ITSs (Intelligent Tutoring Systems) provide a way of addressing some of the issues that the more traditional CAI (Computer Aided Instruction) systems do not address - the individual learning needs and individual learning abilities and levels of users - so that the user is in control of their learning experience. An ITS needs to be able to provide an explanation, for a real world situation, that successfully meets the needs of the user. To ensure relevant explanation content requires the ITS be based on sound planning principles and tutoring knowledge as well as knowledge of the domain and the user. To ensure a coherent explanation structure requires that the tutoring knowledge be applied with full recognition of the knowledge of the domain and the user. For a model of the user's knowledge to be effective, the system should be able to use it to enhance the flexibility and responsiveness of explanations generated. A user model should guide the generation of explanations so they are pitched at the correct level of the user's existing knowledge; models should be able to actively support the needs of the user so that the user's efforts in seeking out information are minimised. The aim of this research is to generate effective, flexible and responsive explanations, in educational software systems, through developing better explanation facilities than exist in currently available ITS software. In achieving this aim, I am advancing research into dialogue planning and user modelling. The explanation facilities described meet the requirements of an explanation that is tailored to the user's needs, a sound theory from which particular explanations are constructed, and a user model that can accurately represent the behaviour and beliefs of the user. My research contributions include explicitly and formally representing discourse planning / reasoning, from both the user's view and the tutor's view so that they can be clearly understood and represented in the ITS. More recent planners have adopted approaches that can be characterised as using adaptations of the classical planning approach, with informally specified planning algorithms and planning languages. Without clear, explicit and full descriptions of actions and the planning algorithm we can not be certain of the plans that such planners produce. I adopt a theoretically rigorous approach based on classical planning theory - the actions available to the planner, the planning language and algorithm should be explicitly represented to ensure that plans are complete and consistent. Classical regression planning uses dynamic planning thus enabling the system to be flexible in a variety of situations and providing the responsiveness required for an ITS. I take a theoretically rigorous approach in constructing a well specified model of discourse, building upon existing research in the area. I present a tutoring module that is able to find a way to motivate the user to take a recommended action, by relating the action to the user's goals, and that is able to reason about the text structure to generate an effective explanation - putting together several clauses of text whilst maintaining coherency. As part of developing such constructs for motivating, enabling and recommending, as well as constructs for structuring text, I use a pedagogic model based on the principled approach of (i) advising the user to take an action (ii) motivating the user to want to take the action and (iii) ensuring the user knows how to do the action. I take a clear and realistic approach to user modelling, making explicit models of the user's behaviour and beliefs. I adopt a theoretically rigorous approach, formally distinguishing between the user's reasoning and their actions, so they can be focused on separately. Formally making this distinction, more easily enables models of the user's reasoning to be tailored to the individual user. To enable the tutor to consider the full impact on the user, of the information to be delivered to the user, I use different plan spaces. I explicitly identify the different perspectives of the user and the tutor so that they can be focused on separately to generate an explanation that is tailored to the user. In my approach, reasoning about the user's skills, rules and knowledge is independent from reasoning about those of the tutor.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-05-19Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:00:52Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ramos_wc_dr_arafcl_arafcl.pdf: 1609457 bytes, checksum: ec8c477959ceda9f241c7e518abdec64 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / A publicação de artigos em revistas científicas é fundamental para o pesquisador validar sua qualidade de membro da comunidade científica a que pertence. Publicar em revistas de prestígio requer de seus autores conhecimento não apenas das normas de apresentação e temas aceitos pela revista, mas, principalmente, dos padrões discursivos e léxico-gramaticais identificáveis nos gêneros produzidos pela comunidade científica à qual se dirigem. No entanto, para ser publicado, o artigo passa por um rigoroso processo de triagem em função da grande quantidade de trabalhos submetidos. O primeiro critério de seleção é a qualidade do abstract, gênero que tem a função de apresentar sucintamente o artigo que representa, dando-lhe visibilidade perante o comitê editorial. Entretanto, uma vez publicado, o artigo de pesquisa compete com tantos outros para ser lido e possivelmente citado em novos trabalhos, passando, novamente, por um processo de seleção através do abstract que, desta vez, é analisado pelos pesquisadores que buscam trabalhos que tragam contribuições. Assim, em função da relevância desse gênero na promoção do artigo de pesquisa, visando à sua publicação junto a revistas de prestígio e à sua leitura por outros pesquisadores, a presente tese de doutorado propõe um roteiro de escrita que auxilie o pesquisador na produção de abstracts de artigo de pesquisa. Tendo em vista que um abstract eficiente deve refletir as convenções nos planos retórico, argumentativo e léxico-gramatical da comunidade científica à qual se dirige, este trabalho abarca os domínios do gênero e da argumentação. No domínio do gênero, abordamos os conceitos de comunidade discursiva e gênero acadêmico de Swales (1990, 1992, 1998), analisamos a estrutura retórica de 150 abstracts (Biologia Celular, Medicina, Direito, Educação, Física, Matemática) e levantamos os expedientes... / Getting published is the researcher’s most important step toward being recognized as a legitimate member of his scientific community. Succeeding in getting research articles published in accredited scientific journals requires from the authors knowledge about the requirements for manuscripts, the themes covered and the discursive and lexical-grammatical patterns which can be identified in the various genres produced by the scientific communities they address. Nevertheless, the paper has to go through a two-stage analysis by the journal’s editorial committee before being published due to the large number of manuscripts submitted. In the first stage, what is examined is the abstract, genre whose purpose is to present the article briefly but in a way in which it gains visibility before the editorial board. If it is well written and appeals to the examiners, the analysis progresses to the next stage where the article itself will be analyzed to be approved for publication. However, once it is published, the article competes with so many others to be read and cited in other papers. Then it is scrutinized again through the abstract, but this time by other researchers who are interested in its contributions. Thus, due to the central role the abstract plays in persuading the editorial board to select the article for further assessment toward its acceptance for publication, and other researchers to read it, here we devise a plan for research article abstract writing. Since an effective abstract must reflect the rhetorical, argumentative and lexical-grammatical conventions of the scientific community it addresses, this PhD thesis encompasses two domains: genre and argumentation. In the domain of genre, we discuss the concepts of discourse community and genre (SWALES, 1990, 1992, 1998), analyze the rhetorical structure of 150 abstracts... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

This thesis deals with the correlative markers d’une part… d’autre part, d’un côté… de l’autre and non seulement… mais in French and their Swedish counterparts dels… dels, å ena sidan… å andra sidan and inte bara… utan. These markers are composed of two separate parts generally occurring together, and announce a serial of at least two textual units to be considered together. The analyses of the use of these three French and three Swedish markers are based upon two corpora of non-academic humanities texts. The first, principal corpus, is composed only of original French and Swedish texts. The second, complementary corpus, is composed of source texts in the two languages and their translations in the other language. By the combination of these two corpora, this study is comparative as well as contrastive. Through application of the Geneva model of discourse analysis and the Rhetorical Structure Theory, a semantic and functional approach to correlative markers and their text-structural role is adopted. The study shows similarities as well as differences between the six markers, both within each language and between the languages. D’une part… d’autre part and dels… dels principally mark a conjunctive relation, whereas d’un côté… de l’autre and å ena sidan… å andra sidan more often are used in  a contrastive relation, even though they all can be used for both kinds of relations. Non seulement… mais and inte bara… utan mark a conjunctive relation, but can also indicate that the second argument is stronger than the first one. By the use of these two markers, the language users also present the first one as given and the second one as new information. In general, the French correlative markers appear to have a more argumentative function, whereas the text-structural function is demonstrated to be the most important in Swedish.

Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή προτείνει ένα εννοιολογικό πλαίσιο σχεδιασμού μαθησιακών αντικειμένων το οποίο εμφορείται από την Κοινωνική Σημειωτική και από τη Θεωρία της Ρητορικής Δομής. Προτείνεται μια θεώρηση των μαθησιακών αντικειμένων ως πολυτροπικών ψηφιακών κειμενικών μακρο-ειδών τα οποία αποτελούνται από ψηφιακά κειμενικά μικρο-είδη. Η οργάνωση του μαθησιακού περιεχομένου μοντελοποιείται μέσα από διάφορα συστημικά δίκτυα τα οποία αναπαριστούν τις σχεδιαστικές επιλογές του δημιουργού των μαθησιακών αντικειμένων. Με αυτό το σημειωτικό πλαίσιο στη διάθεσή του ένας δημιουργός μαθησιακών αντικειμένων μπορεί να εξοπλιστεί με τα εννοιολογικά εκείνα εργαλεία τα οποία θα του επιτρέψουν: α) να δημιουργήσει ή να χρησιμοποιήσει διάφορους τύπους κειμενικών μικρο-ειδών σύμφωνα με τις επικοινωνιακές λειτουργίες που αυτά εξυπηρετούν, β) να συνδέσει μεταξύ τους αυτούς τους τύπους μέσα από μια σειρά συζευκτικών σχέσεων και γ) να εκφράσει μέσα στο μαθησιακό περιεχόμενο τις επικοινωνιακές του προθέσεις απέναντι σε μια συγκεκριμένη ομάδα – στόχο χρηστών. / This thesis proposes a conceptual framework for designing learning objects which is imbued by Social Semiotics and Rhetoric Structure Theory. An outlook of learning objects as digital multimodal macrogenres composed by digital microgenres is proposed. The organization of learning content is modeled through several systemic networks which represent the design choices of the learning objects’ author. With this semiotic framework at his disposal, a learning objects’ author can be equipped with those conceptual tools that will enable him: a) to create or use different types of microgenres according to the communicative functions they serve, b) to link these types through a series of conjunctive relations and c) to express within the learning content his communicative intentions towards a particular target group of users.

This is about how pupils in years 4 to 6 of compulsory school and their teachers make meaning in teaching activities and texts. The aim of the study is to investigate the teaching and learning of writing and the pupils’ discursive texts. Another aim is to use linguistic theories and develop methods and analytical concepts for studying teaching practices. Sources for the material are the teaching practices in two classes, the teachers and the pupils. The field studies lasted for two years, consisting of observations and interviews. Twelve pupils’ texts and four writing projects are studied in depth. The theoretical framework is linked to systemic functional linguis­tics, critical discourse analysis, dialogical conception of language and new literacy studies. Analytical tools are also derived from rhetorical structure theory, relief theory and theory of text sequences. These tools have been adap­ted and are also applied in the analysis of the teaching practice. To analyse pupils’ meaning making in their texts, a theory of mobility in texts is used. The analyses show two different categories of texts and teaching practices. The hierarchically composed texts are characterized by hierarchies concerning the entire text. The sequentially coupled texts are charac­terized by many vague relations between text entities. One conclusion is that the students in the hierarchically composed texts develop knowledge during writing. They make meaning recursively when writing and they seem to grasp the text as a whole in a way they do not in the sequentially coupled ones. In the sequentially coupled texts, pupils seem to develop knowledge mostly before they write the text, rather than during the writing. In the hierarchically composed practice the pupils deepen their knowledge about text. The result can be interpreted as showing that pupils primarily need education about global text levels in order to develop text knowledge and subject knowledge. Teaching practice seems to promote all pupils’ meaning making if the practice is characterized by many interpersonal relations in the chains of spoken and written texts and if pupils learn to write texts that can structure their meaning making in a functional way.

Cette thèse s'intègre dans le cadre du traitement automatique du langage naturel. La problématique du résumé automatique de documents arabes qui a été abordée, dans cette thèse, s'est cristallisée autour de deux points. Le premier point concerne les critères utilisés pour décider du contenu essentiel à extraire. Le deuxième point se focalise sur les moyens qui permettent d'exprimer le contenu essentiel extrait sous la forme d'un texte ciblant les besoins potentiels d'un utilisateur. Afin de montrer la faisabilité de notre approche, nous avons développé le système "L.A.E", basé sur une approche hybride qui combine une analyse symbolique avec un traitement numérique. Les résultats d'évaluation de ce système sont encourageants et prouvent la performance de l'approche hybride proposée. Ces résultats, ont montré, en premier lieu, l'applicabilité de l'approche dans le contexte de documents sans restriction quant à leur thème (Éducation, Sport, Science, Politique, Reportage, etc.), leur contenu et leur volume. Ils ont aussi montré l'importance de l'apprentissage dans la phase de classement et sélection des phrases forment l'extrait final. / This thesis falls within the framework of Natural Language Processing. The problems of automatic summarization of Arabic documents which was approached, in this thesis, are based on two points. The first point relates to the criteria used to determine the essential content to extract. The second point focuses on the means to express the essential content extracted in the form of a text targeting the user potential needs.In order to show the feasibility of our approach, we developed the "L.A.E" system, based on a hybrid approach which combines a symbolic analysis with a numerical processing.The evaluation results are encouraging and prove the performance of the proposed hybrid approach.These results showed, initially, the applicability of the approach in the context of mono documents without restriction as for their topics (Education, Sport, Science, Politics, Interaction, etc), their content and their volume. They also showed the importance of the machine learning in the phase of classification and selection of the sentences forming the final extract.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Phänomen der deutschen Modalpartikeln (MPn), das in der linguistischen Forschung viel Aufmerksamkeit erhalten hat, aber fast immer nur innerhalb der Satzgrenzen betrachtet wurde. Es wurde mehrfach vorgeschlagen, dass MPn eine Funktion im Hinblick auf Common Ground-Management haben, jedoch wird nie ausgeführt, wie diese zustande kommt. In dieser Arbeit wird gezeigt, wie die Bedeutung und Funktion verschiedener MPn im Rahmen eines erweiterten Common Ground-Modells erfasst werden kann. In einem zweiten Schritt wird in zwei empirischen Studien die Interaktion von MPn mit Diskursstruktur analysiert, wobei Diskursstruktur hier im Rahmen von Diskursrelationen modelliert wird. Dafür wurden in einem Korpus von Parlamentsreden (126.000 Token) alle Sätze, die eine MP (ja, doch, eben, halt, wohl und schon wurden analysiert) enthalten im Hinblick auf ihre Relationen zu adjazenten Diskurseinheiten annotiert. Verwendet wurde dafür die in der Rhetorischen Strukturtheorie (Mann & Thompson 1989) vorgeschlagenen Relationen. Die statistische Analyse der Ergebnisse zeigen signifikante Präferenzen der einzelnen MPn für bestimmte Diskursrelationen. Diese wurden anschließend in einem Lexical Choice Experiment überprüft und bestätigt, bei dem SprecherInnen im Kontext verschiedener Diskursrelationen auswählen sollten, welche MP am natürlichsten in einen Diskurs passt. SprecherInnen verwenden MPn, um zu zeigen, in welchem Verhältnis eine Proposition zu anderen steht oder um die Proposition auf eine bestimmte Art und Weise im Diskurs zu verankern, z.B. in dem sie als Hintergrundinformation markiert wird. Die beiden empirischen Studien zeigen zum ersten Mal, wie SprecherInnen diese Funktionen nutzen – und teilweise ausnutzen – um Diskurs zu strukturieren, Diskursrelationen hervorzuheben und so Kohärenz zu fördern. Gleichzeitig zeigt diese Arbeit, dass ein erweitertes Common Ground-Modell notwendig ist, um den Beitrag von MPn adäquat zu erfassen. / This work focuses on the phenomenon of German modal particles (Mps) which has received much attention in linguistic research – however mainly restricted to an analysis inside the sentence boundaries. It has been proposed that the function of Mps can be described with respect to common ground management, but this has never been spelled out in detail. Here, the meaning and function of different Mps will be captured in a broadened common ground model. In a second step, two empirical studies analyse the interaction of MPs and discourse structure – here modelled in terms of discourse relations. In a corpus of parliament speeches (126.000 word tokens), all sentences containing a modal particle (ja, doch, eben, halt, wohl and schon have been analyzed) were annotated for their discourse relations towards adjacent discourse units. The statistical analysis of the results reveals clear preferences of the single particles for different discourse relations. These preference were tested again in a follow-up experiment, a lexical choice task in which speakers had to decide which particle fits most naturally in contexts of different discourse relations. The results verified the findings of the corpus study. Overall, MPs can be used to indicate to the addressee how a proposition that is asserted by the speaker is related to (an)other proposition(s) and anchor information in discourse structure in a certain way, e.g. by marking it as background information. The results of the empirical studies show for the first time how speakers can make use of these functions – sometimes by exploiting them – to structure discourse, enhance the function of discourse relations and thereby establish coherence. At the same time, it becomes clear that a broader model of common ground is needed to capture this function of MPs in discourse appropriately.