Algorithm selection and model adaptation for ESL correction tasks

Alla Rozovskaya, Dan Roth

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

We consider the problem of correcting errors made by English as a Second Language (ESL) writers and address two issues that are essential to making progress in ESL error correction - algorithm selection and model adaptation to the first language of the ESL learner. A variety of learning algorithms have been applied to correct ESL mistakes, but often comparisons were made between incomparable data sets. We conduct an extensive, fair comparison of four popular learning methods for the task, reversing conclusions from earlier evaluations. Our results hold for different training sets, genres, and feature sets. A second key issue in ESL error correction is the adaptation of a model to the first language of the writer. Errors made by non-native speakers exhibit certain regularities and, as we show, models perform much better when they use knowledge about error patterns of the nonnative writers. We propose a novel way to adapt a learned algorithm to the first language of the writer that is both cheaper to implement and performs better than other adaptation methods.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationACL-HLT 2011 - Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
Subtitle of host publicationHuman Language Technologies
Pages924-933
Number of pages10
StatePublished - 2011
Event49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, ACL-HLT 2011 - Portland, OR, United States
Duration: Jun 19 2011Jun 24 2011

Publication series

NameACL-HLT 2011 - Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies
Volume1

Other

Other49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, ACL-HLT 2011
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland, OR
Period6/19/116/24/11

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Algorithm selection and model adaptation for ESL correction tasks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this