Traditional approaches to spell checking are sometimes inadequate for the needs of non-native users because they are optimized for native speakers. Not only is it assumed that the user is capable of choosing between suggested corrections, but the suggestions themselves are optimized for the kinds of errors that native speakers make. Even if a non-native user were able to select the correct form from ...

Included in the tasks facing a language learner is the acquisition of a lexicon and a grammar. However, when the target language has inflectional morphology, these two parts of the language-learning task intersect in the paradigms of grammatical word forms because each open-class lexeme has a number of forms that allow it to express various combinations of grammatical categories. Among major world ...

We outline some recent highlights in the application of cognitive linguistic theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of Slavic languages. A principal strength of cognitive linguistics is the way it focuses our attention on the continuous nature of linguistic phenomena. Rather than positing rigid categories and strict definitions, cognitive linguistics addresses the messy realities ...

The Russian Constructicon project currently prioritizes multi-word constructions that are not represented in dictionaries and that are especially useful for learners of Russian. The immediate goal is to identify constructions and determine the semantic constraints on their slots. The Russian Constructicon is being built in parallel with the Swedish Constructicon and will ultimately model the entire ...

In this talk, we will discuss how we can bridge the gap between a constructicon resource and second language (L2) learners, drawing our insights from the actual practice of construction-based teaching. We suggest that having a constructicon resource, even with a user-friendly design, might not be enough to successfully engage L2 students with its content. We 1) summarize the accommodations for L2 ...

Intelligent Language Tutoring Systems typically attempt to automatically diagnose learner errors in order to provide individualized feedback. One common approach is the use of mal-rules to extend normative grammars by licensing specific types of learner errors. In finite-state morphologies, mal-rules can be implemented as two-level rules or replace rules. However, unlike the phonological rules of ...

The six articles in this special issue are exemplary studies that profile the current state-of-the art in cognitive linguistics, namely the synthesis of quantitative and qualitative linguistic analysis. This introduction is an opportunity to take stock of where cognitive linguistics started out, what kinds of approaches have been developed,andhowwehavearrivedatasynthesisinwhichempiricalexploration ...

We propose two designs to gamify second language (L2) learning of Russian inflectional morphology: Treasure Hunt and Story Time. The goal of these designs is to focus learning on high-frequency word forms that are most strategic and effective for L2 acquisition in a way that stimulates engagement and builds lifelong learning skills. These two gamification designs emerged from a student focus group ...

Janda 2012 and Janda et al. 2013 presented the hypothesis that Russian aspectual prefixes serve as verb classifiers, similar to verb classifiers identified in Australian languages, and as the verbal analogs of numeral classifiers found primarily in Asia and Central America. We further extend this hypothesis in two directions. First, we make the point that the distinction between sortal classifiers ...