Of elastic clouds and treebanks: New opprtunities for content-based and data-driven language learning
Robert Godwin‐Jones · Language learning & technology · 2008
Creating effective electronic tools for language learning frequently requires large data sets containing extensive examples of actual human language use.Collections of authentic language in spoken and written forms provide developers the means to enrich their applications with real world examples.As the Internet continues to expand exponentially, the vast "cloud" of Web pages created provides a nearly inexhaustible and continuously updated language bank, particularly in English.The issue remains, however, of how to make practical use of large amounts of data for language learning, given storage and data processing demands.Recently, new developments in storage virtualization and distributed computing offer practical solutions, as demonstrated by Amazon's Elastic Computer Cloud and SimpleDB.At the same time, the move to XML encoding of language corpora and text collections provides the compatibility and interchange which has hampered their practical exploitation for language learning.Tools are also being created to facilitate the transformation of text collections into more usable formats, particularly into syntactically annotated corpora called treebanks.These developments offer opportunities for content-based language learning in particular. GROWTH IN CONTENT-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNINGRich data collections are especially important for development of learner focused language applications.In recent years there has been a sharp increase in the development of language learning tools for specific learner populations.Not surprisingly, this has been most in evidence in Europe, as the European Union has continually added new member nations bringing with them additional official languages.The EU Europa Web site list 171 different projects in the area of content-based language learning that have, since 1999, earned the "European Language Label", awarded for creative applications in language learning.A number of these projects have been created with funding supplied by EU grant programs, including Lingua, Leonardo, and Socrates.Most involve the creation of electronic tools and multimedia and increasingly are using the Web for delivery.Many are designed for use in either instructor-led or selfstudy settings, or both.The EU site highlights a variety of projects in language learning for special purposes, including such diverse targeted areas as agricultural workers, apprentices, architectural workers, automotive workers, building maintenance workers, computer scientists, construction workers, customs officers, dock workers, entrepreneurs, hospital patients, insurance industry workers, isolated rural inhabitants, teachers, prison officers, the unemployed, and young immigrants.Some projects are even more narrowly focused, such as French for racing apprentices, Polish for missionaries, or English for ski lift cashiers.The largest number of projects targets the hospitality sector, where the need for multi-lingual workers is evident.The VIRTEX project was recently awarded first place in the European Language Label competition and is designed for workers in the hotel and restaurant industries learning English or German.Originally a CD-ROM project, it now incorporates a rich set of online tools, including streaming video.Several of the vocational language projects make use of a full-fledged virtual learning environment.The EUROVOLT project, which offers vocationally-oriented language learning in a variety of languages for many industries, is implemented in Moodle and makes extensive use of new media and collaborative tools.It also incorporates language e-portfolios.Interesting projects in this area also include BeCult and Online VoCAL/Weblingua, both of which have richly developed tools and media.