A prior case study of natural language processing on different domain

In the present state of digital world, computer machine do not understand the human’s ordinary language. This is the great barrier between humans and digital systems. Hence, researchers found an advanced technology that provides information to the users from the digital machine. However, natural language processing (i.e. NLP) is a branch of AI that has significant implication on the ways that computer machine and humans can interact. NLP has become an essential technology in bridging the communication gap between humans and digital data. Thus, this study provides the necessity of the NLP in the current computing world along with different approaches and their applications. It also, highlights the key challenges in the development of new NLP model

Theory and Applications for Advanced Text Mining

Due to the growth of computer technologies and web technologies, we can easily collect and store large amounts of text data. We can believe that the data include useful knowledge. Text mining techniques have been studied aggressively in order to extract the knowledge from the data since late 1990s. Even if many important techniques have been developed, the text mining research field continues to expand for the needs arising from various application fields. This book is composed of 9 chapters introducing advanced text mining techniques. They are various techniques from relation extraction to under or less resourced language. I believe that this book will give new knowledge in the text mining field and help many readers open their new research fields

Abordagem modular baseada em dicionário para reconhecimento de entidades nomeadas através de associação aproximada

Orientador : Marcos Didonet Del FabroDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Exatas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Informática. Defesa: Curitiba, 29/08/2016Inclui referências : f. 47-50Área de concentração: Ciência da computaçãoResumo: As técnicas de extração de informações estão sempre evoluindo para serem capazes de trabalhar com a quantidade crescente de dados disponíveis através de textos em linguagem natural e não estruturados. Destacamos a subtarefa da extração de informação conhecida como reconhecimento de entidades nomeadas baseado em dicionário, que realiza a identificação de sequências de caracteres que representam entidades de um determinado grupo, e o bom desempenho dessa subtarefa é fundamental para um bom processo de extração de informação. O reconhecimento de entidades nomeadas (NER) permite definir os sujeitos que são abordados pelo texto como organizações, pessoas, locais, etc. Pontos que ainda são desafios dentro da subtarefa de NER para sistemas baseados em dicionário são a presença de erros ortográficos nos textos e a existência de poucos sistemas de NER capazes de trabalhar em diferentes contextos. Esse trabalho apresenta uma abordagem para o reconhecimento de entidades nomeadas baseado em dicionário. Para trabalhar com textos que podem apresentar erros ortográficos, é utilizada uma busca por associação aproximada baseada na distância de edição entre as sequências de caracteres que representam a entrada do dicionário e as sub-partes do texto. Para promover a redução do erro entre as sequências de caracteres (SC) e facilitar a busca por associação aproximada são utilizados algoritmos de transformação. Esses algoritmos permitem a busca sobre o dicionário encontrar uma quantidade maior de entidades se comparada com as buscas utilizando as SCs originais para um mesmo valor da distância de edição aceita. As transformações também colaboram com a redução do tamanho das SCs e com a criação de mais prefixos similares, promovendo uma redução no tamanho da árvore de prefixo que indexa o dicionário. Para melhorar a precisão da nossa abordagem, disponibilizamos recursos de filtragem que fazem uso de métricas de similaridade para eliminar entidades falsas que foram retornadas da busca sobre o dicionário. Nossa abordagem também foi projetada para permitir a configuração de alguns componentes de forma a ser adaptada para diferentes casos de estudo. Palavras-chave: Reconhecimento de entidades nomeadas, Associação Aproximada de Sequências de Caracteres, Conversão fonética.Abstract: The information extraction techniques are always evolving to be able to work with the increasing amount of unstructured data available through texts in natural language. We highlight the information extraction subtask known as dictionary-based named entity recognition, which performs the identification of strings that represent entities of a particular group, and the good performance of this sub-task is critical for a good extracting information process. The named entity recognition (NER) defines the nouns that are covered by the text as organizations, people, places, etc. Some subjects that still represent chalenges in the sub-task of NER for currently systems that are dictionary-based are the presence of spelling errors in the text and the existence of few NER systems that are able to work in different contexts. This work presents an approach of a dictionary-based named entity recognition. Looking to work with texts that may have spelling errors, we use an approximate string matching search based on edit distance between the strings that represent the entries of the dictionary and the substrings of the text. To further the reduction of the error between the strings and facilitate the search using approximate matching we used transformation algorithms. These algorithms allow the search on the dictionary find a greater amount of entities if compared with the search using the original strings, for the same value of Edit Distance. Transformations also promote the strings size reduction and create more similar prefixes, promoting a reduction in the size of the prefix tree (trie) that indexes the dictionary. To improve the precision of our approach, we provide filtering capabilities that make use of similarity metrics to eliminate false entities that have been returned from the search on the dictionary trie. Our approach is also designed to enable the configuration of some components to be adapted to different study cases. Keywords: Named entity recognition, Approximate string matching, Phonetic conversion

Vitality and Dynamism : Interstitial Dialogues of Language, Politics, and Religion in Morocco’s Literary Tradition

Anti-colonial literature is not necessarily ‘combat literature’ as Fanon and Déjeux have both suggested in their own writings. While it is often combative, there is also anti-colonial literature that emphasizes the human and the humane rather than the oppositional and contentious; it cannot be fair to label all anti-colonial literature as combative, even if one were to expand the definition of “combat” to include peaceful struggles against oppression or dehumanization. This book suggests that the relationship between the West and the rest of the world has been imagined as a relationship of Self (the West) to Other (the rest of the world), ordered and bordered geographically by the whims of Europeans and creating a Center-Periphery paradigm. These invented boundaries of humanity serve to separate geographical sites, but more, they serve to enclose the Empire and exoticize other cultures. Boundaries are often spatial, but more often, they are related to relationships and colonialization.9789400601857 (e pdf); 9789400601864 (epub)Wetensch. publicati

LETs and NESTs:voices, views and vignettes

This book is a collection of essays written by teachers and academics working and researching in contexts where Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) are employed and work on a daily basis with Local English Teachers (LETs)

Languages and the market: a ReCLes.pt selection of international perspectives and approaches

ReCLes.pt – the Association of Language Centres in Higher Education in Portugal – was honoured to host the ReCLes.pt 2014 International Conference on Languages and the Market: Competitiveness and Employability at the Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies (ESHTE – Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Turismo de Portugal). This topic is pivotal for the development and improvement of specific language skills that serve different areas in the labour market. Indeed, according to the report Languages for Jobs: Providing multilingual communication skills for the labour market, a report set up under the Education and Training 2020 framework, language learning should be “better geared to professional contexts and the needs” of the job market since doing so will then benefit not only learners but also “those seeking to employ people who are well-trained and properly qualified to assume their professional responsibilities” (2011: 4). Although the working group did include representatives from Italy and Ireland, it did not include Spain or Portugal, meaning that only two of the five most troubled countries in terms of their employment and economic situations contributed to the final report. This lack of representation motivated, in part, the conference theme for the ReCLes.pt 2014 International Conference, with the dual need for ever-improving research results for language teaching and the increasing relevance of language learning at a time of staggering austerity and rising rates of youth unemployment. Indeed, the ability to speak a number of foreign languages not only generates economic benefits and fosters employability but also promotes the mobility of professionals and diverse business activities, enabling companies to perform successfully on the global stage. From the confluence of educators, researchers and representatives from the business world debating languages as competitive assets in professional contexts, a selection of authors were invited to publish their papers in this volume. The collection comprises eleven relevant papers in Portuguese and in English divided in five topics: Languages, Culture and Employability; Languages and Technology; Languages and New Technologies; Languages for Tourism Purposes; and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). On the topic of Languages, Culture and Employability, Monika Hrebackova’s article on “Intercultural Communicative Competence and the Management Dimension of Culture” explores the impact of intercultural contexts on communication competencies in a foreign language, specifically English. The author describes the clear competitive advantage of intercultural competence in the corporate sector, covering perceptions of stereotypes, time and negotiating as well as issues of hierarchy, individualism and indulgency, among others. She brings her personal experience as a Czech to her outline of Czech cultural values to determine sources of cultural clashes and suggest some strategies for applying intercultural competence in management situations. On the same topic, Abdelaziz Kesbi’s “Foreign Language Mastery and Glocal Employability” reflects on the linguistic map of Morocco and the functional specializations of each language of the country’s patent multilingualism to determine the economic relevance of teaching their various foreign languages for the global market. This analysis is made within the context Moroccan language planning policies, concerning Arabization, Arabic and Amazigh as well as the status of French and English. Kesbi concludes with the proposal of English as a lingua franca to support the country’s most recent progressive free trade agreements. On the topic Languages and Technologies, the volume offers five articles, the first of which is “The Status of EFL Teaching in Moroccan Vocational Schools: A case study at the Meknès School of Technology”, Mohamed El Kandoussi argues the inadequacy of the linguistic competence of recent graduates and their challenges in the labour market. His research is based on a case study of local English language courses to ascertain the compatibility of the course content with the students’ vocational orientations while uncovering teachers’ attitudes and opinions towards a number of pedagogical practices, including the corporate culture of their school, course material, the students’ needs for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) versus general English and the perceived need for further teacher training. In line with technical concerns for future Engineers, Milan Smutny’s article on “The Language of Science and Technology: Linguistics as a part of a multidisciplinary study program” examines terminology, especially the formation of adjectives using premodification to effectively and precisely communicate within a specific discourse community. The author provides examples of the shared profession knowledge as part of the language of Science and Technology so that English language teachers can better understand the ways specific terminology is created as a precise description of reality in the daily professional lives of Electrical Engineers. Another contribution involving new technologies is by Maria de Lurdes Martins, Gillian Moreira and António Moreira on “Aprendizagem dialógica, dialética e autêntica da língua inglesa com recurso à Web 2.0”, where the authors discuss the open, participatory and social nature of Web 2.0 and the challenges it brings to foreign language classes. This paper, which describes the design and implementation of an action research project in English language courses, focuses on the interactional tasks that were implemented using Web 2.0 tools and their results, which led to the creation and maintenance of dialogic processes for the production of collaborative outputs through an active involvement of students in solving authentic activities, while developing their capabilities to manage individual and collaborative learning processes. Luisa Salvati and Luana Cosenza’s article on “Teaching Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes in Mobile Learning for the Internationalization of SMEs” reflects on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as enablers of foreign language learning and facilitators of internationalization. Their paper focuses specifically on the results of LSECON, a project that dealt with the implementation of language courses to support SMEs in the Tuscany region of Italy. To conclude the technologies section, the volume offers the results of a joint project that has dealt with working across cultures in tandem-learning situations albeit in a readily available online source, presented in Regina Mügge and María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro’s article on “Language Learning with the SEAGULL Tandem Database”, which delves into this rich European Union-funded project, an acronym for Smart Educational Autonomy by Guided Language Learning. The result of collaboration between 18 partner institutes from 11 countries, SEAGULL provides language learning material for 13 languages with a number of special online features. This tool for tandem partners who aim to continue working together after their first exchange offers linguistic support, suggested issues for discussion and a myriad of cultural information about the countries involved in the SEAGULL project. The authors provide a guided visit of the wealth of material available at http://SEAGULL-tandem.eu/ that can be easily accessed by teachers and students alike. On the topic of Languages for Tourism Purposes, Gisela Soares and Teresa Pataco examine the specificities of language learning in the hospitality sector, namely in the areas of catering and restaurant service. In “‘Eu nem sei o que é um badejo em Português!’: um projeto de desenvolvimento de vocabulário específico em língua inglesa para a indústria hoteleira”, the authors reflect on the teaching methodologies and results of an interdisciplinary project developed by higher education students in TV Cooking Show, an English language course that aims to develop the specific vocabulary of students through research and task-based activities which enhance learner autonomy. In the following article by María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro and Florbela Rodrigues, these researchers consider the plethora of materials available from Tourism Marketing as an authentic source for teaching English, Spanish, Portuguese and French in higher education, drawing on commercial goods and promotional material on the respective countries to enhance intercultural awareness and to practice language skills based on maximizing communication and theories of visualization. The relevant and timely teaching strategies in their article, “Making Tourism Marketing Work for You in the FL Classroom” cover, among others, the value of fostering positive attitudes toward error in foreign language use, problem-centeredness, and motivation. The authors find that, while simultaneously promoting student strategies for developing skills in global effectiveness in their future professions, discerning teachers can take steps to ensure that language users are immersed in a graphic and semiotic richness of cultural and linguistic messages. The final topic in the volume is dedicated to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), beginning with an article by Margarida Coelho on “Scaffolding Strategies in CLIL Classes – supporting learners towards autonomy”, in which she deftly attributes scaffolding and scaffolding strategies the key roles in CLIL teaching. She presents a brief overview of the origin of the concept as a teaching strategy, focusing on some recent studies, and systematizes the most relevant approaches and conceptual frameworks to scaffolding presented in those studies. As a conclusion, she argues for a broader, more extensive, continuous and innovative use of different scaffolding strategies in CLIL classes as an effective means to foster learner autonomy and progressively build their confidence in using a FL language for effectively dealing with content. The volume then concludes with “The State of the ReCLes.pt CLIL Training Project”, by María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro, Ana Gonçalves, Manuel Moreira da Silva, Margarida Morgado and Margarida Coelho, which provides an update to the developments in research and publications in the national project, from a collaboratively written book to numerous articles, presentations and posters, culminating in first place at the friendly competition in the strand From research to practice at the XIV CercleS International Conference on Enhancing Learners' Creative and Critical Thinking: The Role of University Language Centres in September 2016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sawt, Bodies, Species. Sonic Pluralism in Morocco.

In Sawt, Bodies, Species, Gilles Aubry offers an account on sound and listening in Morocco across a wide domain of activities, including musical and artistic expression, sound archives, urban planning, building techniques, seismology, healing practices, industrial extractivism, and ecology. Sawt in Arabic literally means sound and voice. Sound in Morocco thus intimately relates to the body; it never quite corresponds with its modern Western counterpart as a phenomenon separable from the other senses. Sonic pluralism recapitulates Aubry's attempts to think sound and aurality together with modernity and (de-)coloniality. The transformative power of sonic pluralism is expressed in people's acts of listen- ing and sounding, aimed at questioning and shifting social conventions. On the level of ecology, sonic pluralism reveals extra-human agencies that mediate between people and their environment. Drawing on critical Sound Studies, ethnographic research, and artistic practice, Aubry's dense descriptions are complemented by audiovisual essays created in collaboration with local musicians, artists, and scientists

Tonal placement in Tashlhiyt: How an intonation system accommodates to adverse phonological environments

In most languages, words contain vowels, elements of high intensity with rich harmonic structure, enabling the  perceptual retrieval of pitch. By contrast, in Tashlhiyt, a Berber language, words can be composed entirely of voiceless segments. When an utterance consists of such words, the phonetic opportunity for the execution of intonational pitch movements is exceptionally limited. This book explores in a series of production and perception experiments how these typologically rare phonotactic patterns interact with intonational aspects of linguistic structure. It turns out that Tashlhiyt allows for a tremendously flexible placement of tonal events. Observed intonational structures can be conceived of as different solutions to a functional dilemma: The requirement to realise meaningful pitch movements in certain positions and the extent to which segments lend themselves to a clear manifestation of these pitch movements