Cross-language Citation Analysis of Traditional and Open Access Journals

This study examines the differences in the proportion of non-English language citations given to English language articles published in open access and traditional library and information science journals. It compares the average percentage of foreign language citations to total citations between 207 open access articles and 196 traditional articles published between 2011 and 2012. An independent, two-tailed t-test found no statistically significant difference between the foreign language citation percentages of open access and traditional articles. An analysis of variance also found no significant difference in the proportion of citations given by each non-English language according to journal type.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Difficulties in Establishing Common Ground in Multiparty Groups using Machine Translation

When people communicate in their native languages using machine translation, they face various problems in constructing common ground. This study investigates the difficulties of constructing common ground when multiparty groups (consisting of more than two language communities) communicate using machine translation. We compose triads whose members come from three different language communities—China, Korea, and Japan—and compare their referential communication under two conditions: in their shared second language (English) and in their native languages using machine translation. Consequently, our study suggests the importance of not only grounding between speaker and addressee but also grounding between addressees in constructing effective machine-translation-mediated communication. Furthermore, to successfully build common ground between addressees, it seems important for them to be able to monitor what is going on between a speaker and other addressees

第二言語話者を含む会話における音声・文字メディア併用の効果

筑波大学修士(情報学)学位論文 ・ 平成29年3月24日授与(37771号

From Cultural Diversity To Group Creativity: Using Language-Retrieved Pictures To Support Computer-Mediated Intercultural Brainstorming

International and intercultural groups increasingly perform various kinds of knowledge work that require groups to brainstorm or generate new ideas, such as problem solving, intelligence analysis and design. One observation based on the understanding of cultural differences and group idea generation suggests that cultures, or socially shared systems of concepts and practices among communities of people, introduce both benefits and obstacles to intercultural brainstorming. Cultural diversity in concepts and ways of thinking is in general beneficial, while cultural discrepancy in social norms, communication styles and language can be detrimental to idea sharing and brainstorming outcomes. The major goal of this dissertation is to reconcile the tension between the benefits and obstacles of intercultural collaboration. In this dissertation, I investigate how people with different cultural backgrounds communicate to perform brainstorming. I further propose brainstorming support tools accordingly, and evaluate the designs in the contexts of cross-cultural and cross-lingual brainstorming. The dissertation considers that using computers to retrieve and display language-retrieved pictures, which are pictures relevant to the ongoing conversation, can effectively support intercultural brainstorming. As individuals from different cultures vary in terms of how they perceive and interpret image content, the design attempts to present pictures to elicit diverse thoughts from members of intercultural groups. A study confirms the usefulness of this design for American-Chinese intercultural groups. The dissertation further considers to bridge cultures at the language level, using machine translation (MT) to allow group members to produce and read ideas in their native languages. Another study shows that MT supports the production of ideas but not the comprehension of ideas. The results point to the need to further investigate the detailed processes for producing and comprehending ideas in intercultural groups to inform future designs. The dissertation contributes to the understanding of computer-mediated intercultural brainstorming with behavioral studies and design work, and shows the need for technical designs to take understanding of various aspects of culture, such as social and communicative norms, cognition and languages spoken, into consideration