How users read translated web pages: occupational and purpose-based differences

Aquest estudi vol demostrar diferències en els patrons de lectura d'una pàgina web en base a les diferències ocupacionals dels participants i la finalitat de lectura. La recerca es realitza amb 20 participants dividits en dos grups: un grup de lectors professionals, on els participants són professionals de la lectura com traductors, editors i correctors, i un grup de lectura recreativa, on les seves professions no impliquen lectura detallada, com xefs, enginyers i personal militar. Tots els participants van completar quatre tasques dissenyades amb quatre finalitats de lectura: 1) sense objectiu específic, 2) per estudiar el tema, 3) per obtenir informació, i 4) per compartir informació. El text de partida en anglès presenta iOS 7. Per al test es va usar la versió web oficial en coreà, després d'inserir-li cinc tipus d'error segons el model d'avaluació LISA. Es va gravar la pantalla dels participants amb programari específic i es van usar Protocols en Veu Alta (TAP) per als seus informes verbals. L'anàlisi suggereix que els errors de traducció es perceben de diferent manera quan la finalitat lectora i la professió dels lectors varien. El grup de lectura professional va aplicar una lectura lineal i meticulosa, mentre que el grup de lectura recreativa va optar per una lectura circular i no rigorosa. El primer grup va detectar gran quantitat d'errors, mentre que el segon va mostrar un baix percentatge de detecció d'errors. Malgrat això, el grup professional mostra major nivell de tolerància als errors de traducció en el procés de comprensió i el grup recreatiu major nivell de frustració a la falta de comprensió. L'autoritat de la companyia encarregada de la web va exercir gran influència en el nivell de confiança del grup de lectura recreativa.Este estudio investiga diferencias en la lectura de una página web traducida en base a las diferencias ocupacionales de los participantes y la finalidad de lectura. La investigación se realiza con 20 participantes divididos en dos grupos: un grupo de lectores profesionales, cuyos participantes son profesionales de la lectura como traductores, editores y correctores, y un grupo de lectura recreativa, cuyas profesiones no implican lectura detallada, como chefs, ingenieros y personal militar. Todos los participantes completaron cuatro tareas diseñadas con cuatro finalidades de lectura: 1) sin objetivo específico, 2) para estudiar el tema, 3) para obtener información, y 4) para compartir información. Para estudiar como los lectores perciben los errores de traducción y la relación entre patrones de lectura y finalidad lectora, se introdujeron cinco tipos de errores de traducción en una web. Se grabó la pantalla de los participantes con software específico y se usaron Protocolos en Voz Alta (TAP) para sus informes verbales. El análisis sugiere que los errores de traducción se perciben de diferente manera cuando la finalidad lectora y la profesión de los lectores varían. El grupo de lectura profesional aplicó una lectura lineal y concienzuda, mientras que el grupo de lectura recreativa optó por una lectura circular y no rigurosa. El primer grupo detectó gran cantidad de errores, mientras que el segundo mostró un bajo porcentaje de detección de errores. Pese a ello, el grupo profesional muestra mayor nivel de tolerancia a los errores de traducción en el proceso de comprensión y el grupo recreativo mayor nivel de frustración a la falta de comprensión. La autoridad de la compañía encargada de la web ejerció gran influencia en el nivel de confianza del grupo de lectura recreativa.As a part of process-oriented research efforts, the study aimed to test occupational differences and purpose-based differences in reading pattern of a translated web page. The research used two reading groups with ten participants in each: a heavy-reading group, whose participants were reading professionals such as translators, editors and proofreaders, and a light-reading group, whose professions did not involve intensive reading, such as chefs, engineers, and military personnel. The participants in both groups completed four different tasks that were designed to provoke four different reading purposes: 1) reading without a specific task, 2) reading for studying subject matter, 3) reading for retrieving information, and 4) reading for sharing information. In order to learn more about how readers perceive translation errors and to test the relations between the reading patterns and the reading purposes, five different types of translation errors were planted in a web page. The participants’ screen activity was recorded by a screen recording software, and TAP is used for their verbal reports. In-depth analysis of the results suggests that occupations and reading purposes have meaningful impacts on the reading patterns of the translated web page. The heavy-reading group displayed very strict bottom-up approaches, with linear and thorough reading, whereas the light-reading group showed relaxed top-down approaches, with circular and not-thorough reading. The heavy group showed critical attitudes in detecting errors, while the light-reading group showed extremely low error-detection rates, with relaxed attitudes. Surprisingly, in spite of the critical error detection pattern, the tolerance level of translation errors in the process of comprehension was much higher in the heavy-reading group, and the frustration level of incomprehension was much higher in the light-reading group. The authority of the company producing the web page also heavily influenced the trust level of the light-reading group

#GlockeAktiv: A corpus linguistic study of German youth language on YouTube

This thesis is a corpus linguistic investigation of the language used by young German speakers online, examining lexical, morphological, orthographic, and syntactic features and changes in language use over time. The study analyses the language in the Nottinghamer Korpus deutscher YouTube‐Sprache ("Nottingham corpus of German YouTube language", or NottDeuYTSch corpus), one of the first large corpora of German‐language comments taken from the videosharing website YouTube, and built specifically for this project. The metadatarich corpus comprises c.33 million tokens from more than 3 million comments posted underneath videos uploaded by mainstream German‐language youthorientated YouTube channels from 2008‐2018. The NottDeuYTSch corpus was created to enable corpus linguistic approaches to studying digital German youth language (Jugendsprache), having identified the need for more specialised web corpora (see Barbaresi 2019). The methodology for compiling the corpus is described in detail in the thesis to facilitate future construction of web corpora. The thesis is situated at the intersection of Computer‐Mediated Communication (CMC) and youth language, which have been important areas of sociolinguistic scholarship since the 1980s, and explores what we can learn from a corpus‐driven, longitudinal approach to (online) youth language. To do so, the thesis uses corpus linguistic methods to analyse three main areas: 1. Lexical trends and the morphology of polysemous lexical items. For this purpose, the analysis focuses on geil, one of the most iconic and productive words in youth language, and presents a longitudinal analysis, demonstrating that usage of geil has decreased, and identifies lexical items that have emerged as potential replacements. Additionally, geil is used to analyse innovative morphological productiveness, demonstrating how different senses of geil are used as a base lexeme or affixoid in compounding and derivation. 2. Syntactic developments. The novel grammaticalization of several subordinating conjunctions into both coordinating conjunctions and discourse markers is examined. The investigation is supported by statistical analyses that demonstrate an increase in the use of non‐standard syntax over the timeframe of the corpus and compares the results with other corpora of written language. 3. Orthography and the metacommunicative features of digital writing. This iii iv analysis identifies orthographic features and strategies in the corpus, e.g. the repetition of certain emoji, and develops a holistic framework to study metacommunicative functions, such as the communication of illocutionary force, information structure, or the expression of identities. The framework unifies previous research that had focused on individual features, integrating a wide range of metacommunicative strategies within a single, robust system of analysis. By using qualitative and computational analytical frameworks within corpus linguistic methods, the thesis identifies emergent linguistic features in digital youth language in German and sheds further light on lexical and morphosyntactic changes and trends in the language of young people over the period 2008‐2018. The study has also further developed and augmented existing analytical frameworks to widen the scope of their application to orthographic features associated with digital writing

Multi-Sensory Interaction for Blind and Visually Impaired People

This book conveyed the visual elements of artwork to the visually impaired through various sensory elements to open a new perspective for appreciating visual artwork. In addition, the technique of expressing a color code by integrating patterns, temperatures, scents, music, and vibrations was explored, and future research topics were presented. A holistic experience using multi-sensory interaction acquired by people with visual impairment was provided to convey the meaning and contents of the work through rich multi-sensory appreciation. A method that allows people with visual impairments to engage in artwork using a variety of senses, including touch, temperature, tactile pattern, and sound, helps them to appreciate artwork at a deeper level than can be achieved with hearing or touch alone. The development of such art appreciation aids for the visually impaired will ultimately improve their cultural enjoyment and strengthen their access to culture and the arts. The development of this new concept aids ultimately expands opportunities for the non-visually impaired as well as the visually impaired to enjoy works of art and breaks down the boundaries between the disabled and the non-disabled in the field of culture and arts through continuous efforts to enhance accessibility. In addition, the developed multi-sensory expression and delivery tool can be used as an educational tool to increase product and artwork accessibility and usability through multi-modal interaction. Training the multi-sensory experiences introduced in this book may lead to more vivid visual imageries or seeing with the mind’s eye

Advances in Character Recognition

This book presents advances in character recognition, and it consists of 12 chapters that cover wide range of topics on different aspects of character recognition. Hopefully, this book will serve as a reference source for academic research, for professionals working in the character recognition field and for all interested in the subject

Conveying interpretations of the past with interactive narratives

This master’s thesis sketches a theory upon which a heuristic for the effective conveyance of scholarly historical interpretation of the past to a non-scholarly audience can be built. For this heuristic to yield methods that do not only respect academic standards of critical inquiry, but simultaneously ensure that thus produced historical knowledge can be imparted to and retained by laymen, the interplay of a range of factors has to be understood first. This thesis builds on and connects theories and concepts from philosophy, psychology, media- and game studies, cognitive sciences, semiotics, and computer science. It takes a stance that emphasizes the capacity of scholars and laymen alike to form informed and critical interpretations of the past under the right circumstances. In order to facilitate these circumstances most effectively, it takes a pragmatic approach which rejects maximizing either of the variables in the triplet verisimilitude, veracity, and verifiability at the expense of the other

Attention Restraint, Working Memory Capacity, and Mind Wandering: Do Emotional Valence or Intentionality Matter?

Attention restraint appears to mediate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and mind wandering (Kane et al., 2016). Prior work has identifed two dimensions of mind wandering—emotional valence and intentionality. However, less is known about how WMC and attention restraint correlate with these dimensions. Te current study examined the relationship between WMC, attention restraint, and mind wandering by emotional valence and intentionality. A confrmatory factor analysis demonstrated that WMC and attention restraint were strongly correlated, but only attention restraint was related to overall mind wandering, consistent with prior fndings. However, when examining the emotional valence of mind wandering, attention restraint and WMC were related to negatively and positively valenced, but not neutral, mind wandering. Attention restraint was also related to intentional but not unintentional mind wandering. Tese results suggest that WMC and attention restraint predict some, but not all, types of mind wandering

Design and evaluation of mobile computer-assisted pronunciation training tools for second language learning

The quality of speech technology (automatic speech recognition, ASR, and textto- speech, TTS) has considerably improved and, consequently, an increasing number of computer-assisted pronunciation (CAPT) tools has included it. However, pronunciation is one area of teaching that has not been developed enough since there is scarce empirical evidence assessing the effectiveness of tools and games that include speech technology in the field of pronunciation training and teaching. This PhD thesis addresses the design and validation of an innovative CAPT system for smart devices for training second language (L2) pronunciation. Particularly, it aims to improve learner’s L2 pronunciation at the segmental level with a specific set of methodological choices, such as learner’s first and second language connection (L1– L2), minimal pairs, a training cycle of exposure–perception–production, individualistic and social approaches, and the inclusion of ASR and TTS technology. The experimental research conducted applying these methodological choices with real users validates the efficiency of the CAPT prototypes developed for the four main experiments of this dissertation. Data is automatically gathered by the CAPT systems to give an immediate specific feedback to users and to analyze all results. The protocols, metrics, algorithms, and methods necessary to statistically analyze and discuss the results are also detailed. The two main L2 tested during the experimental procedure are American English and Spanish. The different CAPT prototypes designed and validated in this thesis, and the methodological choices that they implement, allow to accurately measuring the relative pronunciation improvement of the individuals who trained with them. Both rater’s subjective scores and CAPT’s objective scores show a strong correlation, being useful in the future to be able to assess a large amount of data and reducing human costs. Results also show an intensive practice supported by a significant number of activities carried out. In the case of the controlled experiments, students who worked with the CAPT tool achieved better pronunciation improvement values than their peers in the traditional in-classroom instruction group. In the case of the challenge-based CAPT learning game proposed, the most active players in the competition kept on playing until the end and achieved significant pronunciation improvement results.Departamento de Informática (Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores, Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificial, Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos)Doctorado en Informátic

Reading and Writing with ICT: Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions

This proceedings book is the offspring of the online national conference on “Reading and Writing with ICTs: Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions” that was held on 9/10 March 2022 at Badji Mokhtar University- Annaba- Algeria. This conference was part of a project accepted by the ministry of Higher education and scientific research (PRFU). Scholars from different corners of Algeria participated in the conference two days. Indeed, Information and communication technology (ICTs) is the marked print of this era. It is the digital age were smart phones, computers and internet are widely spread. With the outbreak of COVID 19, higher education opted for online learning as the only solution to save the learning process. Besides, in order to learn a language, reading and writing represent the two essential literacy skills that learners/teachers should focus on. After a blind double- review, twenty articles were accepted under three sections. The first is about “Developing the reading skill through ICTS: Teachers’ and Learners’ perceptions with six articles” with six articles. The second section on “Developing the writing skill through ICTS: Teachers’ and Learners’ perceptions” includes seven articles. The last section is on “ICTs and Language Learning” with seven articles. The proceedings book ends with a number of recommendations for a better use of ICTs in the educational context in Algeria

Reading and Writing with ICT: Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions

This proceedings book is the offspring of the online national conference on “Reading and Writing with ICTs: Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions” that was held on 9/10 March 2022 at Badji Mokhtar University- Annaba- Algeria. This conference was part of a project accepted by the ministry of Higher education and scientific research (PRFU). Scholars from different corners of Algeria participated in the conference two days. Indeed, Information and communication technology (ICTs) is the marked print of this era. It is the digital age were smart phones, computers and internet are widely spread. With the outbreak of COVID 19, higher education opted for online learning as the only solution to save the learning process. Besides, in order to learn a language, reading and writing represent the two essential literacy skills that learners/teachers should focus on. After a blind double- review, twenty articles were accepted under three sections. The first is about “Developing the reading skill through ICTS: Teachers’ and Learners’ perceptions with six articles” with six articles. The second section on “Developing the writing skill through ICTS: Teachers’ and Learners’ perceptions” includes seven articles. The last section is on “ICTs and Language Learning” with seven articles. The proceedings book ends with a number of recommendations for a better use of ICTs in the educational context in Algeria