Mark Anderson
@mandercorn.bsky.social
Reading and writing about reading and writing, and thinking about teaching kids how to read and write, and the beautiful complexities of multilingualism and learning to read and write.
https://languageandliteracy.blog
https://languageandliteracy.blog
Reposted by Mark Anderson
Happy world linguistics day from Limerick, Ireland!
Happy World Linguistics Day from Montreal, Canada!
(I wonder how many different places we can get world linguistics day wishes from this year!)
(I wonder how many different places we can get world linguistics day wishes from this year!)
Happy World Linguistics Day from Melbourne, Australia!
November 26, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Happy world linguistics day from Limerick, Ireland!
Reposted by Mark Anderson
Report: It Pretty Incredible That Americans Entrusted With Driving Cars https://theonion.com/report-it-pretty-incredible-that-americans-entrusted-w-1819574734/
November 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Report: It Pretty Incredible That Americans Entrusted With Driving Cars https://theonion.com/report-it-pretty-incredible-that-americans-entrusted-w-1819574734/
Reposted by Mark Anderson
Such a cool paper!
Participants synchronised blinks with music, with pure rhythmic tones, & this synchronisation was functional - greater blink synching improved detection of subtle differences in pitch - all associated with ↗️ superior longitudinal fasciculus 🤩
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Participants synchronised blinks with music, with pure rhythmic tones, & this synchronisation was functional - greater blink synching improved detection of subtle differences in pitch - all associated with ↗️ superior longitudinal fasciculus 🤩
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Eye blinks synchronize with musical beats during music listening
Human movements are known to synchronize with rhythmic patterns in music. This study expands our understanding of embodied music perception, by revealing that spontaneous eye blinks also align with mu...
journals.plos.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Such a cool paper!
Participants synchronised blinks with music, with pure rhythmic tones, & this synchronisation was functional - greater blink synching improved detection of subtle differences in pitch - all associated with ↗️ superior longitudinal fasciculus 🤩
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Participants synchronised blinks with music, with pure rhythmic tones, & this synchronisation was functional - greater blink synching improved detection of subtle differences in pitch - all associated with ↗️ superior longitudinal fasciculus 🤩
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
"Using productive classroom talk during interactive book #reading did not result in greater improvements in children's #language competence compared to ‘general’ interactive book reading."
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Productive talk during book reading: Effects on language skills
Although interactive book reading can promote young children's language competence, teachers find it challenging to implement this type of book readin…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:36 PM
"Using productive classroom talk during interactive book #reading did not result in greater improvements in children's #language competence compared to ‘general’ interactive book reading."
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Educational attainment acts as a buffer for individuals with lower cognitive abilities, substantially reducing their risk of mental disorders.
#education #mentalhealth #cognition
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
#education #mentalhealth #cognition
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Educational attainment acts as a buffer for individuals with lower cognitive abilities, substantially reducing their risk of mental disorders.
#education #mentalhealth #cognition
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
#education #mentalhealth #cognition
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
This is kind of crazy: exposure in infancy to a tonal #language like Mandarin creates lasting structural changes in the brain's white matter that persist even if the language is no longer used.
#research
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
#research
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Early but discontinued exposure to a language exerts lasting effects on white matter architecture in the brain - Communications Biology
Early exposure to a tonal language leaves lasting neural traces: adoptees exposed to Mandarin in infancy show brain structures resembling native speakers, highlighting enduring effects of early lingui...
www.nature.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:44 AM
This is kind of crazy: exposure in infancy to a tonal #language like Mandarin creates lasting structural changes in the brain's white matter that persist even if the language is no longer used.
#research
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
#research
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
I spoke with people role-playing ICE raids in video games to help educate people on their rights and what to do in real-life situations. Tonight, they're holding an event in Fortnite www.wired.com/story/activi...
November 21, 2025 at 10:16 PM
I spoke with people role-playing ICE raids in video games to help educate people on their rights and what to do in real-life situations. Tonight, they're holding an event in Fortnite www.wired.com/story/activi...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
New article in Nature showing that the superior temporal gyrus (STG) encodes language-specific features stronger when listening to the native language. Bilinguals on the other hand shared this higher-level tuning across both of their familiar languages
@changlabucsf.bsky.social #neuroskyence
@changlabucsf.bsky.social #neuroskyence
Shared and language-specific phonological processing in the human temporal lobe - Nature
The human superior temporal gyrus processes acoustic–phonetic properties of speech regardless of whether the language is familiar to the listener, but only encodes word boundaries and language-sp...
www.nature.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:22 PM
New article in Nature showing that the superior temporal gyrus (STG) encodes language-specific features stronger when listening to the native language. Bilinguals on the other hand shared this higher-level tuning across both of their familiar languages
@changlabucsf.bsky.social #neuroskyence
@changlabucsf.bsky.social #neuroskyence
Reposted by Mark Anderson
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
“We tend to forget how remarkable other animals are, which are much smaller than us."
#bats #engineering #design
techcrunch.com/2025/11/12/w...
#bats #engineering #design
techcrunch.com/2025/11/12/w...
Why a researcher is building robots that look and act like bats | TechCrunch
These palm-sized robots use ultrasound signals to navigate harsh conditions in search and rescue missions.
techcrunch.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
“We tend to forget how remarkable other animals are, which are much smaller than us."
#bats #engineering #design
techcrunch.com/2025/11/12/w...
#bats #engineering #design
techcrunch.com/2025/11/12/w...
"We also report that sperm whales have diphthongal patterns on individual codas: with rising, falling, rising-falling and falling-rising formant patterns observed"
#Whales #language
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
#Whales #language
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Vowel- and Diphthong-Like Spectral Patterns in Sperm Whale Codas
The sperm whale communication system, consisting of groups of clicks called codas, has been primarily analyzed in terms of the number of clicks and their inter-click timing. This paper reports spectral properties in sperm whale vocalizations and ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM
"We also report that sperm whales have diphthongal patterns on individual codas: with rising, falling, rising-falling and falling-rising formant patterns observed"
#Whales #language
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
#Whales #language
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
'people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who speak just one language.'
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Want a younger brain? Learn another language
A vast study suggests that being multilingual can slow down cognitive ageing.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:58 AM
'people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who speak just one language.'
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2
I will do everything I can to avoid getting confronted by the blankness of my yet unsaid. What I wanted to say already happened, and I’m moving on. Letting go of the dull ache of expectation. Becoming one with the void. Rather than expanding my pettiness onto it, filling it with my spent affections.
October 26, 2025 at 2:09 AM
I will do everything I can to avoid getting confronted by the blankness of my yet unsaid. What I wanted to say already happened, and I’m moving on. Letting go of the dull ache of expectation. Becoming one with the void. Rather than expanding my pettiness onto it, filling it with my spent affections.
"Education #research suffers from a certain kind of evidential laxity: a tendency to accept claims on the basis of face validity, theoretical elegance, or ideological appeal rather than rigorous empirical testing."
via @carlhendrick.substack.com
#education
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
via @carlhendrick.substack.com
#education
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
We Need to Talk About Scaffolding
A new replication challenges the evidence behind one of education’s core ideas.
open.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 9:53 PM
"Education #research suffers from a certain kind of evidential laxity: a tendency to accept claims on the basis of face validity, theoretical elegance, or ideological appeal rather than rigorous empirical testing."
via @carlhendrick.substack.com
#education
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
via @carlhendrick.substack.com
#education
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
"For the first time, I began to question whether I truly belonged in the U.S. I even became self-conscious about my accent and appearance."
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
As an immigrant scientist in the U.S., travel bans and visa uncertainty are taking a toll
“I began to question whether I truly belonged,” this postdoc writes
www.science.org
October 18, 2025 at 1:40 PM
"For the first time, I began to question whether I truly belonged in the U.S. I even became self-conscious about my accent and appearance."
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
We Americans, Conservative and Liberal, demand that those with the duty to defend our Constitution do it now.
This is a major setback for Trump/Miller authoritarian planning. No doubt they will quickly appeal to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court sides with Trump/Miller it will change the United States of America in ways we cannot imagine and will deeply regret forever.
BREAKING: Major setback for Trump National Guard moves as 7th Circuit declines to disturb block on deployment in Illinois. Judges Rovner, Hamilton, St. Eve (GHWBush/Obama/Trump) see no rebellion permitting use of Guard by prez. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
October 17, 2025 at 10:14 AM
We Americans, Conservative and Liberal, demand that those with the duty to defend our Constitution do it now.
"Scientists propose that lengthening childhood in early humans might have come 1st, driving cultural transmission and social learning.
Over time, this dynamic may have supported brain expansion, rather than the brain growing first and pushing for extended development"
www.earth.com/news/human-c...
Over time, this dynamic may have supported brain expansion, rather than the brain growing first and pushing for extended development"
www.earth.com/news/human-c...
Fossil teeth from an 11-year-old reveal clues to why human childhood lasts so long
Humans stand apart from many other primates by taking more time to mature, relying on a supportive network during a long period of childhood.
www.earth.com
October 14, 2025 at 12:16 PM
"Scientists propose that lengthening childhood in early humans might have come 1st, driving cultural transmission and social learning.
Over time, this dynamic may have supported brain expansion, rather than the brain growing first and pushing for extended development"
www.earth.com/news/human-c...
Over time, this dynamic may have supported brain expansion, rather than the brain growing first and pushing for extended development"
www.earth.com/news/human-c...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.
I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.
Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
October 12, 2025 at 12:01 PM
“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.
Reposted by Mark Anderson
“The jobs that low-skilled migrants do…let people in other parts of the economy take on more skilled work. Florence Jaumotte of the IMF and colleagues find that in rich countries a 1 pct pt rise in migrants’ share of the adult population ultimately raises GDP per person by 2%.”
Welcome to Zero Migration America
Closed borders will make the country smaller, poorer and less innovative
economist.com
October 11, 2025 at 11:51 AM
“The jobs that low-skilled migrants do…let people in other parts of the economy take on more skilled work. Florence Jaumotte of the IMF and colleagues find that in rich countries a 1 pct pt rise in migrants’ share of the adult population ultimately raises GDP per person by 2%.”
Reposted by Mark Anderson
For my practitioner friends, people who managed Title I funds (among others) were laid off today.
October 10, 2025 at 11:52 PM
For my practitioner friends, people who managed Title I funds (among others) were laid off today.
"Babies start processing #language before they are born, a new study suggests."
www.scientificamerican.com/article/babi...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/babi...
Babies Start Processing Foreign Languages before They Are Born
Babies process foreign languages they heard in utero much like their mother tongue, researchers find
www.scientificamerican.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:04 PM
"Babies start processing #language before they are born, a new study suggests."
www.scientificamerican.com/article/babi...
www.scientificamerican.com/article/babi...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
Reposted by Mark Anderson
CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.
apnews.com/article/chic...
apnews.com/article/chic...
Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago
Activists, residents and elected leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest cit...
apnews.com
October 6, 2025 at 8:51 PM
CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.
apnews.com/article/chic...
apnews.com/article/chic...
Reposted by Mark Anderson
America enters a new, dark chapter: "Kavanaugh Raids" on entire buildings and neighborhoods, a chapter surely to be remembered as infamously as we now view the "Palmer Raids" of the first Red Scare. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/welcome-to...
Welcome to the Era of "Kavanaugh Raids"
ICE crosses another big, important line.
www.doomsdayscenario.co
October 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM
America enters a new, dark chapter: "Kavanaugh Raids" on entire buildings and neighborhoods, a chapter surely to be remembered as infamously as we now view the "Palmer Raids" of the first Red Scare. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/welcome-to...
"Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers, she said."
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'
The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:08 PM
"Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers, she said."
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...