teaching based on a critical sociocultural theory of language and critical discourse analysis. CLA has a great relationship with English language teaching, but there are few articles talking about it. So the author here will present her understanding of the relationship between CLA and English language.

Critical Pedagogy and Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Chinese College Context

In the field of second language acquisition(SLA),weight has been increasingly attached to the role that a problem-pos ing model of education plays in English as second/foreign language(ES/FL)teaching and learning.By exploring various concepts of the problem-posing approach,also known as critical pedagogy,and its implications for English language teaching(ELT)in the Chinese postsecondary EFL context,the paper makes a tentative attempt to acknowledge the future directions of implementing critical pedagogy in the EFL context.Therefore,the paper is inspired by the ever-increasing popularity of the critical pedagogical approach in the ESL context.The application of critical orientation in language education derives from critical theories of the Frankfurt School,which centers on Marxist societal beliefs of struggling against social inequalities.With the concept of critical pedagogy drawing increasing attention from language educators and teachers alike in English-speaking countries;non-native English teachers who teach in the EFL context has also begun to focus their attention on the educational philosophy as a means to help transform traditional oppressed status of the Chinese EFL learners.From this perspective,this paper,by investigating the multi-dimensional implied meanings of implementing critical pedagogy in the EFL context,unraveling how it works as a way of"doing"in second language(L2)teaching and learning,identifying the probable contexts of critical pedagogy and the contesta tions surrounding critical pedagogy,aims to address the significance of implementing critical pedagogy as an effective way of re forming the ailing English education condition in China.