Computer-Assisted Language Learning based on Authentic Texts : applications to Italian

• Main Author: China-Kolehmainen, Elena
• Other Authors: Helsingin yliopisto, Humanistinen tiedekunta, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts, Helsingfors universitet, Humanistiska fakulteten
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2021
• Subjects: language technology; Italian; CALL; Computer-Assisted Language Learning; language learning; cloze generation; automatic exercise generation; Kielellisen diversiteetin ja digitaalisten menetelmien maisteriohjelma; Master's Programme Linguistic Diversity in the Digital Age; Magisterprogrammet i språklig diversitet och digitala metoder; Kieliteknologia; Språkteknologi; saami
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/335693

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is one of the sub-disciplines within the area of Second Language Acquisition. Clozes, also called fill-in-the-blank, are largely used exercises in language learning applications. A cloze is an exercise where the learner is asked to provide a fragment that has been removed from the text. For language learning purposes, in addition to open-end clozes where one or more words are removed and the student must fill the gap, another type of cloze is commonly used, namely multiple-choice cloze. In a multiple-choice cloze, a fragment is removed from the text and the student must choose the correct answer from multiple options. Multiple-choice exercises are a common way of practicing and testing grammatical knowledge. The aim of this work is to identify relevant learning constructs for Italian to be applied to automatic exercises creation based on authentic texts in the Revita Framework. Learning constructs are units that represent language knowledge. Revita is a free to use online platform that was designed to provide language learning tools with the aim of revitalizing endangered languages including several Finno-Ugric languages such as North Saami. Later non-endangered languages were added. Italian is the first majority language to be added in a principled way. This work paves the way towards adding new languages in the future. Its purpose is threefold: it contributes to the raising of Italian from its beta status towards a full development stage; it formulates best practices for defining support for a new language and it serves as a documentation of what has been done, how and what remains to be done. Grammars and linguistic resources were consulted to compile an inventory of learning constructs for Italian. Analytic and pronominal verbs, verb government with prepositions, and noun phrase agreement were implemented by designing pattern rules that match sequences of tokens with specific parts-of-speech, surfaces and morphological tags. The rules were tested with test sentences ...