Month: May 2016
New report: The Value of Languages (Cambridge Public Policy) URL here
(Cambridge Language Sciences Strategic Research Initiative)
Added value:
Language contributes to UK prosperity: languages are a ‘value-added’ skill
Language learning forms part of ‘cultural agility’ from knowing other languages and cultures
Languages provide value-added skills across a range of occupations
There is increasing understanding of the personal and societal benefits of bilingualism
Recognized importance of ‘soft power’ and language skills in conflict areas
KONVENS 2016
http://www.linguistics.rub.de/konvens16/
The Conference on Natural Language Processing (“Konferenz zur Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache”, KONVENS) aims at offering a broad perspective on current research and developments within the interdisciplinary field of natural language processing. It allows researchers from all disciplines relevant to this field of research to present their work. The conference will take place September 19–21, 2016 in Bochum (Germany). We are pleased to announce that John Nerbonne and Barbara Plank will give invited talks at the conference.
Call for Papers
We welcome original, unpublished contributions on research, development, applications and evaluation, covering all areas of natural language processing, ranging from basic questions to practical implementations of natural language resources, components and systems.
The special theme of the 13th KONVENS is: “Processing non-standard data — commonalities and differences”.
A wide range of data can be considered “non-standard” because it deviates in one way or the other from standard written data such as newspaper texts. Examples include:
* data produced by language learners
* historical data
* data from social media
* (transcriptions of) spoken data
We especially encourage the submission of contributions comparing different types of non-standard data and their properties, focussing on their impact for natural language processing. For example, a feature common to many types of non-standard data is the use of non-standard spelling. However, spelling variation in learner data as compared to historical data is due to very different reasons and, most likely, resulting in very different types of non-standard spellings.
Topics that we would like to see addressed include:
* Common properties of (many) non-standard data, e.g. non-standard spelling, data sparseness, features of orality
* Impact of the commonalities and differences of non-standard data on the methods and tools that are applied to the data, e.g. normalization vs. tool adaptation, evaluation without gold standard, etc.
Important Dates
NEW: June 7, 2016 Paper submissions due
NEW: July 18, 2016 Notification of acceptance
August 15, 2016 Camera-ready copy due
September 19–21, 2016 Conference
Formats
We welcome two types of contributions:
* Full papers for oral presentation (8 pages plus references)
* Short papers for presentation as posters (4 pages plus references)
Short papers/posters can be combined with a system demonstration. Reviews will be anonymous. Accepted full and short papers will be published in the conference proceedings.
Submissions must conform to the formatting guidelines, and must be made electronically through the conference website (see https://www.linguistics.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/konvens16/call/index.html#formatting-guidelines).
The conference languages are English and German. We encourage the submission of contributions in English.
AAAL PORTLAND 2017 – CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The 2017 conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) will be held at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront in Portland, Oregon on March 18-21, 2017. The theme for the 2017 AAAL Conference is “Applied Linguistics and Transdisciplinarity”.
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Li Wei, University College London/Institute of Education “Rethinking Language in Translanguaging: Implications for Learning, Use, and Policy”
Simona Pekarek-Doehler, Université de Neuchâtel “The Development of L2 Interactional Competence: Evidence from Longitudinal Research”
Shaun Gallagher, University of Memphis “Doing Phenomenology with Words”
Suresh Canagarajah, Penn State University “Spatiolinguistics: Language Competence of Migrant Professionals from Transdisciplinary Perspectives”
Janet Wiles, University of Queensland “Talking with Robots”
Carolyn Miller, North Carolina State University “New Challenges for Rhetorical Genre Studies: Multimodality, Methodology, Interdisciplinarity”
INVITED COLLOQUIA
“Sexuality and Applied Linguistics: Poststructuralist Perspectives” Organizers: Tommaso Milani, University of the Witwatersrand and Heiko Motschenbacher, Goethe University of Frankfurt
“Ethnographic Research in Applied Linguistics“ Organizers: Patricia Duff, University of British Columbia and Angela Creese, University of Birmingham
“Video Games, Literacy and Language Learning” Organizer: Christine Steinkuehler, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Extending the Legacy of Leo Van Lier: Ecologizing Pedagogy” Organizers: Dwight Atkinson, University of Arizona and Steven L. Thorne, Portland State University
“Applied Linguistics and Conversation Analysis: Ways of Problematizing the Monolingual Standard” Organizers: Hansun Waring, Columbia University and John Hellermann, Portland State University
JOINT INVITED COLLOQUIA
“Language and Asylum in the Age of Suspicion” (AAA@AAAL) Organizers: Brigitta Busch, University of Vienna and Marco Jacquemet, University of San Francisco
“Multilingualism and Indigenous Language Education” (LSA@AAAL) Organizers: Teresa McCarty, UCLA, Carmel O’Shannessy, University of Michigan and Tiffany Lee, University of New Mexico
“Transdisciplinarity in Applied Linguistics” (AILA@AAAL) Organizers: Claire Kramsch, UC Berkeley, Marjolijn Verspoor, Groningen University and Daniel Perrin, Zurich University of Applied Science
“Creativity and Language Teaching” (TESOL@AAAL) Organizers: Rodney Jones, University of Reading, Julie Choi, University of Melbourne and Judy Sharkey, University of New Hampshire
“Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: Challenges to Construct Definition in EAP/LSP Assessment” (ILTA@AAAL) Organizers: Cathie Elder and Ute Knoch, University of Melbourne and Barbara Hoekje, Drexel University
CONFERENCE CHAIR: Tim McNamara, University of Melbourne
Proposals are invited for individual papers, colloquia, posters, roundtable discussions and shared shorter paper sessions. Particularly welcome are proposals which address the conference theme, although this is not mandatory. The deadline for proposal submission is 5:00 p.m. on August 17, 2015 (EDT; UTC-4).
Proposals are welcome in the following topic strands:
Analysis of Discourse and Interaction (DIS)
Assessment and Evaluation (ASE)
Bilingual, Immersion, Heritage, and Minority Education (BIH)
Corpus Linguistics (COR)
Educational Linguistics (EDU)
Language and Cognition (COG)
Language and Ideology (LID)
Language and Technology (TEC)
Language Maintenance and Revitalization (LMR)
Language Planning and Policy (LPP)
Language, Culture and Socialization (LCS)
Pragmatics (PRG)
Reading, Writing, and Literacy (RWL)
Research Methods (REM)
Second and Foreign Language Pedagogy (PED)
Second Language Acquisition, Language Acquisition, and Attrition (SLA)
Sociolinguistics (SOC)
Text Analysis (Written Discourse) (TXT)
Translation and Interpretation (TRI)
Vocabulary (VOC)
Full details of how to submit proposals can be found at http://www.aaal.org/page/2017CFP
The proposal system will open on June 1.
Submission Deadline: August 17, 2016, 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
Frequently asked questions (FAQ) are addressed on the conference proposal website. For further questions regarding the academic aspects of the conference, including proposal submission policies, please contact conference@aaal.org For further questions regarding the practicalities of how to submit a proposal or other technical questions, please contact proposal@aaal.org
Categories
L-SLARF Colloquium 2016
SLA Research Colloquium
Venue: Drama Studio, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, 20 Bedford
Way, London WC1H 0AL
Date: Saturday, 14th May 2015 (10 am – 4.15 pm)
10:00 – 10:10
Welcome, introduction and opening remarks
10.10 – 10.45
Kazuya Saito (Birkbeck College)
Role of individual differences in second language speech learning: A longitudinal study
10.45 – 11.20
Pauline Foster (St. Mary’s University)
From ideal to idiolect: the trajectories of nativeness within and without SLA research.
Newbolt Report 1921: only Standard is a full language, the rest is full of lower-class vulgarismo. School is crucial for SE to root.
Bernstein 1958: Some sociological determinants of perception. Low class language as a restricited code, not elaborated. Working class deficits.
There are as many native languages as native speakers, rejection of monolithic views. No fixed target to aim for, no model to study no baseline. Scholz (2002) rejects this idea. Morgan (1986) mastery of prestige rules is exploited socially to signa, membership to a higher class.
Weiss (2004) says two kinds of NS. One is subject to FLA , the other to education.
11:40 – 12.15
Luke Plonsky (UCL Institute of Education) & Deirdre Derrick (Northern Arizona University)
Alpha, kappa, KR-20, oh my! A synthesis and guide to interpreting reliability estimates in L2 research
To appear in Modern Language Journal (2016)
Reliability: consistency and repeatability in assessment/ data collection.
An indication of the amount of error in the data.
Expressed as coefficient from 0 to 1 (alpha, kappa)
Internal consistency: instrument reliability: how similar are the items seeking to measure the same thing
Interrater consistency
Reliabilty rarely reported
Often low: Cohen & Macaro (2013). Error in our data. Attenuation (reduction) of observed effects/ relationships.
Low is unclear
Shrout 1998 in psychiatry slight .11-.40 fair .41-.60
Should not be applied blindly . Reliability as a continuum. There are lots of different variables that may impact reliability: samples (size, proficiency,), instruments and the indices used.
Kappa is used for categorical data (raters for example categorizing a writing sample A B C)
Reliability generalization meta-analysis, an example is Watanabe & Koyama (2008).
RQ What is the overall observed reliability in 2009-2013 SLA research?
537 studies = 2,244 reliability coefficients
Aggregated all and obtained the median (and IQR) for 3 types of reliability
-Instrument: 0.82 k=1323
-Interrater: 0.92
-Intrarater: 0.95
Reliability is getting reported more over time
Focus on instrument:
As levels of informants increase, more instrument reliability: for beginner 0.79
Linguistic constructs: 0.81 and mon linguistic: 0.83
Receptive skills, less reliability scores
Multiple choice 0.81
Free response 0.85
The more items in the scale the more reliable
Different indices:
KR 20
KR21
ALPHA
Split-halves
Spearman-Brown
Plonsky(2013)
12.15 – 12:50
Paul Booth (Kingston University)
Semantic and syntactic predictions: investigating the extent to which L1 learner choices influence the L2
Models of lexical development: Levelt (1989) & Jiang (2000)
Levelt: semantics + syntax more difficult to acquire than morphology and phonology
Jiang: L1 semnatics and syntax influence how l2 items are acquired
Groups of Japanese and Europeans and English NS
X-Lex (v2.05) and Y-lex (v2.05): vocabulary measures
Vocabulary a good predictor of language proficiency
DMDX: response times and accuracy are interpreted to draw inferences about cognitive processing
They are looking at reaction times
All groups did better on the noun-noun (correct/incorrect) than the mixed set
All groups more accurate responses for noun groupings compared to mixed set
There is a effect for grammatical category, so more difficult for all groups.
Overall effect for first language groups (Japanese slower to reject ungrammatical syntax)
14.00 – 14.35
Parvaneh Tavakoli (University of Reading)
Development of second language proficiency in monologic vs dialogic mode: Can CAF measures portray the full picture?
Performance can usefully be measured by CALF (Skehan, 1996-2015)
Benefits in using CALD measures:
Tap into different aspects of language ability
Help shed light on processes underlying SLA (attention, allocation, noticing, memory), representation , etc
Palloti (2009, 2015): accuracy and complexity may not indicate interlanguage development
Product (performance) vs process (development)
Measures sensitive to language development are needed
Communicative adequacy (Kuiken, Veder & Gilabert, 2010; Palloti, 2009
WISP project, de Jong et al. 2012
CALC project, Kuiken en tal, 2010
Revesz et al. 2014: fluency is a good predictor of proficiency
Limitations in this area:tendency to use monologic task performance BUT importance of dialogic task performance
PRAAT
Monologic vs dialogic task performance, Time 1 and 2
Development of lexis needed more research
What else can be measured? Task accomoishment, fulfilling language function, development in intereactions
Much of the development at discourse level she looked at adverbials, particularly adverbs
14.35 – 15.10
Peter Skehan (St. Mary’s University) & Zhan Wang (The University of Hong Kong)
The effects of time pressure and L2 proficiency level on task-based speaking performance
15.10 – 15.45
Andrea Révész (UCL Institute of Education), Marije Michel (Lancaster University), & Diana Mazgutova (Lancaster University)
The effects of proficiency on second language writing behaviours and text quality
15.45 – 16.15
Final discussion and closing remarks