4 research outputs found
Machine Learning for Readability Assessment and Text Simplification in Crisis Communication: A Systematic Review
In times of social media, crisis managers can interact with the citizens in a variety of ways. Since machine learning has already been used to classify messages from the population, the question is, whether such technologies can play a role in the creation of messages from crisis managers to the population. This paper focuses on an explorative research revolving around selected machine learning solutions for crisis communication. We present systematic literature reviews of readability assessment and text simplification. Our research suggests that readability assessment has the potential for an effective use in crisis communication, but there is a lack of sufficient training data. This also applies to text simplification, where an exact assessment is only partly possible due to unreliable or non-existent training data and validation measures
Podręczniki do muzyki i plastyki dla uczniów szkół podstawowych : analiza lingwistyczno-statystyczna
A textbook, as the primary tool of both the teacher and the student, is an immensely important
didactic tool as well as a source of academic inquiry for scholars coming from various fields
of study. Appreciating the importance of culture and its function in the human life, it has become
necessary to propose a comprehensive study of artistic school subjects (Music Education and Arts
Education), and particularly their language, which exerts a significant influence of the teaching
and learning processes. The topic of this monograph concerns the selected linguistic issues which
allow to ascertain to what extent the construction of the linguistic level of the text facilitates the
learning process. The study has been based on the analysis of two kinds of excerpts from Music
and Arts Education textbooks: an expository text and a practical component. The answers to the
research question have been obtained through the analysis of the clarity of text, the style of the
text which reveals itself in the analysis of the parts of speech, the way of defining terminology,
the construction of the ascertainment of the cognitive function and the dialogic nature of the
rhetorical function. Methodologically speaking, the monograph is situated within the schools of
style studies and linguistic statistics. The research material has been compiled from the currently
used Music and Arts Education textbooks for the 4th‑6th grade of elementary school. Those issues
are of a significant importance for the scholars who study the broadly‑understood
education discourse. The monograph constitutes a compendium of sorts when it comes to the advantages
and shortcomings of 18 Music and Arts Education textbooks, since the research area is unusually
vast, due to the peculiar role played by music and the arts in the school curriculum. The content
conveyed to the students in those classes at the same time broadens the students’ knowledge
and shapes their aesthetic and ethical sensibility. The understanding of stylistic tools used by
the authors of textbooks for school children is of particular importance due to the fact that the
vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and syntax absorbed in the early childhood significantly influence
the ways in which people express themselves in their adult life. The quality of the language
of textbooks according to their clarity as well as the percentage of the particular parts of speech
in the text are measured via objective statistical tools. They allow to evaluate the communicative
potential of the text, which influences the degree of understanding and knowledge acquisition in
the student. The statistical study – both qualitative and quantitative – allows to characterize the
language in very precise terms.
The study presents the current state of research regarding school textbooks, their function
and role in the education process as well as the methodology. The conducted in-depth statistical
analyses concerned the clarity of the text in each of the 18 textbooks (10 Music Education
textbooks and 8 Arts Education textbooks) approved for use in the education system. The clarity
of the textbooks has been evaluated according to the Carl‑Hugon Björnsson index. Apart from
the readability index comparison, the variables which influence the index have been evaluated
as well (i.e. the average length of utterance, measured with the number of words, as well as the
fraction of at least nine‑letter words considered difficult in the Polish language), and in addition, the monograph has defined and studied a new index – the index of readability for a single sentence, informing about the clarity of a particular sentence. The percentage contribution of the parts of speech in the corpus, the indexes of the nominality of the text and the relationship between the fractions of the parts of speech have also been studied. The research findings of the statistical analysis have broadened the knowledge regarding the linguistic and stylistic structure of textbooks, including their clarity and readability (which affect the potential communicativeness and comprehensiveness of the text). Due to that, they can contribute to the improvement of
the writing technique of textbook authors, particularly because all those comparisons take into
account the margin of statistical error (while such additional analyses have not been heretofore
performed in the linguistic studies). Moreover, the monograph focuses on the ways of presenting
new concepts, defining terms and introducing factual knowledge, touches upon the important
issue of the communication between the sender (author) and the receiver (student) of the message
in the textbook, and presents the results of empirical studies on the retainment of knowledge in
artistic subjects, which have been confronted with the curriculum regulations regarding Music
Education and Arts Education. The monograph, due to its vast scope, engages with issues important
for linguists, pedagogues and Music and Arts Education teachers. It is, moreover, pragmatic
in its solutions, as the didactic implications can be useful in the process of writing new textbooks.
The readability index comes to the fore as the most important aspect, since it allows the textbook
to be beneficial to the reader – the clearer the text, the easier it is to learn and retain the information.
The informational component can be enriched through implementing various ways of
introducing concepts, defining terms and conveying facts – the numerous examples presented
in the monograph showcase that in most situations, it is possible to avoid both monotony and encyclopedic tone. The value of the dialogic relationship in the expository segment should also be underscored, because the use of linguistic means of persuasion allows for easier acquisition of knowledge and prolongs its retainment, at the same time as it contributes to the process of empowerment for the student
Insegnare a comprendere
Nel libro viene in primo luogo esposto e discusso il modello psicolinguistico della comprensione dei testo la cui formulazione fu iniziata da Kintsch e van Dijk, nella sua versione più completa ed aggiornata, nonché presentati altri approcci utili a chiarire i meccanismi del complesso processo della comprensione; viene poi presentato un modello utile in sede di ricerca, didattica o di valutazione per indagare la lettura efficace e promuoverne lo sviluppo. Tale modello si avvale di un composito insieme di strumenti ed approcci, fra cui gli indici di leggibilità ed i software più avanzati per l'analisi automatica dei testi. Viene inoltre proposta ed illustrata nel dettaglio un'articolata strategia didattica utile per rafforzare in misura decisiva le capacità di comprensione e risolvere le difficoltà di lettura comprensiva (e di conseguenza di apprendimento) di una quota drammaticamente sempre più estesa di allievi. Tale strategia (improntata fondamentalmente all'impiego delle tre chiavi didattiche del modeling, della metacognizione e del reciprocal teaching) è supportata da alcuni originali strumenti messi a punto dall'autore per accrescerne ulteriormente l'efficacia, in particolare una griglia per l'analisi accurata dei testi, volta soprattutto a portare in luce le difficoltà che essi nascondono, ed una annessa tassonomia testuale, necessaria ad eseguire l'analisi del testo tenendo conto delle caratteristiche distintive della tipologia testuale di appartenenza