Matthias Butterweck


2020

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Constructing Multimodal Language Learner Texts Using LARA: Experiences with Nine Languages
Elham Akhlaghi | Branislav Bédi | Fatih Bektaş | Harald Berthelsen | Matthias Butterweck | Cathy Chua | Catia Cucchiarin | Gülşen Eryiğit | Johanna Gerlach | Hanieh Habibi | Neasa Ní Chiaráin | Manny Rayner | Steinþór Steingrímsson | Helmer Strik
Proceedings of the Twelfth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference

LARA (Learning and Reading Assistant) is an open source platform whose purpose is to support easy conversion of plain texts into multimodal online versions suitable for use by language learners. This involves semi-automatically tagging the text, adding other annotations and recording audio. The platform is suitable for creating texts in multiple languages via crowdsourcing techniques that can be used for teaching a language via reading and listening. We present results of initial experiments by various collaborators where we measure the time required to produce substantial LARA resources, up to the length of short novels, in Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Swedish and Turkish. The first results are encouraging. Although there are some startup problems, the conversion task seems manageable for the languages tested so far. The resulting enriched texts are posted online and are freely available in both source and compiled form.