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An application of answer set programming to the field of second language acquisition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2014

DANIELA INCLEZAN*
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering Miami University Oxford, OH 45056, USA (e-mail: inclezd@MiamiOH.edu)

Abstract

This paper explores the contributions of Answer Set Programming (ASP) to the study of an established theory from the field of Second Language Acquisition: Input Processing. The theory describes default strategies that learners of a second language use in extracting meaning out of a text based on their knowledge of the second language and their background knowledge about the world. We formalized this theory in ASP, and as a result we were able to determine opportunities for refining its natural language description, as well as directions for future theory development. We applied our model to automating the prediction of how learners of English would interpret sentences containing the passive voice. We present a system, PIas, that uses these predictions to assist language instructors in designing teaching materials.

Type
Rapid Publications from the 12th International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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