System and method for teaching second language writing skills using the linguistic discourse model
View Patent ↗A technique for teaching second language writing skills provides for analyzing a user text. The user text is analyzed and compared to a writing culture. The differences between the user text and the writing culture are identified. The identified differences are compared to linguistic flaw information previously compiled from other second language texts written by first language writers in the writing culture. Identified differences that are found in the linguistic flaw information store are used to retrieve contextually relevant corrections and comments for addressing the identified flaws based on the first and second language and writing culture.
1. A method for teaching second-language writing skills using a user-written second-language document, comprising:
selecting a first language of a user, a second language of instruction for the user and a writing culture;
analyzing the second-language document using a theory of discourse analysis;
identifying at least one flaw in the second-language document based on the writing culture; and
displaying contextually relevant remedial information including a graphically structural representation of discourse for at least one of the at least one identified flaws.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second-language document is analyzed to identify differences with the writing culture.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein flaws in the second-language document are identified based on the writing culture and previously identified flaws for documents written in the second language and on the selected writing culture when written by first-language writers.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein flaws in the second-language document are identified based on differences with the selected writing culture and similarity to at least one previously-identified flaw for documents written in the second language and on the selected writing culture when written by first-language writers.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the remedial information is a structural representation of discourse for at least one of the first-language writing culture, the second-language writing culture and the at least one previously-identified flaw.
6. A system useable to teach second-language writing skills using a second-language user document, comprising:
an input device;
an analyzing circuit routine or manager;
a linguistic flaw memory;
a writing culture memory; and
a controller that selects a first language, a second language and a writing culture from the input device, analyzes the second-language user document according to a theory of discourse, identifies at least one flaw in the second-language document and displays contextually relevant remedial information including a graphically structural representation of discourse for at least one of the at least one identified flaw.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the controller identifies differences between the second-language document and the writing culture.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the controller identifies flaws in the second language document based on the writing culture and previously-identified flaws for second-language writing documents written by first-language writers.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the controller identifies flaws in the second-language document based on differences with the writing culture and based on similarity to at least one previously-identified flaws for documents written in the second language and on the selected writing culture when written by first-language writers.
10. A method for analyzing linguistic flaws in second language documents comprising:
analyzing a group of documents written by first language speakers in a second language for a writing culture;
identifying flaw trends based on the first language, the second language and the writing culture;
generating a structural representation of discourse for each identified flaw trend;
creating flaw revision information for each identified flaw trend;
saving the structural representation of discourse and the flaw revision information for each identified flaw trend in a flaw information store.
11. A method for analyzing linguistic flaws in a document translated from a first language to a second language:
selecting the writing culture of the translated document;
analyzing the translated document using a theory of discourse analysis;
identifying at least one flaw in the translated document based on the writing culture; and
displaying contextually relevant remedial information including a graphically structural representation of discourse for at least one of the at least one identified flaws.