The interaction between task repetition and oral task enjoyment: Effects on speech complexity, accuracy, and fluency

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONSWhile completing a sub-maximum forceful wrist flexion task for two 1-hour sessions, the temporal patterns of forearm muscle activity of 10 females changed along with corresponding changes in torque, duty-cycle, and torque-time integral. These temporal changes in muscle activity promote variation in muscle activity during repetitive tasks, and as a result may prove to be a protection mechanism for musculoskeletal disorder development. In addition, the changes observed in torque, duty-cycle, or torque-time integral indicate that even during very defined simulated occupational tasks, workers may find ways to interject variation into a task that may also contribute to this protection.TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Jobs requiring repetitive motion are common in many industries, and such jobs can be associated with the development of musculoskeletal disorders. Temporal changes in muscle activity patterns throughout repetitive tasks, if they occur, may promote variation in muscle activity and therefore may prevent the development of musculoskeletal disorders during repetitive work. Purpose: To assess temporal changes in activity patterns of the forearm muscles during a prolonged (2-hour) repetitive wrist flexion task. Methods: Ten females completed a repeated-measures study by performing a task requiring 80° wrist flexions at a rate of 15 flexions per minute overcoming a resistant force set at 25% of their maximum voluntary isometric wrist flexion torque for two 1-hour sessions, with a 5-minute break between the two sessions. Muscle activity of six forearm flexor and extensor muscles was measured using surface electromyography during the first and last 5 minutes of each of the 2-hour sessions. Task performance parameters including torque, cycle time, angle, duty cycle, work, and torque-time integral were also recorded and calculated during the 5-minute periods. Results: Compared to the first 5 minutes of the first hour, mean extensor carpi ulnaris activity was significantly lower during the last 5 minutes of both hours, and the muscle activity percentage of time in gaps was significantly higher for the last 5 minutes of the first hour and both 5-minute periods of the second hour. Torque, duty cycle, and torque-time integral were also significantly lower during the last 5 minutes of the first hour and both 5-minute periods of the second hour compared to the first 5 minutes of the first hour. Conclusions: The observed temporal changes indicate some variation in muscle activity during the repetitive task, which may affect musculoskeletal disorder development. These results provide some preliminary insight into mechanisms that may prevent the development of musculoskeletal disorder development during repetitive tasks.

This study attempted to explore the role of reflection in the accurate use of the English regular past tense structure using task repetition. Thirty-one learners were assigned into two conditions: task repetition only (TR) and task repetition with self-reflection (TR+SR). Both groups repeated an oral narrative task two times and then carried out a new task of the same type (i.e., another oral narrative task). However, only the TR+SR learners were engaged in self-reflection through responding to a questionnaire developed for the purpose of this study. Results revealed that learners’ reflection on their first task performance helped them notice the gap between their existing and target structure use as attested by their significantly high scores in the repeated tasks as well as the new task. The results therefore indicate the potential of reflective practice as an effective intervention strategy between repeated performances of the same task in terms of accuracy.

ABSTRACTBackground: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative aphasic syndrome with three distinct clinical variants: non-fluent (nfvPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), and semantic (svPPA). Speech (non-) fluency is a key diagnostic marker used to aid identification of the clinical variants, and researchers have been actively developing diagnostic tools to assess speech fluency. Current approaches reveal coarse differences in fluency between subgroups, but often fail to clearly differentiate nfvPPA from the variably fluent lvPPA. More robust subtype differentiation may be possible with finer-grained measures of fluency.Aims: We sought to identify the quantitative measures of speech rate – including articulation rate and pausing measures – that best differentiated PPA subtypes, specifically the non-fluent group (nfvPPA) from the more fluent groups (lvPPA, svPPA). The diagnostic accuracy of the quantitative speech rate variables was compared to that of a speech fluency impairment rating made by clinicians.Methods & Procedures: Automatic estimates of pause and speech segment durations and rate measures were derived from connected speech samples of participants with PPA (N = 38; 11 nfvPPA, 14 lvPPA, 13 svPPA) and healthy age-matched controls (N = 8). Clinician ratings of fluency impairment were made using a previously validated clinician rating scale developed specifically for use in PPA. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses enabled a quantification of diagnostic accuracy.Outcomes & Results: Among the quantitative measures, articulation rate was the most effective for differentiating between nfvPPA and the more fluent lvPPA and svPPA groups. The diagnostic accuracy of both speech and articulation rate measures was markedly better than that of the clinician rating scale, and articulation rate was the best classifier overall. Area under the curve (AUC) values for articulation rate were good to excellent for identifying nfvPPA from both svPPA (AUC = .96) and lvPPA (AUC = .86). Cross-validation of accuracy results for articulation rate showed good generalisability outside the training dataset.Conclusions: Results provide empirical support for (1) the efficacy of quantitative assessments of speech fluency and (2) a distinct non-fluent PPA subtype characterised, at least in part, by an underlying disturbance in speech motor control. The trend towards improved classifier performance for quantitative rate measures demonstrates the potential for a more accurate and reliable approach to subtyping in the fluency domain, and suggests that articulation rate may be a useful input variable as part of a multidimensional clinical subtyping approach.

Hémiplégie : le point sur les nouvelles techniques de rééducation

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Industrial robots have been around since the 1960s and their introduction into the manufacturing industry has helped in automating otherwise repetitive and unsafe tasks, while also increasing the performance and productivity for the companies that adopted the technology. As the majority of industrial robotic arms are deployed in repetitive tasks, the pose accuracy is much less of a key driver for the majority of consumers (e.g. the automotive industry) than speed, payload, energy efficiency and unit cost. Consequently, manufacturers of industrial robots often quote repeatability as an indication of performance whilst the pose accuracy remains comparatively poor. Due to their lack in accuracy, robotic arms have seen slower adoption in the aerospace industry where high accuracy is of utmost importance. However if their accuracy could be improved, robots offer significant advantages, being comparatively inexpensive and more flexible than bespoke automation. Extensive research has been conducted in the area of improving robotic accuracy through re-calibration of the kinematic model. This approach is often highly complex, and seeks to optimise performance over the whole working volume or a portion thereof, rather than optimising performance of a particular task. In this paper, a method for iteratively teaching poses on a standard industrial robot is presented, and an investigation into the limits on the achievable pose accuracy and the required recalibration period is conducted. Through experimental work on a KUKA KR 240 R2900 ultra robot equipped with a drilling end-effector and measured in 3DoF using a laser tracker, it is demonstrated that the achievable accuracy approaches the stated repeatability of the robot. Finally, investigation results into the accuracy of the robot over short distances to allow small corrections to be applied from these taught poses to compensate for work-piece alignment or thermal effects are presented.</div></div>

Exploring measures and perceptions of fluency in the speech of second language learners

This study investigated the occurrence of language-related episodes (LREs) in interactive tasks performed by pairs of Vietnamese English Foreign Language (EFL) learners and the extent to which linguistic knowledge targeted in these LREs was transferred to subsequent public performance (PP) of the same tasks in front of the class. Task performance data was collected from 24 pairs of learners from six intact grade 11 EFL classes at a Vietnamese high school as they carried out two interactive speaking tasks in consecutive weeks, first privately in pairs and then, within the same lesson, publically in front of the class. Teachers and learners were also interviewed. Results showed LREs to be frequent in task rehearsals. The majority of LREs were resolved correctly by the learners and led to more accurate use of the targeted linguistic items in subsequent public performance. The results and supporting interview data shows how, in this school, the practice of asking learners to repeat the performance of tasks in front of the class positively affected learner engagement and enriched the language learning opportunities available through interactive oral tasks.

The role of task repetition in L2 performance development: What needs to be repeated during task-based interaction?

Speech production studies have shown local temporal stabilities in intergestural timing and in its acoustic consequences [e.g., Kent and Moll, JSHR (1975)], such that the absolute duration of certain speech events is remarkably constant over differences in speech rate. Other production studies examining longer stretches of speech have found event durations to be proportionally constant with respect to a larger frame. Proportional constancy is especially apparent in repetitive production tasks [Cummins and Port, J. Phon. (1998)]. This paper examines how absolute constancy, such as would be specified by segmental contrasts, and proportional constancy interact in a repetitive speech task. Speakers repeated linguistically specified syllables in time to a metronome which specified repetition rate. Rates were varied by a factor of 2.7. Durations of speech events which indicate segmental contrasts, such as voice onset time in onset stops, remain fairly constant over these large changes in speech rate. Other durations, such as vowel durations in open syllables, often show proportional constancy. Vowel durations before coda stops, where duration acts as a secondary cue to consonant voicing, often exhibit linear constancy, suggesting a difference in the degree to which linear linguistic factors restrict how speakers perform a repetitive task.

Relationship between prefrontal oxygenation during task-set period and executive function in healthy older people: A near-infrared spectroscopy study.

The purpose of this study was to determine how different background noise conditions affect the spoken language of participants with aphasia during a story retell task. Participants included 11 adults with mild to moderate aphasia and 11 age- and gender-matched controls. Participants retold stories in a silent baseline and five background noise conditions (conversation, monologue, phone call, cocktail, and pink noise). Dependent measures of speech acoustics (fundamental frequency and mean intensity), speech fluency (speech rate and disfluent words), and language production (correct information units [CIUs], lexical errors, lexical diversity, and cohesive utterances) were compared between groups and across conditions. Background noise resulted in higher fundamental frequency (fo) and increased mean intensity for control participants across all noise conditions but only across some conditions for participants with aphasia. In relation to language production, background noise interfered significantly more with communication efficiency (i.e., percent CIUs) for participants with aphasia than the control group. For participants with aphasia, the phone call condition led to decreased lexical diversity. Across groups, condition effects generally suggested more interference on speech acoustics in conditions where continuous noise was present and more interference on language in conditions that presented continuous informational noise. Although additional research is needed, preliminary findings suggest that background noise interferes with narrative discourse more for people with aphasia (PWA) than neurologically healthy adults. PWA may benefit from therapy that directly addresses communicating in noise. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23681703.

Lexical complexity, generally understood as a multidimensional construct consisting of lexical density, sophistication, and diversity, has been recognized as an important construct in first language acquisition and second language acquisition. A large variety of lexical complexity measures have been proposed by researchers to study its relationship to second language learners’ writing and/or speaking proficiency. While this line of research has generated fruitful results for languages such as English and other Indo-European languages, less is known about how it may be applicable to a typologically distance language such as Chinese. In this paper, we report the design of a computational tool for automating the measurement of lexical complexity with 25 indices. The Batch Mode of the software supports analyses of a large number of .txt files and outputs results to a .CSV file suitable for importation into statistical packages for further analyses. In an example application, we analyzed 87 texts from three distinct registers (academic prose, fiction, and press reportage) from the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese (McEnery and Xiao, The Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese: A corpus for monolingual and contrastive language study, in Proc. Fourth Int. Conf. Language Resources and Evaluation, eds. M. Lino, M. Xavier, F. Ferreira, R. Costa and R. Silva, (European Language Resources Association, Paris, 2014), pp. 1175–1178) and explored how register variation may manifest in lexical complexity. The ANOVA analyses showed linear increase in multiple lexical sophistication and diversity measures across academic prose, fiction and press reportage. The results showed that press reportage has lower lexical density, but higher lexical sophistication and diversity than academic prose; fiction also has higher lexical diversity than academic prose. This paper concluded with discussions of potential pedagogical applications for Chinese language teaching and learning.

This study investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and engagement in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning among 362 Saudi adult learners. Data were collected using the Emotional Intelligence in Language Learning Questionnaire (EILLQ) and the Language Learning Engagement Questionnaire (LLEQ), which were specifically developed for this study, along with semi-structured interviews and learners’ reflective journals. The findings revealed that the learners exhibited moderate to high levels of EI across all its five components, with motivation receiving the highest mean score, followed by self-awareness and social skills. Self-regulation and empathy also showed moderate levels, suggesting a well-rounded emotional foundation among the learners. Similarly, the participants displayed moderate to high levels of engagement across behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions, with mean scores that reflected a balanced engagement profile. Additionally, the study found a strong positive correlation between EI and engagement in EFL learning. Both EI and engagement significantly impacted English language proficiency, with engagement showing a slightly stronger influence. These findings highlight the critical role of EI in enhancing learner engagement and language proficiency, which suggests that educational strategies focused on developing EI could significantly improve EFL learning experiences and outcomes.

Although the role of task planning conditions affecting EFL learners’ oral performance has been of investigators’ enduring concern, to the best of our knowledge, no study so far has investigated the influence of planning time in combination with a cocktail of questioning instruction on the oral performance in EFL settings. The present study thus examined the combined impact of pre-task planning and questioning instruction on the accuracy and complexity of Iranian EFL learners' oral presentation of intermediate learners of English at a private language institute in Mazandaran. Drawing on Bloom's taxonomy of higher order questions (HOQs), a pretest posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized. Initially, three groups including a control and two experimental groups engaged in pre-intervention oral tasks and performed the post-intervention oral tasks ensuing rehearsal planning plus HOQs (EX1), strategic planning in addition to HOQs (EX2), and no planning condition along with HOQs (CG) instructions. Results pointed to the positive impact of pre-task planning integrated with HOQs on the complexity as well as accuracy of oral narrative tasks. More specifically, engaging in rehearsal planning condition plus HOQs proved to be optimal for inducing better results in EFL learners’ oral production in terms of all three measures of performance. Accordingly, the findings rejected a conflict between complexity and accuracy in that both of them were found to have increased simultaneously. Finally, drawing on the outcomes of the investigation, it is proposed that in order for task-based instruction to more beneficially contribute to EFL learners' task performance, a more flexible view of implementing TBLT needs to be merged with other influential educational factors including thinking skills which have proved to be fruitful in the present study.

While the cognitive and technical benefits of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in second language (L2) learning are well recognized, its emotional impact remains underexplored, especially regarding how emotional engagement (EE) evolves and varies among learners in GenAI‐assisted environments. This longitudinal mixed‐method study, grounded in the complex dynamic systems theory, examined both intra‐ and inter‐individual variability in EE among Chinese L2 learners in a GenAI‐supported classroom. Quantitative results showed an overall increase in EE, with two distinct trajectories: a majority subgroup maintaining consistently high EE with modest growth and a smaller subgroup starting low but improving substantially over time. Qualitative data further revealed that learners perceived GenAI as a non‐judgmental, supportive collaborator that fostered creativity, emotional security, and agency. Teacher scaffolding and peer collaboration also enhanced learners’ EE by balancing challenge and support and promoting collective engagement regulation. Together, these findings suggest GenAI tools can function not only as cognitive aids but also as emotional supporters. The study advocates for differentiated pedagogical strategies tailored to learners’ EE profiles in GenAI‐enhanced L2 contexts.