Automating Second Language Acquisition Research: Integrating Information Visualisation and Machine Learning
Helen Yannakoudakis, Ted Briscoe, Theodora Alexopoulou · Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics · 2012
We demonstrate how data-driven approaches to learner corpora can support Second Language Acquisition research when integrated with visualisation tools. We present a visual user interface supporting the investigation of a set of linguistic features discriminating between pass and fail 'English as a Second or Other Language' exam scripts. The system displays directed graphs to model interactions between features and supports exploratory search over a set of learner scripts. We illustrate how the interface can support the investigation of the co-occurrence of many individual features, and discuss how such investigations can shed light on understanding the linguistic abilities that characterise different levels of attainment and, more generally, developmental aspects of learner grammars.