User:PAS Duke/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * Article title
 * Foreign Language Anxiety


 * Article Evaluation
 * The lead of the article is relevant and succinct. However, specifically the "Causes" section of the article is a bit incoherent. While it adopts a favorably neutral tone, it comes off as rambling, and the information is not well-organized or clear. It seems that more explanation is needed for the reader to fully comprehend the topics discussed in the article. In addition, the article uses long quotes from sources which would be more effective if paraphrased. The "Issues and areas of research" section is very short and should be expanded to include some of the major studies done on foreign language anxiety. The addition of images could also strengthen the effectiveness of the article. The topic may also warrant a discussion of the differences between foreign language anxiety depending on what specific language is being learned. A strong point of the article, however, is that the sources are up-to-date and reliable.


 * Sources
 * Overcoming Anxiety in Foreign Language Classrooms, edited by Jinyan Huang, Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=3019849.
 * Speaking and Instructed Foreign Language Acquisition, edited by Prof. Mirosław Pawlak, et al., Channel View Publications, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/duke/detail.action?docID=837797.
 * Guntzviller, Lisa M., Robert N. Yale, and Jakob D. Jensen. "Foreign Language Communication Anxiety Outside of a Classroom: Scale Validation and Curvilinear Relationship with Foreign Language use." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 47, no. 4, 2016, pp. 605-625.

Option 2

 * Article title
 * Cognate


 * Article Evaluation
 * Overall, the article is underdeveloped. The lead does a good job of introducing the subject, but the "characteristics" section needs to be elaborated on to provide a further basis of what a cognate is. The "Across languages" section is example-heavy, which is helpful to understand the topic, but further discussion of these examples beyond a simple listing is warranted. Conversely, there is a good discussion of "False cognates," but it would be useful to include more examples of false cognates in different languages to supplement the discussion. In addition, there needs to be an added section on "false friends," which are discussed in the lead but not mentioned thereafter. Furthermore, the addition of more reliable sources would benefit the article.


 * Sources
 * Otwinowska, Agnieszka, et al. "Learning Orthographic Cognates and Non‐Cognates in the Classroom: Does Awareness of Cross‐Linguistic Similarity Matter?" Language Learning, vol. 70, no. 3, 2020, pp. 685-731.
 * Dijkstra, Ton, Jonathan Grainger, and Walter J. B. van Heuven. "Recognition of Cognates and Interlingual Homographs: The Neglected Role of Phonology." Journal of Memory and Language, vol. 41, no. 4, 1999, pp. 496-518.

Option 3

 * Article title
 * Animal language


 * Article Evaluation
 * The article is relatively well-developed. However, it lacks sufficient references to outside sources. For instance, there is use of vague language such as "many researchers argue" that should be attributed to a particular researcher. A specific area that needs to be improved is the section on "Non-primates: studied examples." The birds and insects examples should be elaborated on. In addition, this section seems to be off-balance in the fact that it discusses specific examples of studies done on arbitrarily-chosen animals with no broader discussion of the results and implications of these studies. Despite these weak areas, the article does a good job of including relevant media, even including a recording of humpback whale communication. In addition, albeit certain sections need expanding on, the article is well-organized into sections.


 * Sources
 * Bright, Michael. Animal Language. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. Print.
 * Brainard, Michael S., and W. T. Fitch. "Editorial Overview: Communication and Language: Animal Communication and Human Language." Current Opinion in Neurobiology, vol. 28, 2014, pp. v-viii.
 * Pepperberg, Irene M., and Irene M. Pepperberg. "Animal Language Studies: What Happened?" Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, vol. 24, no. 1, 2017, pp. 181-185.

Option 4

 * Article title
 * Hispanicisms in English


 * Article Evaluation
 * The major problem with this article is that it is extremely short; thus, there is a major need for the article to be expanded upon. Based on the Talk page for the article, it seems that one of the reasons why it is so underdeveloped is because portions of a previous version of the article needed to be removed due to copyright issues. Indeed, a lack of adequate references continues to be a problem within this article. Although there are references listed at the end of the article, it is not clear which information came from which source because in-text citations are largely absent. The article needs to be revised so that it is fully developed with the lead summarizing major sections of the article rather than serving as the entire article.


 * Sources
 * Ruano, Rosario M., and Carmen Á. Vidal Claramonte. "Asymmetries in/of Translation: Translating Translated Hispanicism(s)." TTR : Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction, vol. 17, no. 1, 2004, pp. 81-105.
 * Cruz, MIG. "Towards a Glossary of Hispanicisms in a Corpus of Contemporary English Romance Novels." Onomazein : Revista De Linguística y Traducción Del Instituto De Letras De La Pontificia Universidad Católica De Chile, no. 48, 2020, pp. 178-201.
 * Muñoz-Basols, Javier, and Danica Salazar. "Cross-Linguistic Lexical Influence between English and Spanish." Spanish in Context, vol. 13, no. 1, 2016, pp. 80-102.

Option 5

 * Article title
 * Garden-path sentence


 * Article Evaluation
 * The article has a solid foundation with a good lead and development of ideas. In particular, the discussion of parsing as background for the topic of garden-path sentences is effective and the listed examples are fully explained. However, the article could use a more general introduction to garden path sentences in the main portion of the article rather than just jumping into examples after the lead. The section on garden-path sentences in languages other than English could also be expanded. Another problem with the article is that at times it gets too technical for the purposes of Wikipedia; certain portions should be revised to appeal to a more wider audience. In addition, the last section on disfluency seems a bit irrelevant.


 * Sources
 * Patson, Nikole D., et al. "Lingering Misinterpretations in Garden-Path Sentences: Evidence from a Paraphrasing Task." Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, vol. 35, no. 1, 2009, pp. 280-285.
 * OSTERHOUT, L., PJ HOLCOMB, and DA SWINNEY. "brain Potentials Elicited by Garden-Path Sentences - Evidence of the Application of Verb Information during Parsing." Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, vol. 20, no. 4, 1994, pp. 786-803.
 * Hwang, Hyekyung, and Karsten Steinhauer. "Phrase Length Matters: The Interplay between Implicit Prosody and Syntax in Korean “Garden Path” Sentences." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 23, no. 11, 2011, pp. 3555-3575.