The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
54. Can Computers Teach Languages Faster and Better?
The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
Trude Heift [+]
Simon Fraser University
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Trude Heift is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her main research areas focus on the design as well as the evaluation of CALL systems by combining aspects of applied and computational linguistics. From an SLA perspective, her work examines learner-computer interactions, corrective feedback and error analysis. From a computational point of view, she is interested in the automatic analysis of learner language and learner modeling. She is currently co-editor of Language Learning & Technology.
Description
There are vast claims about the speed and quality of instruction that can be provided by computers. Commercial software often uses those two parameters as selling points and many of the claims have reached absurd and rather comical levels. What exactly are the claims and can they be backed up by research? How do some of the millennials who live and breathe technology answer this question?