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Approaching Language Transfer through Text Classification

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This book explains the detection-based approach to investigating crosslinguistic influence and illustrates the value of the approach through a collection of five empirical studies that use the appr...
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  • 14 March 2012
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Recent work has pointed to the need for a detection-based approach to transfer capable of discovering elusive crosslinguistic effects through the use of human judges and computer classifiers that can learn to predict learners’ language backgrounds based on their patterns of language use. This book addresses that need. It details the nature of the detection-based approach, discusses how this approach fits into the overall scope of transfer research, and discusses the few previous studies that have laid the groundwork for this approach. The core of the book consists of five empirical studies that use computer classifiers to detect the native-language affiliations of texts written by foreign language learners of English. The results highlight combinations of language features that are the most reliable predictors of learners’ language backgrounds.

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Price: $45.95
Pages: 200
Publisher: Channel View Publications
Imprint: Multilingual Matters
Series: Second Language Acquisition
Publication Date: 14 March 2012
Trim Size: 9.20 X 6.15 in
ISBN: 9781847696977
Format: Paperback
BISACs: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Psycholinguistics / General, Language acquisition, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Study & Teaching, Language learning: specific skills
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In this bold and pioneering interdisciplinary study, experts on SLA research, computational analysis and statistics collaborate to try to identify the L1 background of non-native writers. The result is a most impressive work which will take the field of crosslinguistic studies a long way forward. A MUST for all SLA researchers!

Scott Jarvis (Ph.D., Indiana University) holds the title of Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Ohio University, where his main research interests include crosslinguistic influence, cognitive linguistics, and research methods related to the investigation of language proficiency and the measurement of lexical diversity. His work in these areas has appeared in several authored and edited books, numerous book chapters and journal papers in the fields of second language acquisition and multilingualism. Professor Jarvis is also Associate Executive Director for the journal Language Learning.

Scott A. Crossley is an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University. His work involves the application of natural language processing theories and approaches for investigating second language acquisition, text readability, and writing proficiency. His current research interests include lexical proficiency, writing quality, and text coherence and processing.

1 Scott Jarvis: The Detection-Based Approach: An Overview

2 Scott Jarvis, Gabriela Castañeda-Jiménez and Rasmus Nielsen: Detecting L2 Writers’ L1s on the Basis of their Lexical Styles

3 Scott Jarvis and Magali Paquot: Exploring the Role of N-Grams in L1 Identification

4 Scott A. Crossley and Danielle S. McNamara: Detecting the First Language of Second Language Writers Using Automated Indices of Cohesion, Lexical Sophistication, Syntactic Complexity, and Conceptual Knowledge

5 Yves Bestgen, Sylviane Granger and Jennifer Thewissen: Error Patterns and Automatic L1 Identification

6 Scott Jarvis, Yves Bestgen, Scott A. Crossley, Sylviane Granger, Magali Paquot, Jennifer Thewissen and Danielle S. McNamara: The Comparative and Combined Contributions of N-grams, Coh-Metrix Indices, and Error Types in the L1 Classification of Learner Texts

7 Scott A. Crossley: Detection-Based Approaches: Methods, Theories and Applications