Portraying accent stereotyping by second language speakers.

Stereotyping towards the second language accent of second language learners is extensively seen even when the content of learner speech can be understood. Previous studies reported conflicting results on accent perception by speakers of second languages, especially among homogenous learners. In this paper, we conducted a survey and two experiments to test whether Mandarin-speaking advanced learners of English may give harsher accent ratings to their fellow learners than to Standard American English speakers. The survey was designed to understand the L2 listeners' beliefs about accented speech. In Experiment 1, participants rated short audio recordings of L2 learner' and Standard American English speech; in Experiment 2, they did the same in a more detailed word-in-sentence accent rating task. Results showed a markedly high level of perceived L2 accentedness for several learner speech stimuli despite good intelligibility, especially for the strongly-accented Cantonese passage and for specific vowel and consonant types. The findings reveal the existence of native-speakerism in China and highlight existing accent stereotypes. Implications for policymaking and language teaching are discussed.

Combined metabolomics and transcriptomics analysis reveals the mechanism underlying blue light-mediated promotion of flavones and flavonols accumulation in Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. microgreens.

Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. (Chuanxiong) is an important Chinese medicinal herb, whose rhizomes are widely used as raw materials for treating various diseases caused by blood stasis. The fresh tender stems and leaves of Chuanxiong are also consumed and have the potential as microgreens. Here, we investigated the effect of light spectra on yield and total flavonoid content of Chuanxiong microgreens by treatment with LED-based white light (WL), red light (RL), blue light (BL), and continuous darkness (DD). The results showed that WL and BL reduced biomass accumulation but significantly increased total flavonoid content compared to RL or DD treatments. Widely targeted metabolomics analysis confirmed that BL promoted the accumulation of flavones and flavonols in Chuanxiong microgreens. Further integration of transcriptomics and metabolomics analysis revealed the mechanism by which BL induces the up-regulation of transcription factors such as HY5 and MYBs, promotes the expression of key genes targeted for flavonoid biosynthesis, and ultimately leads to the accumulation of flavones and flavonols. This study suggests that blue light is a proper light spectra to improve the quality of Chuanxiong microgreens, and the research results lay a foundation for guiding the de-etiolation of Chuanxiong microgreens to obtain both yield and quality in production practice.

Personality, category, and cross-linguistic speech sound processing: a connectivistic view.

Category formation of human perception is a vital part of cognitive ability. The disciplines of neuroscience and linguistics, however, seldom mention it in the marrying of the two. The present study reviews the neurological view of language acquisition as normalization of incoming speech signal, and attempts to suggest how speech sound category formation may connect personality with second language speech perception. Through a questionnaire, (being thick or thin) ego boundary, a correlate found to be related to category formation, was proven a positive indicator of personality types. Following the qualitative study, thick boundary and thin boundary English learners native in Cantonese were given a speech-signal perception test using an ABX discrimination task protocol. Results showed that thick-boundary learners performed significantly lower in accuracy rate than thin-boundary learners. It was implied that differences in personality do have an impact on language learning.