In this paper I describe ongoing research that seeks to provide a common framework for the generation and interpretation of spontaneous gesture in the context of speech. I present a testbed for this framework in the form of a program that generates speech, gesture, and facial expression from underlying rules specifying (a) what speech and gesture are generated on the basis of a given communicat...

Introduction Following the theoretical frameworks of the dual-factor model of Facebook use and the Self Determination Theory, the present study hypothesizes that the satisfaction of unmet needs through Social Networking Sites (SNSs) may represent a pathway towards problematic use of Internet communicative services (GPIU) for socially anxious people. Methods Four hundred undergraduate students...

According to the functional approach to language evolution (inspired by cognitive linguistics and construction grammar), grammar arises to deal with issues in communication among autonomous agents, particularly maximisation of communicative success and expressive power and minimisation of cognitive effort. Experiments in the emergence of grammar should hence start from a simulation of communica...

Imitation in humans has been attributed to increased activation of the mirror neuron system, but there is no neural model to explain reciprocal communication. In this study, we investigated whether reciprocal, communicative, imitative exchanges activate the same neural system as imitation of simple movements, and whether the neural network subserving communication is lateralized. Fifteen partic...

With the advantages of an engaged and authentic role-play game (RPG), this study aims to develop an RPGenhanced English for specific purposes (ESP) vocabulary-acquisition framework, providing teachers and students a systematic way to incorporate RPG into ESP learning. The framework is composed of five parts: goal, three-level vocabulary sets, RPG contexts, a vocabulary test, and a participation...

The World-Wide Web has greatly increased the number of hypermedia designers and practitioners|the people who read and write, and otherwise use, hypermedia in their day-to-day activities. Through practice, they have developed new communicative forms: a set of hypermedia document genres. We examine the genres that are arising on the World-Wide Web as a foil for discussing the interaction between ...

The attitude one has towards language learning determines the success or failure of learning the language. To this effect, this study aimed to explore EFL learners’ attitudes towards communicative language learning and the relationship between learners’ attitudes and English language achievement. To address these objectives, the study adopted a survey research design. Two hundred seventeen grad...

The attitude one has towards language learning determines the success or failure of learning the language. To this effect, this study aimed to explore EFL learners’ attitudes towards communicative language learning and the relationship between learners’ attitudes and English language achievement. To address these objectives, the study adopted a survey research design. Two hundred seventeen grad...

Business English, as we know it today, is a part of the field English for Specific Purposes, having two distinct areas: General Purposes and Purposes. Both these areas are facing rapid growth, with an increasing demand teaching materials improvement. Nowadays teachers face challenge developing not only general speech habits their students but also rhetoric skills in order negotiations to be eff...