Inference processing and error recovery in sentence understanding

Solving the mysteries of human language understanding inevitably requires an answer to the question of how the language understander resolves ambiguity, for human language is certainly ambiguous. But ambiguity leads to choices between possible explanations, and choice opens the door for mistakes. Unless we are willing to believe that the human language understander always makes the correct choice, any explanation of ambiguity resolution must be considered incomplete if it does not also account for recovery from an incorrect decision.This dissertation describes a new approach to lexical ambiguity resolution during sentence understanding which is implemented in a program called ATLAST. Many computational models of natural language understanding have dealt with lexical ambiguity resolution, but ATLAST is one of the few models to address the associated problem of error recovery. ATLAST's ability to recover from an incorrect lexical inference decision stems from its ability to retain unchosen word meanings for a period of time after it selects the apparently context-appropriate meaning of an ambiguous word. The short-term retention of possible lexical inferences permits ATLAST to recover from incorrect decisions without backtracking and reprocessing text, and without keeping a record of possible choices indefinitely.The principle of retention provides a solution to the problem of error recovery which is compatible with current psycholinguistic theories of lexical disambiguation. Furthermore, the existence of some form of retention in lexical disambiguation is supported by the results of experiments with human subjects. This dissertation includes a discussion of these results and speculation on how the principle of retention might be extended to account for recovery from erroneous higher-level inference decisions

Team Teaching and Team Learning in the Language Classroom

This book reignites discussion on the importance of collaboration and innovation in language education. The pivotal difference highlighted in this volume is the concept of team learning through collaborative relationships such as team teaching. It explores ways in which team learning happens in ELT environments and what emerges from these explorations is a more robust concept of team learning in language education. Coupled with this deeper understanding, the value of participant research is emphasised by defining the notion of ‘team’ to include all participants in the educational experience. Authors in this volume position practice ahead of theory as they struggle to make sense of the complex phenomena of language teaching and learning. The focus of this book is on the nexus between ELT theory and practice as viewed through the lens of collaboration. The volume aims to add to the current knowledge base in order to bridge the theory-practice gap regarding collaboration for innovation in language classrooms

The computer comprehension of systematic metaphor

Digitisation of this thesis was sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin

Helping users learn about social processes while learning from users : developing a positive feedback in social computing

Advisors: Philippe J. GiabbanelliSocial computing is concerned with the interaction of social behavior and computational systems. From its early days, social computing has had two foci. One was the development of technology and interfaces to support online communities. The other was to use computational techniques to study society and assess the expected impact of policies. This thesis seeks to develop systems for social computing, both in the context of online communities and the study of societal processes, that allow users to learn while in turn learning from users. Communities are approached through the problem of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), via a complementary use of network analysis and text mining. In particular, we show that an efficient system can be designed such that instructors do not need to categorize the interactions of all students to assess their learning experience. This thesis explores the study of societal processes by showing how text analytics, visual analytics, and fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) can collectively help an analyst to understand complex scenarios such as obesity. Overall, this work had two key limitations. One was in the dataset we used, as it was small and didn't show all possible interactions, and the other is in the scalability of our systems. Future work can include the use of non-n-gram features to improve our MOOC system and the use of graph layouts for our visualization system.M.S. (Master of Science

Audiating the LSU drumline: an ethnographic performance

This is an ethnographic study of the drumline of the LSU Marching Band and the mock-fraternity they created called Phi Boota roota (ΦBr). I argue that ΦBr was created as a site to flesh out the various tensions members experience as members of the LSU drumline; they create a rite of passage ritual that functions as a carnivalesque and celebratory inversion of the system they find themselves submerged within. Phi Boota roota marks a created articulation of the transition members make when they become part of the larger ritual of Tigerband; it is a voluntary or liminoid ritual that allows members to deal with the excess parts of their own personalities and individuality while fully embracing, though at times parodying, their inherited identity and image as members of the LSU Band. Through the use of performative writings combined with more traditional ethnographic field reports and descriptions/interpretations, this thesis strives to give voice to the tensions felt within the rituals of Tigerband and ΦBr, the tension of representation within ethnographic study, and the tension of creative experimentation within academic writing. Throughout the study, I use the metaphor of audiation to experiment with representing ethnographic experience and knowledge. Audiation is the practice of thinking and comprehending music with your mind, and it functions as a pedagogical tool for creating and remembering sound. Metaphorically, audiation illustrates an action that requires both memory and creativity; a process that gives sound/motion to a sounding/action by re-creating it in the mind. These audiations provide a forum for both the traditional and the inventive to resonate within the context of an ethnographic exploration of the performance of ΦBr

Team Teaching and Team Learning in the Language Classroom

This book reignites discussion on the importance of collaboration and innovation in language education. The pivotal difference highlighted in this volume is the concept of team learning through collaborative relationships such as team teaching. It explores ways in which team learning happens in ELT environments and what emerges from these explorations is a more robust concept of team learning in language education. Coupled with this deeper understanding, the value of participant research is emphasised by defining the notion of ‘team’ to include all participants in the educational experience. Authors in this volume position practice ahead of theory as they struggle to make sense of the complex phenomena of language teaching and learning. The focus of this book is on the nexus between ELT theory and practice as viewed through the lens of collaboration. The volume aims to add to the current knowledge base in order to bridge the theory-practice gap regarding collaboration for innovation in language classrooms

Understanding for a purpose

Epistemology is a philosophical discipline which has traditionally been concerned with studying the nature of knowledge. For some decades now, a number of epistemologists have been trying to steer their discipline away from the conventional study of knowledge, into a new paradigm centered around the concept of understanding. Increasingly, however, the study of understanding is starting to resemble the study of knowledge in important respects, such as in its preoccupation with the so-called problem of epistemic luck. In my dissertation, I argue that the study of understanding is in need of a methodological reorientation. I propose that instead of formulating a definition of understanding on the basis of our intuitions, which has been the usual modus operandi, we had best strive to let our definition capture the functions that understanding-ascriptions have in a community. With this general guideline in hand, I argue that understanding is a behavioral, rather than a cognitive achievement, and that understanding requires a practical kind of success, rather than truth or truth-approximation. I show that this behaviorist, pragmatist theory of understanding does a better job than more traditional proposals in accounting, among other things, for the value of idealizations in scientific research, the relation between different types of understanding, and the nature of scientific progress

For our Little Grandchildren: Language Revitalization Among the Tlingit

The Tlingit language has experienced drastic losses over the past two decades in terms of total number of speakers and places where the language is used. This steady decline in speakers was drastically accelerated as the last generation who grew up in a time when Tlingit was the primary language of homes and communities reach their sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. The youngest first language speakers are in their 60s, although most of them are in their eighties because intergenerational transmission severely declined in the second half of the 1900s, and has only recently returned with a few families who have committed to speaking with their children. Recent estimates have determined that the Tlingit language has about 80 birth speakers of various levels, and 50 second language learners that could be considered at the “intermediate” level or higher according to ACTFL scales. There are probably only 10 speakers remaining who could be considered fully fluent and capable of higher forms of speaking, and most of them are over 70 years old. This combines to create an unprecedented crisis for the Tlingit language, which will require massive shifts in cultural values, ways of living, institutional cultures, and educational practices if the language is going to survive the next 50 years and have more than a handful of speakers. Instead of merely surviving, or preserving, the goal of the Tlingit Language Continuity Movement1 is to have 3,000 speakers of the language by 2050. The current population of the Tlingit people is about 20,000 and of Tlingit territory is around 100,000. This means that 3,000 speakers would be 15% fluency among the Tlingit people and 3% within Tlingit territory, rising from 0.65% and 0.13% respectively. This dissertation documents some of the events that have led to massive language decline, and proposes a series of interconnected methods that would result in language revitalization. In particular, increasing adult fluency, creating safe acquisition environments, mending a people and their language, and following a 30-year action plan is the proposed method to revitalizing the Tlingit language. These chapters are based upon the following research methods: reviewing published Tlingit language materials and recorded Tlingit language, documenting Tlingit language speakers and their thoughts on language learning and use, and incorporating theories from sociolinguistics, language revitalization, and post-colonial decolonizing methodologies.Ye