Combining translation into the second language and second language learning : an integrated computational approach

This thesis explores the area where translation and language learning intersects. However, this intersection is not one in the traditional sense of second language teaching: where translation is used as a means for learning a foreign language. This thesis treats translating into the foreign language as a separate entity, one that is as important as learning the foreign language itself. Thus the discussion in this thesis is especially relevant to an academic institution which contemplates training foreign language learners who can perform translation into the foreign language at a professional level. The thesis concentrates on developing a pedagogical model which can achieve the goal of fostering linguistic competence and translation competence at the same time. It argues that constructing such a model under a computerised framework is a viable approach, since the task of translation nowadays relies heavily on all kinds o

Learning to adapt in dialogue systems : data-driven models for personality recognition and generation.

Dialogue systems are artefacts that converse with human users in order to achieve some task. Each step of the dialogue requires understanding the user's input, deciding on what to reply, and generating an output utterance. Although there are many ways to express any given content, most dialogue systems do not take linguistic variation into account in both the understanding and generation phases, i.e. the user's linguistic style is typically ignored, and the style conveyed by the system is chosen once for all interactions at development time. We believe that modelling linguistic variation can greatly improve the interaction in dialogue systems, such as in intelligent tutoring systems, video games, or information retrieval systems, which all require specific linguistic styles. Previous work has shown that linguistic style affects many aspects of users' perceptions, even when the dialogue is task-oriented. Moreover, users attribute a consistent personality to machines, even when exposed to a limited set of cues, thus dialogue systems manifest personality whether designed into the system or not. Over the past few years, psychologists have identified the main dimensions of individual differences in human behaviour: the Big Five personality traits. We hypothesise that the Big Five provide a useful computational framework for modelling important aspects of linguistic variation. This thesis first explores the possibility of recognising the user's personality using data-driven models trained on essays and conversational data. We then test whether it is possible to generate language varying consistently along each personality dimension in the information presentation domain. We present PERSONAGE: a language generator modelling findings from psychological studies to project various personality traits. We use PERSONAGE to compare various generation paradigms: (1) rule-based generation, (2) overgenerate and select and (3) generation using parameter estimation models-a novel approach that learns to produce recognisable variation along meaningful stylistic dimensions without the computational cost incurred by overgeneration techniques. We also present the first human evaluation of a data-driven generation method that projects multiple stylistic dimensions simultaneously and on a continuous scale

Methodology of multicultural education: monograph: academic essays

The methodology includes the questions of psychology and pedagogy of preschool education, the issues of multicultural education, the is-sues of training specialists for preschool education.The book is addressed to teachers and students of universities050100.62 Дошкольное образование (preschool education)Методология психолого-педагогических исследованийбакалавриа

The journey of Chinese students from English 106 maintstream composition courses to the Purdue Writing Lab: An institutional needs analysis of Chinese students

According to the Purdue University International Students and Scholars Enrollment & Statistical Report 10-year Enrollment Trends (2014), over the past ten years there has been an 85% growth in the number of international students matriculating at Purdue. As stated in the Purdue University Fall 2014 International Student and Scholar Enrollment & Statistical Report (2013), Purdue University now enrolls 9,080 international students representing 123 countries. This being the case, Purdue University is among the first five top institutions in the nation hosting international students (Open Doors Report-Institute of International Education, 2014). In recent years, Chinese students make up the largest international student population. At the moment, a total of 4,617 Chinese students are enrolled at Purdue, 3,241 of which are undergraduate students (International Student and Scholar Enrollment & Statistical Report, 2014). While the increase in international student numbers may be a positive step towards diversity on campus and a contribution to the local and state economy, it has brought on challenges in many educational settings at Purdue. The ENGL 106 mainstream first-year composition course is one of them. There is a need to reconsider the existing one-size-fits-all curriculum and pedagogies used in ENGL 106 so as to better meet the needs of Purdue\u27s ever-growing diverse international student population more generally and the large percentage of Chinese students more specifically enrolled in this course. In order to do that, conducting a needs analysis of undergraduate international students is crucial. ^ In my dissertation, I conducted a needs assessment specific to a subgroup: Chinese students\u27 in ENGL 106 courses at Purdue University, a large land grant R1 research university in the Midwest. The needs analysis involved two educational settings: the Introductory Composition at Purdue (ICaP) ENGL 106 courses offered at Purdue over one semester and the Purdue Writing Lab, which both cater to large numbers of Chinese students. ^ Using a mixed methods research design, I investigated the needs of Chinese students in ENGL 106 mainstream composition courses in the context of the Purdue Writing Lab. The conceptual framework informing this study was descriptive research study. In this study, I conducted a survey and an interview with three Chinese ENGL106 students who used the Writing Lab in order to identify their varying writing needs in ENGL106. I also conducted a survey and interviews with three Purdue Writing Lab tutors to determine tutors\u27 perceptions of the varying needs of Chinese students more generally. Finally, I analyzed the writing in 11 samples of student essays collected from Chinese students who took ENGL 106. ^ The research questions explored in this study were (1) What are Purdue University Writing lab tutors\u27 perceptions of Chinese students\u27 rhetorical, linguistic, and strategic needs in ENGL106 mainstream composition courses? (2) What are Chinese students\u27 perceptions of their own rhetorical, linguistic, rhetorical, and strategic needs? (3) Do triangulated study findings from tutors and students match up? ^ The findings reveal that Chinese students are in need of more rhetorical, linguistic, and strategic support in ENGL106 mainstream composition courses. The major linguistic needs are in areas related vocabulary use, verb tenses, articles and prepositions; rhetorical needs are observed in the areas of genre and audience awareness. The strategic needs are ample as the students do not seem to make use of any of the writing strategies that would scaffold their writing activities. Implications for these results related to instructor and tutor training will also be addressed

CULTURAL HISTORICAL ACTIVITY THEORY: A FRAMEWORK FOR WRITING CENTER ANALYSES

From the recognized beginning of the laboratory movement in composition instruction, teachers have sought to employ new and more practical methods useful in developing student writing. Such trends continue today as new generations of students enter the academy and new challenges emerge. From such conditions, we might see how components within a system of activity work together to meet objectives and develop outcomes within the shared dialectic of an activity system. Individuals and groups increase the potential for contradiction identification, thus, opportunities for solutions increase through mediational activities. With this idea in mind, this dissertation reviews writing center-related scholarship from 1887 through today to trace emerging contradictions in laboratory teachings epochal movements. The end goal, then, is to define how resolutions to those contradictions have given rise to our modern conceptualization of the writing center. Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), this dissertation interprets the development of writing centers from their earliest beginnings. Through the evaluation of textual artifacts, I present the development of current writing center praxes in stages: a Formative Period; an Interim or Clinical Period; a Modern period; a Theoretical Period, and an emerging Activist Period. As a result, I look to provide modern writing center practitioners with a thorough history of writing center practices: what shaped them, through what contradictions they arose, what precipitated those contradictions, what resolved them, and what lies ahead. As communities like writing centers re-create themselvesthrough pushing and pulling, conflict and resolution, tension and releasethey birth new conceptualizations of realities. In the end, this dissertation uses CHAT to present a narrative about the development of writing center work that continues to unfold in new and dynamic ways. As a result, what may be most useful through this historical analysis is the way in which writing center practitioners may use CHAT to chart a way forward using the very framework used as the basis of this projects analysis. Today, writing centers may offer new ways to address a pedagogical order designed to challenge racism, homophobia, and other injustices through ongoing reading groups, curricular revision, and other faculty development efforts. Through learning our history, I believe we may more adequately position ourselves to shape our futures

Music Learning with Massive Open Online Courses

Steels, Luc et al.-- Editors: Luc SteelsMassive Open Online Courses, known as MOOCs, have arisen as the logical consequence of marrying long-distance education with the web and social media. MOOCs were confidently predicted by advanced thinkers decades ago. They are undoubtedly here to stay, and provide a valuable resource for learners and teachers alike. This book focuses on music as a domain of knowledge, and has three objectives: to introduce the phenomenon of MOOCs; to present ongoing research into making MOOCs more effective and better adapted to the needs of teachers and learners; and finally to present the first steps towards 'social MOOCs’, which support the creation of learning communities in which interactions between learners go beyond correcting each other's assignments. Social MOOCs try to mimic settings for humanistic learning, such as workshops, small choirs, or groups participating in a Hackathon, in which students aided by somebody acting as a tutor learn by solving problems and helping each other. The papers in this book all discuss steps towards social MOOCs; their foundational pedagogy, platforms to create learning communities, methods for assessment and social feedback and concrete experiments. These papers are organized into five sections: background; the role of feedback; platforms for learning communities; experiences with social MOOCs; and looking backwards and looking forward. Technology is not a panacea for the enormous challenges facing today's educators and learners, but this book will be of interest to all those striving to find more effective and humane learning opportunities for a larger group of students.Funded by the European Commission's OpenAIRE2020 project.Peer reviewe

"Irritating but helpful" : using a social media tool for peer and user writing feedback in a Spanish language course

Language students need formative feedback on written production during the drafting phase, before receiving summative feedback on the final written product. However, providing this type of feedback to students adds to instructors’ already busy workload. Peer feedback has been suggested as an alternative to instructor-provided feedback, but peers’ limited target language knowledge restricts the utility of this feedback. Native speakers may be more capable of identifying target language gaps than are nonnative speaking peers. Furthermore, Web 2.0 affords learners with tools to connect target language learners with native speakers of the target language. The goal of this study was to understand more about what occurs in the context of language learning via social networking websites. This exploratory case study examined feedback to written production received by 18 intermediate-level university Spanish language learners in an intact semester-long Spanish course using Lang-8, a website that supports language learning via social networking tools. The following four research questions were addressed: 1) Who responds to assigned student writings on Lang-8? 2) How much feedback do students receive? 3) What kinds of feedback do they get? 4) What is the students’ response to this feedback? The amount and types of feedback received from both peers and unknown website users were quantitatively analyzed, and these data were triangulated with student participants’ survey responses to four end-of-chapter and one end-of-semester surveys to reveal students’ reactions to receiving feedback on Lang-8. Findings indicated that participants received predominantly accurate feedback from both peer and user responder groups, and this feedback was generally perceived as useful by participants. Moreover, peers offered more global feedback related to content, whereas website users provided more local feedback related to form. Overall, participants’ reactions to receiving feedback was positive, but variation was observed in individual responses that was attributed to individual preferences related to response provider groups, feedback types, and language variations present when receiving feedback from multiple sources. Based on the affordances and limitations of using Lang-8 to receive feedback as revealed through this study, it seems that Lang-8 can afford instructors a way to outsource formative feedback for target language learners.Foreign Language Educatio

Machine Scoring of Student Essays: Truth and Consequences

The current trend toward machine-scoring of student work, Ericsson and Haswell argue, has created an emerging issue with implications for higher education across the disciplines, but with particular importance for those in English departments and in administration. The academic community has been silent on the issue—some would say excluded from it—while the commercial entities who develop essay-scoring software have been very active. Machine Scoring of Student Essays is the first volume to seriously consider the educational mechanisms and consequences of this trend, and it offers important discussions from some of the leading scholars in writing assessment.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1138/thumbnail.jp

The effects of the process approach on writing apprehension and writing quality among ESL students at university level in Malaysia

This study was designed to investigate the effects of two methods of teaching written composition (i.e. traditional and process approach) on writing apprehension among ESL students, and also the effect of the process approach on the overall quality and length of their writing. Students enrolled in Written Communication 1 course at the National University of Malaysia were chosen as the subjects of this study. The students had been placed in three groups based on the results of previous courses and for the purpose of this study the top and the bottom groups were selected as the experimental groups and the middle one as the control. From the findings, it was concluded that both methods were successful in reducing writing apprehension, but that the process approach was considerably more effective in achieving this than the traditional approach. Moreover, the subjects in the process/experimental group were found to write better and longer essays than the subjects in the control group taught in the usual way

Determining Intent: A Quantitative and Qualitative Linguistic Analysis of Holographic and Professional Wills

My dissertation focuses on the language of wills. More specifically, I am interested in how the language of holographic wills (i.e., handwritten wills) differs from the language of professional wills.My research question is Do linguistic differences between professional wills and holographic wills have the potential to affect the interpretation of the wills, subsequently influencing the outcome of the probate process? In order to address this question, I conduct a quantitative and qualitative contrastive corpus analysis of holographic and professionally-prepared wills. My hypothesis is that the discourse of holographic wills will tend to be more narrative-like, reflecting personal experiences and emotions. By contrast, the language of professional wills is more formal and rule-driven than the language of holographic wills. By using computational analysis tools such as the Gramulator, my dissertation identifies specific language differencesbetween these two text types that support my hypothesis. These differences are assessed through a variety of statistical methods. Additionally, I perform a qualitative assessment of three case studies on individual wills using discourse analysis approaches to provide insight into why and how the meaning of the text may be determined. Although both types of discourse have their differences, their main goal is the same: to convey the testator\u27s intent. The purpose of my dissertation is to facilitate this goal by demonstrating to the legal community how non-professionals write their wills so that when a controversy over a holographic will arises, the legal community can apply the methods and techniques presented here and determine the testator\u27s intent, since by law, this is what is required