Design, development, implementation and evaluation of a purilingual ICALL system for romance languages aimed at advanced learners

Plurilingual teaching and learning of Romance languages exploits the similarities between these languages to teach them contrastively and to raise the language awareness of the learner. Several European projects have been devoted to plurilingual teaching and learning of Romance languages. The materials developed in these projects do not involve Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities and almost exclusively focus on receptive skills. The research goal of my Ph.D. dissertation was the design, development, implementation and evaluation of an interactive plurilingual ICALL (Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning) software system (ESPRIT) for contrastive learning of French, Spanish and Italian aimed at advanced learners. I investigated how techniques from NLP enhance the plurilingual teaching and learning of these languages. The ESPRIT toolset comprises dictionary tools, a concordancer, an input analysis and feedback module, custom-made animated grammar presentations and an authoring tool for animated text. Dictionary tools provide useful information on unrestricted texts. The concordancer gives extensive information about how a language term is used in different contexts. The input analysis and feedback module dynamically provides precise feedback on restricted learner input up to paragraph level. Custom-made animated grammar presentations and learning materials created with the animation authoring tool visualise contrastive grammatical properties and processes. ESPRIT represents an interactive and flexible learning environment and is designed for autonomous learning. Formative and summative evaluation processes provided learner assessment data of different components of ESPRIT. A web-based databasedriven evaluation platform developed for ESPRIT can easily be adapted to other evaluation projects

IT Innovation within the Esprit and IST Programs. Some Evidence from the UK

The European Strategic Program for Research in Information Technologies (Esprit) was created back in 1983 as a defensive response to the US and Japanese lead in Information Technologies (IT). Esprit was driven by the belief that intra-EU collaboration is an effective means to enhance the competitiveness of the European IT industry. Esprit has undergone a number of changes to facilitate collaboration and innovation. Yet, only after eighteen years of Esprit did the European Commission appreciate the need to encourage worldwide co-operation within its Fifth Framework Information Society Technologies (IST) Program. In the emerging information society and economy it is conceded that new ideas are as likely to be found outside Europe as within. This paper aims to investigate the personal networks of UK main contractors in Esprit and IST programs with regard to national boundaries and external linkages. It argues that the world of IT innovation is borderless and that Commission policies to impose boundaries to collaboration are unlikely to contribute to successful innovation in the IT industry throughout Europe.Mapping IT innovation networks; EU R&D programs; ESPRIT; IST; UK

Joining forces: European periodical studies as a new research field

In recent decades, periodical studies have burgeoned into a vibrant field of research. Increasing numbers of scholars working in disciplines across the humanities — literary studies, history, art history, gender studies, media studies, legal history, to name a few — are exploring the press as a key site for cultural production, public debate and the dissemination of knowledge. [...

"French Suburbs": a New Problem or a New Approach to Social Exclusion? GSPE Working Paper 1/27/2009

At the end of 1980s, the question of "quartiers sensibles" (at-risk neighborhoods) started being very publicized in France. It was not only the subject of many front page articles, but also the target of a new public policy aimed at promoting urban and social development in about 500 neighborhoods (Politique de la ville). I argue that such focalization on "quartiers sensibles" does not only result from increasing problems such as unemployment, poverty or juvenile delinquency. It also represents a major change in public policy. Focusing on "quartiers sensibles" directly contributed to the restructuring of the French Welfare State by centering its action on specific urban spaces rather than national territory, and on social links rather than economic reality, contrary to what Welfare State claimed to do during the Fordist period. The outbreak of November 2005 riots is inextricably bound up to the way some problems (like lack of communication and weakening social links) have been associated to the question of "quartiers sensibles" whereas the French model of integration, based on equality between abstract citizens, let some others (like ethnic discrimination) unquestioned