[Corpora-List] Language Acquisition

[David Wible]

Mark mentions the possibility of AI-spawned rational agents contributing to
the design of language learning technologies. Let me say something about
that, at least wrt second language acquisition/learning. (Sorry this is
ignoring Mark's original question. And what follows is not at all aimed at
Mark.)

To me, the current area in which to look for breakthroughs in language
acquisition research (at least the kind that hopes to be relevant to
educators in trying to foster language acquisition) is research that *
enriches* the scope of contextual factors that matter to situated, human
learners, not research that further decontextualizes its 'models' of
learning (scrubbing them clean of the messy variables that muck up the
research design). In my experience, the most lamentable aspect of efforts
to create 'assistive technologies for learners' is the development of such
technologies in sanitized, lab-like conditions (or in the sanitized
conditions of certain technologists' own minds) without the benefit of any
front-line classroom experience with living, breathing learners or teachers
(or parents or administrators). I have spent a hefty chunk of my academic
life trying to develop technologies that assist in language learning, so
I'm all for it. But my own quirky main conclusion from all these years is
that the stuff which is designed and made in 'idealized' conditions is
often hopelessly detached from what would take hold in actual learning
ecologies, and because of that, it won't 'scale up' beyond the stage of lab
toys). What portion of teachers who allow their students to be used as
subjects in testing out these technologies are glad when it's over and,
short of coercion, would never touch the stuff again . R&D efforts in
language learning technology, need from the earliest stages, more
'anthropologists' and 'ethnographers' and teachers from the 'trenches'
where the technologies are hoping to make a contribution, not more
decontextualized, sanitized models of language acquisition.

Maybe there will be a day when AI's rational agents can feel peer pressure,
can feel 'face' and loss of 'face', the urge to be a member of a social
group, a day when an AI rational agent draws its very identity from the
'culture' it 'belongs to', (or, for that matter, can feel an identity of
any sort) and can 'feel' the high 'personal' (robotic?) stakes of stepping
out of that cultural identity to risk entry into a different one, risk
being rejected, experience being excluded or admitted to that 'speech
community' based on ones competence in using another language. (To me,
these human attributes are central rather than peripheral to explanations
of (2nd) language learning.) When that day comes, when AI's rational agents
can be designed with those attributes, then I'll be the first to want them
in my R&D team developing language learning technologies. Until then, where
are the anthropologists (and where are the....(fill in the blank; who else
do we need to join in our efforts?)!

Sorry to ramble.

David Wible,
National Central University
Taiwan

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:19 PM, Mark Lybrand <mlybrand at gmail.com> wrote:

> Okay, so this is probably not a "corpora" issue.  Forgive me please, as I
> am an NLP piker.  The question that is plaguing me right now is if there is
> any research in using AI to mimic language acquistion.  Rather, have there
> been attempts made to create a rational agent that uses typical human
> strategies to learn a new language. It would seem that such an approach
> could be helpful in creating assistive technologies for learners of a
> foreign language.  Can you guys steer me in the right direction?
>
> Thanks. Feel free to just ignore me altogether if this is completely OT.
>
> --
> Mark :)
>
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