ICALL research

agenda versus reality check

Elena Volodina, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

(Emergency) talk at NLP4CALL, December 9 2022

Carl Hempel: Philosophy of Natural Science (1966)

• The aim of science is to explain the world around us
• ​
• Scientific explanations must meet two requirements:
• The requirement of explanatory relevance (i.e. relevant facts for the reasoning)
• The requirement of testability

Hempel’s postulates in ICALL

• Scientific explanations must meet two requirements:
• ​
• RESEARCH AGENDA: The requirement of explanatory relevance (i.e. relevant facts for the reasoning)
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• REALITY CHECK: The requirement of testability

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April, 2022 - … : https://t.me/quizlet4swedish

2012 - … : https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/

Lärkalabb

2012-2022

• A platform for learning Swedish
• Exercises for linguists: PoS, syntactic relations, semantic relations
• Exercises for language learners: vocabulary, listening, dictation, inflectional morphology, particle verbs, …
• Sentence/text complexity analysis & prototypes
• Lexical complexity analysis & prototypes
• Swedish L2 profile
• ….

Elena Volodina, Ildikó Pilán, David Alfter, Samir Yousuf Ali Mohammed, Johannes Graën, Arianna Masciolini, …

Lärkalabb users

https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/

• Teachers of linguistics
• Students of linguistics
• L2 teachers
• L2 learners
• L2 researchers
• ….

• Pedagogy
• SLA
• ICALL
• (automatic) material development
• new data collection
• new research areas
• ….

impact

Lärkalabb users

https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/

• Teachers of linguistics (a few)
• Students of linguistics (some)
• L2 teachers (none)
• L2 learners ?
• L2 researchers ?
• ….

• Pedagogy ?
• SLA
• ICALL
• (automatic) material development
• new data collection?
• new research areas
• ….

impact?

How can we attract

L2 teachers and L2 learners?

“Adopted” family f. Mariupol (31.03.2022 - …)

No SFI? Let’s do SFS!

Swedish for Immigrants → Swedish from Scratch (for Ukrainians)

Scope

• Vocabulary
• Grammar
• Reading (texts)

SfS - on Telegram channel

https://t.me/quizlet4swedish

• Archive with links to lessons, texts, grammar, etc.
• Pinned vocabulary, texts, grammar
• Notifications, comments, followers
• ≈2135 subscribers (since 5 April ‘22)
• Initiated:
• exercises & crosswords (David Alfter)
• Badly needed:
• text recordings (need to find “Swedish voices”)
• more grammar descriptions (to be translated into Russian)
• proofreading texts, vocabulary lessons, grammar, exercises…
• Regular work:
• Selection of topics, text writing, word translation
• Proofreading linguistic annotation of texts prior to exe generation

Vocabulary in Quizlet

• Topic selection “by observed needs”
• Quizlet App: https://quizlet.com/class/22036236/
• a là flashcard: Swedish-Russian, incl pronunciation
• automatic exercises, tests, leaderboard
• 83 lessons, often based on texts

Texts on Clilstore

• 25 texts, open to everyone: https://clilstore.eu/clilstore/
• Online lexicons per language, translations on-click
• Pictures, tables, sound tracks, etc can be linked
• Sorted by level (at the moment A1-B1)

Grammar reference materials

• Nouns: https://elenavolodina.github.io/SwedishFromScratch/Grammar
• Verbs: https://elenavolodina.github.io/SwedishFromScratch/Grammar_Verbs
• Online grammar in Russian https://svspb.net/bok/intro.htm#foreword

​

• Grammar source - from SFI, Rivstart, etc

Extra materials

• https://www.ur.se/sprakplay/ (discontinued in December 2022)
• Youtube (SFI) - various, depending on the needs and/or topics
• Lätt svenska med Oscar

First experiments …

automatic exercises etc.

Lärka-based SFS: David Alfter

• Grammar training by POS: https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/sfs/
• Text annotation (Sparv or other tools)
• Annotation cleaning
• Crossword: target words, templates, … https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/sfs/cw

Lärka-based SFS-exercises: David Alfter

• https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/sfs/?lesson_number=6&pos=PRON

Lärka-based SFS-crossword: David Alfter

• https://spraakbanken.gu.se/larkalabb/sfs/cw

Pros and cons

Reach out to teachers to win data source

Arhar Holdt et al. (2020), Burstein et al. (2009): Teachers are likely to adopt (technical) innovations only if those can fit logically into teachers’ daily routines.

Burstein et al. (2012) identify five critical components for technical innovations aimed at language classrooms, among others:

• Relevance to the curriculum standards and lesson objectives, i.e. suggested technological solution should be able to provide support with immediately relevant tasks.

• Ability to keep learners motivated and focused on the learning goals, i.e. the innovations should not distract from the learning goals, but help concentrate on them.

• Potential to independent practices, i.e. technical solutions should facilitate independent learner work, e.g. creation of activities that can be given to learners for self-study or homework.

Visions

• Combine NLP algorithms (e.g. Lärka’s) with Quizlet’s and Clilstore’s functionalities
• Add editing functionalities to Lärka’s exercise generation for flexibility and adaptability of materials:
• add an authoring tool for teachers
• add a way for learners to follow (subscribe) to a course
• add databases to collect user-generated data

Re-define (immediate) agenda

• Combine NLP algorithms (e.g. Lärka’s) with e.g. Quizlet’s and Clilstore’s functionalities
• Add editing functionalities to exercise generation for flexibility and adaptability of materials:
• add an authoring tool for teachers
• add a way for learners to follow (subscribe) to a course
• add databases to collect user-generated data

First attempts with the authoring tool

Major conclusions

• researchers need to have periodical reality checks to understand how to adjust their research agenda to reality and prevent their research from turning into a selfish playground.
• by giving (certain) control to teachers and learners, ICALL platforms (e.g. Lärka) promise to become a win-win platform for both pedagogical and research scenarios.

Volodina and Alfter (2022). ICALL: research versus reality check. In Live and Learn: a Festschrift in honor of Lars Borin.

Richard Hamming: You and Your Research (1986)

On the other side of the dining hall was a chemistry table... I went over and said: “Do you mind if I join you?” They can't say no, so I started eating with them for a while. And I started asking,

“What are the important problems of your field?”

And after a week or so,

“What important problems are you working on?”

And after some more time I came in and said,

“If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?”

I wasn't welcomed after that...

https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/inf1/fp/lectures/hamming.pdf

Some pieces of advice by Hammington

on how to make great research

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​

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• ...emotional commitment is not enough. It is a necessary condition.
• You have to neglect things if you intend to get what you want done.
• Keep your subconscious starved so it has to work on your problem, so you can sleep peacefully and get the answer in the morning, free.
• If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance. (about development of a theory)

Thank you!

Questions? Comments?

What is your (immediate and long-run) agenda?

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What is your important problem you are working on?

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Do you plan any reality checks?