Constructing Multimodal Language Learner Texts Using LARA: Experiences with Nine Languages

Elham Akhlaghi, Branislav Bédi, Fatih Bektaş, Harald Berthelsen, Matthias Butterweck, Cathy Chua, Catia Cucchiarin, Gülşen Eryiğit, Johanna Gerlach, Hanieh Habibi, Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Manny Rayner, Steinþór Steingrímsson, Helmer Strik


Abstract
LARA (Learning and Reading Assistant) is an open source platform whose purpose is to support easy conversion of plain texts into multimodal online versions suitable for use by language learners. This involves semi-automatically tagging the text, adding other annotations and recording audio. The platform is suitable for creating texts in multiple languages via crowdsourcing techniques that can be used for teaching a language via reading and listening. We present results of initial experiments by various collaborators where we measure the time required to produce substantial LARA resources, up to the length of short novels, in Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Swedish and Turkish. The first results are encouraging. Although there are some startup problems, the conversion task seems manageable for the languages tested so far. The resulting enriched texts are posted online and are freely available in both source and compiled form.
Anthology ID:
2020.lrec-1.40
Volume:
Proceedings of the Twelfth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference
Month:
May
Year:
2020
Address:
Marseille, France
Editors:
Nicoletta Calzolari, Frédéric Béchet, Philippe Blache, Khalid Choukri, Christopher Cieri, Thierry Declerck, Sara Goggi, Hitoshi Isahara, Bente Maegaard, Joseph Mariani, Hélène Mazo, Asuncion Moreno, Jan Odijk, Stelios Piperidis
Venue:
LREC
SIG:
Publisher:
European Language Resources Association
Note:
Pages:
323–331
Language:
English
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2020.lrec-1.40
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Elham Akhlaghi, Branislav Bédi, Fatih Bektaş, Harald Berthelsen, Matthias Butterweck, Cathy Chua, Catia Cucchiarin, Gülşen Eryiğit, Johanna Gerlach, Hanieh Habibi, Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Manny Rayner, Steinþór Steingrímsson, and Helmer Strik. 2020. Constructing Multimodal Language Learner Texts Using LARA: Experiences with Nine Languages. In Proceedings of the Twelfth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, pages 323–331, Marseille, France. European Language Resources Association.
Cite (Informal):
Constructing Multimodal Language Learner Texts Using LARA: Experiences with Nine Languages (Akhlaghi et al., LREC 2020)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2020.lrec-1.40.pdf