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<h1 class="title">3rd workshop on NLP for computer-assisted language
learning</h1>
<div class="meta"> </div>
<h3><a href="http://www2.lingfil.uu.se/SLTC2014/">SLTC</a> workshop,
November, 13, 2014, Uppsala, Sweden</h3>
<br>
<br>
<b>Call for papers</b> <br>
<br>
<p>Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL), i.e.,
the integration of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Speech
Technologies (ST) in language learning applications, is a rapidly
developing area which has started to attract increased attention
from the Language Technology (LT) community. ICALL research has
generated a number of successful applications for alleviating a
variety of (mechanical) tasks that teachers face daily in their
work, for example grammar or spelling error marking, essay
grading, preparation of text questions for reading activities,
creating tests and exercises, etc.</p>
<p>However, reusing NLP/ST methods or tools (developed for other
than pedagogical purposes) in pedagogical applications is not
always pedagogically justifiable since they need to be adapted to
the educational tasks, e.g. readability measures for legal texts
adapted to the second language learning context. Thus, LT
researchers who intend to re-use their algorithms and techniques
in CALL applications need new datasets, specifically designed
corpora, databases, etc. to fine-tune their tools for new target
groups – the design and compilation of which are both critical for
achieving good results and time-consuming.</p>
<p>There are other challenges that the area of NLP-based CALL faces:
re-use and sharing of existing NLP/ST components, copyright
issues, standardization of pedagogical framework, lack of
collaboration with end-users – to name just a few. Probably the
most significant challenge is to make sure that the research
results reach actual end-users in the form of tools which can
become a part of the educational process, and which are both easy
of use and have a pedagogically sound basis.</p>
<p>This workshop aims to bring together (computational) linguists
involved in research aiming at integrating NLP/ST in CALL systems
and exploring the theoretical and methodological issues arising in
this connection, with the purpose to share experiences,
achievements and setbacks, and to discuss potential ways of
addressing the challenges that need to be overcome.</p>
<p>This year we welcome papers </p>
<ul>
<li>that describe research directly aimed at ICALL</li>
<li>that demonstrate actual or discuss potential use of existing
NLP/ST tools or resources for language learning</li>
<li>that describe ongoing development of resources and tools with
potential usage in ICALL, either directly in interactive
applications, or indirectly in materials, application or
curriculum development, e.g. collecting and annotating learner
corpora; developing tools and algorithms for readability
analysis, selecting optimal corpus examples, etc.</li>
<li>that discuss challenges and/or research agendas for ICALL</li>
<li>we are also interested in software demonstrations </li>
</ul>
<p>We especially invite submissions describing the above-mentioned
themes for the Nordic languages.</p>
<br>
<b>Submission information</b>
<br>
<br>
<p>We are using <a href="http://emmtee.net/oe/nodalida13/">Nodalida
2013 template</a> for the workshop this year. Authors are
invited to submit papers between 7 and 14 pages of content,
excluding title, abstract, references and author affiliations.
Only pdf files will be accepted. Submissions will be managed
through the electronic conference management system <a
href="https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nlp4call">
EasyChair</a>. Final camera-ready versions of accepted papers
will be given an additional page to address reviewer comments.</p>
<p>Papers should describe original unpublished work or
work-in-progress. Every paper will be reviewed by at least 2
members of the program committee. As reviewing will be blind,
please ensure that papers are anonymous. Self-references that
reveal the author's identity, e.g., "We previously showed (Smith,
1991) ...", should be avoided. Instead, use citations such as
"Smith previously showed (Smith, 1991) ...". Submissions will be
judged on appropriateness, clarity, originality/innovativeness,
correctness/soundness, meaningful comparison, significance and
impact of ideas or results. Accepted papers will be published in a
NEALT Proceeding Series and, additionally, made available through
ACL anthology.</p>
<p>Please note that NoDaLiDa 2013 format adopts a single-column,
smaller page format, optimized for on-screen reading. In terms of
actual word counts, the above page numbers correspond to
approximately 4-8 pages, in a ‘classic’, two-column conference
proceedings layout.</p>
<br>
<b>Important dates: </b>
<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li><b>June, 16</b>: first call for papers</li>
<li><b>August, 8</b>: <a
href="https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nlp4call">EasyChair</a>
opens for submissions</li>
<li><b>August, 14</b>: second call for papers</li>
<li><b>September, 14</b>: final call for papers</li>
<li><b>September, 25</b>: paper submission deadline, via <a
href="https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nlp4call">EasyChair</a></li>
<li><b>October, 16</b>: notification of acceptance</li>
<li><b>October, 30</b>: camera-ready papers for publication. You
are also required to submit the <b>NEALT transfer of copyright
agreement</b> (signed at least by the corresponding author and
scanned) with your final submission.<br>
</li>
<li><b>November, 13</b>, 9.00-12.00: workshop date</li>
</ul>
<br>
<b>Invited speaker</b>
<br>
<br>
<p>We are happy to announce that our invited speaker will be</p>
<p><b><a href="http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/%7Edm/">Prof. Detmar
Meurers</a></b>, University of Tübingen, Germany</p>
<br>
<b>Program committee: </b>
<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>Lars Ahrenberg, Linköping University, Sweden</li>
<li>Lars Borin, University of Gothenburg, Sweden</li>
<li>Antonio Branco, University of Lisboa, Portugal</li>
<li>Simon Dobnik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden</li>
<li>Robert Eklund, Linköping University, Sweden</li>
<li>Katarina Heimann Mühlenbock, DART, Sahlgrenska
Universitetssjukhuset, Göteborg, Sweden</li>
<li>Thomas Francois, UCLouvain, Belgium</li>
<li>Arne Jönsson, Linköping University, Sweden</li>
<li>Sofie Johansson Kokkinakis, University of Gothenburg, Sweden</li>
<li>Ola Knutsson, Stockholm University, Sweden</li>
<li>Chris Koniaris, University of Gothenburg, Sweden</li>
<li>Peter Ljunglöf, University of Gothenburg, Sweden</li>
<li>Hrafn Loftsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland</li>
<li>Montse Maritxalar, University of the Basque country, Spain</li>
<li>Detmar Meurers, University of Tübingen, Germany</li>
<li>Martí Quixal, The Universty of Texas at Austin, US</li>
<li>Mathias Schulze, University of Waterloo, Canada</li>
<li>Joel Tetreault, Yahoo! Labs, US</li>
<li>Trond Trosterud, Universitetet i Tromsø, Norway</li>
<li>Cornelia Tschichold, Swansea University, UK</li>
<li>Francis Tyers, The Arctic University of Norway, Norway</li>
<li>Elena Volodina, University of Gothenburg, Sweden</li>
</ul>
<br>
<b>Workshop organizers</b>
<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://spraakbanken.gu.se/eng/personal/elena">Elena
Volodina</a>, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, University
of Gothenburg; elena dot volodina at svenska dot gu dot se
(Organizing chair)</li>
<li><a href="http://spraakbanken.gu.se/eng/personal/lars">Lars
Borin</a>, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, University of
Gothenburg; lars dot borin at svenska dot gu dot se </li>
<li> <a href="http://spraakbanken.gu.se/eng/personal/ildiko">Ildikó
Pilán</a>, Språkbanken, Department of Swedish, University of
Gothenburg; ildiko dot pilan at svenska dot gu dot se </li>
</ul>
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