A Language Environment for Second Language Writers

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A Language Environment for Second Language Writers

• Ola Knutsson
• KTH Nada

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Outline

• Computer Assisted Language Learning
• Second Language Learning
• Language Technology in CALL
• A Field Study
• Grim a language environment
• Discussion

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Why use computers in language learning?

• Old things with new tools?
• Warschauer Healey (1998)
• multimodal practice with feedback
• individualization in a large class
• variety in the resources available and learning
  styles used
• exploratory learning with large amounts of
  language data

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Basic Components in Second Language Acquisition
(Gass 1997, Chapelle, 1998)

• Input (of target language)
• Apperception (noticing aspects in TL)
• Comprehension (semantic -syntax)
• Intake (semantic syntax)
• Integration (into learners interlanguage)
• Output (L2 production)

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Possibilities and Risks with Language Technology

• Language technology can provide relevant
  feedback on the users unconstrained speech- or
  writing production.
• False feedback can fool the user
• Lack of feedback can mislead the user

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Point of departure

• Study the use of the grammar checker Granska
• Study the use of language technology
• Second Language Learners (students), in
  collaboration with teachers.

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Why focus on errors?

• The learners errors are a register of their
  current perspective of the target language
  (James, 1998).
• Noticing a problem pushes the learner to
  modify his/her output (Swain Lapkin, 1995)
  syntactic processing mode important for the
  development of IL

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Granska

• Is a Swedish grammar checker developed at our
  department.
• Combines statistical and rule based methods.
• Contains a lot of opportunities for new
  applications.
• Different user interfaces

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detection
diagnosis
correction
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Language Tools for Learners

• How can we support second language learners
  writing with other technology than a robust
  grammar checker?
• What functionality is important in a learning
  environment for second language learners of
  Swedish?

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User studies at a Swedish University

• Study 1
• Students Swedish as a foreign language, 7
  users, argumentative texts, 2 months
• Study 2
• Students Swedish as a foreign language, 10
  users. Different kinds of text genres, 4 months.

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Use Granska whenever you want, and when you find
it appropriate

• Classroom observations
• Collecting students texts
• Collecting students judgments and comments on
  the feedback from Granska
• Questionnaires
• Interviews with students and teacher
• Final Workshop

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Some Insights

• One group of students wants to learn from the
  program.
• Another group of students wants to succeed in
  their writing.
• The teacher is very important as a mediator of
  the programs behavior and content.

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How should we design an environment supporting
learning activities?

• Our proposal is a program called Grim.
• Grim is a environment with several language
  tools.
• Grim gives feedback on different aspects of the
  learners language.

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Functionality in Grim

• Grim includes a simple word processor.
• Grim gives feedback on errors by using Granska.
• Grim provides grammatical information by using
  Granska Text Analyzer.
• Grim has an interface for concordances in 20
  million words corpus.
• Grim includes a dictionary with 8 language pairs.

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Concluding remarks

• It is important to support different aspects of
  language learning.
• One robust grammar checker is not enough
• A ensemble of tools reduces the limitations of
  the individual tool

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Discussion

• Is Grim a learning environment?
• Should pedagogical packages be included in the
  environment?
• Why are computer underused in language teaching?
• How can we study the use of Grim in naturalistic
  settings without promoting it?