This paper introduces the Lang-Track-App, a smartphone application and backend system to aid second language acquisition researchers in implementing the experience sampling method (ESM). Surveying research participants with the Lang-Track-App multiple times per day can yield exceptionally rich data that can be analyzed in multiple ways. This…

Natural language processing (NLP) provides a powerful approach for discourse processing researchers. However, there remains a notable degree of hesitation by some researchers to consider using NLP, at least on their own. The purpose of this article is to introduce and make available a "simple" NLP (SiNLP) tool. The overarching goal of…

Two exploratory experiments compared the way people with no experience in the use of computer systems write and carry out natural language procedures, natural language descriptions, and instructions expressed in an artificial restricted syntax language. The results suggest the there is no single "natural" way that people write simple plans and…

Discusses the development and evaluation of CAVIS, which consists of an Apple microcomputer used with audiovisual dialogs. Includes research on the effects of three conditions: (1) computer with audio and visual, (2) computer with audio alone and (3) audio alone in short-term and long-term recall. (EKN)

A study to develop a methodology for discovering how one important notion or semantic category, "frequency of occurrence," is expressed in words, phrases, or other linguistic devices in academic English began with a search for devices expressing that notion, by analyzing text from a news magazine, a New Zealand geography textbook, and a…

Reports part of a continuing project to develop a theory of children's first-language acquisition using computer modeling techniques. Notes the correspondence of structures formed by the computer program with recognized structures in English. Discusses anomalies in the program's performance. (RL)

This report summarizes a research program in modeling human communication ability. The methodology involved selecting a single, naturally occurring dialogue, instructing a human observer to extract certain aspects relative to its comprehension, and then using these aspects to guide the construction and verification of the model. The model assumes…

This report is part of ongoing research engaged in transforming knowledge of how human communication works into improvements in man-machine communication of existing and planned computer systems. The methodology includes having a trained "Observer" annotate transcripts of human communication in a prescribed manner. One of the issues,…

The first volume of a study of the vitality of written Indian languages explains a computerized system for rating vitality and tests certain demographic variables, with statistical analysis, to determine their influence on the vitality rating. An introductory section examines the concept of linguistic vitality and issues of its measurement. The…

This computer program, a mechanization of the handsorted techniques which geographical dialectology has been using, increases the number of hypotheses that can be explored and the various correlations that can be made. It can draw several of the kinds of maps that dialectologists have used in direct atlases. The hardware, software, and program…

The five technical working papers that comprise the two volumes of this document are related to the problem of creating a valid process model of human communication in dialogue. In Volume 1 both papers consider reference as a phenomenon in text. The first surveys reference identification and resolution methods in various existing natural language…

The technical working papers that comprise the two volumes of this document are related to the problem of creating a valid process model of human communication in dialogue. In Volume 2, the first paper concerns study methodology, and raises such issues as the choice between system-building and process-building, and the advantages of studying cases…

A study attempted to (1) define acoustically the learner's progress in acquisition of a set of phonological features, specifically interlingual differences in the voice onset time of voiceless stop consonants and the number of taps produced when attempting to produce the Spanish phoneme /r/ (trill); (2) determine if and at what stage of…

An obstacle in Natural Language understanding is the existence of lexical gaps, i.e. words or word senses that are not in the lexicon of the system. This thesis describes the implementation of MURRAY, a learning mechanism which infers the properties of a new lexical item from its syntactical environment and infers its meaning based on context and…

A survey gathering word lists from 40 locations in the Zambales Mountains of the Philippines, for statistical comparison, resulted in the definition of six distinct Negrito languages: Abelen, Magqanchi, Aberlen, Magqindi, Ambala, and Mabeken. With the use of a computer program, WORDSURV, designed for word list comparison, an Ayta language tree was…