TwIdw—A Novel Method for Feature Extraction from Unstructured Texts

Featured ApplicationThe research has a potential application in the field of fake news detection. By using the feature extraction technique, TwIdw, proposed in this paper, more relevant and informative features can be extracted from the text data, which can lead to an enhancement in the accuracy of the classification models employed in these tasks.This research proposes a novel technique for fake news classification using natural language processing (NLP) methods. The proposed technique, TwIdw (Term weight–inverse document weight), is used for feature extraction and is based on TfIdf, with the term frequencies replaced by the depth of the words in documents. The effectiveness of the TwIdw technique is compared to another feature extraction method—basic TfIdf. Classification models were created using the random forest and feedforward neural networks, and within those, three different datasets were used. The feedforward neural network method with the KaiDMML dataset showed an increase in accuracy of up to 3.9%. The random forest method with TwIdw was not as successful as the neural network method and only showed an increase in accuracy with the KaiDMML dataset (1%). The feedforward neural network, on the other hand, showed an increase in accuracy with the TwIdw technique for all datasets. Precision and recall measures also confirmed good results, particularly for the neural network method. The TwIdw technique has the potential to be used in various NLP applications, including fake news classification and other NLP classification problems.

APPLICATION AND FEASIBILITY OF VARIOUS TEACHING TOOLS USED IN ONLINE CLASSES DURING COVID-19 IN TERTIARY EDUCATION

The study compares the effectiveness, popularity, and ease of applicability of different learning tools in virtual classrooms among university teachers and students concerning the users' technological literacy and training, as well as equipment support offered by the universities during the pandemic. Comparisons between face-to-face teaching in classrooms and online virtual classrooms will be drawn concerning limitations, incentives, motivation, and effectiveness toward learning. This study also leads to the question of future course development by exploring the possibility of course design and assessment restructuring with a switch to online education with the new mode of technology as the trend.

Teaching little kids big sentences: A randomized controlled trial showing that children with DLD respond to complex syntax intervention embedded within the context of preschool/kindergarten science instruction.

BACKGROUND: The language of the science curriculum is complex, even in the early grades. To communicate their scientific observations, children must produce complex syntax, particularly complement clauses (e.g., I think it will float; We noticed that it vibrates). Complex syntax is often challenging for children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and thus their learning and communication of science may be compromised. AIMS: We asked whether recast therapy delivered in the context of a science curriculum led to gains in complement clause use and scientific content knowledge. To understand the efficacy of recast therapy, we compared changes in science and language knowledge in children who received treatment for complement clauses embedded in a first-grade science curriculum to two active control conditions (vocabulary + science, phonological awareness + science). METHODS & PROCEDURES: This 2-year single-site three-arm parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted in Delaware, USA. Children with DLD, not yet in first grade and with low accuracy on complement clauses, were eligible. Thirty-three 4-7-year-old children participated in the summers of 2018 and 2019 (2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19). We assigned participants to arms using 1:1:1 pseudo-random allocation (avoiding placing siblings together). The intervention consisted of 39 small-group sessions of recast therapy, robust vocabulary instruction or phonological awareness intervention during eight science units over 4 weeks, followed by two science units (1 week) taught without language intervention. Pre-/post-measures were collected 3 weeks before and after camp by unmasked assessors. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Primary outcome measures were accuracy on a 20-item probe of complement clause production and performance on ten 10-item unit tests (eight science + language, two science only). Complete data were available for 31 children (10 grammar, 21 active control); two others were lost to follow-up. Both groups made similar gains on science unit tests for science + language content (pre versus post, d = 2.9, p < 0.0001; group, p = 0.24). The grammar group performed significantly better at post-test than the active control group (d = 2.5, p = 0.049) on complement clause probes and marginally better on science-only unit tests (d = 2.5, p = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Children with DLD can benefit from language intervention embedded in curricular content and learn both language and science targets taught simultaneously. Tentative findings suggest that treatment for grammar targets may improve academic outcomes. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject We know that recast therapy focused on morphology is effective but very time consuming. Treatment for complex syntax in young children has preliminary efficacy data available. Prior research provides mixed evidence as to children's ability to learn language targets in conjunction with other information. What this study adds This study provides additional data supporting the efficacy of intensive complex syntax recast therapy for children ages 4-7 with Developmental Language Disorder. It also provides data that children can learn language targets and science curricular content simultaneously. What are the clinical implications of this work? As SLPs, we have to talk about something to deliver language therapy; we should consider talking about curricular content. Recast therapy focused on syntactic frames is effective with young children.

Interpersonal-function topoi in Chinese central government's work report (2020) as epidemic (counter-)crisis discourse

Using Systemic Functional Grammar and conceptual framework in the argumentation-oriented approach to discourse, this study analyzes Chinese central government's " Report on the Work of the Government" in 2020 (henceforth the Report) to explore the "interpersonal-function topoi" in the political discourse. The Report was delivered and issued against the backdrop of the surging covid-19 epidemic. This study first calculated the frequency of mood, modality and persons in the Report. The statistics were qualitatively analyzed in relation to various topoi-imagery of the crisis vis-a-vis representing the agency-reflected in the interpersonal metafunction of the language in the Report. These topoi play a vital role in winning popular support for the Chinese central government's anti-epidemic measures and mobilizing the widest public into actions against the covid-19 pandemic. The analysis demonstrates how the analysis of interpersonal metafunction from an argumentation-oriented perspective can shed light on dealing with crisis discourse, especially in the pandemic settings.

EFL Learners' Preference of Grammar Learning Model Amid Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Study

Covid-19 Pandemic has greatly affected EFL learners in English grammar. Learning English grammar in its nature is difficult for EFL learners. Covid-19 has made grammar lessons more difficult for them and has caused them to be differentiated sharply in their preference of learning model. Thus, this study is aimed at investigating the underlying factors causing the learners' differentiation of learning model in learning English grammar. Through a mixed-methods, using google-form that consists of closed and open-ended questions, the data of the research were collected. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The qualitative data were analysed using the model of analysis proposed by Miles, Huberman and Saldana (2014). The research results showed that teacher's presence and students' extrinsic motivation were identified as the crucial factors in determining the learners' preferences of learning model of English grammar. © 2023 Eskisehir Osmangazi University. All rights reserved.

Enhancing the Students' Grammar Comprehension by Utilizing the Video-based Instruction

The study investigated the impact of VBI on student grammar comprehension. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of VBI in enhancing students' grammar comprehension as well as the students' perspectives on using VBI in the classroom. This study employed a quantitative pre-experimental one-group pre-Test and post-Test research design. A pre-Test, post-Test, and questionnaire were used to answer the research questions. It was conducted at one university in Indonesia, with the participation of forty students. The result showed that VBI could enhance students' grammar comprehension as the post-Test score of the students was higher than their pre-Test score. It indicated that the video-based instruction provided students with quality instruction. Moreover, four students' perspectives after VBI implementation were presented. First, the VBI provided was informative that it assisted them to comprehend the grammar materials. Second, VBI was easy to be accessed at any time and from anywhere. Third, VBI given was interesting material. The final point was that VBI met the video quality expectations. To sum up, this learning media effectively improves the students' grammar comprehension. © 2022 ACM.

The Role of the Russian Social Network Vkontakte During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Teaching Students of Agro-Industrial Faculties the First Foreign Language

This work is devoted to interactive methods of using the Russian social network VKontakte in the study of the first foreign language by students of technical universities of agro-industrial faculties. Currently, training is closely connected with modern Internet technologies and social networks. Social network is one of the forms of distance learning. In our article, we described an experiment conducted with the first-year full-time students of the Don State Technical University studying their first foreign language. The goal of our research was the identification and description of the most influencing forms and methods for the motivation of students in teaching the first foreign language. In the presented research work, we used the empirical method and the method of pedagogical research. We have explored a variety of social networks that are most often used by students, namely: Instagram, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, YouTube. We conducted an experiment and made an analysis of the obtained data. The material for our analysis was the social network VKontakte. We have created an open training group, in which students of the agro-industrial faculty of full-time education studying the first foreign language were signed. As a result of the inquest, we have identified the most relevant social network among first-year students. It has been established that Internet sources influence the interest and motivation of students in learning the first foreign language. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

A Comparative Study on the Impact of Online and Blended Learning

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated the transformation of educational institutions across the globe by implementing online and blended learning, which becomes an important aspect of the instruction and learning processes. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of both online and blended learning methods on grammatical knowledge and skill acquisition via an experimental approach. The study recruited 76 first-year medical learners to participate in an experiment for 7 weeks. Specifically, the experimental group studied the learning material face-to-face for 7 hours with 8 hours online, while the control group studied the same material online for 15 hours. The data were collected through pre-test and post-test. Although both approaches significantly improved learners' grammar performance, the study results discovered significantly higher learners' performance in a blended learning environment compared to solely online learning. © The Author(s) 2023.

Unpacking the Semantics of Coronaviruses' "Referent Things”: A Corpus-Driven Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis

The current study seeks to unpack the corpus-driven semantics of the "referent things” underlying the use of the lexical item coronaviruses in the data of The Coronavirus Corpus [Davies, Mark. 2019-. The Coronavirus Corpus. https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/]. Drawing on the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) Model of the Cardiff Grammar, a concordance-bound analysis has been conducted on the item coronaviruses as expounding the structural element head (h) of its relevant nominal-group patterns in the corpus data. The Cardiff Grammar Model has systematically revealed the semantics of coronaviruses' referent things as realized by corpus-driven syntactic patterns of eleven coronaviruses-expounded nominal groups in two respects in the corpus data. First, the item coronaviruses has been empirically shown to have three dominant types of referent: (i) a particularized referent has been expressed through the system of PARTICULARIZATION, (ii) a substantive referent through QUANTIFICATION (selection by quantity, selection by typicity, and selection by representation), and (iii) cultural-classification referent through the two overlapping systems of CLASSIFICATION and SELECTION (selection by quality and selection by qualification). Second, these referents demonstrated two aspects of semantic representation via participant-role (PR) conflation: (i) a cultural-classification referent assumes the complementary participant roles of Identifier, Actor, and Patient;(ii) a particularized substantive referent has the sole PR of Agent. © 2023 International Linguistic Association.

Preliminary Indicators of EFL Essay Writing for Teachers' Feedback Using Automatic Text Analysis

During the pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), English as a foreign language (EFL) students have to study and submit their assignments and quizzes through online systems using electronic files instead of hardcopies. This has created an opportunity for teachers to use computer tools to conduct preliminary assessment of the students' writing performance and then give advice to them timely. Hence, this paper proposed some indicators which were essay readability scored by Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), length of essays, errors in writing and a method to assist the teachers in providing writing feedback to the students. The results showed a large difference in FRE, the number of words, sentences, paragraphs and errors. The K-means clustering findings were applied to classify groups of students based on writing proficiency indicators. The findings also revealed that the number of words and sentences in the essays indicated some deficiencies. The concept of paragraph should be reinforced while some specific errors such as misspelling, grammatical and typographical errors found need to be eliminated. This study showcased that the computer tools should be integrated to process the students' essays so that the teachers can pinpoint the problems and make suggestions to their students in appropriate time. Lastly, the results can be served as the guidelines for the teachers to develop and adjust teaching materials pertinent to writing to enhance the writing performance of EFL learners.

From Face-to-Face to Online in Foreign Language Teaching: An Outstanding Experience

In December 2019, the University of Oxford Language Centre started to offer online courses in French, Spanish, and German at an advanced level. This not only enabled the Language Centre to pilot a new way of Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teaching ahead of the unprecedented 2020 health crisis, but also to open and expand 'Oxford to the world'. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of this innovative online teaching project based on the implementation of a two-hour weekly asynchronous teaching schedule through carefully designed 'learning pathways'. These focused on an interactive multimodal learning environment, which included discussions, grammar quizzes, and videos. This project confirmed the initial hypothesis that asynchronous teaching was the best method for students with different language competencies and learning styles as they were not time-bound and were able to work at their own pace. [For the complete volume, "Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University: Facilitating Transition from and to Higher Education," see ED619814.]

A Corpus-Based Comparison of Inclusiveness in L2 Reading Materials for Refugee Children

Despite increased emphasis on the role of inclusive practices and materials in post-COVID-19 classrooms and warnings about implicit biases against disadvantaged groups, the textbook problem has rarely been approached with equity measures in mind. This multimethod study aimed to investigate to what extent L2 reading materials, locally produced and used for refugee education in Turkey and New Zealand, include all children with different proficiency levels, gender identities and cultural backgrounds using corpus-driven methods. All verbal and nonverbal texts from ten thematically similar third-grade storybooks were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. Comparisons against measures of grammatical and lexical complexity, and of gender and cultural equity revealed that despite both being far from achieving the ideal composition for creating inclusive learning-friendly environments, TSL materials were lagging further behind ESL counterparts. They depended on almost uniform sets of easy-to-read narratives embodying simpler grammatical features and high-frequency words, and thus needed extension with relatively elaborate ones to accommodate mixed-abilities. Gender disparities were institutionalised through male overrepresentation in hero-making, negative stereotyping, familial and occupational identification, and engagement in monetary and mobility activities, but occasionally ameliorated, in the ESL case, by reversing conventionally-gendered domestic, technical and intellectual skills in texts and illustrations. The widest gap was observed in cultural representations because TSL materials, written from a tourist's perspective, focused on imposing superficial knowledge of target-culture elements, and ESL materials on ensuring relevance through greater use of elements from diverse cultures. Therefore, egalitarian representations in gendered and cultural contents are required for their rehabilitation.

Game-Based Learning in Higher Education: The Pedagogical Effect of Genially Games in English as a Foreign Language Instruction

This study aimed to analyze the effect of game-based learning (GBL) through the use of Genially in English as a foreign language (EFL) online instruction. The participants were 61 EFL undergraduate students, who were distributed into an experimental group (32 students), and a control group (29 students). Their ages ranged from 22 to 56 years old, and their English proficiency level was B1, according to the Common European Framework of References (CEFR). The students were enrolled in two pre-intermediate courses that are part of an EFL Teaching program at a private university in southern Ecuador. The courses were delivered in an online remote learning environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study followed a quasi-experimental approach and it took place over a sixteen-week period. The instruments included a diagnostic survey, a pre-test, a post-test, a students' perceptions survey, and a semi-structured interview. The main findings revealed that Genially games have the potential to enhance EFL learners' academic performance in online instruction, particularly in aspects related to students' knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in context. Besides, it was found that according to students' perceptions, the implementation of games based on their real learning needs increases their motivation, especially when feedback is effectively provided. © 2022 The Author(s).

It is not equitable if it is not culturally sustaining: teaching and learning in 1:1 laptop schools

Purpose>The purpose of this study was to examine technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in 1:1 laptop classrooms. We evaluate how, if at all, teachers in these environments engage culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) with technology to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.Design/methodology/approach>Data for this multiple case study were collected across three middle schools with a 1:1 laptop initiative. Thirteen teachers participated in individual interviews and 77 teachers completed an online survey. Transcribed interviews and the open-ended survey question were analyzed using an inductive, iterative process of coding according to hallmarks of TPACK and CSP.Findings>This study reveals that while technology could be a powerful tool in fostering an equitable classroom environment, fully implementing equitable approaches in 1:1 laptop schools would require educators to develop knowledge and skills to integrate TPACK and CSP in their classroom.Originality/value>Our study indicates that obstacles to providing equitable education for CLD learners in 1:1 classrooms are not issues of technology access but issues of disparities perpetuated by missed opportunities to fully engage CSP as a means of challenging the status quo. Tackling this in 1:1 environments would require educators to develop knowledge and skills to engage culturally sustaining TPACK in their classroom.

Structural Vetting of Academic Proposals

Increasing postgraduate enrollments gives rise to many proposal documents required for vetting and human supervision. Reading and comprehension of large documents is a boring and somewhat difficult task for humans which can be delegated to machines. One way of assisting supervisors with this routine screening of academic proposals is to provide an artificial intelligent (AI) tool for initial structural vetting— checking if sections of proposals are complete and appear where they are supposed to. Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in AI for document vetting has been applied in legal and financial domains. However, in academia, available tools only perform tasks such as checking proposals for plagiarism, spellings or grammar, word editing, and not structural vetting of academic proposal. This paper presents a tool named Auto-proofreader that attempts to perform the task of structural document review of proposals on behalf of the human expert using formal techniques and document structure understanding hinged on context free grammar rules (CFGs). The experimental results on a corpus of 20 academic proposals using confusion matrix technique for evaluation gives an overall of 87% accuracy. This tool is expected to be a useful aid in postgraduate supervision for vetting students’ academic proposals.

Students’ experiences with and perceptions of distance learning through learner-generated comics

Learner-generated comics are powerful communication tools that allow students to convey complex thoughts and emotions through both verbal and visual modes. In this study, comics were used to explore students’ experiences with and perceptions of distance learning (DL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Female university students were chosen as a purposive sample to discover deep sociocultural meanings in society that could be invisible to men. This study analyzed thirty-two comics created by students using a suggested new analytical framework that draws on systemic functional linguistics theory. The findings were categorized into three dimensions: ideational (who, where, and what), interpersonal (relationships and emotions), and textual (main themes of the comics’ stories). Quantitative content analysis was applied to analyze ideational and interpersonal dimensions (frequency), and qualitative analysis was applied to analyze textual dimensions (themes). Thematic analyses were categorized into three themes: challenges, advantages, and disadvantages. The findings were interpreted through a cultural lens in a style that presents the chief subjects that should be carefully considered in future scenarios of digital education. Several implications and future studies are suggested, especially about cultural issues in education, the quality of DL, and addressing the challenges and disadvantages associated with it. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Research on Technology in Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Online assessment of narrative macrostructure in adult Irish-English multilinguals.

Background: Online assessment of narrative production and comprehension became an important component of language assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to establish quantitative measures of narrative macrostructure in the production and comprehension of adult Irish-English bilinguals in an online assessment. Methods: A total of 30 Irish-English bilingual adults participated in an online assessment of oral narrative production and comprehension. Narratives were elicited using LITMUS-MAIN for Irish and English. Story-tell elicitation method was used for all stories. Twenty participants produced Baby Birds and Baby Goats story pairs while 10 participants produced Cat and Dog story pairs. Quantitative measures of story structure, comprehension score, and the overall number of Internal State Terms (ISTs) in production and comprehension were compared across the story pairs, languages, and the output type (production vs. comprehension). Results: A general linear model indicated no differences in either story structure or story comprehension scores across languages for both sets of stories. Combined analysis for all participants and stories indicated no difference in the story structure scores or comprehension scores across the languages or the story pairs. While the overall number of ISTs was the same across languages, a higher number of ISTs was observed in comprehension relative to production in both languages for Cat and Dog story pair only, but not for Baby birds and Baby goats' stories. The major benefit of using online assessment was the accessibility of participants. The major drawback was the inability to control the environment and the quality of the internet connection. Conclusion and implications: While online assessment increased the availability of participants, which is a significant factor in rural Ireland characterized by low population density and the high percentage of Irish speakers, the availability of stable internet connection limited the applicability of online assessment. Measures of narrative macrostructure were stable across the languages and the story pairs. This is important because of high variability in exposure to Irish, frequent code-switching, and a high number of morphosyntactic errors due to rapid language change that characterizes Irish-English bilinguals. Identifying reliable measures of language performance for Irish-English adult speakers is an important step toward establishing developmental norms for Irish-English bilinguals.

Disease-Ligand Identification Based on Flexible Neural Tree.

In order to screen the disease-related compounds of a traditional Chinese medicine prescription in network pharmacology research accurately, a new virtual screening method based on flexible neural tree (FNT) model, hybrid evolutionary method and negative sample selection algorithm is proposed. A novel hybrid evolutionary algorithm based on the Grammar-guided genetic programming and salp swarm algorithm is proposed to infer the optimal FNT. According to hypertension, diabetes, and Corona Virus Disease 2019, disease-related compounds are collected from the up-to-date literatures. The unrelated compounds are chosen by negative sample selection algorithm. ECFP6, MACCS, Macrocycle, and RDKit are utilized to numerically characterize the chemical structure of each compound collected, respectively. The experiment results show that our proposed method performs better than classical classifiers [Support Vector Machine (SVM), random forest (RF), AdaBoost, decision tree (DT), Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT), KNN, logic regression (LR), and Naive Bayes (NB)], up-to-date classifier (gcForest), and deep learning method (forgeNet) in terms of AUC, ROC, TPR, FPR, Precision, Specificity, and F1. MACCS method is suitable for the maximum number of classifiers. All methods perform poorly with ECFP6 molecular descriptor.

The impact of virtual tools on EFL learners' performance in Grammar at the times of COVID 19 Pandemic

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of virtual tools on EFL learners' performance in grammar courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This experimental study compared a group of students who took a grammar course remotely via the Blackboard platform during the COVID-19 pandemic to a control group who took the same course in person prior to the pandemic. Each group of participants (n = 30) was given the same test. The grades of the two groups were then analysed using the SPSS programme. The results demonstrate that the experimental group test grades were higher than those of the control group grades. suggesting that teaching grammar remotely has a positive influence on EFL learners' performance, as compared to face-to-face instruction, which has been proven to have a lesser impact. As a result, the researchers would promote a hybrid of virtual and face-to-face teaching. As a result, the researchers would promote a hybrid of virtual and face-to-face teaching. More studies on the causes of lower grades in face-to-face classes, as well as suggestions for strategies to improve learners' performance in all aspects of the English language, not just grammar, are requested. Furthermore, each country has its own educational policy, so different results may arise in different contexts. Educators and policymakers may use this study as a reference for the effectiveness of virtual vs. face-to-face instruction, opening the doors for future research on similar topics within the same theme Practitioner Notes 1. Virtual tools, such as Blackboard, may be effective in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. 2. One of the most important aspects of a successful virtual English class is the use of interactive Blackboard features such as break out rooms, chat boxes, cameras, and microphones. 3. A variety of interaction patterns such as pair work, group work, whole class discussion, and individualization may help students remain motivated until the end of the class. 4. Teaching at home may enable teachers to create stronger rapport with their students by introducing them to his/her private world and family. 5. Teachers and students may benefit from a research that analyses 'a new normal' and a different classroom environment. created by the pandemic.

A Blended Learning Model: Results of Young Learners

The paper presents results of research that examined the learning of young learners within the blended learning model. The model included face-to-face lessons and homework done online distance. In total, 123 learners from the Slovak Republic (aged 10–12) participated in the research. In homework, the learners practised and fixed the learning content that was explained in face-to-face lessons. They worked either with printed materials or used an e-application. Two tools were exploited within the research: (1) didactic tests, that is, pretest that detected learners entrance knowledge, and posttest, that monitored their final knowledge;(2) a semi-structured interview in the focus group that proportionally included 16 learners. Five hypotheses were set to discover whether the learners achieved the expected learning objectives and outcomes. The results discovered that within the blended learning model learners achieved the required knowledge, irrespective they worked with printed materials or with e-application. Moreover, all test results were in favour of the e-app. Furthermore, in the semi-structured interview in the focus group, the learners reflected their experience with the blended learning model in four areas: hardware and software equipment, digital skills, autonomy in learning, and home environment. The results aspire to be applied in blended learning in the new normal era of post-pandemic education. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.