{"id":235,"date":"2021-09-27T16:12:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T16:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fs-s-wpmu-03.facsci.ualberta.ca\/edtekla\/?page_id=235"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:53:21","slug":"archived-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/spaces.facsci.ualberta.ca\/edtekla\/archived-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Archived Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tLanguage Learning\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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CreeTutor: A System to Help People Learn nehiyawewin (Plains Cree)<\/span><\/span>
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The CreeTutor Project aims to teach learners nehiyawewin (Y-dialect Cree). This website will <\/span>provide computer assisted learning material for adults to promote their aural fluency in the <\/span>language.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Currently, most of the websites available to Cree learners are largely focused on providing resources rather than providing instruction, they are also generally underfunded and not user-friendly. The website we are developing hopes to provide instruction to users through mini-games as well as exposure through animations, recorded stories, and other activities.<\/span><\/p>

Project Lead:<\/b> Carrie Demmans Epp<\/span><\/p>

Alumni:<\/span> Caitlyn Deslauriers,\u00a0<\/span>Delaney Lothian,\u00a0<\/span>Mekha George, Jeremy Edombingo, Amrinder Grewal, Jennifer Mah, Sarah Hoven, Owen McLeod, Anaka Sparrow, Nicole (Zixin) Zhao, Gokce Akcayir, and Robin Howse<\/span><\/p>

Collaborators: <\/b>Dorothy Thunder<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Publications & Presentations: <\/b><\/span><\/p>

Lothian, D., Akcayir, G., Sparrow, A., McLeod, O., & Demmans Epp, C. (2020). SoundHunters: Increasing Learner Phonological Awareness in Plains Cree. In I. I. Bittencourt, M. Cukurova, K. Muldner, R. Luckin, & E. Mill\u00e1n (Eds.), International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED)<\/em> 2020<\/em> (pp. 346-359). Springer International Publishing. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-030-52237-7_28<\/a> <\/b><\/span><\/p>

Lothian, D., Akcayir, G., & Demmans Epp, C. (2019). Accommodating Indigenous People When Using Technology to Learn Their Ancestral Language. Presented at the Lifelong Learning Workshop at AIED 2019<\/em> (Vol. 2395 pp. 16-22), Chicago, Illinoisl, USA. CEUR-Workshop Proceedings. http:\/\/ceur-ws.org\/Vol-2395\/<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Detecting Negative Language Transfer<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This project identifies structural writing errors related to language transfer in the texts written by English language learners. It does this using machine learning and language models to represent the learners\u2019 first languages and English grammars. It then provides learners with targeted feedback based on those errors.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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This project has two parts. Identifying negative language transfer (NLT) and providing feedback to learners based on their negative language transfer. <\/span><\/p>\n

To identify NLT in learner writing, models are used to identify which incorrect utterance structure is more prevalent for a particular population of learners and whether there is any indication that these incorrect utterances may be influenced by the English language learner\u2019s first language. At present, we are trying to identify NLT in the writing of speakers of Chinese and Persian (Farsi) as a first language. <\/span><\/p>\n

To build these models, we first had to create datasets that could be used to train them. These datasets can also be used to test models that detect grammatical errors that are due to negative language transfer. <\/span><\/p>\n

We developed a Google Docs plug-in using these models. The plug-in gives learners targeted feedback to help them understand their grammatical errors when the error is a result of their borrowing grammatical structures from their first language. We are about to start a study of how Chinese learners of English respond to this support.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Project Lead:<\/b> Carrie Demmans Epp, Mohammad Karimiabdolmaleki, and <\/span>Jiahua Liu<\/span><\/p>\n

Collaborators:<\/b> Maria Cutumisu, Mohsen Rezazadeh, and <\/span><\/span>Leticia Wanderley<\/span><\/p>\n

Alumni:<\/strong> Nicole (Zixin) Zhao <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Repositories\/Data:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/github.com\/EdTeKLA\/LanguageTransfer<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Publications & Presentations:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Karimiabdolmaleki, M.<\/span>, <\/span>Farias Wanderley, L.<\/span>, Cutumisu, M.<\/span>, & <\/span>Demmans Epp, C. (2023). Identifying negative language transfer in the English writing of Chinese and Farsi native speakers. Presented at <\/span>European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) Conference 2023<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wanderley, L. & Demmans Epp, C. (2020). Identifying negative language transfer in writing to increase English as a Second Language learners\u2019 metalinguistic awareness. In Bringing Together Writing Tool Design, Writing Analytics and Writing Pedagogy Workshop<\/i> at the International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge<\/i> (LAK). Frankfurt, Germany [online]. https:\/\/writinganalytics.zhaw.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LAK20_Writing_Analytics_Workshop-Identifying-negative-language-transfer-in-writing-to-increase-English-as-a-Second-Language-learners%E2%80%99-metalinguistic-awareness.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wanderley, L.<\/span>, & <\/span>Demmans Epp, C. (2021). Identifying negative language transfer in learner errors using POS information. In the <\/span>16th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA)<\/span><\/i> at the <\/span>6th Conference of the European Chapter<\/span><\/i>
<\/span><\/i>of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL) <\/span><\/i>(pp. 64-74). [online] <\/span>https:\/\/www.aclweb.org\/anthology\/2021.bea-1.7<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Wanderley, L., Zhao, Z., & Demmans Epp, C. (2021). Negative Language Transfer in Learner English: A New Dataset. In Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT)<\/em>. (pp. 3129-3142). Association for Computational Linguistics. https:\/\/www.aclweb.org\/anthology\/2021.naacl-main.251<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Adaptive Literacy in Corrections<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This project aims to support the development of incarcerated persons\u2019 literacy skills. Learner modelling will capture literacy-contributing skills and be used to personalize each user\u2019s learning experience.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t