Although data collection has been used in language learning settings for some time, it is only in recent decades that large corpora have become available, along with efficient tools for their use. Advances in natural language processing (NLP) have enabled rich tagging and annotation of corpus data, essential for their effective use in language…

This paper reports on the development of an analysis engine for the Research Writing Tutor (RWT), an AWE program designed to provide genre and discipline-specific feedback on the functional units of research article discourse. Unlike traditional NLP-based applications that categorize complete documents, the analyzer categorizes every sentence in…

This paper describes a technique for locating indicators of success within the data collected from complex learning environments, proposing an application of e-research to access learner processes and measure and track group progress. The technique combines automated extraction of tense and modality via parts-of-speech tagging with a visualisation…

This paper reports on the development of a prototype tool which shows how learners can be helped to reflect upon the accuracy of their writing. Analysis of samples of freely written texts by intermediate and advanced learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) showed evidence of weakness in the use of tense and aspect. Computational discourse…

Text analytics refers to the process of analyzing unstructured data from documented sources, including open-ended surveys, blogs, and other types of web dialog. Text analytics has enveloped the concept of text mining, an analysis approach influenced heavily from data mining. While text mining has been covered extensively in various computer…

We show how emergence offers new explanations for the behaviour of metaphorically-used expressions. Analysis of metaphors in two types of natural language data are combined: detailed analysis of continuous discourse, which offers wealth of context and the possibility of monitoring emergent forms as the discourse unfolds, and computer-assisted…

Describes those features that distinguish human tutorial explanations from those produced by computer-based instructional systems utilizing natural language interfaces. This is illustrated through a study conducted on an intelligent instruction system, drawing comparisons between student interaction with a human tutor and the system feedback.…

The Reflective Tutorial Dialogue System (ReTuDiS) is a system for learner modelling historical text comprehension through reflective dialogue. The system infers learners' cognitive profiles and constructs their learner models. Based on the learner model the system plans the appropriate--personalized for learners--reflective tutorial dialogue in…