Approaching Language Transfer Through Text Classification

Recent work has pointed to the need for a detection-based approach to transfer capable of discovering elusive crosslinguistic effects through the use of human judges and computer classifiers that can learn to predict learners’ language backgrounds based on their patterns of language use. This book addresses that need. It details the nature of the detection-based approach, discusses how this approach fits into the overall scope of transfer research, and discusses the few previous studies that have laid the groundwork for this approach. The core of the book consists of five empirical studies that use computer classifiers to detect the native-language affiliations of texts written by foreign language learners of English. The results highlight combinations of language features that are the most reliable predictors of learners’ language backgrounds.

This book details patterns of language use that can be found in the writing of adult immigrant learners of Norwegian as a second language (L2). Each study draws its data from a single corpus of texts written for a proficiency test of L2 Norwegian by learners representing 10 different first language (L1) backgrounds. The participants of the study are immigrants to Norway and the book deals with the varying levels and types of language difficulties faced by such learners from differing backgrounds. The studies examine the learners’ use of Norwegian in relation to the morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic and pragmatic patterns they produce in their essays. Nearly all the studies in the book rely on analytical methods specifically designed to isolate the effects of the learners’ L1s on their use of L2 Norwegian, and every chapter highlights patterns that distinguish different L1 groups from one another.

The majority of natural language processing (NLP) is English language processing, and while there is good language technology support for (standard varieties of) English, support for Albanian, Burmese, or Cebuano--and most other languages--remains limited. Being able to bridge this digital divide is important for scientific and democratic reasons but also represents an enormous growth potential. A key challenge for this to happen is learning to align basic meaning-bearing units of different languages. In this book, the authors survey and discuss recent and historical work on supervised and unsupervised learning of such alignments. Specifically, the book focuses on so-called cross-lingual word embeddings. The survey is intended to be systematic, using consistent notation and putting the available methods on comparable form, making it easy to compare wildly different approaches. In so doing, the authors establish previously unreported relations between these methods and are able to present a fast-growing literature in a very compact way. Furthermore, the authors discuss how best to evaluate cross-lingual word embedding methods and survey the resources available for students and researchers interested in this topic.

Many books and courses tackle natural language processing (NLP) problems with toy use cases and well-defined datasets. But if you want to build, iterate, and scale NLP systems in a business setting and tailor them for particular industry verticals, this is your guide. Software engineers and data scientists will learn how to navigate the maze of options available at each step of the journey. Through the course of the book, authors Sowmya Vajjala, Bodhisattwa Majumder, Anuj Gupta, and Harshit Surana will guide you through the process of building real-world NLP solutions embedded in larger product setups. You’ll learn how to adapt your solutions for different industry verticals such as healthcare, social media, and retail. With this book, you’ll: Understand the wide spectrum of problem statements, tasks, and solution approaches within NLP Implement and evaluate different NLP applications using machine learning and deep learning methods Fine-tune your NLP solution based on your business problem and industry vertical Evaluate various algorithms and approaches for NLP product tasks, datasets, and stages Produce software solutions following best practices around release, deployment, and DevOps for NLP systems Understand best practices, opportunities, and the roadmap for NLP from a business and product leader’s perspective

The "Natural Language Processing Practical Approach" is a textbook that provides a practical introduction to the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The goal of the textbook is to provide a hands-on, practical guide to NLP, with a focus on real-world applications and use cases. The textbook covers a range of NLP topics, including text preprocessing, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, text classification, and more. The textbook emphasizes the use of algorithms and models to solve NLP problems and provides practical examples and code snippets in various programming languages, including Python. The textbook is designed for students, researchers, and practitioners in NLP who want to gain a deeper understanding of the field and build their own NLP projects. The current state of NLP is rapidly evolving with advancements in machine learning and deep learning techniques. The field has seen a significant increase in research and development efforts in recent years, leading to improved performance and new applications in areas such as sentiment analysis, text classification, language translation, and named entity recognition. The future prospects of NLP are bright, with continued development in areas such as reinforcement learning, transfer learning, and unsupervised learning, which are expected to further improve the performance of NLP models. Additionally, increasing amounts of text data available through the internet and growing demand for human-like conversational interfaces in areas such as customer service and virtual assistants will likely drive further advancements in NLP. The benefits of a hands-on, practical approach to natural language processing include: 1. Improved understanding: Practical approaches allow students to experience the concepts and techniques in action, helping them to better understand how NLP works. 2. Increased motivation: Hands-on approaches to learning can increase student engagement and motivation, making the learning process more enjoyable and effective. 3. Hands-on experience: By working with real data and implementing NLP techniques, students gain hands-on experience in applying NLP techniques to real-world problems. 4. Improved problem-solving skills: Practical approaches help students to develop problem-solving skills by working through real-world problems and challenges. 5. Better retention: When students have hands-on experience with NLP techniques, they are more likely to retain the information and be able to apply it in the future. A comprehensive understanding of NLP would include knowledge of its various tasks, techniques, algorithms, challenges, and applications. It also involves understanding the basics of computational linguistics, natural language understanding, and text representation methods such as tokenization, stemming, and lemmatization. Moreover, hands-on experience with NLP tools and libraries like NLTK, Spacy, and PyTorch would also enhance one's understanding of NLP.

The study of native language influence in Second Language Acquisition has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. This book, which includes 12 chapters by distinguished researchers in the field of second language acquisition, traces the conceptual history of language transfer from its early role within a Contrastive Analysis framework to its current position within Universal Grammar. The introduction presents a continuum of thought starting from the late 70s, a time in which major rethinking in the field regarding the concept of language transfer was beginning to take place, and continuing through the present day in which language transfer is integrated within current concepts and theoretical models. The afterword unites the issues discussed and allows the reader to place these issues in the context of future research. For the present book, the 1983 edition has been thoroughly revised, and some papers have been replaced and added.