Multiple Admissibility in Language Learning: : Judging Grammaticality using Unlabeled Data

We present our work on the problem of detection Multiple Admissibility (MA) in language learning. Multiple Admissibility occurs when more than one grammatical form of a word fits syntactically and semantically in a given context. In second-language education—in particular, in intelligent tutoring systems/computer-aided language learning (ITS/CALL), systems generate exercises automatically. MA implies that multiple alternative answers are possible. We treat the problem as a grammaticality judgement task. We train a neural network with an objective to label sentences as grammatical or ungrammatical, using a "simulated learner corpus": a dataset with correct text and with artificial errors, generated automatically. While MA occurs commonly in many languages, this paper focuses on learning Russian. We present a detailed classification of the types of constructions in Russian, in which MA is possible, and evaluate the model using a test set built from answers provided by users of the Revita language learning system.Peer reviewe

A Free/Open-Source Morphological Analyser and Generator for Sakha

We present, to our knowledge, the first ever published morphological analyser and generator for Sakha, a marginalised language of Siberia. The transducer, developed using HFST, has coverage of solidly above 90%, and high precision. In the development of the analyser, we have expanded linguistic knowledge about Sakha, and developed strategies for complex grammatical patterns. The transducer is already being used in downstream tasks, including computer assisted language learning applications for linguistic maintenance and computational linguistic shared tasks.Peer reviewe

Multilingual Topic Labelling of News Topics using Ontological Mapping

The large volume of news produced daily makes topic modelling useful for analysing topical trends. A topic is usually represented by a ranked list of words but this can be difficult and time-consuming for humans to interpret. Therefore, various methods have been proposed to generate labels that capture the semantic content of a topic. However, there has been no work so far on coming up with multilingual labels which can be useful for exploring multilingual news collections. We propose an ontological mapping method that maps topics to concepts in a language-agnostic news ontology. We test our method on Finnish and English topics and show that it performs on par with state-of-the-art label generation methods, is able to produce multilingual labels, and can be applied to topics from languages that have not been seen during training without any modifications.Peer reviewe

One Line at a Time — Generation and Internal Evaluation of Interactive Poetry

We present methods that produce poetry one line at a time, in a manner that allows simple interaction in human-computer co-creative poetry writing. The methods are based on fine-tuning sequence-to-sequence neural models, in our case mBART. We also consider several internal evaluation measures by which an interactive system can assess and filter the lines it suggests to the user. These measures concern the coherence, tautology, and diversity of the candidate lines. We empirically validate two of them and apply three on the mBART-based poetry generation methods. The results suggest that fine-tuning a pre- trained sequence-tosequence model is a feasible approach, and that the internal evaluation measures help select suitable models as well as suitable lines.Peer reviewe

Casual Poetry Creators : A Design Pattern and Internal Evaluation Measures

We explore the concept of Casual Poetry Creators with the aim of making poetry writing fun and entertaining for the user. We present a simple co-creative interaction design pattern based on constructing poems line by line, suggesting the user a set of line candidates at each step. We also propose objective measures by which a Casual Poetry Creator can evaluate and choose which line candidates to show to the user and sketch out a plan to evaluate the measures and pattern with users.Peer reviewe

Tools for supporting language learning for Sakha

This paper presents an overview of linguistic resources available for the Sakha language, and presents new tools for supporting language learning for Sakha. The essential resources include a morphological analyzer, digital dictionaries, and corpora of Sakha texts. We extended an earlier version of the morphological analyzer/transducer, built on the Apertium finite-state platform. The analyzer currently has an adequate level of coverage, between 86% and 89% on two Sakha corpora. Based on these resources, we implement a language-learning environment for Sakha in the Revita computer-assisted language learning (CALL) platform. Revita is a freely available online language learning platform for learners beyond the beginner level. We describe the tools for Sakha currently integrated into the Revita platform. To our knowledge, at present this is the first large-scale project undertaken to support intermediate-advanced learners of a minority Siberian language.Peer reviewe

The teacher’s self-presentation in terms of students’ assessments or the study of the teacher’s self-presentation features

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of self-presentation, as a significant mechanism that helps to build effective communication between teachers and students. To study the described phenomenon, we used the author's questionnaire "Assessment of the image of the teacher." A study conducted on a sample of teachers and their students led us to the conclusion that there are differences between the “I-image” of teachers and the “I-expert”, i.e. between teachers' self-image and student grading system. Teachers evaluate themselves higher in terms of the studied parameters than their students evaluate. As a result, we came to the empirical conclusion that it is important for teachers to pay attention to the development of self-presentation skills

The teacher’s self-presentation in terms of students’ assessments or the study of the teacher’s self-presentation features

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of self-presentation, as a significant mechanism that helps to build effective communication between teachers and students. To study the described phenomenon, we used the author's questionnaire "Assessment of the image of the teacher." A study conducted on a sample of teachers and their students led us to the conclusion that there are differences between the “I-image” of teachers and the “I-expert”, i.e. between teachers' self-image and student grading system. Teachers evaluate themselves higher in terms of the studied parameters than their students evaluate. As a result, we came to the empirical conclusion that it is important for teachers to pay attention to the development of self-presentation skills