A foreign language writing aid is a computer program or any other instrument that assists a non-native language user (also referred to as a foreign language learner) in writing decently in their target language. Assistive operations can be classified into two categories: on-the-fly prompts and post-writing checks. Assisted aspects of writing include: lexical, syntactic (syntactic and semantic roles of a word's frame), lexical semantic (context/collocation-influenced word choice and user-intention-driven synonym choice) and idiomatic expression transfer, etc. Different types of foreign language writing aids include automated proofreading applications, text corpora, dictionaries, translation aids and orthography aids.
Background The four major components in the acquisition of a language are namely; listening, speaking, reading and writing.Gregersen, T.S. (2003) To Err Is Human: A Reminder to Teachers of Language-Anxious Students. Foreign Language Annals, 36(1): 25-32. While most people have no difficulties in exercising these skills in their native language, doing so in a second or foreign language is not that easy. In the area of writing, research has found that foreign language learners find it painstaking to compose in the target language, producing less eloquent sentences and encountering difficulties in the revisions of their written work. However, these difficulties are not attributed to their linguistic abilities.Chih, H. K. (2008). Designing an Online Writing System: Learning with Support. ELC Journal, 39(3), 285-299.
Many language learners experience foreign language anxiety, feelings of apprehensiveness and nervousness, when learning a second language. In the case of writing in a foreign language, this anxiety can be alleviated via foreign language writing aids as they assist non-native language users in independently producing decent written work at their own pace, hence increasing confidence about themselves and their own learning abilities.Behjat, F. (2011). Teacher Correction or Word Processors: Which Is a Better Option for the Improvement of EFL Students' Writing Skill?. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 2(6), 1430-1434.
With advancements in technology, aids in foreign language writing are no longer restricted to traditional mediums such as teacher feedback and dictionaries. Known as computer-assisted language learning (CALL), use of computers in language classrooms has become more common, and one example would be the use of word processors to assist learners of a foreign language in the technical aspects of their writing, such as grammar.Cameron, K. (1990). Computer assisted language learning:program structure and principles. (pp. 10). Intellect Books. Retrieved 17 March 2012. In comparison with correction feedback from the teacher, the use of word processors is found to be a better tool in improving the writing skills of students who are learning English as a foreign language (EFL), possibly because students find it more encouraging to learn their mistakes from a neutral and detached source. Apart from learners' confidence in writing, their motivation and attitudes will also improve through the use of computers.
Foreign language learners' awareness of the conventions in writing can be improved through reference to guidelines showing the features and structure of the target genre. At the same time, interactions and feedback help to engage the learners and expedite their learning, especially with active participation.Telçeker, H. & Akcan, S. (2010). The Effect of Oral and Written Teacher Feedback on Students’ Revisions in a Process-Oriented EFL Writing Class. TESL Reporter, 43(1), 31-49. In online writing situations, learners are isolated without face-to-face interaction with others. Therefore, a foreign language writing aid should provide interaction and feedback so as to ease the learning process. This complements communicative language teaching (CLT); which is a teaching approach that highlights interaction as both the means and aim of learning a language.
Automation of proofreading process In accordance with the simple view of writing, both lower-order and higher-order skills are required. Lower-order skills involve those of spelling and transcription, whereas higher order-skills involve that of ideation; which refers to idea generation and organisation.Juel, C. (1988). Learning to Read and Write: A Longitudinal Study of 54 Children from First through Fourth Grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437-47. Proofreading is helpful for non-native language users in minimising errors while writing in a foreign language. Spell checkers and grammar checkers are two applications that aid in the automatic proofreading process of written work.Beekman, G. (2003). Computer confluence: exploring tomorrow's technology (Vol. 1). Prentice Hall. .
Spelling check and applications
To achieve writing competence in a non-native language, especially in an alphabetic language, spelling proficiency is of utmost importance.Puranik, C. S., Lonigan, C. J., & Kim, Y. (2011). Contributions of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writing, Letter Writing, and Spelling in Preschool Children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(4), 465–474. Spelling proficiency has been identified as a good indicator of a learner’s acquisition and comprehension of alphabetic principles in the target language.Kim, Y., Al Otaiba, S., Puranik, C., Folsom, J., Greulich, L., & Wagner, R. K. (2011). Componential Skills of Beginning Writing: An Exploratory Study. Learning And Individual Differences, 21(5), 517-525. Documented data on misspelling patterns indicate that majority of misspellings fall under the four categories of letter insertion, deletion, transposition and substitution.Kukich, K. (1992). Techniques for Automatically Correcting Words in Text. ACM Computing Surveys, 24(4), 376-439. In languages where pronunciation of certain sequences of letters may be similar, misspellings may occur when the non-native language learner relies heavily on the sounds of the target language because they are unsure about the accurate spelling of the words.Ndiaye, M. (2003). A Spell Checker Tailored to Language Learners. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 16(2/3), 213–232. The spell checker application is a type of writing aid that non-native language learners can rely on to detect and correct their misspellings in the target language.Banks, T. (2008). Foreign Language Learning Difficulties and Teaching Strategies. (pp. 29). Master's Thesis, Dominican University of California. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
Operating modes In general, spell checkers can operate one of two modes, the interactive spell checking mode or the batch spell checking. In the interactive mode, the spell checker detects and marks misspelled words with a squiggly underlining as the words are being typed. On the other hand, batch spell checking is performed on a batch-by-batch basis as the appropriate command is entered. Spell checkers, such as those used in Microsoft Word, can operate in either mode.
Evaluation Although spell checkers are commonplace in numerous software products, errors specifically made by learners of a target language may not be sufficiently catered for.L'Haire, S. (2007). FipsOrtho: A Spell Checker for Learners of French. Recall, 19(2), 137–161. This is because generic spell checkers function on the assumption that their users are competent speakers of the target language, whose misspellings are primarily due to accidental typographical errors.Heift, T., & Schulze, M. (2007). Errors and intelligence in computer-assisted language learning: parsers and pedagogues. (pp. 84). Routledge. Retrieved 19 March 2012. The majority of misspellings were found to be attributed to systematic competence errors instead of accidental typographical ones, with up to 48% of these errors failing to be detected or corrected by the generic spell checker used.Rimrott, A., & Heift, T. (2005). Language Learners and Generic Spell Checkers in CALL. CALICO Journal, 23(1), 17-48. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
In view of the deficiency of generic spell checkers, programs have been designed to gear towards non-native misspellings, such as FipsCor and Spengels. In FipsCor, a combination of methods, such as the alpha-code method, phonological reinterpretation method and morphological treatment method, has been adopted in an attempt to create a spell checker tailored to French language learners. On the other hand, Spengels is a tutoring system developed to aid Dutch children and non-native Dutch writers of English in accurate English spelling.Bos, E., & van de Plassche, J. (1994). A knowledge-based, English verb-form tutor. Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 5(1), 107–129.
Grammar check and applications
Grammar (syntactical and morphological) competency is another indicator of a non-native speaker’s proficiency in writing in the target language. Grammar checkers are a type of computerised application which non-native speakers can make use of to proofread their writings as such programs endeavor to identify syntactical errors.Bustamante, F.R., & León, F.S, (1996). GramCheck: a grammar and style checker. Proceedings of the 16th conference on Computational linguistics, August 05–09, Copenhagen, Denmark. Retrieved 19 March 2012. Grammar and style checking is recognized as one of the seven major applications of Natural Language Processing and every project in this field aims to build grammar checkers into a writing aid instead of a robust man-machine interface.
Evaluation Currently, grammar checkers are incapable of inspecting the linguistic or even syntactic correctness of text as a whole. They are restricted in their usefulness in that they are only able to check a small fraction of all the possible syntactic structures. Grammar checkers are unable to detect semantic errors in a correctly structured syntax order; i.e. grammar checkers do not register the error when the sentence structure is syntactically correct but semantically meaningless.Arppe, A. (2000). Developing a grammar checker for Swedish. In Proc. 12th Nordic Conference in Computational Linguistics, Nodalida-99. Trondheim.
Although grammar checkers have largely been concentrated on ensuring grammatical writing, majority of them are modelled after native writers, neglecting the needs of non-native language users.Knutsson, O., Cerratto Pargman, T. and Severinson Eklundh, T. (2003). Transforming Grammar Checking Technology into a Learning Environment for Second Language Writing. In Proc. HLT/NAACL 2003 workshop: Building Educational Applications Using NLP, (pp. 38–45). Edmonton, Canada. Retrieved 19 March 2012. Much research have attempted to tailor grammar checkers to the needs of non-native language users. Granska, a Swedish grammar checker, has been greatly worked upon by numerous researchers in the investigation of grammar checking properties for foreign language learners.Eeg-Olofsson, J. and Knutsson, O. (2003). Automatic grammar checking for second language learners - the use of prepositions. In Nodalida-03, Reykjavik, Iceland. The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia has a computerised grammar checker for native Spanish speakers of EFL to help identify and correct grammatical mistakes without feedback from teachers.Lawley, J. (2004). A Preliminary Report on a New Grammar Checker to Help Students of English as a foreign language. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 3(3), 331-342
Dichotomy between spell and grammar checkers