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Modern Languages eLearning Group launched

Modern Languages has launched a new eLearning Group. The Group has a blog which will feature the eLearning projects that our staff are engaged in, and report on our wide-ranging research and publications in this area. Some of the subjects being covered include the TwitTIAMO Project; Get Ready for Languages; free Digital Literacies learning resources, an Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching MOOC; our online MA in ELT programme and blogging from abroad. Continue reading →

“The threatening ‘Other’? On the collective imagination surrounding the Roma in France” Why Anthropology matters?: Contribution by Prof Marion Demossier

Professor Marion Demossier was recently invited to contribute to a workshop in Paris, Fondation Jean JaurĂ©s on “The threatening ‘Other’? On the collective imagination surrounding the Roma in France”. The workshop was organised by Counterpoint, a research consultancy based in London as part of the Bridges Project in collaboration with the Open Society European Policy Institute, Brussels. Continue reading →

Mother tongue languages spoken in early years have lasting impact on the brain

According to research findings discussed in a recent article in the Independent, mother tongue languages spoken at an early age and then ‘forgotten’ are retained by the brain through neural pathways that remain intact. This could be good news for individuals looking to re-learn a language from their infancy. To read the article in full, visit the Independent website. Continue reading →

Learning a language can increase the size of your brain

The Guardian has published an article discussing recent research undertaken by scientists at Lund University in Sweden, which has shown that learning a language can increase the size of your brain. The researchers used brain scans on adult military recruits learning Arabic, Russian or Dari intensively to monitor changes in the brain during the language learning process. To read more about the research, visit the Guardian website. Continue reading →

Learning a language has a positive effect on the brain

The BBC has reported on recent research showing that learning a second language ‘slows brain ageing’. The study undertaken by researchers from the University of Edinburgh used data from intelligence tests on 262 individuals at the age of 11, and looked at how their cognitive abilities had changed when tested again in their seventies. This research follows on from another recent study which showed that being bilingual could delay the onset of dementia. Continue reading →

More maths

Last time I finished with this matrix of scatter-plots, ordered by the magnitude of correlation. But what does it actually mean? Lets take a step back, and look at those derived variables. I ask R to describe the table of variables that I created previously, which include the notional ludic.interest variable and the Hard, Serious, Easy and People fun preference variables. Continue reading →

Gamer data: Fun preferences

After last week’s hair-pulling day of frustration, I’ve made I bit more progress. The survey contained seventeen questions which were based on the theory of four types of fun, set out by Nicole Lazzaro. These were 101 point  Likert scales, wherein the participant indicated their agreement with a statement, using a slider with no scale and the slider “handle” position set randomly, to reduce systematic bias. Continue reading →

Proximity!

My Gimbal beacons arrived yesterday. These are three tiny Bluetooth LE devices, not much bigger than the watch battery that powers them. They do very little more than send out a little radio signal that says “I’m me!” twice a second. There are three very different ways of using them that I can immediately think of: I’ve just tried leaving one in in each of three different rooms, then walking around the house with the the simple Gimbal manager app on my iPhone. Continue reading →

Another look at my gamer data

Click to view slideshow. I’m still wrestling with R and wishing I was a natural (or maybe just a more experienced) coder. Everything takes so long to work out and to actually do. Last time I shared the results, I was just looking at the top-line data that iSurvey shares. This time I’ve downloaded the data and sucked it into R, the command line based stats language. I start off looking at the basics. Continue reading →