5,063 research outputs found

    Grounded Semantic Composition for Visual Scenes

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    We present a visually-grounded language understanding model based on a study of how people verbally describe objects in scenes. The emphasis of the model is on the combination of individual word meanings to produce meanings for complex referring expressions. The model has been implemented, and it is able to understand a broad range of spatial referring expressions. We describe our implementation of word level visually-grounded semantics and their embedding in a compositional parsing framework. The implemented system selects the correct referents in response to natural language expressions for a large percentage of test cases. In an analysis of the system's successes and failures we reveal how visual context influences the semantics of utterances and propose future extensions to the model that take such context into account

    First language in the classroom: the forbidden fruit?

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    Tesis (Profesor de Inglés para la Enseñanza Básica y Media y al grado académico de Licenciado en Educación)Over the past years, the use of students’ first language (L1) in the classroom has been a highly discussed topic in the EFL classroom as well as in the field of second language (L2) teaching/learning research. There is a tendency that advocates communicative language teaching which suggests that L1 use should forbidden in the classroom. However, research has yet to discover whether L1 use has a positive or negative impact on L2 learning. Hence, the present study aimed to examine L1 functions and the impact of L1 use on L2 development. The present study was conducted in a private school in Santiago, Chile. The participants of this study (N = 34) were engaged in two collaborative writing tasks about the book they were reading in their English literature classes, and their discussions were audio-recorded and later analyzed. A quasi-experimental method was utilized in order to observe the influence that group work had on their L2 vocabulary development. The results demonstrated that the students’ L1 played a major role in their interaction while together working on the collaborative tasks, and it served for the development of L2 vocabulary. Specifically, the results suggest that the way in which individual learners contributed to interaction affected their learning outcomes.En los últimos años, el uso de la primera lengua de los estudiantes ha sido un tema altamente discutido en las salas de clases y en la investigación de la enseñanza de inglés como Lengua Extranjera. Existe una tendencia general de prohibir el uso de la primera lengua, sin embargo, aún existen vacíos sobre la influencia positiva o negativa que esta podría tener en el aprendizaje de vocabulario. El presente estudio se realizó en una escuela privada en Santiago, Chile. El propósito del mismo fue observar las funciones que cumplía la lengua nativa en la interacción de los estudiantes y cómo esto afectaba al desarrollo de la segunda lengua en alumnos de octavo básico con alto nivel de inglés. Los participantes de este estudio fueron involucrados en dos actividades de escritura colaborativa sobre el libro que estaban leyendo en las clases de literatura inglesa, donde sus discusiones fueron grabadas en audio y luego analizadas. Se utilizó un método cuasi experimental para observar la influencia que tuvieron sus discusiones grupales –utilizando su primera lengua—en el desarrollo del vocabulario en la segunda lengua. Se aplicaron evaluaciones pre y post con el fin de tener un registro del desarrollo del vocabulario de los estudiantes y las funciones que la lengua materna cumplió fueron codificadas como sugirieron DiCamilla y Antón (2012). Los resultados demostraron que la lengua materna de los estudiantes jugó un rol mayor en su interacción mientras desarrollaban en conjunto actividades colaboración, y sirvió para el desarrollo del vocabulario de la segunda lengua. Más aun, los resultados sugieren que la forma en la que alumnos contribuyeron individualmente en las discusiones afectó los resultados en sus aprendizajes

    Perception and Acquisition of Natural Authentic English Speech for Chinese Learners Using DIT\u27s Speech Technologies

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    Given that Chinese language learners are greatly influenced by their mother-tongue, which is a tone language rather than an intonation language, learning and coping with authentic English speech seems more difficult than for learners of other languages. The focus of the current research is, on the basis of analysis of the nature of spoken English and spoken Chinese, to help Chinese learners derive benefit from ICT technologies developed by the Technological University Dublin (DIT). The thesis concentrates on investigating the application of speech technologies in bridging the gap between students’ internalised, idealised formulations and natural, authentic English speech. Part of the testing carried out by the present author demonstrates the acceptability of a slow-down algorithm in facilitating Chinese learners of English in re-producing formulaic language. This algorithm is useful because it can slow down audio files to any desired speed between 100% and 40% without distortion, so as to allow language learners to pay attention to the real, rapid flow of ‘messy’ speech and follow the intonation patterns contained in them. The rationale for and the application of natural, dialogic native-to-native English speech to language learning is also explored. The Chinese language learners involved in this study are exposed to authentic, native speech patterns by providing them access to real, informal dialogue in various contexts. In the course of this analysis, the influence of speed of delivery and pitch range on the categorisation of formulaic language is also investigated. The study investigates the potential of the speech tools available to the present author as an effective EFL learning facility, especially for speakers of tone languages, and their role in helping language learners achieve confluent interaction in an English L1 environment

    Amount of practice and pragmatic development of request-making in L2 Chinese

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    Assessing the potential of LLM-assisted annotation for corpus-based pragmatics and discourse analysis:The case of apologies

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    Certain forms of linguistic annotation, like part of speech and semantic tagging, can be automated with high accuracy. However, manual annotation is still necessary for complex pragmatic and discursive features that lack a direct mapping to lexical forms. This manual process is time-consuming and error-prone, limiting the scalability of function-to-form approaches in corpus linguistics. To address this, our study explores the possibility of using large language models (LLMs) to automate pragma-discursive corpus annotation. We compare GPT-3.5 (the model behind the free-to-use version of ChatGPT), GPT-4 (the model underpinning the precise mode of Bing chatbot), and a human coder in annotating apology components in English based on the local grammar framework. We find that GPT-4 outperformed GPT-3.5, with accuracy approaching that of a human coder. These results suggest that LLMs can be successfully deployed to aid pragma-discursive corpus annotation, making the process more efficient, scalable and accessible

    Assessing the potential of LLM-assisted annotation for corpus-based pragmatics and discourse analysis:The case of apologies

    Get PDF
    Certain forms of linguistic annotation, like part of speech and semantic tagging, can be automated with high accuracy. However, manual annotation is still necessary for complex pragmatic and discursive features that lack a direct mapping to lexical forms. This manual process is time-consuming and error-prone, limiting the scalability of function-to-form approaches in corpus linguistics. To address this, our study explores the possibility of using large language models (LLMs) to automate pragma-discursive corpus annotation. We compare GPT-3.5 (the model behind the free-to-use version of ChatGPT), GPT-4 (the model underpinning the precise mode of Bing chatbot), and a human coder in annotating apology components in English based on the local grammar framework. We find that GPT-4 outperformed GPT-3.5, with accuracy approaching that of a human coder. These results suggest that LLMs can be successfully deployed to aid pragma-discursive corpus annotation, making the process more efficient, scalable and accessible

    Use of Formulaic Sequences in Task-based Oral Production of Chinese

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    Formulaic language is a long-recognized phenomenon that has inspired new pedagogical and lexicographic developments in ESL. However, it did not draw much attention until the last decade in the field of Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL). Not surprisingly, research of formulaic sequences (FSs) in CSL has been scarce and rarely corpus-based and pedagogically focused. This study aims at filling in part of this gap. It is widely accepted that FSs are ubiquitous and play an important role in any discourse. They are critical in acquisition, retention and production of both L1 and L2. The awareness of both learners and teachers of the importance of FSs still needs to be raised. The aim of this thesis is to investigate disparities in the use of FSs in spoken Putonghua by non-native speakers (NNSs) and native speakers (NSs) to inform learning and teaching of CSL. This research adopts a corpus-based approach. After completing a language task, all FSs, including Task-specific Sentence Stems (i.e. function-specific utterances to carry out certain speech acts), in the transcripts of 30 NNSs and 30 NSs were identified and compared. Differences between NS and NNS data are pinpointed for drawing pedagogical inferences. It was confirmed that NS data contains higher density of FSs in general (i.e. more number of characters inside FSs as percentage of total number of characters) and greater number and varieties of TSSSs than NNSs. It was also confirm that more advanced NNSs’ data is more formulaic than less advanced NNSs’, and more native-like data is more formulaic than less native-like data. All the above findings attest to the significance of FSs in CSL. With better knowledge of the formulaic nature of Chinese language, this study calls forth more lexical and task-based approaches in CSL, and might shed light on curriculum and syllabus design, teaching material development and pedagogy
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