The role of electronic pocket dictionaries as an English learning tool among Chinese students

This study addressed the role of electronic pocket dictionaries as a language learning tool among university students in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The target groups included engineering and humanities students at both undergraduate and graduate level. Speed of reference was found to be the main motivator for using an electronic pocket dictionary. Next, the functionality used was found to be connected to the language proficiency of the learner. Finally, multimedia content was ranked least important. The results of this study have implications for the design of electronic dictionaries and for the teaching of second languages with electronic dictionaries. In particular, device developers should focus on improving the accessing speed and pay less attention to multimedia functionality. Educators should ensure that the device functionality matches the language proficiency level of the students.     

中国人和日本人在认知日语词句时的差异比较

通过分析中国人双语者和日本人母语者视觉认知日语汉字和句子时的ERP的差异,探讨了两组对日语词句认知的特点。研究结果表明,中日两组在认知日语汉字时没有明显的差异,而在认知日语句子时存在着显著性差异,证明了两组认知含有假名的日语句子的神经机制不同。中国人对句子的认知速度慢于日本人,困难程度大于日本人。认知日语歧义句时,出现在中国人右前头叶的激活,反映了中国人对歧义句的句法再分析与右半球也相关。通过实验结果得出,对于中国人来说,日语学习的难点不是日语汉字,而是对包含有假名的句子的认知理解。从脑科学的角度为中国人双语者提高日语学习效果提供科学的学习方法,为人工智能模拟人脑的语言处理提供脑科学依据。     

Promoting contextual vocabulary learning through an adaptive computer‐assisted EFL reading system

The study developed an adaptive computer‐assisted reading system and investigated its effect on promoting English as a foreign language learner‐readers' contextual vocabulary learning performance. Seventy Taiwanese college students were assigned to two reading groups. Participants in the customised reading group read online English texts, each of which was customised by the developed system to offer immediate and repeated meetings with previously encountered unknown words, while participants in the typical reading group read online texts without control on unknown word recurrence. After the 4‐week online reading treatment, the two groups of learners were tested by online immediate and delayed vocabulary tests, and the students from the customised reading group were also required to complete the questionnaire regarding system use. The results showed that the vocabulary mean scores from both immediate and delayed testing demonstrated significantly better results in word gain and word retention with the customised reading group and that the adaptive reading system was appealing for the students. The study demonstrated that by providing customised reading with word recurrence specific to individuals' unknown words, this adaptive computer‐assisted English as a foreign language reading system creates a more favourable condition for foreign language vocabulary growth.     

提升C++程序设计课程学习质量方法探析

作为面向对象程序设计方法的示范性语言,C++以其高效、灵活独特的语言机制在计算机科学的教育和各个领域被广泛的应用,该文结合多年教学经验,分析一些C++初学者的问题与困惑,提出几点适合C++学习者的学习方法和技巧,对提升C++程序设计学习者的学习质量将起到积极的意义。     

Comprehension Grammars Generated from Machine Learning of Natural Languages

We are developing a theory of probabilistic language learning in the context of robotic instruction in elementary assembly actions. We describe the process of machine learning in terms of the various events that happen on a given trial, including the crucial association of words with internal representations of their meaning. Of central importance in learning is the generalization from utterances to grammatical forms. Our system derives a comprehension grammar for a superset of a natural language from pairs of verbal stimuli like Go to the screw! and corresponding internal representations of coerced actions. For the derivation of a grammar no knowledge of the language to be learned is assumed but only knowledge of an internal language.We present grammars for English, Chinese, and German generated from a finite sample of about 500 commands that are roughly equivalent across the three languages. All of the three grammars, which are context-free in form, accept an infinite set of commands in the given language.     

Vocabulary learning by mobile‐assisted authentic content creation and social meaning‐making: two case studies

In recent years, we have witnessed the concomitant rise of communicative and contextualized approaches as well as the paradigmatic development of the mobile‐assisted language learning (MALL) framework in analysing language learning. The focus of MALL research has gradually shifted from content‐based (delivery of learning content through mobile devices) to design‐oriented (authentic and/or social mobile learning activities) study. In this paper, we present two novel case studies of MALL that emphasize learner‐created content. In learning English prepositions and Chinese idioms, respectively, the primary school students used the mobile devices assigned to them on a one‐to‐one basis to take photos in real‐life contexts so as to construct sentences with the newly acquired prepositions or idioms. Subsequently, the learners were voraciously engaged in classroom or online discussion of their semantic constructions, thereby enhancing their understanding of the proper usage of the prepositions or idioms. This work shows the potential of transforming language learning into an authentic seamless learning experience.     

Web-based synchronized multimedia lecture system design for teaching/learning Chinese as second language

In the past decade, the use of computer technology for language instruction has expanded rapidly. In Taiwan, overseas students whose native languages are not Chinese mostly get trouble in learning and communicating particularly during the first year of their study. To overcome their language barrier in National Chi Nan University (NCNU), a Web-based Chinese classroom (http://chinese.csie.ncnu.edu.tw) exploiting advanced Web and multimedia technologies has been initiated since 2002. This paper presents the core developments of the Web-based Synchronized Multimedia Lecture (WSML) system for fulfilling language learning requirements on listening, speaking, reading and writing. It facilitates students in Chinese comprehension self-learning on the Web and can easily be customized for different foreign language learning. Technical issues are addressed from two perspectives to meet the pedagogical approaches of teaching and learning foreign languages: (1) the synchronized multimedia tutoring and the exercise practice functions for students, and (2) the multimedia lecture authoring and the exercise management tools for teachers.     

The influence of affordances on user preferences for multimedia language learning applications

This study investigates the influence of sensory and cognitive affordances on the user experience of mobile devices for multimedia language learning applications. A primarily audio-based language learning application – ‘Vowel Trainer’, was chosen against a comparison, text and picture-based language learning application – ‘Learn English for Taxi Drivers’. Impressions of the two applications were assessed on two different devices that have virtually the same interface and identical sound output (when headphones are used), but differ in physical size: the iPhone and the iPad. A mixed design was chosen, with native language as a group factor and device type (iPad vs. iPhone) and language application type (audio vs. video) as within groups factors. Assessments of sensory and cognitive affordances were made, along with measurement of learner preferences of each application. Data from 41 participants (21 native English speakers, 20 non-native English speakers) were analysed, revealing device differences in both audio and visual subjective quality ratings, despite only visual quality being affected by the device's physical limitations. We suggest that sensory affordances (indexed by subjective quality) are not simply a function of physical limitations, but are heavily influenced by context. The implications for developing design guidelines for language learning and other multimedia applications are discussed.     

Hypertext in cognate-language learning

Abstract  This paper reports on the results of and experiences gained from a project to investigate and evaluate the use of hypertext as a tool for developing CALL systems. The type of CALL system implemented was to some extent influenced by the desire to experiment with hypertext. Its novel features seemed to indicate that it would be ideal for the development of a cognate-language learning package i.e. software which would aid the development of reading ability in a foreign language based on the knowledge of a related language. Accordingly, a package was developed which provides the 'same' prose passages in French and Spanish (with English normally operating as the first language). A reader is able to browse in one of these languages, trying to understand the meaning by either interpolating between cognate words or by moving between the identical passages of two (or even three) of the languages.     

基于本体的e-Learning环境个性化服务处理方法*

为了向e-Learning环境中的学习者提供符合其个性化需求的学习服务,结合本体论具有概念和关系定义明确的特性,提出了e-Learning环境中学习者的个性化情形本体模型和相应的学习者个性化服务处理方法,该方法综合考虑了学习者的认知状态和学习偏好,进行个性化的答疑和进一步学习的内容推荐。采用该方法实现的原型系统实验表明,可使学习者的学习更有针对性,可更及时有效地消解疑惑,从而提高了学习者的学习效果和效率。     

多媒体教学与学生自主学习的有机结合

随着国际交流的不断加深,学习外语越来越成为人们关注的焦点,而外语教学也成为了教育界的热点问题。利用计算机的多媒体网络技术培养学生的自主学习能力,并分析了教学与自主学习有效结合。     

SignMT: An alternative language learning tool

Learning a second language is very difficult, especially, for the disabled; the disability may be a barrier to learn and to utilize information written in text form. We present the SignMT, Thai sign to Thai machine translation system, which is able to translate from Thai sign language into Thai text. In the translation process, SignMT takes into account the differences between Thai and Thai sign language in terms of both syntax and semantic to ensure the accuracy of translation. SignMT was designed to be not only an automatic interpreter but also a language learning tool. It provides meaning of each word in both text and image forms which is easy to understand by the deaf. The grammar information and the order of the sentence are presented in order to help the deaf in learning Thai, their second language. With SignMT, deaf students are less dependent on a teacher, have more freedom to experiment with their own language, and improve their knowledge and learning skill.     

Learning tree languages from positive examples and membership queries

We investigate regular tree languages’ exact learning from positive examples and membership queries. Input data are trees of the language to infer. The learner computes new trees from the inputs and asks the oracle whether or not they belong to the language. From the answers, the learner may ask further membership queries until he finds the correct grammar that generates the target language. This paradigm was introduced by Angluin in the seminal work [D. Angluin, A note on the number of queries needed to identify regular languages, Information and Control 51 (1981) 76–87] for the case of regular word languages. Neither negative examples, equivalence queries nor counter-examples are allowed in this paradigm.     

Conversation rebuilding: From the foreign language classroom to implementation in an intelligent tutoring system

This paper shows how an innovative “communicative” technique in teaching foreign languages—Conversation Rebuilding (CR)—readily lends itself to implementation in an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). Classroom language teachers using CR get students to formulate acceptable utterances in a foreign idiom by starting from rough approximations (using words the students know) and gradually zeroing in on the utterance which a native speaker of that idiom might produce in a similar setting. The ITS presented here helps students do the “zeroing in” optimally. It lets them express themselves temporarily in an “interlingua” (i.e., in their own kind of French or English or whatever they are studying), as long as they make something of their communicative intent clear, that is, as long as the System can find a semantic starting point on which to build. The ITS then prods the students to express themselves more intelligibly, starting from the “key” elements (determined by a heuristic based on how expert classroom teachers proceed) and taking into consideration the students' past successful or unsuccessful attempts at communication. To simplify system design and programming, however, conversations are “constrained”: students playact characters in set dialogs and aim at coming up with what the characters actually say (not what they could possibly say). While most Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) focuses the attention of students on norms to acquire, the ICALL implementation of CR presented in this paper focuses the attention of students on saying something—indeed, almost anything—to keep the conversation going and get some kind of meaning across to the other party. It sees successful language acquisition primarily as the association of forms with intent, not simply as the conditioning of appropriate reflexes or the elaboration/recall of conceptualized rules (which are the by-products of successful communication). Thus, in espousing this hard-line communicative approach, the present paper makes a first, non-trivial point: ICALL researchers might usefully begin by investigating what the more able teachers are doing in the classroom, rather than by building elaborate computer simulations of out-dated practices, as happens all too often. The paper then goes on to describe the architecture of a prototype ITS based on CR—one that the authors have actually implemented and tested—for the acquisition of English as a foreign language. A sample learning session is transcribed to illustrate the man-machine interaction. Concluding remarks show how the present-day limits of ICALL (and Artificial Intelligence in general) can be partially circumvented by the strategy implemented in the program, i.e. by making the students feel they are creatively piloting an interaction rather than being tested by an unimaginative machine.     

基于兴趣的计算机语言学习方法探索

从设计一个娱乐性小游戏出发,阐述兴趣发展的各阶段对计算机语言学习的影响。教学实践证明,游戏既能把学习者导向到有目的、有意义的积极学习,又能为学习者的进一步学习提供动机。     

基于网络的个性化学习系统中学习者个性特征的提取算法

研究了基于网络的个性化学习系统如何根据学习者的个性特征主动推送个性化学习信息服务,并就如何提高基于网络的个性化学习系统的运行效率,提出了一种有效提取学习者个性特征的算法。该算法主要分为三步:(1)捕获学习者个性特征;(2)统计分析学习者所在学习群体的群体特征和趋势;(3)根据学习者与他所在学习群体有显著差异的特征项和群体特征,推送个性化学习信息。     

Optimal language learning from positive data

Gold?s original paper on inductive inference introduced a notion of an optimal learner. Intuitively, a learner identifies a class of objects optimally iff there is no other learner that: requires as little of each presentation of each object in the class in order to identify that object, and, for some presentation of some object in the class, requires less of that presentation in order to identify that object. Beick considered this notion in the context of function learning, and gave an intuitive characterization of an optimal function learner. Jantke and Beick subsequently characterized the classes of functions that are algorithmically, optimally identifiable.Herein, Gold?s notion is considered in the context of language learning. It is shown that a characterization of optimal language learners analogous to Beick?s does not hold. It is also shown that the classes of languages that are algorithmically, optimally identifiable cannot be characterized in a manner analogous to that of Jantke and Beick.Other interesting results concerning optimal language learning include the following. It is shown that strong non-U-shapedness, a property involved in Beick?s characterization of optimal function learners, does not restrict algorithmic language learning power. It is also shown that, for an arbitrary optimal learner F of a class of languages L, F optimally identifies a subclass K of L iff F is class-preserving with respect to K.     

Repeating and Remembering Foreign Language Words: Implications for Language Teaching Systems

The current experiment examined the proposal thatvisible speech can help with a difficult signal suchas listening to a foreign language. This work extendsearlier work by examining whether presenting the faceof the speaker improves the accuracy of repetitions ofshort phrases of a language participants had not heardbefore (Korean) as well as examining whether thismanipulation facilitates performance on a subsequentold/new recognition task. The results showed that bothrepetition accuracy and the subsequent memory offoreign language phrases were improved by showing thespeaker's face. The implication of this finding isthat foreign language learning will benefit by usinga presentation method that includes the visible speechof the speaker. Ways that this might be reasonablyachieved using a computer interface are discussed.