Neural Plasticity of Language Systems: evidence from fMRI experiments with adult language learners

216 p.Functional specialisation and plasticity are fundamental organising principles of the brain. Language is a uniquely human phenomenon that requires a delicate balance between neural specialisation and plasticity, and language learning offers the perfect window to study these principles in the human brain. Though the human brain exhibits a remarkable ability to support a variety of languages that may be acquired at different points in the life span, the capacity for neural reorganisation decreases with age. Further, language is a complex construct involving linguistic as well as visual, auditory, and motor processes. The current doctoral thesis asked two main questions: (1) Do large-scale functional changes accompany language learning in adulthood? and (2) Are these neural changes similar across different language systems such as reading, speech comprehension, and verbal production? These questions were investigated in three fMRI experiments with adult language learners. In Experiments I and II, comprehension and production were examined in 30-to-60-year-old intermediate and advanced language learners and functional learning-related changes in each modality were comprehensively characterised. In Experiment III, hemispheric lateralisation of reading, speech comprehension, and verbal production were compared and contrasted, and the analyses were extended to a second longitudinal study with a contrasting participant sample. Robust evidence was found for significant functional plasticity well into adulthood, and results showed that different language systems exhibited different patterns of hemispheric specialisation and plasticity. The results have theoretical and practical implications for our understanding of fundamental principles of neural organisation of language, language learning in healthy populations, and language testing and recovery in patients

Towards multilingual domain module acquisition

Máster y Doctorado en Sistemas Informáticos Avanzados, Informatika Fakultatea - Facultad de InformáticaDOM-Sortze is a framework for Semi-Automatic development of Domain Modules, i.e., the pedagogical representation of the domain to be learnt. DOM-Sortze generates Domain Modules for Technology Supported Learning Systems using Natural Language Processing Techniques, Ontologies and Heuristic Reasoning. The framework has been already used over textbooks in Basque language. This work presents the extension that adds English support to the framework, which is achieved with the modification of ErauzOnt. This is the tool that enables the acquisition of learning resources, definitions, examples, exercises, etc. used in the learning process. Moreover, some tests have been made to evaluate the performance of the tool with this new language. Principles of Object-Oriented Programming textbook for Object-Oriented Programming university subject is used for evaluation purposes. The results of this tests show that DOM-Sortze is not tight to a particular domain neither language

LiDom builder: Automatising the construction of multilingual domain modules

136 p.Laburpena Lan honetan LiDOM Builder tresnaren analisi, diseinu eta ebaluazioa aurkezten dira. Teknologian oinarritutako hezkuntzarako tresnen Domeinu Modulu Eleaniztunak testuliburu elektronikoetatik era automatikoan erauztea ahalbidetzen du LiDOM Builderek. Ezagutza eskuratzeko, Hizkuntzaren Prozesamendurako eta Ikaste Automatikorako teknikekin batera, hainbat baliabide eleaniztun erabiltzen ditu, besteak beste, Wikipedia eta WordNet.Domeinu Modulu Elebakarretik Domeinu Modulu Eleaniztunerako bidean, LiDOM Builder tresna DOM-Sortze ingurunearen (Larrañaga, 2012; Larrañaga et al., 2014) bilakaera dela esan genezake. Horretarako, LiDOM Builderek domeinua ikuspegi eleaniztun batetik adieraztea ahalbidetzen duen mekanismoa dakar. Domeinu Modulu Eleaniztunak bi maila ezberdinetako ezagutza jasotzen du: Ikaste Domeinuaren Ontologia (IDO), non hizkuntza ezberdinetan etiketatutako topikoak eta hauen arteko erlazio pedagogikoak jasotzen baitira, eta Ikaste Objektuak (IO), hau da, metadatuekin etiketatutako baliabide didaktikoen bilduma, hizkuntza horietan. LiDOM Builderek onartutako hizkuntza guztietan domeinuaren topikoak adierazteko aukera ematen du. Topiko bakoitza lotuta dago dagokion hizkuntzako bere etiketa baliokidearekin. Gainera, IOak deskribatzeko metadatu aberastuak erabiltzen ditu hizkuntza desberdinetan parekideak diren baliabide didaktikoak lotzeko.LiDOM Builderen, hasiera batean, domeinu-modulua hizkuntza jakin batean idatzitako dokumentu batetik erauziko da eta, baliabide eleaniztunak erabiliko dira, gerora, bai topikoak bai IOak beste hizkuntzetan ere lortzeko. Lan honetan, Ingelesez idatzitako liburuek osatuko dute informazio-iturri nagusia bai doitze-prozesuan bai ebaluazio-prozesuan. Zehazki, honako testuliburu hauek erabili dira: Principles of Object Oriented Programming (Wong and Nguyen, 2010), Introduction to Astronomy (Morison, 2008) eta Introduction to Molecular Biology (Raineri, 2010). Baliabide eleaniztunei dagokienez, Wikipedia, WordNet eta Wikipediatik erauzitako beste hainbat ezagutza-base erabili dira. Testuliburuetatik Domeinu Modulu Eleaniztunak eraikitzeko, LiDOM Builder hiru modulu nagusitan oinarritzen da: LiTeWi eta LiReWi moduluak IDO eleaniztuna eraikitzeaz arduratuko dira eta LiLoWi, aldiz, IO eleaniztunak eraikitzeaz. Jarraian, aipatutako modulu bakoitza xehetasun gehiagorekin azaltzen da.¿ LiTeWi (Conde et al., 2015) moduluak, edozein ikaste-domeinutako testuliburu batetik abiatuta, Hezkuntzarako Ontologia bati dagozkion hainbat termino eleaniztun identifikatuko ditu, hala nola TF-IDF, KP-Miner, CValue eta Shallow Parsing Grammar. Hori lortzeko, gainbegiratu gabeko datu-erauzketa teknikez eta Wikipediaz baliatzen da. Ontologiako topikoak erauzteak LiTeWi-n hiru urrats ditu: lehenik hautagai diren terminoen erauzketa; bigarrenik, lortutako terminoen konbinatzea eta fintzea azken termino zerrenda osatuz; eta azkenik, zerrendako terminoak beste hizkuntzetara mapatzea Wikipedia baliatuz.¿ LiReWi (Conde et al., onartzeko) moduluak Hezkuntzarako Ontologia erlazio pedagogikoez aberastuko du, beti ere testuliburua abiapuntu gisa erabilita. Lau motatako erlazio pedagogikoak erauziko ditu (isA, partOf, prerequisite eta pedagogicallyClose) hainbat teknika eta ezagutza-base konbinatuz. Ezagutza-baseen artean Wikipedia, WordNet, WikiTaxonomy, WibiTaxonomy eta WikiRelations daude. LiReWi-k ere hiru urrats emango ditu erlazioak lortzeko: hasteko, ontologiako topikoak erlazioak erauzteko erabiliko diren ezagutza-base desberdinekin mapatuko ditu; gero, hainbat erlazio-erauzle, bakoitza teknika desberdin batean oinarritzen dena, exekutatuko ditu konkurrenteki erlazio hautagaiak erauzteko; eta, bukatzeko, lortutako emaitza guztiak konbinatu eta iragaziko ditu erlazio pedagogikoen azken multzoa lortuz. Gainera, DOM-Sortzetik LiDOM Buildererako trantsizioan, tesi honetan hobetu egin dira dokumentuen indizeetatik erauzitako isA eta partOf erlazioak, Wikipedia baliabide gehigarri bezala erabilita (Conde et al., 2014).¿ LiLoWi moduluak IOak -batzuk eleaniztunak- erauziko ditu, abiapuntuko testuliburutik ez ezik Wikipedia edo WordNet bezalako ezagutza-baseetatik ere. IDO ontologiako topiko bakoitza Wikipedia eta WordNet-ekin mapatu ostean, LiLoWi-k baliabide didaktikoak erauziko ditu hainbat IO erauzlez baliatuz.IO erauzketa-prozesuan, DOM-Sortzetik LiDOM Buildereko bidean, eta Wikipedia eta WordNet erabili aurretik, ingelesa hizkuntza ere gehitu eta ebaluatu da (Conde et al., 2012).LiDOM Builderen ebaluaziori dagokionez, modulu bakoitza bere aldetik testatua eta ebaluatua izan da bai Gold-standard teknika bai aditu-ebaluazioa baliatuz. Gainera, Wikipedia eta WordNet ezagutza-baseen integrazioak IOen erauzketari ekarri dion hobekuntza ere ebaluatu da. Esan genezake kasu guztietan lortu diren emaitzak oso onak direla.Bukatzeko, eta laburpen gisa, lau dira LiDOM Builderek Domeinu Modulu Eleaniztunaren arloari egin dizkion ekarpen nagusiak:¿ Domeinu Modulu Eleaniztunak adierazteko mekanismo egokia.¿ LiTeWiren garapena. Testuliburuetatik Hezkuntzarako Ontologietarako terminologia eleaniztuna erauztea ahalbidetzen du modulu honek. Ingelesa eta Gaztelera hizkuntzentzako termino-erauzlea eskura dago https://github.com/Neuw84/LiTe URLan.¿ LiReWiren garapena. Testuliburuetatik Hezkuntzarako Ontologietarako erlazio pedagogikoak erauztea ahalbidetzen du modulu honek. Erabiltzen duen Wikipedia/WordNet mapatzailea eskura dago https://github.com/Neuw84/Wikipedia2WordNet URLan.¿ LiLoWiren garapena. Testuliburua eta Wikipedia eta WordNet ezagutza-baseak erabilita IO eleaniztunak erauztea ahalbidetzen du modulu honek

Language technologies for a multilingual Europe

This volume of the series “Translation and Multilingual Natural Language Processing” includes most of the papers presented at the Workshop “Language Technology for a Multilingual Europe”, held at the University of Hamburg on September 27, 2011 in the framework of the conference GSCL 2011 with the topic “Multilingual Resources and Multilingual Applications”, along with several additional contributions. In addition to an overview article on Machine Translation and two contributions on the European initiatives META-NET and Multilingual Web, the volume includes six full research articles. Our intention with this workshop was to bring together various groups concerned with the umbrella topics of multilingualism and language technology, especially multilingual technologies. This encompassed, on the one hand, representatives from research and development in the field of language technologies, and, on the other hand, users from diverse areas such as, among others, industry, administration and funding agencies. The Workshop “Language Technology for a Multilingual Europe” was co-organised by the two GSCL working groups “Text Technology” and “Machine Translation” (http://gscl.info) as well as by META-NET (http://www.meta-net.eu)

Getting Past the Language Gap: Innovations in Machine Translation

In this chapter, we will be reviewing state of the art machine translation systems, and will discuss innovative methods for machine translation, highlighting the most promising techniques and applications. Machine translation (MT) has benefited from a revitalization in the last 10 years or so, after a period of relatively slow activity. In 2005 the field received a jumpstart when a powerful complete experimental package for building MT systems from scratch became freely available as a result of the unified efforts of the MOSES international consortium. Around the same time, hierarchical methods had been introduced by Chinese researchers, which allowed the introduction and use of syntactic information in translation modeling. Furthermore, the advances in the related field of computational linguistics, making off-the-shelf taggers and parsers readily available, helped give MT an additional boost. Yet there is still more progress to be made. For example, MT will be enhanced greatly when both syntax and semantics are on board: this still presents a major challenge though many advanced research groups are currently pursuing ways to meet this challenge head-on. The next generation of MT will consist of a collection of hybrid systems. It also augurs well for the mobile environment, as we look forward to more advanced and improved technologies that enable the working of Speech-To-Speech machine translation on hand-held devices, i.e. speech recognition and speech synthesis. We review all of these developments and point out in the final section some of the most promising research avenues for the future of MT