Nada

på svenska

The use of language tools for writers in the context of learning Swedish as a second language

This Nada project focuses on the use of computer language tools for writers in the context of learning Swedish as a second language. The project is funded by Vetenskapsrådet in the frame of "Utbildningsvetenskap" during the years 2002-2005.

Research team

Project highlight: Grim - a language learning environment for writers of Swedish

Grim is a language learning environment with several important tools for language exploration. The main ideas are to give the learners feedback on form, and to provide the learners with powerful tools for langauge exploration of their interlanguage and the target language Swedish. Important tools in Grim are: The grammar checker Granska, surface syntactic analysis with the parser GTA, word inflection, the dictionary Lexin, and concordances in the Parole corpus. All tools are intregrated in an interactive writing environment. Grim is based on Java and works under most operating systems. We have written some instructions on how to install Grim.

Discuss Grim in Grim forum

We are very interested in what users of Grim think about the program. In order to maintain discussions about Grim we have put up a discussion forum. Please visit Grim Forum and discuss your impressions and opinions about Grim.

News

2005-05-23 A first version of a user manual for Grim ha been developed and written. Ingrid Skeppstedt at Nationellt centrum för sfi och svenska som andraspråk, Lärarhögskolan, Stockholm is the main author of this document. We will continue to work with this document. Our intention is that the manual should focus on pedagogical scenarios in which Grim plays one part
2005-04-21--2005-04-22 Ola Knutsson gave a talk about grammar cheking for second language writers at Nordiskt seminarium om automatiska språkkontrollverktyg, Pargas, Finland.
2005-01-27--2005-01-29 Ola Knutsson particpated in the last meeting of the Norfa CALL Net in Reykjavik, Iceland.
2004-12-14 Ola Knutsson presented the project and Grim at the course Korpuslingvistiska metoder och verktyg i andraspråksforskning at Institutet för svenska som andraspråk (ISA), Göteborg University.
2004-12-01 More than 2300 users have installed and are using Grim.
2004-11-23 Teresa Cerratto Pargman and Petter Karlström gave a talk with the title Design Issues in Computer Aided Language Learning at the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden.
2004-10-19 The project and Grim will be presented at the conference "Nordiska språk- och litteraturdagar i Göteborg och Stockholm" the 12th of November, G-salen in Arrheniuslaboratorierna, Stockholm university, 13.00-16.30.
2004-08-02 The magazine Competence writes about Teresa Cerratto Pargman and Grim. Article in Swedish.
2004-06-16 Jenny Rahbek has defended her master's thesis about written feedback in language learning environments.
2004-06-11 Ola Karlsson has defended his master's thesis about the use of Granska by writers at work with Swedish as a second language. pdf
2004-06-10 Stefan Westlund has presented his master's thesis about the development of Grim. pdf.
2004-05-14 Stefan Westlund gave a talk about Grim on Språkteknologidagen at Vetenskapsfestivalen in Göteborg.
2004-05-14 Ola Knutsson gave a talk about the project and Grim at the Norfa conference IT og indläring af oversättelse Reykjavik, Iceland.
2004-05-13 The Icelandic Newspaper Morgunbladir writes about the Norfa conference, Ola Knutsson and Grim (a few lines).
2004-01-13 Ola Knutsson was interviewed about Grim in the radio program Vetenskapsradion: Språket Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio).
2003-12-28 Ola Knutsson was interviewed about Grim in the Swedish news paper Svenska Dagbladet.

Project Aims

This project aims to investigate issues that are related to the use of computer support for language learning. In particular, the project deals with the problem of the role of computer-based language tools for writers in the context of learning Swedish as a second language. This project will pursuit the following goals: We believe that the study of these questions will contribute to a better understanding of the role of computer-based language tools in complex processes such as second language learning and that this will help developers to better understand what is at stake when designing for learning purposes.

Studies

Partners

Department of Scandinavian Languages, Stockholm University.

Lars Borin, Professor in Natural Language Processing, Department of Swedish, Göteborg University.

Birgitta Thulin, Folkuniversitetet, Stockholm.

Publications

Publications and Documentation

Ola Knutsson, Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Severinson Eklundh and Westlund, (accepted). Designing and developing a language environment for second language writers. Computers and Education. An International Journal. Elsevier.

Petter Karlström, Teresa Cerratto Pargman, Robert Ramberg ( to appear). Theoretical issues regarding computerized writing tools for second-language learning. Chapter in n Luuk Van Waes, Marielle Leijten & Chris Neuwirth (Eds.) Writing and Digital Media. Elsevier.

Petter Karlström ( 2005). Designing for Collaboration in Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning. Poster accepted in The 5th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. July 5-8, 2005. Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Johnny Bigert, Viggo Kann, Ola Knutsson, Jonas Sjöbergh (2004). Grammar checking for Swedish second language learners. Chapter in CALL for the Nordic Languages, 33-47, Copenhagen Studies in Language 30, Copenhagen Business School. Samfundslitteratur.

O. Knutsson, T. Cerratto Pargman, K. Severinson Eklundh (2003). Transforming grammar checking technology into a learning environment for second language writing. Accepted at the HLT/NAACL 2003 workshop: Building Educational Applications Using NLP, Edmonton, Canada.pdf

Eeg-Olofsson, J. and Knutsson, O. (2003). Automatic Grammar Checking for Second Language Learners - the Use of Prepositions. In the Proceedings of Nodalida'03, Reykjavik, Iceland.

O. Knutsson, T. Cerratto Pargman, K. Severinson Eklundh (2002). Computer support for second language learners' free text production - Initial studies. To appear in the Proceedings of ICL2002, 5th International Workshop on Interactive Computer Aided Learning, Villach, Austria. pdf

L. Borin och T. Cerratto (2002). Overview of the research area, mars 2002. RTF pdf

Presentations

Ola Knutsson och Teresa Cerratto Pargman (2004). Språkteknologiska verktyg för inlärning av svenska som andraspråk med fokus på skrivande och språklig reflektion. Presented at Internordisk kommunikation - inlärning, användning och språkteknologiska verktyg. Vigdis Finnbogadottir institute i samarbete med Centrum för tvåspråkighet, Stockholms universitet. . Powerpoint

Johnny Bigert, Viggo Kann, Ola Knutsson och Jonas Sjöbergh (2004). Grammatikkontroll för skribenter med svenska som andraspråk. Presented at the Norfa conference IT og sprogindlæring. Fremgangsmåder og praktiske applikationer. Handelshøjskolen i København. Powerpoint

Knutsson, O. (2004). A language learning environment for second language writers. NaDaLi 2004 Stockholm. Powerpoint

Knutsson, O. (2004). A language environment for second language writers. Presented at the Norfa conference IT og indlæring af oversættelse Reykjavik, Iceland. Powerpoint

Knutsson, O. (2004). Some Grim screenshots. Powerpoint

Knutsson, O. (2004). A language environment for second language writers. Presented at the HMI conference, Stockholm, Sweden. Powerpoint

Knutsson, O. (2004). Language tools for writers. Presented at the conference From Pioneering to Established Discipline A tribute to Kerstin Severinson-Eklundh and Yngve Sundblad and in celebration of their sixtieth birthday. November 7, 2003 Powerpoint

Ongoing Master's Projects

No master's projects at the moment.

Finished Master's projects

Jenny Rahbek (2004). Utformning av skriftlig återkoppling i en interaktiv miljö för andraspråksinlärning. Master's thesis in Computer and System Sciences, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University.

Ola Karlsson (2004). Skrivstöd för andraspråksskribenter - användaranpassning av språkkontrollen Granska för andraspråkssvenskar som skriver i arbetet. Master's thesis in Scandinavian Languages, Department of Scandinavian Languages, Stockholm University. pdf

Stefan Westlund (2004). Utformning och implementation av en interaktiv miljö för andraspråksinlärning. Master's thesis in Computer Science, Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science, Royal Institute of Technology. pdf.

Ylva Stenervall (2003). TvärGranska - interaktiv webbmiljö för språkgranskning. Master's thesis in Media Technology, Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science, Royal Institute of Technology. pdf.

Student och course projects

Ingrid Skeppstedt (2005). Kan deltagare som studerar svenska för invandrare (sfi) och svenska som andraspråk (sas) inom den grundläggande vuxenutbildningen använda och få hjälp av stöd av Grim?. Essay, 5 credit Ph.D. course, Korpuslingvistiska metoder och verktyg, Department of Swedish, Göteborg University.

Erik Pihl, Helena Rastas and Anna Rockberg Tjernberg (2003). Betydelsen av feedback i Grim -- en interaktiv lärmiljö med fokus på det svenska språket. Student essay, 7 credits, the master program in Cognitive Science at Stockholm University. pdf

Grim has been redesigned since the study by Pihl et al.

Study circle - Language, Learning and Technology

The purpose of having a study circle is to discuss topics that are related to second-language learning and computational linguistics issues. The circle is open to everyone with a strong interest in the development of language technology for second language learning purposes. Those interested who are master students and Ph D candidates can have credits filling the adequate requirements.

Calender for study circle.

Demonstrators and Prototypes

Demonstrators

Granska is a grammar checker for Swedish. Granska is developed in previous projects. We will use Granska as a base for our studies and when we build new environments for learning and writing.

Grim is a language learning environment with powerful language tools for Swedish, including grammar checking, grammatical analysis, word inflection, linguistic search, linguistic editing and more. Grim requires Java Web Start (SUN's JRE).

Prototypes (work in progress)

TvärGranska, interface developed by Ylva Stenervall.

Granskningsammanfattaren, summarizes the output from Granska, developed by Björn Andrist.

SnålGranska, a grammar checker based on machine learning, developed in the sister project CrossCheck. SnålGranska is a Java Applet.

Press and Media

The project and the Grim prototype have been discussed and described in radio and several news papers. More information here.

Previous Studies

Datorstödd språkgranskning som ett verktyg för andraspråksinlärning
A. Staerner.
Master's thesis in Language Technology, Department of Linguistics, Uppsala University, 2001.
PDF.
Datorstödd språkgranskning och andraspråksinlärare
L. Öhrman
D-uppsats i datorlingvistik, Institutionen för lingvistik, Stockholms Universitet, maj 2000.
PDF.
Datorstöd för lingvistisk redigering - en förstudie
A. Tyndall
Magisteruppsats i datorlingvistik, Institutionen för lingvistik, Stockholms Universitet, juni 1999.
Postscript, PDF.

Publications and Documentations from Related Projects

A Swedish Grammar Checker
J. Carlberger, R. Domeij, V. Kann, O. Knutsson
Submitted, 2002.
PDF
Detection of spelling errors in Swedish not using a word list en clair
R. Domeij, J. Hollman, V. Kann
J. of Quantitative Linguistics 1:195-201, 1994.
QUALICO-94, 71-76, 1994.
Postscript.

^ Upp till Research at IPLab, Nada, KTH.

Sidansvarig: Ola Knutsson <knutsson@nada.kth.se>
Senast ändrad 26 juli 2005
Tekniskt stöd: <webmaster@nada.kth.se>