scholarly journals A benchmark of Spanish language datasets for computationally driven research

2021 ◽  
pp. 016555152110605
Author(s):  
Gustavo Candela ◽  
María-Dolores Sáez ◽  
Pilar Escobar ◽  
Manuel Marco-Such

In the domain of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) institutions, creative and innovative tools and methodologies for content delivery and user engagement have recently gained international attention. New methods have been proposed to publish digital collections as datasets amenable to computational use. Standardised benchmarks can be useful to broaden the scope of machine-actionable collections and to promote cultural and linguistic diversity. In this article, we propose a methodology to select datasets for computationally driven research applied to Spanish text corpora. This work seeks to encourage Spanish and Latin American institutions to publish machine-actionable collections based on best practices and avoiding common mistakes.

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Huguet

AbstractThe massive arrival in Spain of students of immigrant origin has visibly altered the traditional configuration of schools, where ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity is becoming increasingly manifest. This situation is worth being mentioned insofar as it affects all the different autonomous communities in the country, even more clearly Catalonia, where the educational system is organized under the parameters of bilingual education. One of the theoretical constructs supporting this educational model is the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, developed by Jim Cummins at the beginning of the 1980s. According to the author, whenever the instruction in a given language (Lx) takes place under certain conditions, competence acquired in this language can be transferred onto another (Ly). Bearing this theoretical construct in mind, our study focuses on a sample of 237 Spanish-speaking subjects (123 native and 114 immigrant students) who completed a series of parallel tests evaluating their skills in Catalan and Spanish. Drawing on the data analyzed we can conclude that the Hypothesis accounts for the results in both native and immigrant students with the same L1.


2020 ◽  
pp. 016555152095024
Author(s):  
Gustavo Candela ◽  
María Dolores Sáez ◽  
MPilar Escobar Esteban ◽  
Manuel Marco-Such

For some decades now, Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) institutions have published and provided access to information resources in digital format. Recently, innovative approaches have appeared such as the concept of Labs within GLAM institutions that facilitates the adoption of innovative and creative tools for content delivery and user engagement. In addition, new methods have been proposed to address the publication of digital collections as data sets amenable to computational use. In this article, we propose a methodology to create machine actionable collections following a set of steps. This methodology is then applied to several use cases based on data sets published by relevant GLAM institutions. It intends to encourage institutions to adopt the publication of data sets that support computationally driven research as a core activity.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110383
Author(s):  
Ana Elena Builes-Vélez ◽  
Lina María Suárez Velásquez ◽  
Leonardo Correa Velásquez ◽  
Diana Carolina Gutiérrez Aristizábal

In recent years, urban design development has been an important topic in Latin American cities such as Medellín due to the transformation of their urban spaces, along with the new methods used to evaluate the social, morphological, and, in some cases, economic impacts that have been brought about by the urban development projects. When inquiring about the development process and impact of urban studies, and the inhabitants’ relation to a transformed space, it is important to establish the context within which images, drawings, and photographs are analyzed, using graphical approaches triangulated with other research methods to define comparative criteria. In this article, we reflect on the expanded use of various research tools for the analysis of urban transformation, taking with reference the experience lived by a group of researchers in two Latin American cities. From this, it is intended to understand how they work and how they allow us to understand the urban transformation of these cities, the data obtained, and the vision of the researchers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-153
Author(s):  
Tone Holt Nielsen

AbstractA growing number of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) adopt English as their official corporate language. Research on English used as a business lingua franca (BELF) in such contexts shows how its use is negotiated, context dependent, and influenced by cultural and linguistic diversity. Multinational teams (MNTs) are legion within MNCs, and need to find efficient ways of communicating across their diversity, in particular in demanding and complex interactions such as meetings. This case study uses non-participant observation and interviews to study how one MNT has developed shared BELF communication practices for meetings. It examines the BELF communication practices in both the MNC context and at the team level. The analysis of the data shows that team members were highly aware of the challenges posed by cultural and linguistic diversity, and how they developed their local communication practices by processes of developing common ground, building trust, and good leadership.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-282
Author(s):  
Roxana-Maria Nistor-Gâz ◽  
Delia Pop-Flanja

"In a world challenged by cultural diversity, this article aims to look at the great diversity of languages and cultures that coexist within the European Union. Building on the story of the Tower of Babel that explains, from a religious point of view, the cultural and linguistic diversity existing in the European Union, the authors tried to contextualize EU’s motto of “unity in diversity”, interpreted as an ideal involving a lot of effort and sometimes even many conflicts, but one that we should all fight for and strive to maintain. Keywords: linguistic diversity, ethnicity, nation, minority, majority, communication, unity in diversity"


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Elvira Molina-Fernández ◽  
Fernando Barragán Medero ◽  
David Pérez-Jorge ◽  
Francisco Oda-Ángel

This article describes an action research programme designed to resolve classroom problems, in preschool and primary education, related to the use of Spanish as a hegemonic language in a bilingual context in which students are from the Amazigh culture. The Alehop programme aims to motivate students to learn and the results demonstrate that this classroom innovation is possible. Moreover, the use of everyday life situations and typical problems helps and favours enquiry-based learning. Intercultural school life without violence is shown to be possible. Strategies include giving voice to the students, addressing relevant social issues, and creating an environment of trust and collaboration. An evaluation of the results validates a methodology that encourages cultural and linguistic diversity, and points to a need to respect the autonomy, freedom and human rights of students in politically and economically disadvantaged conditions. Empowerment is linked to the autonomy of students and teachers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 146-155
Author(s):  
A. V. Alekseyenko ◽  
Y. Aphinyanaphongs ◽  
S. Brown ◽  
D. Fenyo ◽  
L. Fu ◽  
...  

SummaryTo survey major developments and trends in the field of Bioinformatics in 2010 and their relationships to those of previous years, with emphasis on long-term trends, on best practices, on quality of the science of informatics, and on quality of science as a function of informatics.A critical review of articles in the literature of Bioinformatics over the past year.Our main results suggest that Bioinformatics continues to be a major catalyst for progress in Biology and Translational Medicine, as a consequence of new assaying technologies, most predominantly Next Generation Sequencing, which are changing the landscape of modern biological and medical research. These assays critically depend on bioinformatics and have led to quick growth of corresponding informatics methods development. Clinical-grade molecular signatures are proliferating at a rapid rate. However, a highly publicized incident at a prominent university showed that deficiencies in informatics methods can lead to catastrophic consequences for important scientific projects. Developing evidence-driven protocols and best practices is greatly needed given how serious are the implications for the quality of translational and basic science.Several exciting new methods have appeared over the past 18 months, that open new roads for progress in bioinformatics methods and their impact in biomedicine. At the same time, the range of open problems of great significance is extensive, ensuring the vitality of the field for many years to come.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilelmini Sosoni

EU texts are produced by way of multilingual negotiation in a supranational multicultural discourse community, where there is no linguistically neutral ground and where the internationalisation of concepts and ideas is a sine qua non. As a result, they are idiosyncratic texts, reflecting specific textual features. Their translation in the current 23 official EU languages is equally idiosyncratic and challenging, to say the least, especially since it is shaped under the EU’s overwhelming cultural and linguistic diversity, the constraints of its policy of multilingualism, and the subsequent policy of linguistic equality which states that all languages are equal, or ‘equally authentic’ (Wagner, Bech, Martinez 2002, 7), and that translations are not really translations but language versions. In other words, in the framework of EU translation, the terms source text (ST) and target text (TT) cease to exist, while the prima facie illusory notion of ‘equivalence’ seems to resurface—though altered in nature—and dominate the translation practice. It thus goes without saying that in the case of EU texts and their translation a tailor-made theoretical framework is required where many classic concepts of Translation Studies (TS), such as ST, TT and equivalence need to be re-evaluated and redefined, and at the same time functionalist approaches and the postmodernist concepts of intertextuality, hybridity and in-betweenness need to come to the fore. The proposed translation theory for EU texts flaunts the feature inherent in their production, it is—just like them—hybrid.


Author(s):  
Johanna Carlie ◽  
Birgitta Sahlén ◽  
Jens Nirme ◽  
Ketty Andersson ◽  
Mary Rudner ◽  
...  

Purpose This study reports on the development of an auditory passage comprehension task for Swedish primary school children of cultural and linguistic diversity. It also reports on their performance on the task in quiet and in noise. Method Eighty-eight children aged 7–9 years and showing normal hearing participated. The children were divided into three groups based on presumed language exposure: 13 children were categorized as Swedish-speaking monolinguals, 19 children were categorized as simultaneous bilinguals, and 56 children were categorized as sequential bilinguals. No significant difference in working memory capacity was seen between the three language groups. Two passages and associated multiple-choice questions were developed. During development of the passage comprehension task, steps were taken to reduce the impact of culture-specific prior experience and knowledge on performance. This was achieved by using the story grammar principles, universal topics and plots, and simple language that avoided complex or unusual grammatical structures and words. Results The findings indicate no significant difference between the two passages and similar response distributions. Passage comprehension performance was significantly better in quiet than in noise, regardless of language exposure group. The monolinguals outperformed both simultaneous and sequential bilinguals in both listening conditions. Conclusions Because the task was designed to minimize the effect of cultural knowledge on auditory passage comprehension, this suggests that compared with monolinguals, both simultaneous and sequential bilinguals have a disadvantage in auditory passage comprehension. As expected, the findings demonstrate that noise has a negative effect on auditory passage comprehension. The magnitude of this effect does not relate to language exposure. The developed auditory passage comprehension task seems suitable for assessing auditory passage comprehension in primary school children of linguistic and cultural diversity.


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