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Article
Publication date: 19 July 2013

Leonardo Lezcano, Salvador Sánchez‐Alonso and Antonio J. Roa‐Valverde

The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review of the principal formats and frameworks that have been used in the last 20 years to exchange linguistic resources. It…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review of the principal formats and frameworks that have been used in the last 20 years to exchange linguistic resources. It aims to give special attention to the most recent approaches to publishing linguistic linked open data on the Web.

Design/methodology/approach

Research papers published since 1990 on the use of various formats, standards, frameworks and methods to exchange linguistic information were divided into two main categories: those proposing specific schemas and syntaxes to suit the requirements of a given type of linguistic data (these are referred to as offline approaches), and those adopting the linked data (LD) initiative and the semantic web technologies to support the interoperability of heterogeneous linguistic resources. For each paper, the type of linguistic resource exchanged, the framework/format used, the interoperability approach taken and the related projects were identified.

Findings

The information gathered in the survey reflects an increase in recent years in approaches adopting the LD initiative. This is due to the fact that the structural and syntactic issues which arise when addressing the interoperability of linguistic resources can be solved by applying semantic web technologies. What remains an open issue in the field of computational linguistics is the development of knowledge artefacts and mechanisms to support the alignment of the different aspects of linguistic resources in order to guarantee semantic and conceptual interoperability in the linked open data (LOD) cloud. Ontologies have proved to be of great use in achieving this goal.

Research limitations/implications

The research presented here is by no means a comprehensive or all‐inclusive survey of all existing approaches to the exchange of linguistic resources. Rather, the aim was to highlight, analyze and categorize the most significant advances in the field.

Practical implications

This survey has practical implications for computational linguists and for every application requiring new developments in natural language processing. In addition, multilingual issues can be better addressed when semantic interoperability of heterogeneous linguistic resources is achieved.

Originality/value

The paper provides a survey of past and present research and developments addressing the interoperability of linguistic resources, including those where the linked data initiative has been adopted.

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2011

María‐Dolores Olvera‐Lobo and Juncal Gutierrez‐Artacho

In the field of information retrieval, some multi‐lingual tools are being created to help the users to overcome the language barriers. Nevertheless, these tools are not developed…

Abstract

Purpose

In the field of information retrieval, some multi‐lingual tools are being created to help the users to overcome the language barriers. Nevertheless, these tools are not developed completely and it is necessary to investigate more for their improvement and application. One of their main problems is the choice of the linguistic resources to offer better coverage and to solve the translation problems in the context of the multi‐lingual information retrieval. This paper aims to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is focused on the analysis of resources used by the multi‐lingual question‐answering systems, which respond to users' queries with short answers, rather than just offering a list of documents related to the search. An analysis of the main publications about the multi‐lingual QA systems was carried out, with the aim of identifying the typology, the advantages and disadvantages, and the real use and trend of each of the linguistic resources and tools used in this new kind of system.

Findings

Five of the resources most used in the cross‐languages QA systems were identified and studied: databases, dictionaries, corpora, ontologies and thesauri. The three most popular traditional resources (automatic translators, dictionaries, and corpora) are gradually leaving a widening gap for others – such as ontologies and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

Originality/value

The perspective offered by the translation discipline can improve the effectiveness of QA systems.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 35 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 September 2014

David Schwarzer and Mary Fuchs

This chapter is based on a self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) project that explored the pedagogical practices of a teacher educator and the impact of such…

Abstract

This chapter is based on a self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) project that explored the pedagogical practices of a teacher educator and the impact of such practices on a teacher candidate engaged in the process of becoming a translingual teacher. This S-STEP study includes David, a professor in a teacher education program in the greater New York City metropolitan area, and Mary, a teacher candidate enrolled in the program. The purpose of the study was to discover how different class activities influenced the philosophical and pedagogical views of one teacher candidate in the program. The following are the two research questions of the study:

  1. How did the class experiences that a teacher education professor, David, designed help teacher candidates conceptualize translingual approach to language and literacy development?

  2. How did a monolingual teacher candidate, Mary, develop her role as a translingual English teacher through the completion of these experiences?

How did the class experiences that a teacher education professor, David, designed help teacher candidates conceptualize translingual approach to language and literacy development?

How did a monolingual teacher candidate, Mary, develop her role as a translingual English teacher through the completion of these experiences?

The findings of this S-STEP project demonstrate that the Sociocultural Reflection, the Community Study, and the Linguistic Landscape fostered a translingual approach to language and literacy in the classroom. Moreover, the findings suggest that upon the completion of the projects, one teacher education candidate was able to better define translingualism as a phenomenon of study, ideology, and pedagogy.

Since this investigation is based on a S-STEP project of a single teacher educator and a single teacher candidate, more research with larger populations is needed. Practical implications for teacher educators and teacher candidates in other settings are explored.

Details

Research on Preparing Preservice Teachers to Work Effectively with Emergent Bilinguals
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-265-4

Keywords

Content available
197

Abstract

Details

Library Hi Tech News, vol. 20 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0741-9058

Article
Publication date: 16 June 2022

Mary Burke, Hannah Tarver, Mark Edward Phillips and Oksana Zavalina

Building a digital language archive requires a number of steps to ensure collecting, describing, preserving and providing access to language data in effective and efficient ways…

Abstract

Purpose

Building a digital language archive requires a number of steps to ensure collecting, describing, preserving and providing access to language data in effective and efficient ways. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) group has partnered with the University of North Texas (UNT) Digital Library to build a series of interconnected digital collections that leverage existing UNT technical and metadata infrastructure to provide access to data from and for various language communities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper introduces the reader to the background of this project and discusses some of the areas important for representing language materials where both University of North Texas Libraries (UNTL) metadata and CoRSAL metadata practices were adapted to better fit the needs of intended audiences.

Findings

We discuss a workflow for standardized language representation (the Language field), defining roles for persons related to the item (Creator and Contributor fields) and including subject representation for language materials (Subjects and Keywords fields).

Practical implications

Although further work is needed to improve language data representation in the CoRSAL digital language archive, the model adopted by the team and lessons learned could benefit others in the language archiving community.

Originality/value

This paper is a significantly extended version of the presentation made at the 1st International Workshop on Digital Language Archives in 2021.

Details

The Electronic Library , vol. 40 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2015

Iolo Madoc-Jones, Dawn Jones, Odette Parry and Sarah Dubberley

Drawing on the approach of Bourdieu (1977, 1986), and using language as an exemplar, the purpose of this paper is to engage in a “dangerous conversation” to explore how and why…

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on the approach of Bourdieu (1977, 1986), and using language as an exemplar, the purpose of this paper is to engage in a “dangerous conversation” to explore how and why issues of diversity were mobilised, ignored and leveraged in one particular service context.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research exploring the language choices of 25 service users who had been processed through the criminal Justice System in Wales in the last five years.

Findings

The argument is made that in some service contexts, a habitus obtains that renders reflexivity about diversity issues problematic and predicates against the critical reflection necessary to promote anti-oppressive practice.

Research limitations/implications

Small sample size, not generalisable.

Practical implications

The authors intend the paper to encourage greater reflection on instances when diversity issues are raised and to render simplistic any attempt to invalidate claims of discrimination.

Social implications

Encourage dialogue about claims of discrimination and greater reflection by service providers about the legitimacy of such claims.

Originality/value

Anti-oppressive theorising has, for the most part, constructed minority group members as passive victims within hierarchical power relationships. While acknowledging how power is unequally distributed, the paper challenges hierarchical models which designate minority group members as bereft of power.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2024

Nicole Ann Amato

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

Design/methodology/approach

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Findings

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Originality/value

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1999

Wenxian Zhang

The Internet is full of resources on China and Chinese studies. However, many new users are often overwhelmed by the vast amount of information on the Web. This paper is to offer…

1820

Abstract

The Internet is full of resources on China and Chinese studies. However, many new users are often overwhelmed by the vast amount of information on the Web. This paper is to offer a starting point for inexperienced users interested in finding information over the Internet on Chinese culture, art, language, literature, history, philosophy and current affairs, etc. It focuses on the World Wide Web resources only, and choices of entry are selective rather than exhaustive.

Details

Asian Libraries, vol. 8 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1017-6748

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 November 2015

Mari Vállez, Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez, Lluís Codina, Saúl Blanco and Cristòfol Rovira

Controlled vocabularies play an important role in information retrieval. Numerous studies have shown that conceptual searches based on vocabularies are more effective than keyword…

1690

Abstract

Purpose

Controlled vocabularies play an important role in information retrieval. Numerous studies have shown that conceptual searches based on vocabularies are more effective than keyword searches, at least in certain contexts. Consequently, new ways must be found to improve controlled vocabularies. The purpose of this paper is to present a semi-automatic model for updating controlled vocabularies through the use of a text corpus and the analysis of query logs.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental development is presented in which, first, the suitability of a controlled vocabulary to a text corpus is examined. The keywords entered by users to access the text corpus are then compared with the descriptors used to index it. Finally, both the query logs and text corpus are processed to obtain a set of candidate terms to update the controlled vocabulary.

Findings

This paper describes a model applicable both in the context of the text corpus of an online academic journal and to repositories and intranets. The model is able to: first, identify the queries that led users from a search engine to a relevant document; and second, process these queries to identify candidate terms for inclusion in a controlled vocabulary.

Research limitations/implications

Ideally, the model should be used in controlled web environments, such as repositories, intranets or academic journals.

Social implications

The proposed model directly improves the indexing process by facilitating the maintenance and updating of controlled vocabularies. It so doing, it helps to optimise access to information.

Originality/value

The proposed model takes into account the perspective of users by mining queries in order to propose candidate terms for inclusion in a controlled vocabulary.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 39 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 September 2022

Maria Elo, Tanvi Kothari and Maria Ivanova-Gongne

This chapter aims to increase our understanding on how the language diversity of multiethnic Central Asian countries and their diasporas constitutes a talent and resource-base for…

Abstract

Goals and Objectives of the Research

– This chapter aims to increase our understanding on how the language diversity of multiethnic Central Asian countries and their diasporas constitutes a talent and resource-base for local and global businesses. We revisit the role of ‘language capabilities’ for boundary-spanning abilities and the particular challenges and opportunities posed by linguistically diverse contexts among diaspora members and their homeland.

Methodology

– This chapter provides an overview of prior research and uses qualitative interviews and ethnographic data.

Results/Findings

– The findings indicate that language diversity is an important multi-layered resource and a socio-economic link that allows culturally distant markets to interact and bridges the gaps across geographic boundaries. Individuals with multiple languages and migrant ties may develop alternative ways of communicating for business, such as translanguaging and cultural communication mode-shifting.

Novelty/Originality/Value

– The administrative ‘imperial’ languages are often perceived as the oppressor's instrument, however, the alternate perspective presents it as a resource for economic relations and international business development that exists in parallel to the indigenous language heritage. We introduce a concept, on diaspora ‘language portfolio’ that is a toolbox of communication assets that allows migrants to connect and operate interculturally and inter-regionally.

Theoretical or Practical Implications

– We deviate from the English language dominance of the international business literature and address how another geographic and linguistic context such as the Russophone business provides a contextual lens to understand how language capabilities of diaspora members is an asset to both, their home and host nations. We illustrate how both the Russian language and the regional and minority languages offer a great potential for entrepreneurial and trade relations. By introducing a Framework of Diaspora ‘Language Portfolio’ this study underlines that minorities and diasporas are key boundary spanners and connectors in new markets and enhance the development of trade in the region.

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