Language tools for writers Ola Knutsson IPLab, NADA, KTH Sweden

Outline Ideas from the early 90’s Language technology included in tools for writers Language tools developed at Nada Language tools and language learning

Early 90’s revisited (Severinson Eklundh et al, 1992) Language tools should support the writing process. Language processor instead of word processor (character processing). Implement and use language tools, in spite of their limitations.

Language tools wanted (Cedergren & Severinson Eklundh, 1992) Interactive concordances Interactive dictionaries Language based search function Swedish grammatical analysis A grammar checker for Swedish Language based editing

Possibilities and Risks with Language Technology Language technology can provide relevant feedback on the user’s unconstrained speech- or writing production. False feedback can fool the user Lack of feedback can mislead the user

Granska Is a Swedish grammar checker developed at our department. Combines statistical and rule based methods. Contains a lot of opportunities for new applications. Different user interfaces

detection diagnosis correction

Granska’s main features 1. Detects, makes diagnoses and proposes corrections on Swedish writers’ frequent errors 2. Eight broad error types are detected, about 50 % of all syntactic errors were detected, about 35% in second language learners texts. 3. Granska is very fast (6000 words/s)

From Granska to CrossCheck Focus on writers with Swedish as a second language To extend and adapt Granska to these users Improve error coverage and diagnostics of the errors Develop new methods for dealing with errors that hard to describe with rules.

Language Tools for Learners How can we support second language learners’ writing with other technology than a robust grammar checker? What functionality is important in a learning environment for second language learners of Swedish?

User studies at a Swedish University Study 1  Students: ”Swedish as a foreign language”, 5 users, argumentative texts, 2 months Study 2  Students: ”Swedish as a foreign language”, 10 users. Different kinds of text genres, 4 months.

How should we design an environment supporting learning activities? Our proposal is a program called Grim. Grim is a learning environment with several language tools. Grim gives feedback on different aspects of the learners’ language.

Functionality in Grim Grim includes a word processor. Grim gives feedback on errors by using Granska. Grim provides grammatical information by using Granska Text Analyzer. Grim has an interface for concordances in 20 million words. Grim includes a dictionary with 8 language pairs.

Concluding remarks It is important to support different aspects of language learning. One robust grammar checker is not enough. Some of the ideas from the 90’s are implemented – but still … there is a lot of research to do.

CrossCheck: The use of language tools for writers in the context of learning Swedish as a second language: Grim: