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A longitudinal study lasting 3.5 years was conducted to investigate complex grammar development, focusing on acquisition of the passive and type 3 conditionals, and its relationship with a number of domain-general, domain-specific and environmental factors. 128 children (M = 5 years 10 months) were tested at the beginning and towards the end of each school year starting from Year 1. The administered measures included established tests of fluid intelligence, short-term and working memory, seriation, grammar, vocabulary, literacy and arithmetic, plus newly-developed tests of passive and conditional sentence acquisition, and arithmetic word problem solving. It was demonstrated that grammar acquisition is not complete even when children start Year 4 of primary school (M = 8 years 7 months), when the current study was completed. At that time, 32% of children have not acquired type 3 conditionals and 89% showed no understanding of centre-embedded sentences. However, only 3% showed no passive sentence acquisition. Fluid intelligence, verbal STM and WM, ability to seriate, vocabulary and parental education level were all found to contribute to individual differences in complex grammar acquisition, independently of age differences and, where relevant, independently of non-verbal ability. There were differences between the passives and the conditionals in their relationship to these variables. Complex grammar development was found to be a significant predictor of reading comprehension, spelling and arithmetic performance, independently of age, non-verbal ability, verbal STM and WM. The findings demonstrate the inter-relatedness of higher cognitive functions, particularly domain-general with domain-specific ones. Modularity in its strictest sense (informational encapsulation, functional isolation) is not present in normally developing brains. Educational applications of the results are discussed.

Title: Processing of Czech court decisions Author: Bohdan Maslowski Department: Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics Supervisor: Mgr. Barbora Vidová Hladká, Ph.D. Abstract: The objective of this thesis is a comparison of various language processing methods of Czech case-law documents. In particular, the tasks of extraction of information about parties (names, roles, addresses, etc.) and document classification by two criteria, subject and result have been solved. Machine learning methods are evaluated and compared to rule-based approach. For the purpose of training and evaluation of classifiers, a corpus of 400 Czech case-law documents has been created and manually annotated. The thesis includes a web application used for demonstration of the results of different approaches and a tool for running and evaluation of testing scenarios. Keywords: natural language processing, information extraction, legislative domain, machine learning, rule-based systems

Nous définissons les stratégies d'usage de la langue de la façon suivante : il s’agit de stratégies langagières que les élèves appliquent en résolvant des exercices en langue cible (par exemple de DEL 2). Afin d’analyser ces stratégies langagières, nous menons une étude qualitative auprès de 14 écoliers suivant un cursus franco-allemand à Baden-Baden. Nous demandons aux élèves de résoudre des exercices de français tirés des Évaluations nationales des acquis des élèves. Nous appliquons la méthode de la pensée à voix haute. Les élèves choisissent s'ils verbalisent leurs pensées en langue allemande ou française. L'objectif principal de notre étude est d'analyser et d'éliciter les stratégies d'usage de la langue.Environ 1000 stratégies ont été observées et codées avec le logiciel MAXQDA. Les stratégies cognitives sont les stratégies qui ont été appliquées le plus souvent par les élèves testés - en tout presque 350 fois. La langue de base choisie par les élèves pour les protocoles à voix haute était le français et pas l'allemand. / This thesis reports on an empirical study of 3rd and 4th grade students in a German-French bilingual school. The study consisted of research subjects solving exercises by using the thinkaloud method, after which film and transcription analysis allowed for a detailed examination of the strategies used during the exercises. Such strategies have been termed "language usagestrategies" and have been distinguished from learning and communication strategies. This distinction is important because when students use their L2 in this context, their goal is not to learn the language or to communicate, rather, it is to solve the exercise. The students used and combined many cognitive, compensatory, metacognitive, social and affective strategies during the Think aloud Protocols. Also the individual interviews revealed that the students manifested a large number of language usage strategies, suggesting that they are conscious of strategy usage when using their L2.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-273).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:43:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1347135 bytes, checksum: 57037afb5540568a2999801a534a4cbf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study aims to describe the variable process of inserting the epenthetic vowel [ɪ] in words beginning with clusters at onset position in English by Brazilian, from Paraíba, learners of English so called foreign language. Based on research conducted regarding this phenomenon as: Escartín (2005) with Hispanic learners of English so called foreign language and similar phenomena Cardoso (2004, 2008, 2009). The objective of this research is, then, to identify the incidence frequency of the insertion of vowel epenthesis at onset position of words in English that begin with one of the following clusters /sp/, /st/, /sk/, /sl/, /sm/, and /sn/ by Brazilian learners of English so called foreign language. This work aims to answer the following guiding questions: what is the incidence frequency of the onset vowel epenthesis in sC cluster in English by Brazilian learners of English so called foreign language?; what is the role of the sonority of the second consonant of the cluster and the preceding phonological context on the occurrence of onset vowel epenthesis in sC cluster?; what is the role of the learner's proficiency, and level of output formality in the occurrence of onset vowel epenthesis in sC cluster? and what is the role of the English so called foreign language learner phonological awareness in the occurrence of onset vowel epenthesis in sC cluster? The hypothesis are that obstruent and liquid consonants can promote vowel epenthesis, whereas nasal ones do not favor it; that preceding consonantal and pause environments favor initial vowel epenthesis while preceding vowel epenthesis do not favor such occurrence; that the more proficient is the informant in the target language, the less use of initial vowel epenthesis in sC clusters; and the more formal is the data collection style less initial vowel epenthesis in sC clusters happens. The research corpus is composed of 18 informants from Paraiba, learners of English so called foreign language, distributed in basic, intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency. For speech data collection was recorded twenty-eight sentences and text in English read by the participants. The collected material was quantitatively analyzed by the computer program GOLDVARB X (Sankoff, Tagliamonte and Smith, 2005). The independent variables are learner s level of proficiency and phonological awareness in the so called foreign language, sonority of the second element of the cluster, preceding phonological context and instrument type of data collection. The statistical analysis shows, in decreasing order of significance, that the sonority of the cluster, the learner s level of proficiency, the learner s phonological awareness, and the preceding context of the cluster are the variables more relevant to the realization of onset vowel epenthesis in sC cluster. The achieved results contribute not only to understand how English so called foreign language learning occurs by Brazilian learners, but also promotes pedagogical implications for teaching English so called foreign language. / epentética em palavras iniciadas por cluster em posição inicial na língua inglesa por aprendentes brasileiros, do estado da Paraíba, de inglês como língua dita estrangeira, tendo como base pesquisas realizadas a respeito desse fenômeno como: Escartín (2005) com aprendentes hispânicos de inglês como LDE e fenômenos semelhantes Cardoso (2004, 2008, 2009). O objetivo dessa pesquisa é, então, identificar a frequência da ocorrência de inserção da epêntese vocálica ou vogal de apoio na posição inicial das palavras em língua inglesa que se iniciam com um dos seguintes clusters /sp/, /st/, /sk/, /sl/, /sm/, e /sn/ por aprendentes brasileiros de inglês como LDE. Este trabalho tem como meta responder às seguintes perguntas norteadoras: qual a frequência de ocorrência da epêntese vocálica inicial em cluster sC em L2 por aprendentes brasileiros de inglês como LDE?; qual o papel da sonoridade da segunda consoante do cluster e do contexto fonológico precedente na ocorrência de epêntese vocálica inicial em cluster sC?; qual o papel da proficiência do aprendente, e nível de formalidade da produção na ocorrência de epêntese vocálica inicial em cluster sC?; e qual o papel da consciência fonológica do aprendente de inglês como LDE na ocorrência de epêntese vocálica inicial em cluster sC? As hipóteses são que as consoantes obstruintes e líquidas possam favorecer a epêntese vocálica, enquanto que as consoantes nasais não favoreçam; o contexto fonológico precedente consonantal e de pausa favoreçam a epêntese vocálica inicial em clusters sC, ao passo que o contexto vocálico precedente desfavoreça a ocorrência de tal fenômeno; quanto mais proficiente na língua alvo for o informante, menos se utilize da epêntese vocálica inicial em cluster sC; e quanto mais formal for o tipo de coleta de dados, menos aconteça o fenômeno da epêntese vocálica em cluster sC. O corpus da pesquisa é constituído por 18 informantes paraibanos, aprendentes de inglês como LDE, pertencentes aos níveis de proficiência na LDE: básico, intermediário e avançado. Para a coleta dos dados de fala foi gravada a leitura de vinte e oito frases e um texto em inglês. O material coletado foi analisado quantitativamente através do programa computacional GOLDVARB X (SANKOFF; TAGLIAMONTE; SMITH, 2005). As variáveis independentes observadas são: nível de proficiência e consciência fonológica do aprendente, sonoridade do segundo elemento do cluster, contexto fonológico precedente e tipo de instrumento de coleta de dados. O tratamento estatístico realizado mostra, em ordem decrescente de significância, que as variáveis sonoridade do cluster, nível de proficiência, consciência fonológica do informante, contexto precedente ao cluster são as que se mostram mais relevantes à realização da epêntese vocálica inicial em cluster sC. Os resultados alcançados contribuirão não só para entender como ocorre a aprendizagem de inglês como LDE por aprendentes brasileiros, mas promove também implicações pedagógicas no ensino de inglês como LDE.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo estudar as estratÃgias de aprendizagem (EA) utilizadas por aprendizes de inglÃs como lÃngua estrangeira em EaD. Adotamos a conceituaÃÃo de Oxford (1990), de acordo com a qual estratÃgias sÃo ―passos tomados pelo aluno para melhorar o prÃprio aprendizado‖. As estratÃgias agrupam-se em dois grandes conjuntos â o das diretas e o das indiretas, que se subdividem em: estratÃgias de memÃria; de compensaÃÃo; estratÃgias cognitivas; metacognitivas; afetivas; e sociais. A fim de identificarmos os perfis de uso de EA por aprendizes em EaD, aplicamos o InventÃrio de EstratÃgias de Aprendizagem de LÃnguas - IEALE - (OXFORD, 1990), na versÃo traduzida por Paiva (1998) para o portuguÃs. Entre outros resultados, verificamos que a mÃdia geral no IEALE para nossos sujeitos foi de 3,02 (trÃs vÃrgula zero dois), o que os encaixa em uma categoria mÃdia de uso das EA. A ordem da mÃdia de uso dos grupos de EA que compÃem o IEALE foi: 1. metacognitivas; 2. sociais; 3. cognitivas; 4. afetivas; 5. memÃria; e 6. compensaÃÃo. Foi tambÃm analisada a relaÃÃo entre o perfil de uso de EA e o desempenho desses alunos em disciplinas de lÃngua inglesa, realizando testes nÃo-paramÃtricos de correlaÃÃo (Spearman Rho). Os testes estatÃsticos apontam uma correlaÃÃo tanto entre desempenho oral (sig. 0,000), quanto escrito (sig. 0,012), e o uso de EA. Foram ainda comparados os resultados obtidos neste estudo aos resultados de outros estudos sobre EA em modalidade presencial. Infelizmente, a metodologia empregada pela maioria das pesquisas brasileiras nÃo ofereceu condiÃÃes de generabilidade e, por isso, nÃo foi possÃvel realizar contraste entre os dados desta pesquisa e os obtidos por outras pesquisas brasileiras. Na anÃlise de pesquisas estrangeiras, foi identificada a seguinte ordem quanto à mÃdia de uso dos grupos de EA: 1. Metacognitivas e CompensaÃÃo; 2. Sociais e Cognitivas; 3. MemÃria e Afetivas, dados bastante similares Ãqueles que obtivemos com os sujeitos desta pesquisa. Este estudo possibilitou um cruzamento natural entre as definiÃÃes de EA e autonomia de aprendizagem. Mudando a perspectiva que enxerga as EA como um dos mecanismos para promover a autonomia, acreditamos serem as EA, na realidade, aquilo que deverÃamos medir para avaliar a autonomia de aprendizagem. / The main goal of this dissertation is to study the learning strategies used by distance learners of English as a Foreign Language in virtual environments. The study is based on Oxfordâs (1990) concept of strategies as steps taken by the learner to improve his/her own learning. The strategies are divided into two groups â direct and indirect strategies, and each group is divided into sub groups: memory, compensation, cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. In order to identify the different profiles of users of learning strategies, the translated version (PAIVA, 1998) of the Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (OXFORD, 1990) - SILL - was used. Results indicated that the average score in the SILL was 3.2 (three point two) among the distance learning learners. This average score places the learners in the profile of medium users of the strategies. The rank of use for the strategy groups was: 1st metacognitive; 2nd social; 3rd cognitive; 4th affective; 5th memory; and 6th compensation. The relationship between the user profile and the performance in English courses was also analyzed, using a non-parametric test of correlation (Spearman Rho). The results of the tests indicate a significant correlation between the use of strategies and learnersâ performance on courses that developed both oral (sig. 0.000) and written skills (0.012). The results yielded by the application of the Inventory of Learning Strategies were also compared to the results obtained by other studies using the same inventory in face-to-face contexts. Unfortunately, this comparison could not be made with Brazilian studies, since the methodology used by them did not allow for generalizations. The analysis of the results obtained by foreign studies indicated that the rank of use for the groups of strategies was: 1st metacognitive and compensation; 2nd Social and Cognitive; 3rd memory and affective skills, a rank very close to the one obtained by this study. This study has also raised the possibility of combining the concepts of Learning Strategies with those of learning autonomy, adding to the view of learning strategies as tools to develop autonomy, the possibility of using these strategies to evaluate learning autonomy.

It is widely discussed about the role of electronic games in the players’ lives in today's society. We know that they are playful instruments present in the family environment, however, we question if they contribute to the players’ knowledge and learning. Therefore, this work aims to investigate knowledge that players are acquiring while playing. The target audience for analysis is high school students players from a private school in Aracaju. We have identified that the analyzed players claim to learn English vocabulary while they play, although this is not their goal, which facilitate playing games and the reading of texts written in English language. In this question, we enter into other perspectives of learning in games that exceed the learning of the English language, as the educational question. In order to provide a foundation for researching, our theoretical contribution considers the discussions about learning and literacy in games (GEE, 2007a, 2007b, 2005, 2004), education and schooling (ANDREOTTI; SOUZA, 2007) educational practices in games (SQUIRE, 2006) and learning to learn (WIRTH; PERKINS, 2008) for significant forms of learning, among other authors. The methodology is delimited in the studies about qualitative analysis (NEVES, 2006), while the data collection is limited to recorded interviews and written questionnaires. It is possible to perceive, in the context of those involved, learning about school contents issues and, at the same time, educational formations, such as overcoming mood problems, shyness, and ethical social awareness. / Muito se discute sobre o papel dos jogos eletrônicos na vida de jogadores na sociedade atual. Sabemos que são instrumentos lúdicos presentes no ambiente familiar, no entanto, questionamos se eles contribuem para o conhecimento e aprendizagem de jogadores. Por isso, este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar conhecimentos que os jogadores estão adquirindo ao jogar. O público-alvo para análise são jogadores-estudantes do ensino médio de uma escola privada de Aracaju. Identificamos que os jogadores analisados afirmam aprender vocabulários da língua inglesa enquanto jogam, ainda que este não seja seu objetivo, o que lhes facilita as jogadas e a leitura de textos escritos em língua inglesa. Nessa questão, adentramos em outras perspectivas de aprendizagem em jogos que ultrapassagem a aprendizagem da língua inglesa, como a questão educativa. Para dar alicerce à pesquisa, nosso aporte teórico considera as discussões sobre aprendizagem e letramento em jogos (GEE, 2007a, 2007b, 2005, 2004), educação e escolarização (ANDREOTTI; SOUZA, 2007), práticas educativas em jogos (SQUIRE, 2006) e aprendendo a aprender (WIRTH; PERKINS, 2008) para significativas formas de aprendizagem, dentre outros autores. A metodologia abordada está delimitada nos estudos em análise qualitativa (NEVES, 2006), enquanto que o levantamento de dados está circunscrito a entrevistas gravadas e questionários escritos. Podemos perceber, no contexto dos envolvidos, aprendizagens sobre questões de conteúdos escolares e, ao mesmo tempo, formações educativas, como a superação de problemas de humor, timidez, além de conscientização ética e social. / São Cristóvão, SE

We present MLFix, an automatic statistical post-editing system, which is a spiritual successor to the rule- based system, Depfix. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the possible approaches to automatic identification of the most common morphological errors produced by the state-of-the-art machine translation systems and to train sufficient statistical models built on the acquired knowledge. We performed both automatic and manual evaluation of the system and compared the results with Depfix. The system was mainly developed on the English-to- Czech machine translation output, however, the aim was to generalize the post-editing process so it can be applied to other language pairs. We modified the original pipeline to post-edit English-German machine translation output and performed additional evaluation of this modification. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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