A framework for a natural language learning system using squeak

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A framework for a natural language learning
system using squeak

• Noah Evans

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Problem

• English education in Japan isnt as effective as
  it should be
• Problems
• Language is overanalyzed, too many rules
• Taught like math
• Language doesnt work like that
• Japanese and English are from entirely different
  language families
• No common ground to build on

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Goal

• Make a framework that addresses these problems
• Experiential learning
• Emphasize use and intuition, not any particular
  aspect
• Extensible framework
• Should be able to integrate NLP or other
  interfaces seamlessly

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Squeak

• Smalltalk environment
• Built for teaching applications
• Active essays
• Squeaktoys
• Better for teaching science and physical issues

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System

• In essence a rip off ide
• What facilities do ides provide?
• Autocompletion, lookup
• Word choice tables
• Allow the student to write a Japanese word and
  look it up and replace it on the fly with a
  proper English equivalent
• Class browsers
• Grammar explorer
• Let students explore at their own pace
• Provide examples from a parallel corpus

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System cont

• Culture explorer
• very important
• Language is cultural not just rules
• If you dont understand why something works the
  way it does you dont understand it
• Review
• Base the memorization and testing aspects to
  things the student looked up themselves
• Looked up words, grammar examples etc become the
  basis for testing.
• Tailors the system to the students needs
• The idea here is to present the language as an
  integrated whole, not a group of disconnected
  rules

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NLP applications

• Use learner corpus to implement grammar explorer
• Parse student sentences in the background
• Use tree to give students examples in the
  background
• Non-trivial problem, will probably need to use
  the learners corpus or something similar to find
  common patterns and give learning tips on that
  particular issue