A staircase model for teaching grammar for EAP writing in the IEP: freshman composition and the noun phrase

The interface of corpus linguistics and second language writing has led to extensive corpus-based research focusing on a description of academic writing. The overwhelming majority of this research, however, has focused on scholarly writing, which may not be a valid model for novice writing. This thesis proposes the teaching of second language writing should be informed by a staircase model of writing progression which aims instruction at the level of student writing. For English for academic purposes writers in intensive English programs, this target is first year undergraduate writing, specifically freshman composition as it is taught in North American higher education contexts. This study specifically compares the frequency of the noun phrase in freshman composition writing and scholarly writing with two main aims: to provide empirical evidence of the differences between the two levels of writing and to contribute to a description of freshman composition writing. The findings from this comparison clearly demonstrate that noun phrases in both levels of writing employ a discernible pattern, and there are distinct differences between those patterns. A critical need form pedagogical materials to focus more on phrasal structures in general, but especially nounphrases, is evident

Statistical Parsing by Machine Learning from a Classical Arabic Treebank

Research into statistical parsing for English has enjoyed over a decade of successful results. However, adapting these models to other languages has met with difficulties. Previous comparative work has shown that Modern Arabic is one of the most difficult languages to parse due to rich morphology and free word order. Classical Arabic is the ancient form of Arabic, and is understudied in computational linguistics, relative to its worldwide reach as the language of the Quran. The thesis is based on seven publications that make significant contributions to knowledge relating to annotating and parsing Classical Arabic. Classical Arabic has been studied in depth by grammarians for over a thousand years using a traditional grammar known as i’rāb (إعغاة ). Using this grammar to develop a representation for parsing is challenging, as it describes syntax using a hybrid of phrase-structure and dependency relations. This work aims to advance the state-of-the-art for hybrid parsing by introducing a formal representation for annotation and a resource for machine learning. The main contributions are the first treebank for Classical Arabic and the first statistical dependency-based parser in any language for ellipsis, dropped pronouns and hybrid representations. A central argument of this thesis is that using a hybrid representation closely aligned to traditional grammar leads to improved parsing for Arabic. To test this hypothesis, two approaches are compared. As a reference, a pure dependency parser is adapted using graph transformations, resulting in an 87.47% F1-score. This is compared to an integrated parsing model with an F1-score of 89.03%, demonstrating that joint dependency-constituency parsing is better suited to Classical Arabic. The Quran was chosen for annotation as a large body of work exists providing detailed syntactic analysis. Volunteer crowdsourcing is used for annotation in combination with expert supervision. A practical result of the annotation effort is the corpus website: http://corpus.quran.com, an educational resource with over two million users per year

Supporting the Maintenance of Identifier Names: A Holistic Approach to High-Quality Automated Identifier Naming

A considerable part of the source code is identifier names-- unique lexical tokens that provide information about entities, and entity interactions, within the code. Identifier names provide human-readable descriptions of classes, functions, variables, etc. Poor or ambiguous identifier names (i.e., names that do not correctly describe the code behavior they are associated with) will lead developers to spend more time working towards understanding the code\u27s behavior. Bad naming can also have detrimental effects on tools that rely on natural language clues; degrading the quality of their output and making them unreliable. Additionally, misinterpretations of the code, caused by poor names, can result in the injection of quality issues into the system under maintenance. Thus, improved identifier naming increases developer effectiveness, higher-quality software, and higher-quality software analysis tools. In this dissertation, I establish several novel concepts that help measure and improve the quality of identifiers. The output of this dissertation work is a set of identifier name appraisal and quality tools that integrate into the developer workflow. Through a sequence of empirical studies, I have formulated a series of heuristics and linguistic patterns to evaluate the quality of identifier names in the code and provide naming structure recommendations. I envision and working towards supporting developers in integrating my contributions, discussed in this dissertation, into their development workflow to significantly improve the process of crafting and maintaining high-quality identifier names in the source code

Language learning strategies: a study of older students of German at the University of the Third Age

Laslett’s (1996) concept of the Third Age identifies learning as an important part of successful ageing. As an ageing population shows growing interest in language learning, so research into ‘foreign language geragogy’ (Bemdt 1997, 2003) has expanded, although some early studies of older adult language learners proved inconclusive (Singleton 1989). The current study investigates older language learners of German and their use of language learning strategies. It modifies Graham’s (1997) strategy categorisation into cognitive, metacognitive, social/affective and communicative. A mixed method approach involved questionnaires, think-aloud protocols and interviews: 72 learners (all over 50) of German and other languages at the local University of the Third Age provided background information and reported on their strategy use. Think-aloud protocols illustrated how older learners employed learning strategies whilst working on a variety of tasks (reading, speaking, listening, writing). Interviews elicited student perspectives on learning strategies and wider issues such as motivation, beliefs, anxiety and past experiences. The study concludes that: • The research instruments were broadly suitable for exploring strategies among older learners, showing individual and general tendencies in language strategy use. Think-aloud protocols may require some participant training. • Older learners did not employ essentially different learning strategies from other adults; differences were more apparent in affective areas such as motivation. • It was possible to identify a list of typical strategies employed by older learners. • The subjects adopted mainly metacognitive and cognitive strategies, adapting them to their individual learning needs. The range of communicative and social/affective strategies was limited, perhaps because think-aloud protocols allowed fewer opportunities for them. The findings help to identify key implications for supporting the older language learner

Developing oral proficiency through poem recitation in elementary English as a second language

This project addresses the need for a performance-based language-development curriculum to serve the growing number of non-English-speaker immigrants in California\u27s public schools

The use of network-based communication to support EFL writing at Walailak University

The aim of the study was to investigate the potential of using network-based communication (NBC) in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classroom. It has been hypothesised that EFL writers benefit from the interactions through NBC with two peer groups (readers and students) in two aspects: 1) NBC permits explicit feedback that influences revisions, and 2) exposure to the target language in NBC leads to incorporation of language.The study integrated an online course (BlackBoard Courselnfo) into a writing classroom of thirty-two EFL students at Walailak University (WU), Thailand. The students wrote and submitted their drafts electronically to the asynchronous discussion forum where peers read the drafts, interacted with the writers and provided feedback. Taxonomies as defined by Faigley and Witte and Bridwell were used to identify revisions made in the sequential drafts. The feedback was analysed based on fifteen moves and two characteristics: text-specific (TS) and request for revision (RQ). The drafts and the feedback were cross-checked to determine the feedback effects as evidenced in revisions.The results show that students benefited from interaction with the audience when they made use of the provided feedback. The students made many changes mainly at the format and sentence levels. However, only a minority of revisions came from the online peer response while the majority originated from other sources such as selfinitiation. Feedback by the two peer groups differed in content, length and quantity. Students incorporated comments into all linguistic levels of their writing, and these were mainly surface corrections, TS and RQ feedback. Evidence from the online course indicated scarce and inconsistent participation implying low motivationThese findings have led to the conclusion that NBC has the potential to support EFL writing, but the students in this particular study were not highly motivated to become involved in the activities. The study also revealed that exposure to the target language for a short time (one academic term) did not result in language incorporation apart from the incorporation of the explicit feedback. Despite its limitations, this study provides some insights into further development in the field of EFL writing and NBC

Interactive Machine Learning for User-Innovation Toolkits – An Action Design Research approach

Machine learning offers great potential to developers and end users in the creative industries. However, to better support creative software developers' needs and empower them as machine learning users and innovators, the usability of and developer experience with machine learning tools must be considered and better understood. This thesis asks the following research questions: How can we apply a user-centred approach to the design of developer tools for rapid prototyping with Interactive Machine Learning? In what ways can we design better developer tools to accelerate and broaden innovation with machine learning? This thesis presents a three-year longitudinal action research study that I undertook within a multi-institutional consortium leading the EU H2020 -funded Innovation Action RAPID-MIX. The scope of the research presented here was the application of a user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of developer tools for rapid prototyping and product development with machine learning. This thesis presents my work in collaboration with other members of RAPID-MIX, including design and deployment of a user-centred methodology for the project, interventions for gathering requirements with RAPID-MIX consortium stakeholders and end users, and prototyping, development and evaluation of a software development toolkit for interactive machine learning. This thesis contributes with new understanding about the consequences and implications of a user-centred approach to the design and evaluation of developer tools for rapid prototyping of interactive machine learning systems. This includes 1) new understanding about the goals, needs, expectations, and challenges facing creative machine-learning non-expert developers and 2) an evaluation of the usability and design trade-offs of a toolkit for rapid prototyping with interactive machine learning. This thesis also contributes with 3) a methods framework of User-Centred Design Actions for harmonising User-Centred Design with Action Research and supporting the collaboration between action researchers and practitioners working in rapid innovation actions, and 4) recommendations for applying Action Research and User-Centred Design in similar contexts and scale