ruslan@ecsvax.UUCP (Robin C. LaPasha) (03/06/88)
I've recently been musing over certain possibilities for CAI software based on limited parsing techniques and wildcarding. Is anyone out there working on software for foreign language learning that works on the basis of variable student input; i.e. the student answers a question or translates a sentence, going beyond fill-in-the-blank with a particular word? I've read of peripheral stuff; some ESL work in _Computers in the Schools_, parsing for errors in texts in _Computers and the Humanities, and foreign language text-adventure games in _CALICO Journal_. But I'm interested not so much in a "how it works in our classrooms" description of the particular application (I have my own in mind) as much as how one sets up a program to handle the input - vocabulary, conjugation and (as applicable to the foreign language) declension, and variety of syntax. Besides that, what languages do folks choose to write CAI/CALL in these days? I remember PILOT (ugh) and I've looked at CALIS, but I'm thinking more that a ground-up system in, oh, LISP or Prolog or whatever seems to work would be much better than trying to fuss with what I consider as rather unsatisfactory authoring systems. Can anyone point me to some down-to-earth books/articles/whatever? (I have read a couple of books about AI and natural language processing, but, well, I think I need to start at some level that is practical and simple. I am neither a hot AI programmer nor a linguist; I'm a TA of a foreign language with some ideas on how I'd like to see a CAI system run.) Would anyone like to discuss such stuff on the net or by email? If so, let me know by email (and advise me which newsgroup you intend to discuss the matter in, as I don't regularly follow all of these groups.) Thanks in advance, Robin LaPasha ruslan@ecsvax.UUCP