News tagged with english language

Speakers of a tone language show improved pitch perception

People who speak Cantonese, a tonal language, demonstrate enhance musical pitch perception relative to Canadian French and English speakers, according to an Apr. 11 report in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How do you say global business success? In English, says new research from Rotman School

English continues to reign supreme in international business, and it's not just because some of the biggest economies speak it.

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Study: Vast majority of EU citizens are marginalized by dominance of English language

The European Union has 27 member countries and 23 official languages, but its official business is carried out primarily in one language — English. Yet the striking findings of a new study show that barely a third of ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Shakespeare's skill 'more in grammar than in words'

William Shakespeare's mastery of the English language is displayed more in the grammar he used than in his words, according to a researcher at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Other Sciences / Other

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1

'Queen's English' not the best

Native English speakers should give up their claim to be the guardians of the purest form of the language and accept that the ways it is used and changed by millions around the world are equally valid.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (5) | comments 3

China's Tencent launches English microblog site

Chinese Internet giant Tencent has launched an English version of its Twitter-like microblogging service in a push to tap the overseas market, the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

Technology / Internet

created Oct 11, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Language patterns are roller-coaster ride during childhood development

Why, and when, do we learn to speak the way that we do? Research from North Carolina State University on African-American children presents an unexpected finding: language use can go on a roller-coaster ride during childhood ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Feb 24, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Idioms and slang held the key for English language learners in 2010

The most popular searches in 2010 on Cambridge Dictionaries Online (CDO) show that idioms and slang held the key to learning English as a second language.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Feb 04, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Famous style of Jane Austen may not be hers after all

The polished prose of Emma and Persuasion was the product of an interventionist editor, an Oxford University academic has found.

Other Sciences / Other

created Oct 25, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Study finds language barriers may play role in health care disparities

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) have found that individuals who do not speak English at home are less likely to receive colorectal cancer ...

Medicine & Health / Health

created Sep 28, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Clinical trials abroad: Making non-English language consent forms readable

The first study to look at simplified English-language consent forms translated into another language calls into question the common belief that a translated consent form meets readability standards. The study appears in ...

Medicine & Health / Other

created Aug 10, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Three of a kind: Revealing language’s universal essence

(PhysOrg.com) -- On the surface, English, Japanese, and Kinande, a member of the Bantu family of languages spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, have little in common. It is not just that the vocabularies ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (16) | comments 6

Foreign subtitles improve speech perception

Do you speak English as a second language well, but still have trouble understanding movies with unfamiliar accents, such as Brad Pitt's southern accent in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds? In a new study, published ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 2

How words shape the world

Our minds might be able to find the right word quicker than Google and yet we rarely pause to think about how language shapes everything we do.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Sep 08, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Study calls for new approach to teaching English as a lingua franca

A study at the University of Leicester highlights the need for a new approach to the teaching of English pronunciation given that English is now a lingua franca, with more non-native speakers in the world than native speakers.

Other Sciences / Other

created Jul 20, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (5) | comments 2