Automated Writing Evaluation for non-native speaker English academic writing: The case of IADE and its formative feedback

This dissertation presents an innovative approach to the development and empirical evaluation of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) technology used for teaching and learning. It introduces IADE (Intelligent Academic Discourse Evaluator), a new web-based AWE program that analyzes research article Introduction sections and generates immediate, individualized, discipline-specific feedback. The major purpose of the dissertation was to implement IADE as a formative assessment tool complementing L2 graduate-level academic writing instruction and to investigate the effectiveness and appropriateness of its automated evaluation and feedback. To achieve this goal, the study sought evidence of IADE\u27s Language Learning Potential, Meaning Focus, Learner Fit, and Impact qualities outlined in Chapelle\u27s (2001) CALL evaluation conceptual framework. A mixed-methods approach with a concurrent transformative strategy was employed. Quantitative data consisted of Likert-scale, yes/no, and open-ended survey responses; automated and human scores for first and last drafts; pre-/post test scores; and frequency counts for draft submission and for access to IADE\u27s Help Options. Qualitative data contained students\u27 first and last drafts as well as transcripts of think-aloud protocols and Camtasia computer screen recordings, observations, and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that IADE can be considered an effective formative assessment tool suitable for implementation in the targeted instructional context. Its effectiveness was a result of combined strengths of its Language Learning Potential, Meaning Focus, Learner Fit, and Impact qualities, which were all enhanced by the program\u27s automated feedback. The strength of Language Learning Potential was supported by evidence of noticing of and focus on discourse form, improved rhetorical quality of writing, increased learning gains, and relative helpfulness of practice and modified interaction. Learners\u27 focus on the functional meaning of discourse and construction of such meaning served as evidence of strong Meaning Focus. IADE\u27s automated feedback characteristics and Help Options were appropriate for targeted learners, which speaks of adequate Learner Fit. Finally, despite some negative effects caused by IADE\u27s numerical feedback, overall Impact, exerted at affective, intrinsic, pragmatic, and cognitive levels, was found to be positive due to the color-coded type of feedback. The results of this study provide valuable empirical knowledge to the areas of L2 academic writing, AWE, formative assessment, and I/CALL. They have important practical and theoretical implications and are informative for future research as well as for the design and application of new learning technologies

Automatic Analysis of Linguistic Complexity and Its Application in Language Learning Research

The construct of complexity, together with accuracy and fluency have become the central foci of language learning research in recent years. This dissertation focuses on complexity, a multidimensional construct that has its own working mechanism, cognitive and psycholinguistic processes, and developmental dynamics. Six studies revolving around complexity, including its conceptualization, automatic measurement, and application in language acquisition research are reported. The basis of these studies is the automatic multidimensional analysis of linguistic complexity, which was implemented into a Web platform called Common Text Analysis Platform by making use of state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies . The system provides a rich set of complexity measures that are easily accessible by normal users and supports collaborative development of complexity feature extractors. An application study zooming into characterizing the text-level readability with the word-level feature of lexical frequency is reported next. It was found that the lexical complexity measure of word frequency was highly predictive of text readability. Another application study focuses on investigating the developmental interrelationship between complexity and accuracy, an issue that conflicting theories and research results have been reported. Our findings support the simultaneous development account. The other few studies are about applying automatic complexity analysis to promote language development, which involves analyzing both learning input and learner production, as well as linking the two spaces. We first proposed and validated the approach to link input and production with complexity feature vector distances. Then the ICALL system SyB implementing the approach was developed and demonstrated. An effective test of the system was conducted with a randomized control experiment that tested the effects of different levels of input challenge on L2 development. Results of the experiment supported the comprehensible input hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and provided an automatizable operationalization of the theory. The series of studies in this dissertation demonstrates how language learning research can benefit from NLP technologies. On the other hand, it also demonstrates how these technologies can be applied to build practical language learning systems based on solid theoretical and research foundations in SLA

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between The Use Of Modern Digital Technologies, Language Learning Strategies, And Development Of Second Language Skills

Like many other areas of human knowledge, the field of language learning has undergone changes as a consequence of the application of digital technologies. Extensive exposure and anytime and anywhere access availability to data in a second or foreign language (L2) bring almost unlimited learning opportunities for digital age students, which affects their learning behaviors also known as language learning strategies (LLS). The purpose of the present study is to define preferred LLS patterns of digitally native L2 learners and to establish relationships between types of existing digital technologies, learners’ demographic characteristics, and the use of learning strategies to support the development of specific language skills and aspects. The setting for this study was made up by a medium-sized university in the northern U.S., particularly, its undergraduate student population enrolled in foreign language courses in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures during the 2021 fall semester. They were asked to complete a survey that contained the original validated version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) instrument (Oxford, 1990) and three additional sections disclosing the participants’ demographics, technology use experience, and targeted language skills and aspects. Both descriptive and inferential quantitative methods of data analysis were used in the study to elucidate the research questions. A number of analytic procedures using SPSS® Statistics software were performed to find out detailed statistic values of the research variables. Frequencies and descriptive statistics, analysis of correlations, extreme groupings t-tests to explore the relationships between the subsets of categorical variables, and factor analysis of LLS domains were implemented to identify meaningful patterns of technology use in L2 learning. Data from this study provide a view of how the Digital Natives themselves see their technology use and approaches to learning. Research conclusions based on obtained self-reported evidence allow us to make broader recommendations for changes in the L2 teaching methodology. They may also prevent instructors from making unsupported assumptions about their students\u27 mastery of educational technology, and, thereby, from neglecting to teach students the skills they need for academic success. Keywords: digital native learner, digital technology categories, language learning strategies, L2 language skill

El uso de figuras retóricas en anuncios publicitarios y pinturas de Magritte: análisis sobre su efecto en la rememoración de marca en el corto plazo

Information processing and memory have an important role in stimulating, encoding and recall of advertising stimuli. Through an experimental study the present article seeks to identify the impact on short-term memory of visual rhetorical figures, comparing real advertisements and works of artist Magritte intervened and presented as branded advertisements. The hypothesis states that rhetorical figures present in advertising designs should have a greater recall effects than artistic works. The results confirm the thesis, showing that the functional use of rhetorics as planned advertising elements achieve higher a recall rate compared to its use in Magritte’s art.El procesamiento de información y la memoria tienen una participación importante en la estimulación, codificación y rememoración de los estímulos publicitarios. El artículo procura identificar el impacto en la memoria de corto plazo de las figuras retóricas visuales mediante un estudio experimental comparativo entre anuncios publicitarios reales y en obras del artista Magritte intervenidas como anuncios. La hipótesis plantea que el uso de la figura retórica como parte del diseño de una pieza publicitaria debe tener un mayor efecto que en obras artísticas. Los resultados confirman la tesis  y muestran que las piezas que utilizan la figura retórica con un elemento planificado logran un mayor índice de recordación en comparación con su uso en el arte magrittiano

Language-as-skill Approach in Foreign Language Education: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand foreign language educators\u27 lived experience of language-as-skill that focuses on language use. The central research question explored the foreign language educators\u27 experiences and perspectives on the concept of language acquisition as a type of skill acquisition. In addition, the researcher investigated foreign language educators\u27 language-as-knowledge and language-as-skill methodologies. This study also aimed to discover how the language-as-skill with advanced technology could be a way to address the contemporary challenges in foreign language education for learners and improve learners\u27 communicative competence to thrive in a globalized world with diversity. A transcendental phenomenological study design was selected to explicate the essence of human understanding. At this stage in the research, skill acquisition views Language learning as other cognitive skills development, such as how people learn to play the piano or drive a car. The theory guiding this study was DeKeyser\u27s skill acquisition theory, which explained the relationship between skill development and Language acquisition. In this study, 10 foreign language teachers from a local language training school became participants in semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Data that were collected from the interviews, documentation, and observations were reviewed, grouped, coded, and reported as faithfully as possible to the participants\u27 experiences and perceptions of this phenomenological study

Language-Learner Computer Interactions

This book focuses on learner-computer interactions (LCI) in second language learning environments drawing largely on sociocultural theories of language development. It brings together a rich and varied range of theoretical discussions and applications in order to illustrate the way in which LCI can enrich our comprehension of technology-mediated communication, hence enhancing learners’ digital literacy skills. The book is based on the premise that, in order to fully understand the nature of language and literacy development in digital spaces, researchers and practitioners in linguistics, sciences and engineering need to borrow from each others’ theoretical and practical toolkits. In light of this premise, themes include such aspects as educational ergonomics, affordances, complex systems learning, learner personas and corpora, while also describing such data collecting tools as video screen capture devices, eye-tracking or intelligent learning tutoring systems

Dissertations and theses on technology and L2 LEARNING (2000-2015)

This list has been updated with an eye towards providing working links to actual dissertation texts. Permanent links available free of charge through university databases have been privileged; for-profit enterprises that sell dissertation manuscripts have been listed when universities do not provide for the electronic dissemination of these documents. Manuscripts that are not available by either of these means are nevertheless listed as we hope to provide the most complete coverage of dissertations in the field of CALL that is possible. You will notice that the reference list style is somewhat different than what is suggested by APA. We decided upon a format that includes the name of the institution where the dissertation was completed such that a quick scan of the list reveals where people are studying CALL related themes—and which universities are field leaders in terms of freely distributing dissertations. If you notice that dissertations completed at your institution have not been included, please send us the references, so we can update this list yearly

Phenomenon and Abstraction: Coordinating Concepts in Music Theory and Analysis

This dissertation explores the habits of thought that inform how music analysts conceptualize the music they study and how this conceptualization affects the kinds of claims they make and the discursive practices adopted to express them. I aim to clarify these issues in music-theoretical conceptualization with an eye toward mediating analytical disagreements by tracing the influence of two types of concepts used in contemporary music analysis. I differentiate what I call theoretical concepts, which refer to abstract, theoretical objects, from phenomenal concepts, which refer to elements of felt, musical experience. Drawing on theories of concepts from philosophy of mind, I argue that these concepts have a complex structure, featuring both a reference and mode of presentation. The musical concept Dominant, for instance, might be used as a phenomenal concept, referring to the conscious experience of hearing a dominant, or it might be used as a theoretical concept, referring to a kind of abstract object, presented as either the triad the leads to the tonic or the triad built on scale degree five. In analysis, the kinds of concepts that analysts use will determine the scope of their analyses as well as define what sorts of critiques are best deployed against them. I explore four different ways that these conceptual types are used. These case studies include conceptually simple theories that attempt to foreground one type of concept or another (from the formalized model proffered by Eugene Narmour, to the drawing-analyses of Elaine Barkin) as well as more common analytical strategies that rely on both kinds of concept in concert, such as Schenkerian analysis and transformational and neo-Riemannian theory. I enrich my study of analytical approaches with insights drawn from my own analytical practice, including a wide range of styles and composers (though foregrounding the complexity of tonal analysis especially) and close readings of various authors in different analytical traditions. In general, I am concerned less with testing the soundness of any given approach than with understanding what ways of conceptualizing music underlie them and how analysts coordinate these concepts in practice. I find that while most approaches rely on both types of concept in some combination, their differences come in the roles these concepts play in analytical methodology and the degree to which each type of engagement is foregrounded in practice