Conflicts play an important role to improve group learning effectiveness; they can be decreased, increased, or ignored. Given the sequence of messages of a collaborative group, we are interested in recognizing conflicts (detecting whether a conflict exists or not). This is not an easy task because of different types of natural language…

The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is profoundly shaping our society. Among various AI tools, ChatGPT stands out for its user-friendly nature and wide accessibility to the public. However, despite their countless potential benefits, these tools also face significant challenges, especially in sensitive areas like Education. In this…

The term Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) covers many different aspects of CALL that add something extra to a CALL resource. This could be with the use of computational linguistics or Artificial Intelligence (AI). ICALL tends to be not very well understood within the CALL community. There may also be the slight fear factor…

Intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) is a multidisciplinary area of research that combines natural language processing (NLP), intelligent tutoring system (ITS), second language acquisition (SLA), and foreign language teaching and learning (FLTL). Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are able to provide a personalized approach to…

Chat conversations and other types of online communication environments are widely used within CSCL educational scenarios. However, there is a lack of theoretical and methodological background for the analysis of collaboration. Manual assessing of non-moderated chat discussions is difficult and time-consuming, having as a consequence that learning…

This work investigates how we process and represent event duration in on-line language comprehension. Specifically, it examines how events of different duration are processed and what type of knowledge underlies their representations. Studies 1-4 examined verbs and phrases in different contexts. They showed that durative events took longer to…

Background: Fast ForWord is a suite of computer-based language intervention programs designed to improve children's reading and oral language skills. The programs are based on the hypothesis that oral language difficulties often arise from a rapid auditory temporal processing deficit that compromises the development of phonological…

Dutch bisyllabic words containing open and closed syllables are particularly difficult to spell for children. What kind of support in spelling exercises improves the spelling of these words the most? Two extensions of a commonly used dictation exercise were tested: less skilled spellers in grade 2 (n = 50; 7 years and 10 months) either received…

This paper introduces Ontoolsearch, a new search system that can be employed by educators in order to find suitable tools for supporting collaborative learning settings. Current tool search facilities commonly allow simple keyword searches, limiting the accuracy of obtained results. In contrast, Ontoolsearch supports semantic querying of tool…

A crucial question for automatically analyzing learner language is to determine which grammatical information is relevant and useful for learner feedback. Based on knowledge about how learner language varies in its grammatical properties, we propose a framework for reusing analyses found in corpus annotation and illustrate its applicability to…

"QuickAssist," the program presented in this paper, uses natural language processing (NLP) technologies. It places a range of NLP tools at the disposal of learners, intended to enable them to independently read and comprehend a German text of their choice while they extend their vocabulary, learn about different uses of particular words,…

The application of techniques from artificial intelligence (AI) to CALL has commonly been referred to as intelligent CALL (ICALL). ICALL is only slightly older than the "CALICO Journal", and this paper looks back at a quarter century of published research mainly in North America and by North American scholars. This "inventory…

In textbooks, foreign (second) language reading proficiency is often evaluated through comprehension questions. In case, authentic texts are used as reading material, such questions should be prepared by teachers. However, preparing appropriate questions may be a very demanding task for teachers. This paper introduces a method for automatically…

In this paper we discuss how the Brigham Young University Technology Assisted Language Learning Group (BYU TALL Group) develops video-based dramatic narratives to increase the amount of context we provide to English as a second language (ESL) learners. First, we discuss the problem of decontextualization in education, the contextualism…

It is often assumed that engaging in a one-on-one dialogue with a tutor is more effective than listening to a lecture or reading a text. Although earlier experiments have not always supported this hypothesis, this may be due in part to allowing the tutors to cover different content than the noninteractive instruction. In 7 experiments, we tested…