Abstract:

In our poster presentation, we demonstrate the portal for LARA [https://www.unige.ch/callector/text-content], our set of tools to help teachers develop content and a teaching environment for learning L2 by reading.

The online portal has two aspects:
1) For content development, it permits non-technological teachers to create content for ‘L2 by reading’ with a minimum of fuss.
2) For reading, it keeps a record of all that the user has read and provides data in the form of a personalized concordance.

Teachers will use this functionality to develop content, have students use the content and then access the data collected at a class or individual student level.

The portal gives the option of working with the LARA package online or independently from the command line. It is envisaged that most teachers will take advantage of the ease of use of the online portal.

LARA Portal is a user-friendly interface that interacts with users via two easy-to-use web pages and guides them toward creating LARA resources. The first step is uploading the tagged text by the user. The portal has a zero step which makes the tagging process easier for the content creator using TreeTagger package. Based on the tagged text, the portal creates all resources needed by LARA for the next step, which are simple interfaces for words and segments translation, and recording tasks for words and segments inside LDT, another tool developed in The University of Geneva. These tasks are accessible inside the LDT portal for the assigned user. As the LARA content can contain embedded images or audio files, the portal provides an interface for the user to upload all needed multimedia. When the translation and recording phases are done, the portal leads the user to create LARA format pages by clicking a button. The final result is deployed in our server, or any other server claimed by the user and will be accessible for the students.

Features include:
1) All data related to students’ activities are stored anonymously, apart from saving their records by user name.
2) Each reader’s use is tracked so that at any point they have available a complete concordance of their activity. A word is clicked on the left text side of the screen, examples of the word are shown on the right so that the reader sees examples in the important context of what he/she has already read. The reader will also be able to look at the L1 meaning if it’s set in the configuration, but that will be last resort, not first.
3) Teachers can add or remove special features to the content while creating it so that they can customize the output according to the level of students.
4) A simple recording tool permits good quality native audio. TTS (synthesized speech) is also an option.
5) Tools have been developed to make it as easy as possible for the teacher. A lot of the process happens behind the scenes and all are hidden from the user’s perspective.
6) Standard features such as looking up a dictionary, adding grammar explanations and connection to the external resources in the language are available.
7) Everything can be made public or private to suit the classroom.
8) Data are kept so that the teacher keeps track of the student.
9) Last but not least, LARA contents can be created outside the portal, and be imported into the resources via the portal.

References:
[1] M. Rayner, H. Habibi, M. Butterweck. 2019. Constructing LARA Content. https://www.issco.unige.ch/en/research/projects/callector/LARADoc/build/html/index.html

Keywords:

CALL, reading, open source, crowdsourcing.