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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>Dear David,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>You wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.3in;margin-bottom:
0in;margin-left:.3in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>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?)!</span></font><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>Your point is well taken; that embedded,
situated, rational agent could learn a language (English?) and then copies of
the program and its learned data and processes could be made. That would
create ubiquitous agents for every conceivable task that requires English and
can fit within the bounds of what was first learned. The first agent so
constructed might have limited capability in vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and
practical uses. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>The ability to “feel” as you
put it could be simulated using theories drawn from psychological and sociological
research information. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>The ability to acquire new words, syntax
and semantics would likely follow in the third tier of agents, at least to a
practical and pragmatic extent needed to build a tier of learning agent copies.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>Your insights as a language teacher are
very useful, and certainly aren’t well represented in current or past
linguistics research, at least as I am aware of. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>-Rich<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Rich Cooper<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>EnglishLogicKernel.com</span></font><font
color=blue><span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com</span></font><font
color=blue><span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
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face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=3 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
corpora-bounces@uib.no [mailto:corpora-bounces@uib.no] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>David Wible<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Sunday, November 20, 2011
10:28 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Mark Lybrand<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Cc:</span></b> corpora<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [Corpora-List]
Language Acquisition</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>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.)<br>
<br>
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 <u>enriches</u> 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.<br>
<br>
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?)!<br>
<br>
Sorry to ramble.<br>
<br>
David Wible,<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">National</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Central</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place><br>
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Taiwan</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:19 PM, Mark Lybrand <<a
href="mailto:mlybrand@gmail.com">mlybrand@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>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?<br>
<br>
Thanks. Feel free to just ignore me altogether if this is completely OT.<br
clear=all>
<font color="#888888"><span style='color:#888888'><br>
-- <br>
Mark :)<br>
</span></font><br>
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