http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Do you speak English as a second language well, but still have trouble understanding movies with unfamiliar accents, such as Brad Pitt's southern accent in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds? In a new study, published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, Holger Mitterer (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) and James McQueen (MPI and Radboud University Nijmegen) show how you can improve your second-language listening ability by watching the movie with subtitles -as long as these subtitles are in the same language as the film. Subtitles in one's native language, the default in some European countries, may actually be counter-productive to learning to understand foreign speech. http://www.physorg.com/news177139830.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:40:02 EST news177139830 (PhysOrg.com) -- From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo. http://www.physorg.com/news176636288.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:38:56 EST news176636288 Literary Arabic is expressed in the brain of an Arabic speaker as a second language and not as a native language. This has been shown in a new study by Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim of the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa's Department of Learning Disabilities. http://www.physorg.com/news176550386.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:20:02 EST news176550386 Children have a remarkable ability to learn new languages. As little as five hours of exposure to a second language is enough to help infants incorporate characteristics of that language into their babbling according to a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news176458764.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:20:59 EST news176458764 Twitter, the fast-growing micro-blogging service, is seeking volunteer French, German, Italian, and Spanish translators to render its website into other languages. http://www.physorg.com/news174481522.html Technology Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:20:03 EST news174481522 Virtually every population in the world has at least one thing in common: multinational companies are vying for their attention. From General Mills in India to Godiva Chocolate in Paraguay, advertising is one of the most significant expenditures companies make the world over. University of Minnesota researcher Rohini Ahluwalia asks... "to get the most bang for their buck, how should these corporations talk to consumers - in English, their native language, or both?" http://www.physorg.com/news140873223.html Other Sciences Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:27:03 EST news140873223 Children who are bilingual before the age of 5 are significantly more likely to stutter and to find it harder to lose their impediment, than children who speak only one language before this age, suggests research published ahead of print in Archives of Disease in Childhood. http://www.physorg.com/news140152815.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:20:15 EST news140152815 Adults, even the brightest ones, often struggle with learning new languages. Dr Nina Kazanina in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bristol explains why. http://www.physorg.com/news134745665.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:21:05 EST news134745665