An Open and Social Spaced Repetition System for Language Learning

In the last decades big improvements have been done in the field of computer aided learning, based on improvements done in computer science and computer systems. Although the field has been always a bit lagged, without using the latest solutions, it has constantly gone forward taking profit of the innovations as they show up. As long as the train of the computer science does not stop (and it won’t at least in the near future) the systems that take profit of those improvements will not either, because we humans will always need to study; Sometimes for pleasure and some other many times out of need. Not all the attempts in the field of computer aided learning have been in the same direction. Most of them address one or some few of the problems that show while studying and don’t take into account solutions proposed for some other problems. The reasons for this can be varied. Sometimes the solutions simply are not compatible. Some other times, because the project is an investigation it’s interesting to isolate the problem. And, in commercial products, licenses and patents often prevent the new projects to use previous work. The world moved forward and this is an attempt to use some of the options offered by technology, mixing some old ideas with new ones.

EUSMT: incorporating linguistic information to SMT for a morphologically rich language. Its use in SMT-RBMT-EBMT hybridation

148 p.: graf.

El cocinero cómico: maestro de los fogones y de la palabra

Presentado en la Jornada de Teatro Griego "Teatro, poesía y pensamiento en la Atenas del siglo V a. C.", Valencia, 19-20 de noviembre de 2007.

Media translation and lesser-used languages: implications of subtitles for Irish language broadcastind

Eguíluz, Federico; Merino, Raquel; Olsen, Vickie; Pajares, Eterio; Santamaría, José Miguel (eds.)

The Economics of "Why is it so hard to save a threatened Language?"

We study the language choice behavior of bilingual speakers in modern societies, such as the Basque Country, Ireland andWales. These countries have two o cial languages:A, spoken by all, and B, spoken by a minority. We think of the bilinguals in those societies as a population playing repeatedly a Bayesian game in which, they must choose strategically the language, A or B, that might be used in the interaction. The choice has to be made under imperfect information about the linguistic type of the interlocutors. We take the Nash equilibrium of the language use game as a model for real life language choice behavior. It is shown that the predictions made with this model t very well the data about the actual use, contained in the censuses, of Basque, Irish and Welsh languages. Then the question posed by Fishman (2001),which appears in the title, is answered as follows: it is hard, mainly, because bilingual speakers have reached an equilibrium which is evolutionary stable. This means that to solve fast and in a re ex manner their frequent language coordination problem, bilinguals have developed linguistic conventions based chie y on the strategy 'Use the same language as your interlocutor', which weakens the actual use of B.1

Bilingual Lexicography:Relevance of Corpora. The Example of German-Basque as Language Pair

Presentation for the 5th International Conference on Corpus Linguistics (CILC 2013), V Congreso Internacional de Lingüistica de Corpus.

Language distance and non-native syntactic processing: Evidence from event-related potentials

[EN] In this study, we explore native and non-native syntactic processing, paying special attention to the language distance factor. To this end, we compared how native speakers of Basque and highly proficient non-native speakers of Basque who are native speakers of Spanish process certain core aspects of Basque syntax. Our results suggest that differences in native versus non-native language processing strongly correlate with language distance: native/non-native processing differences obtain if a syntactic parameter of the non-native grammar diverges from the native grammar. Otherwise, non-native processing will approximate native processing as levels of proficiency increase. We focus on three syntactic parameters: (i) the head parameter, (ii) argument alignment (ergative/accusative), and (iii) verb agreement. The first two diverge in Basque and Spanish, but the third is the same in both languages. Our results reveal that native and non-native processing differs for the diverging syntactic parameters, but not for the convergent one. These findings indicate that language distance has a significant impact in non-native language processing.

More than one language in the brain

Boeckx C., M.C. Horno & J.L. Mendívil (Eds.)

ENEKuS – a key model for managing the transformation of the normalisation of the Basque language in the workplace

The aim of this study is to develop a reference model for intervention in the language processes applied to the transformation of language normalisation within organisations of a socio-economic nature. It is based on the case study of an experience carried out over10 years within a trades’ union confederation, and has pursued a strategy of a basically qualitative research carried out in three stages: 1) undertaking field work through application of action-research methodology, 2) reconstructing experiences following processes of systematisation and conceptualisation of the systematised data, applying methodologies for the Systematisation of Experiences and Grounded Theory, and 3) formulating a model for intervention, applying the Systems Approach methodology. Finally, we identified nine key ideas that make up the conceptual framework for the ENEKuS reference model, which is structured in nine ‘action points', each having an operating sub-model applicable in practice.

Textos antiguos vascos en Internet

Bilbao, Gidor y Ricardo Gómez, «Textos antiguos vascos en Internet», en Humanidades Digitales: desafíos, logros y perspectivas de futuro, Sagrario López Poza y Nieves Pena Sueiro (editoras), Janus [en línea], Anexo 1 (2014), 111-121, publicado el 11/04/2014, consultado el 12/04/2014. URL: .

Bilingual Dictionary Drafting. The Example of German-Basque, a Medium-density Language Pair

Edited by Andrea Abel, Chiara Vettori, Natascia Ralli.

Experimental Economics Meets Language Choice

Roughly one half of World's languages are in danger of extinction. The endangered languages, spoken by minorities, typically compete with powerful languages such as En- glish or Spanish. Consequently, the speakers of minority languages have to consider that not everybody can speak their language, converting the language choice into strategic,coordination-like situation. We show experimentally that the displacement of minority languages may be partially explained by the imperfect information about the linguistic type of the partner, leading to frequent failure to coordinate on the minority language even between two speakers who can and prefer to use it. The extent of miscoordination correlates with how minoritarian a language is and with the real-life linguistic condition of subjects: the more endangered a language the harder it is to coordinate on its use, and people on whom the language survival relies the most acquire behavioral strategies that lower its use. Our game-theoretical treatment of the issue provides a new perspective for linguistic policies.

Irakaslearen ikuspegi psikopedagogikoaren eragina idazketa prozesuaren hastapenetan: Avellaneda, Etorkizuna eta Eguzkibegi ikastetxeetako kasuen azterketa

EUSKARA LABURPENA:Haurrek hizkuntza idatzia nola barneratzen duten eta irakasteko metodorik egokiena zein izan daitekeen inguruko eztabaida egon izan da aspalditik. Gai horri buruz, haurrek idazketaz egiten duten jabekuntza prozesuan irakasleen ikuspegi psikopedagogikoek zer nolako eragina duten haurrengan ikertu dugu. Ikerketaren alde kualitatibo eta kuantitatiboei erreparatuz, metodologia berritzaileen aplikazio ezberdinak egiten dituzten Bizkaiko Avellaneda, Etorkizuna eta Eguzkibegi ikastetxeetan ikerketa sinkroniko bat eraman dugu aurrera. Lanerako lagina HHko etapako 5 urteko gelan dauden 55 ikaslek eta 6 irakaslek osatu dute. Emaitzek adierazten dutenez, ikuspegi tradizionalean heziak dauden haurrek idazkeraren alde figuratiboekiko ziurtasun handiagoa erakusten dute eta eredu eraikitzailean hezitakoek, berriz, komunikazio gaitasun handiagoa dute. Eredu bakoitzak bere indar-guneak eta ahulguneak izateak zaildu egiten du eredu baten egokitasuna nabarmentzea.