Information retrieval for education: making search engines language aware

dc.creator	Niels Ott
dc.creator	Detmar Meurers
dc.date	2010-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:09:24Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:09:24Z
dc.identifier	1791-3721
dc.identifier	1792-8788
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/eaabfdd6c8af4c4ca39bbfca42185adc
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/12760
dc.description	Search engines have been a major factor in making the web the successful and widely usedinformation source it is today. Generally speaking, they make it possible to retrieve web pageson a topic specified by the keywords entered by the user. Yet web searching currently doesnot take into account which of the search results are comprehensible for a given user – anissue of particular relevance when considering students in an educational setting. And currentsearch engines do not support teachers in searching for language properties relevant forselecting texts appropriate for language students at different stages in the second languageacquisition process.At the same time, raising language awareness is a major focus in second language acquisitionresearch and foreign language teaching practice, and research since the 20s has tried toidentify indicators predicting which texts are comprehensible for readers at a particular levelof ability. For example, the military has been interested in ensuring that workers at a givenlevel of education can understand the manuals they need to read in order to perform their job.We present a new search engine approach which makes it possible for teachers to search fortexts both in terms of contents and in terms of their reading difficulty and other languageproperties. The implemented prototype builds on state-of-the art information retrievaltechnology and exemplifies how a range of readability measures can be integrated in amodular fashion.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	Themes in Science and Technology Education
dc.relation	http://earthlab.uoi.gr/theste/index.php/theste/article/view/48/30
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1791-3721
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1792-8788
dc.rights	CC BY-NC-ND
dc.source	Themes in Science and Technology Education, Vol 3, Iss 1-2, Pp 9-30 (2010)
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Information retrieval for education: making search engines language aware
dc.type	article