Category: CFP

#CFP #BigData in a Transdisciplinary Perspective

(Through the Corpora-List)

Herrenhausen Conference, March 25-27, 2015, Hanover, Germany

Big Data in a Transdisciplinary Perspective

Large amounts of data, a variety of sources, high speed production, but also high speed processing – these are the basic characteristics of Big Data. The amount of data that is generated and collected in each second grows exponentially. The management of Big Data, the intelligent use of large, heterogeneous data sets, is becoming increasingly important for competition. It is affecting all sectors – industry and academia but also the public sector. While the economy is exploring Big Data as a new gold mine, politicians are fighting over the problem of data capitalism, whereas science tackles the question of cross-disciplinary benefits, as well as the challenges and the likely consequences for technology, innovation, and society.

The focus of the Herrenhausen Conference lies on open questions, unsolved problems, and future perspectives. The conference on Big Data therefore will not focus on a particular discipline but provide a transdisciplinary forum for Big Data researchers. We would like to discuss the challenges and consequences of Big Data research for society as well as innovation and technology, address the influence on economics as well as the legal framework and close on the challenges for research and research funding in the field of Big Data. Our goal is to create an inspiring setting for the discussion of new ideas.

We invite all researchers and experts working in this field.

There is no fee for attendance, but registration is essential.

Travel Grants
—————-
The Volkswagen Foundation offers up to 30 Travel Grants for young researchers who wish to attend the conference. For more information about the program please visit http://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/bigdata

We are inviting Ph.D. students or early Postdocs (max. 5 years since Ph.D.) working on independent and challenging projects in the field of big data, or in a field for which big data is crucial to apply for a travel grant.

Applicants are required to apply until *September 30, 2014* by using the application form at http://form.jotformeu.com/form/41901708397359

Please note that we are not able to consider applications after this deadline. The travel grant covers attendance, accommodation and travel expenses (excl. cab fares, parking, food and beverages while travelling as well as poster printing costs).

Recipients of the travel grants are required to present their project in a three minutes “Lightning Talk” as well as on a poster to be shown and explained in a poster session. Powerpoint, etc. can be used, but please limit yourself to max. 3 slides. Every presenter has three minutes to present his / her project.

Your application should contain the following:
1. A short tabular C.V. of max. 1.000 characters (including spaces)
2. A short description of your research focus (max. 600 characters including spaces) that explains how your approach tackles the challenges emerging from the interdisciplinary field of big data research and argues why we should select your project
3. An abstract of the project you want to present (max. 2.200 characters including spaces)
4. Your publications (max. 5).

Participants will be selected by a steering committee of interdisciplinary researchers from different fields of expertise. Acceptance will be based on qualification of the applicant as well as originality and potential of the research project. We will inform the applicants about the results by Mid-November 2014.

If your application has been accepted, the Volkswagen Foundation will book a room for you and send you all necessary information regarding travel, accommodation, poster size and visa. Please, only register for the conference beforehand if you plan to visit the conference regardless of your application’s acceptance.

For inquiries, please contact Anorthe Kremers at the Volkswagen Foundation at tel. +49/511/8183-260, or bigdata@volkswagenstiftung.de

CFP Language Resources and Evaluation Journal, entitled “Under-resourced Languages, Collaborative Approaches and Linked Open Data: Resources, Methods and Applications”

Submissions for a Special Issue of the Language Resources and Evaluation Journal, entitled “Under-resourced Languages, Collaborative Approaches and Linked Open Data: Resources, Methods and Applications”.

Important: More detailed information will be made available in September 2014. For more information please contact the guest editors.

PRELIMINARY SUBMISSION DATE: November 15, 2014

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Under-resourced languages are generally described as languages that suffer from a chronic lack of available resources, from human, financial, and time resources to linguistic ones (language data and language technology), and often also experience the fragmentation of efforts in resource development. This situation is exacerbated by the realization that as technology progresses and the demand for localised languages services over digital devices increases, the divide between adequately- and under-resourced languages keeps widening. Given that most of the world’s almost 7000 languages are not adequately resourced, much work needs to be done in order to support their existence in the digital age.

Although the destiny of a language is primarily determined by its native speakers and broader cultural context, the technological development of an under-resourced language offers such a language a strategic opportunity to have the same “digital dignity”, “digital identity” and “digital longevity” as large, well-developed languages on the Web.

The Linked (Open) Data framework and the emerging Linguistic Linked (Open) Data infrastructure offer novel opportunities for under-resourced languages. On the one hand, Linked Data offers ways of exposing existing high quality, albeit small, language resources in the Semantic Web and, on the other hand, allows for the development of new state-of-the-art resources without necessarily having to rely on the availability of sophisticated language processing support.

This special issue arises from the imperative to maintain cultural and language diversity and from the basic right of all communities, languages, and cultures to be “first class citizens” in an age driven by information, knowledge and understanding. In this spirit, this special issue focuses on three strategic approaches to augment the development of resources for under-resourced languages to achieve a level potentially comparable to well-resourced, technologically advanced languages, viz. a) using the crowd and collaborative platforms; b) using technologies of interoperability with well-developed languages; and c) using Semantic Web technologies and, more specifically, Linked Data.

We invite original contributions, not published before and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that address one or more of the following questions by means of one or more of the three approaches mentioned above:

• How can collaborative approaches and technologies be fruitfully applied to the accelerated development and sharing of high quality resources for under-resourced languages?

• How can such resources be best stored, exposed and accessed by end users and applications?

• How can small language resources be re-used efficiently and effectively, reach larger audiences and be integrated into applications?

• How can multilingual and cross-lingual interoperability of language resources, methods and applications be supported, also between languages that belong to different language families?

• How can existing language resource infrastructures be scaled to thousands of languages?

• How can research on and resource development for under-resourced languages benefit from current advances in semantic and semantic web technologies, and specifically the Linked Data framework?

GUEST EDITORS
Laurette Pretorius – University of South Africa, South Africa (pretol AT unisa DOT ac DOT za)
Claudia Soria – CNR-ILC, Italy (claudia.soria AT ilc DOT cnr DOT it)

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Sabine Bartsch, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Delphine Bernhard, LILPA, Strasbourg University, France
Peter Bouda, CIDLeS – Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation, Portugal
Paul Buitelaar, Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUIG, Ireland
Steve Cassidy, Macquarie University, Australia
Christian Chiarcos, Frankfurt University, Germany
Thierry Declerck, DFKI GmbH, Language Technology Lab, Germany
Mikel Forcada, University of Alicante, Spain
Dafydd Gibbon, Bielefeld University, Germany
Yoshihiko Hayashi, Graduate School of Language and Culture, Osaka University, Japan
Sebastian Hellmann, Leipzig University, Germany
Simon Krek, Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Tobias Kuhn, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland
Joseph Mariani, LIMSI-CNRS & IMMI, France
John McCrae, Bielefeld University, Germany
Steven Moran, Universität Zürich, Switzerland
Kellen Parker, National Tsing Hua University, China
Patrick Paroubek, LIMSI-CNRS, France
Taher Pilehvar, “La Sapienza” Rome University, Italy
Maria Pilar Perea i Sabater, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Laurette Pretorius, University of South Africa, South Africa
Leonel Ruiz Miyares, Centro de Linguistica Aplicada (CLA), Cuba
Kevin Scannell, St. Louis University, USA
Ulrich Schäfer, Technical University of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weiden, Bavaria, Germany
Claudia Soria, CNR-ILC, Italy
Nick Thieberger, University of Melbourne, Australia
Eveline Wandl-Vogt, Austrian Academy of Sciences, ICLTT, Austria
Michael Zock, LIF-CNRS, France

3rd workshop on #NLP for computer-assisted language learning #deadline Sept 25

3rd workshop on NLP for computer-assisted language learning

SLTC workshop, November, 13, 2014, Uppsala, Sweden

2nd Call for papers

Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL), i.e., the integration of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Speech Technologies (ST) in language learning applications, is a rapidly developing area which has started to attract increased attention from the Language Technology (LT) community. ICALL research has generated a number of successful applications for alleviating a variety of (mechanical) tasks that teachers face daily in their work, for example grammar or spelling error marking, essay grading, preparation of text questions for reading activities, creating tests and exercises, etc.

However, reusing NLP/ST methods or tools (developed for other than pedagogical purposes) in pedagogical applications is not always pedagogically justifiable since they need to be adapted to the educational tasks, e.g. readability measures for legal texts adapted to the second language learning context. Thus, LT researchers who intend to re-use their algorithms and techniques in CALL applications need new datasets, specifically designed corpora, databases, etc. to fine-tune their tools for new target groups – the design and compilation of which are both critical for achieving good results and time-consuming.

There are other challenges that the area of NLP-based CALL faces: re-use and sharing of existing NLP/ST components, copyright issues, standardization of pedagogical framework, lack of collaboration with end-users – to name just a few. Probably the most significant challenge is to make sure that the research results reach actual end-users in the form of tools which can become a part of the educational process, and which are both easy of use and have a pedagogically sound basis.

This workshop aims to bring together (computational) linguists involved in research aiming at integrating NLP/ST in CALL systems and exploring the theoretical and methodological issues arising in this connection, with the purpose to share experiences, achievements and setbacks, and to discuss potential ways of addressing the challenges that need to be overcome.

This year we welcome papers

that describe research directly aimed at ICALL
that demonstrate actual or discuss potential use of existing NLP/ST tools or resources for language learning
that describe ongoing development of resources and tools with potential usage in ICALL, either directly in interactive applications, or indirectly in materials, application or curriculum development, e.g. collecting and annotating learner corpora; developing tools and algorithms for readability analysis, selecting optimal corpus examples, etc.
that discuss challenges and/or research agendas for ICALL
we are also interested in software demonstrations
We especially invite submissions describing the above-mentioned themes for the Nordic languages.

Submission information

We are using Nodalida 2013 template for the workshop this year. Authors are invited to submit papers between 7 and 14 pages of content, excluding title, abstract, references and author affiliations. Only pdf files will be accepted. Submissions will be managed through the electronic conference management system EasyChair. Final camera-ready versions of accepted papers will be given an additional page to address reviewer comments.

Papers should describe original unpublished work or work-in-progress. Every paper will be reviewed by at least 2 members of the program committee. As reviewing will be blind, please ensure that papers are anonymous. Self-references that reveal the author’s identity, e.g., “We previously showed (Smith, 1991) …”, should be avoided. Instead, use citations such as “Smith previously showed (Smith, 1991) …”. Submissions will be judged on appropriateness, clarity, originality/innovativeness, correctness/soundness, meaningful comparison, significance and impact of ideas or results. Accepted papers will be published in a NEALT Proceeding Series and, additionally, made available through ACL anthology.

Please note that NoDaLiDa 2013 format adopts a single-column, smaller page format, optimized for on-screen reading. In terms of actual word counts, the above page numbers correspond to approximately 4-8 pages, in a ‘classic’, two-column conference proceedings layout.

Important dates:

June, 16: first call for papers
August, 8: EasyChair opens for submissions
August, 14: second call for papers
September, 14: final call for papers
September, 25: paper submission deadline, via EasyChair
October, 16: notification of acceptance
October, 30: camera-ready papers for publication. You are also required to submit the NEALT transfer of copyright agreement (signed at least by the corresponding author and scanned) with your final submission.
November, 13, 9.00-12.00: workshop date

Invited speaker

We are happy to announce that our invited speaker will be

Prof. Detmar Meurers, University of Tübingen, Germany

Program committee:

Lars Ahrenberg, Linköping University, Sweden
Lars Borin, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Antonio Branco, University of Lisboa, Portugal
Simon Dobnik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Robert Eklund, Linköping University, Sweden
Katarina Heimann Mühlenbock, DART, Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset, Göteborg, Sweden
Thomas Francois, UCLouvain, Belgium
Arne Jönsson, Linköping University, Sweden
Sofie Johansson Kokkinakis, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Ola Knutsson, Stockholm University, Sweden
Chris Koniaris, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Peter Ljunglöf, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Hrafn Loftsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Montse Maritxalar, University of the Basque country, Spain
Detmar Meurers, University of Tübingen, Germany
Martí Quixal, The Universty of Texas at Austin, US
Mathias Schulze, University of Waterloo, Canada
Joel Tetreault, Yahoo! Labs, US
Trond Trosterud, Universitetet i Tromsø, Norway
Cornelia Tschichold, Swansea University, UK
Francis Tyers, The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Elena Volodina, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Workshop organizers

Elena Volodina, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, University of Gothenburg; elena dot volodina at svenska dot gu dot se (Organizing chair)
Lars Borin, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, University of Gothenburg; lars dot borin at svenska dot gu dot se
Ildikó Pilán, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, University of Gothenburg; ildiko dot pilan at svenska dot gu dot se

For all inquiries, please email Elena Volodina

CFP Current Work in Corpus Linguistics: Working with Traditionally-conceived Corpora and Beyond

 
Current Work in Corpus Linguistics: 
Working with Traditionally-conceived Corpora and Beyond

Welcome to Valladolid for the CILC2015, the seventh edition of the International Conference on Corpus Linguistics organized by AELINCO, the Spanish Association of Corpus Linguistics and hosted this year by the Department of English and the International Centre for Lexicography (University of de Valladolid, Spain). The University of Valladolid is a public university located in North-west Spain. Established in the 13th Century, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. It offers over 100 degrees, 50 masters and doctorate programmes, boasting a broad network of international relations, research centres as well as sports and cultural facilities together with a rich architectural and documentary heritage.

The conference will be held at the Palacio de Congresos “Conde Ansúrez” at the heart of Valladolid from 5 to 7 March 2015. The Conference will focus on current work in Corpus Linguistics as well as future developments of the discipline, especially in connection with the coming of age of Big Data.

Abstracts must be sent in English or Spanish and must not exceed 550 words. The time allotted for the presentation is 20 minutes (with 5 minutes for discussion). Abstracts for poster sessions will also be accepted.

The abstract proposals should be related to one of the conference panels outlined by AELINCO. Each panel has a director who shall communicate the acceptance or rejection of the proposals after the evaluation by experts.

The first circular provides information about the submission of proposals.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 1 December 2014.

For further information:

http://aelinco-en.blogs.uva.es/  

The fifth international conference on law, language and discourse 2015

THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LAW, LANGUAGE AND DISCOURSE

Theme: Communication and Fairness in Legal Settings

27TH – 30TH SEP, 2015 ÖREBRO UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN

Subtopics

Communication and interaction in a fair trial
The significance of communication and interaction in the procedural paradigm
(civil and criminal proceedings)
Court rhetoric and fairness
Communication and fairness in mediation – civil- and criminal matters
Communication and fairness before trial
Communication and fairness at means of compulsion
Children and communication in legal settings
Vulnerable groups and communication in a fair legal setting
Gender and communication in a fair legal setting
The cost and benefit of communication and fairness in legal settings

Conference chairs
Laura Ervo, Professor, University of Örebro, Sweden
Le Cheng, Professor, Zhejiang University, China

Invited speakers

Ulrika Andersson, Docent, University of Lund, Sweden
Ragna Arli, Professor, University of Bergen, Norway
Sol Azuelos-Atias, Senior Lecturer, University of Haifa, Israel
Le Cheng, Professor, Zhejiang University, China
Susan Petrilli, Professor, University of Bari, Italy
Augusto Ponzio, Professor, University of Bari, Italy
Frances Rock, Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University, UK
Lijin Sha, Professor, China University of Political Science and Law, China
King-Kui Sin, Professor, Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong
Anne Wagner, Associate Professor, Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale France

Scientific committee

Janet Ainsworth, Professor, University of Seattle, USA
Eric Bylander, Docent in procedural law, Master in rhetoric, Uppsala University, Sweden
Le Cheng, Professor, Zhejiang University, China
Laura Ervo, Professor, University of Örebro, Sweden
Craig Hoffman, Professor, Georgetown University, USA
Kerstin Nordlöf, Professor, University of Örebro, Sweden
Susan Petrilli, Professor, University of Bari, Italy
Lijin Sha, Professor, China University of Political Science and Law
King-Kui Sin, Professor, Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong
Joseph-G.Turi, Secretary General, International Academy of Linguistic Law, Canada
Anne Wagner, Associate Professor, Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale, France

Contact information:
e-mail: LLDconference@oru.se
webpage: www.oru.se/jps/LLDconference

CFP: Digital games and language learning: A sociocultural perspective



Digital games and language learning: A sociocultural perspective  (Edited by Dr Mark Peterson and Dr Michael Thomas)

Rationale

In recent years there has been a surge of interest in the use of digital games in many spheres of education. The field of language education has also witnessed an expansion of work in this area (Peterson 2010). Language researchers frequently assert that the use of contemporary digital games in language education is a highly significant development (Sykes & Reinhardt 2012). The current literature suggests that playing many types of digital game may be particularly beneficial for second and foreign language learners (Peterson 2013). In the view of a growing number of researchers, digital games have the potential to provide access to optimal conditions for learning as they provide exposure to and opportunities to use the target language in a highly engaging, authentic and motivating context (Reinders & Wattana 2012; Sykes 2013). The expansion of interest on the use of games has coincided with advances in SLA research that stress the social nature of language learning. As many network-based digital games provide for extensive social interaction between players they have attracted interest from researchers who emphasize the importance of contextual and social factors in SLA (Thorne, Black & Sykes 2009).

Although there has been much discussion of the potential of digital games in the literature, research that explores learner game play is limited and many areas remain unexplored (Reinhardt 2013). Research that investigates the use of digital games from a sociocultural perspective has been conducted (Peterson 2012; Piiranen-Marsh & Tainio 2009; Zheng et al., 2009). However, studies remain restricted for the most part, to small scale experimental research. To date, few studies have addressed learner attitudes, gaming in out-of-school contexts or participation in game-related online communities (Peterson 2013). At the present time there is no dedicated collection that brings together state-of-the-art research on the use of digital games that is informed by sociocultural accounts of SLA. Moreover, there remains a lack of publications that provide classroom practitioners with a resource on which to draw. Through the presentation of theory-based work and studies conducted in the field it is anticipated that this edited volume will inform language educators in the pursuit of best practice.

Call for chapters

The proposed book will be divided into two parts: the first section will include theory-based papers that will provide a comprehensive overview of rationales for game-based learning that are informed by sociocultural accounts of SLA. The second section will focus on applied research and will include papers that report on actual learner game play, in-game interaction, attitudes and participation in game related online communities.

Chapters will be between 5,000 to 7,000 words long and will appeal to language teachers, graduate students and researchers working in the fields of applied linguistics, second language acquisition and the learning sciences. Submissions are encouraged focusing on one or more of the following areas:

Theory of game-based learning
Learner in-game interaction
Learner attitudes
Use of modified games
Gaming in out-of-school contexts
Integration of game-based learning
Learner participation in online game-related communities

Abstract submission and deadlines

Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words and should be sent to both Dr Mark Peterson (tufsmp@yahoo.com) and Dr Michael Thomas (MThomas4@uclan.ac.uk).

The deadline is July 30th 2014. All proposals should include the following information:

Full name and title of the author(s)
Professional status
Professional address (department, employer, city and country)
Email addresses (home/work)
A short bio of each author (no more than 100 words)

All abstracts will be reviewed and a decision regarding possible inclusion in the monograph will be made within three weeks of receipt. Authors should note that acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee inclusion in the book, as the final chapter draft will be subject to further review.

The first chapter drafts are due on or before January 10th 2014.

Acceptance or rejection of papers is expected to take place within two to three weeks of the above date. Authors of accepted proposals will be sent further guidelines for the development of their chapter in due course. Prospective authors may submit more than one proposal. However, only one chapter can be accepted per individual author.

About the editors

Dr Mark Peterson is associate professor in the graduate school of human and environmental studies Kyoto University, Japan. His research focuses on the use of digital games in language education. He is author of Computer Games and Language Learning  (2013). Among his recent publications include papers in the journals ReCALL, Simulation and Gaming and Digital Education and Culture. Together with Dr Michael Thomas he recently co-edited a special edition of the CALICO Journal (2014) focusing on Web 2.0 and language learning.
http://www.peterson.h.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

Dr Michael Thomas is Senior Lecturer in Language Learning Technologies at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, and an affiliated fellow at the Brenkman Center for Internet Studies, Harvard University, for 2013/14. He has taught at universities in the UK, Germany and Japan. His research interests are in task-based learning and CALL and distance and online learning. He is editor of two book series, ‘Digital Education and Learning’ (with James Paul Gee and John Palfrey) and ‘Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching’ (with Mark Peterson and Mark Warschauer). Among his recent publications are Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning (2009), Task-Based Language Learning & Teaching with Technology (with H. Reinders) (2010), Digital Education (2011) and Online Learning (2011).
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/michael_thomas.php