Mieke Van Herreweghe

Beyond temporal pooling : recurrence and temporal convolutions for gesture recognition in video

Recent studies have demonstrated the power of recurrent neural networks for machine translation, image captioning and speech recognition. For the task of capturing temporal structure in video, however, there still remain numerous open research questions. Current research suggests using a simple temporal feature pooling strategy to take into account the temporal aspect of video. We demonstrate that this method is not sufficient for gesture recognition, where temporal information is more discriminative compared to general video classification tasks. We explore deep architectures for gesture recognition in video and propose a new end-to-end trainable neural network architecture incorporating temporal convolutions and bidirectional recurrence. Our main contributions are twofold; first, we show that recurrence is crucial for this task; second, we show that adding temporal convolutions leads to significant improvements. We evaluate the different approaches on the Montalbano gesture recognition dataset, where we achieve state-of-the-art results.

Sign language research, uses and practices : crossing views on theoretical and applied sign language linguistics

Sign linguistics cannot be separated from deaf community practices, especially with regard to education and interpretation. This book brings together work on sign language interpreting, the use of spoken and sign language with CI children and early language development in children exposed to both a spoken and sign language. In addition, it includes papers addressing aspects of sign language structure and methodological issues in sign language research. This book has relevance for those teaching and learning sign languages, for professional and student interpreters and for teachers of the deaf.

The Relation between Orthography and Phonology from Different Angles: Insights from Psycholinguistics and Second Language Acquisition:

Between phonological forms and their orthographic representations a close connection can be established. Previous psycholinguistic research has amply illustrated that word recognition can be influenced by orthography (Perre & Ziegler, 2008; Taft, 2001) and that orthography plays a role in phonemic awareness (Cheung, Chen, Lai, Wong, & Hills, 2001; Tyler & Burnham, 2006). However, despite the long-standing acceptance of the importance of orthography in word recognition, little research has been carried out on how orthography may exert any influence on second language acquisition. The interest in orthography has so far mainly come from two fields: the field of psycho-linguistics and that of reading acquisition.In the field of psycholinguistics the focus of previous studies has often lain on the effects of spelling-to-sound inconsistencies and sound-to-spelling inconsistencies on word recognition (Pattamadilok, Morais, Ventura, & Kolinsky, 2007; Ziegler & Ferrand, 1998; Ziegler, Petrova, & Ferrand, 2008). The aim is to get an insight into how exactly graphemes are mapped onto phonemes in the minds of literate people and into the extent to which there is feedback between the lexical and the phonological and orthographical components.The onset of reading has been shown to have an effect on the child’s developing phonological system (Goswami, Ziegler, & Richardson, 2005). First language acquisi-tion studies often aim at examining to what extent learning to read promotes phonemic awareness (or syllabic awareness, in some non-alphabetic languages) or to what extent this awareness assists children in the acquisition of their language’s writing system

Deaf perspectives on communicative practices in South Africa: institutional language policies in educational settings

Abstract This article reports on a study into communicative practices in educational settings by members of the South African Deaf community. The data contain interviews of miscellaneous South African Deaf people who were interviewed through South African Sign Language (SASL) by Deaf SASL users who received a short training on interview simulation. From the narratives a general prevalence of communicative barriers in educational settings emerges. Similar to many other Deaf communities, Deaf identities appear to be shaped by means of alienation from the hearing community and solidarity among the Deaf community (to a certain extent even across ethnic boundaries). The communication barriers lead to different dimensions of power relations. Moreover, certain educational practices extend beyond the school premises and influence family practices. What also emerged from the South African data were issues of stigmatization of signing and complex issues of communication in South Africas multilingual society. Linguistic ethnography has proven a very productive methodology as it has yielded interesting “counter-narratives” (i.e., narratives from within the Deaf community that give a different picture than the beliefs put forward within a hearing hegemony) by means of which Deaf South Africans get “a voice” in mainstream society.

Flemish Sign Language standardisation

In 1997, the Flemish Deaf1 community officially rejected standardisation of Flemish Sign Language. It was a bold choice, which at the time was not in line with some of the decisions taken in the neighbouring countries. In this article, we shall discuss the choices the Flemish Deaf community has made in this respect and explore why the Flemish Deaf community has decided to reject standardisation imposed from above. The main reasons are negative experiences with a former lexical unification scheme within the ‘Signed Dutch’ project and a lack of in-depth lexicological research into Flemish Sign Language. At the same time, it has become clear that a form of spontaneous standardisation has been evolving in the past decades. While the Flemish Deaf community has rejected imposition of a standardised form from above, they have opted to find ways to support this ongoing standardisation process. We shall look at what actions have been proposed and taken in this respect.

Enhancing academic reading skills through extensive reading

Abstract The current study explores the feasibility of an extensive reading programme in the context of a low-income country (Mozambique), as well as the influence of extensive reading on academic reading. The programme took over 4 months and was conducted among 30 students majoring in Journalism at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique in 2013. The study applied a reading comprehension pre-test and post-test design, as well as three-minute reading speed pre- and post-tests. Using SPSS statistical analysis, three paired-samples t-tests were administered and the progress from the reading speed pre-test to the post-test was found to be significant. Study results indicate that reading speed and reading comprehension are complementary abilities, since students who achieved higher reading speed also scored higher marks in the academic reading comprehension tests. Moreover, the reading comprehension results showed that extensive general reading transfers to academic reading skills. However, students’ motivation to read did not show a considerable improvement. It can be concluded that an extensive reading programme is indeed feasible and desirable among Mozambican university students, but that there are still problems concerning requirements for the implementation of such extensive reading programmes.

Vlaamse gebarentaligen en standaard-VGT: verstoten of omarmen?

This paper focuses on attitudes of Flemish Sign Language (or VGT) signers with respect to Standard(ised) VGT and (varieties of) VGT in the media. Information extracted from interviews with and stimulus fragments shown to ten deaf VGT signers shows that they no longer consider standardization of VGT negatively. However, they do not value standard versus non-standard varieties in terms of status versus solidarity traits (Giles & Coupland, 1991), but rather in terms of intelligibility versus identity. With respect to VGT on national television the quality of signing is considered more important than the variety used. Nevertheless, they do realize that the use of VGT in the media can have a significant impact on normativity and standardization of the language.

The influence of subthalamic nucleus stimulation on pragmatic language production in Parkinson's disease.

AbstractWhile the influence of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) on the comprehension of pragmatic language in Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been the focus of studies, its impact on production, however, has yet to be elucidated. (1) Investigating the inf luence of DBS STN on pragmatic language production in spontaneous speech by comparing different stimulation conditions and (2) evaluating the effect of asymmetric dopaminergic denervation. This paper included 18 patients with advanced idiopathic PD with STN DBS. [Ten PD patients with predominantly left hemispheric dopamine denervation (PD-left) and eight PD patients with predominantly right-hemispheric dopamine denervation (PD-right).] The pragmatic components ‘communicative functions’ and ‘conversational skills’ were evaluated by analysing the spontaneous language production in four stimulation conditions. STN stimulation did not appear to influence the pragmatic production skills. Only when asymmetric dopamine depletion was taken into account the parameter ‘giving an explanation’ interaction was detectable. STN DBS appears to have some influence on the production of pragmatic language depending on asymmetric dopaminergic denervation. Suggestions are made for further research of pragmatic production in Parkinson’s disease.

Equal access to community interpreting in Flanders: a matter of self-reflective decision making?

This is an exploratory inquiry into signed language interpreters’ perceptions of interpreter e-professionalism on social media, specifically Facebook. Given the global pervasiveness of Facebook, this study presents an international perspective, and reports on findings of focus groups held with a total of 12 professional signed language interpreters from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, all of whom are also Facebook users. The findings reveal that Facebook is seen to blur the traditional boundaries between personal and professional realms – an overlap which is perceived to be compounded by the nature of the small community in which signed language interpreters typically work –necessitating boundary management strategies in order to maintain perceptions of professionalism on the site. Facebook is considered a valuable professional resource to leverage for networking, professional development, problem solving and assignment preparation, but it is also perceived as a potential professional liability for both individual interpreters and the profession at large. Maintaining client confidentiality was found to be the most pressing challenge Facebook brings to the profession. Educational measures to raise awareness about e-professionalism were generally viewed favourably.The study probes into translation students’ perception of the value of online peer feedback in improving translation skills. Students enrolled in a translation degree in Australia translated a 250-word text on two separate occasions. On each occasion, the students were given another fellow student’s translation of the same text to mark and provide anonymous peer feedback. The original translations from all the students, together with any peer feedback, were uploaded onto an online forum. The students were encouraged to download their own translation to review the peer feedback in it. They were also encouraged to download and peruse other students’ peer reviewed translations for comparison. Upon completion of the project, the students were surveyed about their perceptions and appreciation of their engagement in the process in the following three capacities: (i) as a feedback provider, (ii) as a feedback recipient, and (iii) as a peruser of other students’ work and the peer feedback therein. Results suggest that translation students appreciate online peer feedback as a valuable activity that facilitates improvement. The students found receiving peer feedback on their own translation especially rewarding, as it offered alternative approaches and perspectives on tackling linguistic/translation issues. In comparing the three capacities, students perceived reviewing feedback on their own work and perusing other students’ work as more beneficial than engaging in giving feedback to others.Title: Tarjamat al-khadamaat al-’aammah ( Community Interpreting and Translation) Author: Dr. Mustapha Taibi (University of Western Sydney) Year of publication: 2011 Publisher: Dar Assalam , Rabat (Morocco) ISBN: 978-9954-22-088-7 191 pagesAccent is known to cause comprehension difficulty, but empirical interpreting studies on its specific impact have been sporadic. According to Mazzetti (1999), an accent is composed of deviated phonemics and prosody, both discussed extensively in the TESL discipline. The current study seeks to examine, in the interpreting setting, the applicability of Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson and Koehlers (1992) finding that deviated prosody hinders comprehension more than problematic phonemics and syllable structure do. Thirty-seven graduate-level interpreting majors, assigned randomly to four groups, rendered four versions of a text read by the same speaker and then filled out a questionnaire while playing back their own renditions. Renditions were later rated for accuracy by two freelance interpreters, whereas the questionnaires analysed qualitatively. Results of analyses indicated that 1) both phonemics and prosody deteriorated comprehension, but prosody had a greater impact; 2) deviated North American English post-vowel /r/, intonation and rhythm were comprehension problem triggers. The finding may be of use to interpreting trainers, trainees and professionals by contributing to their knowledge of accent.The title Conference of the Tongues at first sight raises questions as to the particularities of its pertinence to translation studies, i.e. the range of possible subject matters subsumed, and is somewhat loosely explained in the preface by a short and factual hint to its historical origins (in sixteenth-century Spain in a paratext to a translation of Aesop). There is no further elaboration on the motivation for the choice of this title however.The market for translation services provided by individuals is currently characterized by significant uncertainty because buyers lack clear ways to identify qualified providers from amongst the total pool of translators. Certification and educational diplomas both serve to reduce the resulting information asymmetry, but both suffer from potential drawbacks: translator training programs are currently oversupplying the market with graduates who may lack the specific skills needed in the market and no certification program enjoys universal recognition. In addition, the two may be seen as competing means of establishing qualification. The resulting situation, in which potential clients are uncertain about which signal to trust, is known as a signal jam . In order to overcome this jam and provide more consistent signaling, translator-training programs and professional associations offering certification need to collaborate more closely to harmonize their requirements and deliver continuing professional development (CPD) that help align the outcomes from training and certification.Interpreting is rather like scuba diving. With just a bit of protective equipment, we interpreters plunge for a short time into an often alien world, where a mistake can be very serious, not only for ourselves but for the other divers who are depending on us to understand their surroundings. And as all who dive, we interpreters find this daily foray into a new environment fascinating, exhilarating, but also at times, challenging. One of the high-risk dive sites into which we venture often is the sea of healthcare, where the strange whale-song of medical dialogue, the often incomprehensible behavior of local denizens such as doctors, and the tricky currents of the healthcare system itself require special knowledge and skill to navigate successfully. Did you ever wish for a dive manual for unique world of healthcare? Well, here’s a good one, from linguist, RN and interpreter trainer, Dr. Ineke Crezee of New Zealand.Among all the difficulties inherent in interpreting, numbers stand out as a common and complex problem trigger. This experimental study contributes to research on the causes of errors in the passive simultaneous interpretation (SI) of numbers. Two groups of Italian Master’s degree students (one for English and one for German) were asked to interpret simultaneously a number-dense speech from their respective B language into their mother tongue, Italian. Note-taking was allowed during the test and both the study participants and their lecturers completed a questionnaire afterwards. Data analysis was conducted with statistical and qualitative methods, combining the cognitivist and contextualist approach. The objective was to ascertain whether one main variable may be held responsible for the high error rate related to interpreting numbers and the difficulty perceived by students in the task. The analysis quantifies the relative impact of different causes of difficulties on participants’ delivery of numbers. It stresses the crucial role of the subjective variable represented by interpreters’ skills. Didactic implications and directions for future research are discussed in the conclusion.

The effect of L1 regional variation on the perception and production of standard L1 and L2 vowels

Abstract This study reports on the perception and production of Standard Dutch and Standard British English vowels by speakers of two regional varieties of Belgian Dutch (East Flemish and Brabantine) which differ in their vowel realizations. Twenty-four native speakers of Dutch performed two picture-naming tasks and two vowel categorization tasks, in which they heard Standard Dutch or English vowels and were asked to map these onto orthographic representations of Dutch vowels. The results of the Dutch production and categorization tasks revealed that the participants’ L1 regional variety importantly influenced their production and especially perception of vowels in the standard variety of their L1. The two groups also differed in how they assimilated non-native English vowels to native vowel categories, but no major differences could be observed in their productions of non-native vowels. The study therefore only partly confirms earlier studies showing that L1 regional variation may have an influence on the acquisition of non-native language varieties.