Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa: Plurilinguismo in Europa ... - EURAC

Quantity OR quality – an inevitable dilemma in
innovative CALL systems?
Judith Knapp, Europäische Akademie Bozen, jknapp@eurac.edu
Angelika Höber, Universität Klagenfurt, angelika.hoeber@uni-klu.ac.at
Abstract
Interactive contact with the learning material as well as the provision of immediate feedback is the main
advantage of e-learning in comparison to classical learning environments. However, former developments
gave the impression that researchers, educators and developers had to choose either quality OR quantity
in exercise development. As a solution to this dilemma we propose the automatic generation of exercises
by reusing existing language data and providing high-quality feedback by using NLP-tools and structured
language resources. In ELDIT, a web based language learning system for the German and Italian languages
(www.eurac.edu/eldit), the main content of the system is described and stored according to a very
detailed data model, additionally different tools are included that provide externally collected language
information. Reusing part of these highly structured data (semantic fi elds, infl ection, collocations…) we
developed a prototype which succeeded in providing quantity and quality in automatic exercise generation
and correction.
1. Introduction
It is widely accepted that learning can be supported effi ciently by so-called new technologies.
They offer exciting and powerful new features to present complex information. Recent
investigations have shown that learning with technology support might be motivating and
effi cient (Eklund and Brusilovsky 1998, Laufer 2000). Language learning is a specifi c sector
which defi nitely profi ts from new technologies. Nowadays more and more systems arise which
combine the advantages of the Web with Artifi cial Intelligence technologies (Gamper and Knapp
2002b).
At the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen we are currently developing a Web-based
language learning system called ELDIT. ELDIT includes an innovative learner’s dictionary
and a learner text corpus. Currently, the system is implemented for the German and Italian
languages.
The dictionary is the most advanced module of the system. It contains approximately 4,000
word entries per language. Each word entry represents semantic information which helps the
learner to comprehend the right meaning of a word and syntactic information which helps to
use the word correctly. A dictionary entry is presented to the user in two frames (see Figure 1).
The left-hand frame shows the lemma of the word and a list of different word meanings, each of
which is described by a defi nition, an example sentence, and an optional translation equivalent
in the other language. The right-hand frame is organized in several tabs and shows additional,
semantic and syntactic information such as word combinations, idiomatic expressions, semantic
fi elds, information on infl ection, linguistic diffi culties, images, etc.
The second module we developed was a text corpus consisting of 400 texts for each
language. The texts are short articles selected from various magazines and books and contain
Multilingualism.indb 129 4-12-2006 12:26:21
129