Systemic-functional linguistics and computation : New directions, new challenges

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Bridging boundaries across genre traditions : a systemic functional account of generic patterns in biodata

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ATMS-Based architecture for stylistics-aware text generation

This thesis is concerned with the effect of surface stylistic constraints (SSC) on syntactic and lexical choice within a unified generation architecture. Despite the fact that these issues have been investigated by researchers in the field, little work has been done with regard to system architectures that allow surface form constraints to influence earlier linguistic or even semantic decisions made throughout the NLG process. By SSC we mean those stylistic requirements that are known beforehand but cannot be tested until after the utterance or — in some lucky cases — until a proper linearised part of it has been generated. These include collocational constraints, text size limits, and poetic aspects such as rhyme and metre to name a few. This thesis introduces a new NLG architecture that can be sensitive to surface stylistic requirements. It brings together a well-founded linguistic theory that has been used in many successful NLG systems (Systemic Functional Linguistics, SFL) and an exist¬ ing AI search mechanism (the Assumption-based Truth Maintenance System, ATMS) which caches important search information and avoids work duplication. To this end, the thesis explores the logical relation between the grammar formalism and the search technique. It designs, based on that logical connection, an algorithm for the automatic translation of systemic grammar networks to ATMS dependency networks. The generator then uses the translated networks to generate natural language texts with a high paraphrasing power as a direct result of its ability to pursue multiple paths simultaneously. The thesis approaches the crucial notion of choice differently to previ¬ ous systems using SFL. It relaxes the choice process in that choosers are not obliged to deterministically choose a single alternative allowing SSC to influence the final lexical and syntactic decisions. The thesis also develops a situation-action framework for the specification of stylistic requirements independently of the micro-semantic input. The user or application can state what surface requirements they wish to impose and the ATMS-based generator then attempts to satisfy these constraints. Finally, a prototype ATMS-based generation system embodying the ideas presented in this thesis is implemented and evaluated. We examine the system's stylistic sensitivity by testing it on three different sets of stylistic requirements, namely: collocational, size, and poetic constraints

Research of College English Newspaper Reading Teaching Based on the Theory of Implicit Evaluation

Traditional teaching of the English Newspaper reading courses emphasizes the transmission of knowledge and culture, and pays too much attention to the analysis of discourse structures, but ignore the interpretation of the ideology and viewpoints implied in the newspaper discourse. Through the analysis of language resources in China Daily and the Wall Street Journal, we find that there are a lot of implicit evaluation resources in newspapers and periodicals, which indirectly convey the attitudes and opinions of newspaper reporters. Therefore, exploring the implicit evaluation resources in the  newspapers in the teaching process is of great significance to cultivate students’ critical thinking ability and promote the teaching of optional reading courses of English newspapers.

Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

Levels of Explanation and Translation Expertise

The observable activity of translation, the series of text comprehension and text production bursts we identify as translation, is the result of the activation of complex underlying cognitive systems. In the conduct of research it is often useful to approach such complex systems using a ‘levels of explanation’ framework. This paper considers David Marr’s (1982) three levels of explanation as they might apply to understanding translation and translation expertise more robustly. In cognitive translation studies to date, we have not really extended our understanding of expertise much past the second (algorithmic/representational) level in Marr’s scheme; we have failed to grapple as effectively as we might with the problem of how the second generation computationalist expertise constructs we adopted almost twenty years ago could be integrated with, for instance, connectionist neural network models of the mind, creating a third generation of expertise models. This paper offers some frameworks laying out how that end might be achieved using, for instance, symbolic connectionism and implementational connectivism. Further, it argues that given the overtly symbolic nature of translation language processing, cognitively-oriented translation scholars are uniquely suited to benefit from approaches that bridge the divide between symbol processing models and connectionist ones

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (NLG), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of NLG is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past decade or so, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of NLG technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in NLG and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of relatively recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between NLG and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in NLG evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of Natural Language Processing, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.Comment: Published in Journal of AI Research (JAIR), volume 61, pp 75-170. 118 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Preparing Asian ESOL Teachers to Respond to Student Writing: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Perspective in Action

L2 teachers generally lack the ability to respond to student writing in productive ways, because L2 teacher education has typically not developed teachers’ understanding of how language works in constructing meaningful texts. To address the need for preparing teachers to give meaningful feedback, this study investigates the professional experiences of Asian English language teachers (ELTs) who participated in a professional development program informed by Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL). This program attempts to apprentice teachers to becoming critical text analysts who are able to analyze the linguistic features of their students’ emergent writing practices and provide informed feedback. The research question guiding this study is: How does coursework in SFL influence Asian ELTs’ approach to responding to student writing? This study uses qualitative case study methods, and focuses on two specific time frames for data collection: 1) over 28 weeks (two semesters) of a SFL-based professional development course; 2) over ELTs’ teaching practicum conducted eight months after the completion of the course. Multiple types of data were collected, including the researcher’s fieldnotes, interviews, ELTs’ course assignments and written responses to student writing samples. The data were analyzed inductively, using multiple layers of coding, theme identification, and relational analysis. The findings indicate that ELTs progressed from offering decontextualized reactions to lexical and syntactic issues (e.g., correcting errors, calling for a wider vocabulary) to providing feedback aimed at strengthening meaning in a text. Specifically, ELTs were able to identify students’ ineffectual register choices for constructing texts relevant to specific genres and writing tasks, and offer linguistically-precise guidance for improvement. However, since ELTs’ uptake of SFL was highly influenced by their exam-oriented, formalism-informed language education and socialization in Asia, they usually addressed the issue of genre stages in student writing prescriptively. They also emphasized students’ language choices in constructing content (ideational meaning) and managing information flow (textual meaning), while overlooking features of voice (interpersonal meaning) in student text. The study contributes to research and practice of L2 writing teacher education by providing empirical information regarding the opportunities and challenges of using SFL to support Asian ELTs’ professional development in responding to student writing