enetCollect: Combining Language Learning with Crowdsourcing Techniques

1. A new Cost Action of interest to lexicographersEuropean Network for Combining Language Learning with Crowdsourcing Techniques (enetCollect) Lionel Nicolas & Verena Lyding Institute for Specialised Communication and Multilingualism European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen Cost Enel WG3 Meeting, 25/02/2017, Budapest, Hungary

2. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working Groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

3. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working Groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

4. Introduction Challenge • The enetCollect Action addresses the major European challenge of fostering the language skills of all citizens regardless of their diversified social, educational, and linguistic backgrounds. • To this end: • it is concerned with enhancing the production of language learning material • it kick-starts a Research and Innovation trend that combines Language Learning with recent and successful Crowdsourcing approaches.

5. Introduction Relevance and timeliness • Europe is confronted with intensified migration flows motivated by educational, professional, economic and geopolitical circumstances (e.g. Erasmus programs, market globalization, and the current Syrian conflicts). • => Enabling people to properly communicate is a decisive factor. • Target groups are spread over Europe but the production of language learning material is usually handled at country-level. • => To serve all small and scattered target groups, forces should be joined. • The ambition to devise teaching material for the overwhelming number of combinations between languages taught and target groups found in Europe requires a large-scale and inclusive course of action. • => EnetCollect sets into motion a R&I trend fostering multiple initiatives.

6. Introduction Relevance and timeliness • It is a propitious time to obtain support for crowdsourcing initiatives of different sizes since many regional, national, and international funding agencies have acknowledged the potential of Crowdsourcing. • => EnetCollect creates a solid footing on which other initiatives can rely. • According to the report on “Europeans and their Languages” nowadays 21% of the Europeans aged over 14 are actively learning a language. • => For everylanguage a massive barely-exploitedcrowdsourcingpotentialexists. • Crowdsourcing is omnipresent in language-related R&I fields but efforts are scattered, uncoordinated, and make very limited use of language learning. • => The time is ideal for obtaining support from numerous R&I stakeholders.

7. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working Groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

8. Objectives Research Coordination Objectives Objective 1: => Creating a theoretical framework for achieving a shared understanding. Objective 2: => Gathering evaluation data for complementing the theoretical framework. Objective 3: => Disseminating the knowledge created and the achievements obtained.

9. Objectives Capacity-building Objectives • Objective 4: • Creating a balanced interdisciplinary core community of active stakeholders. • Objective 5: • Establishing communication channels. • Objective 6: • Fostering new funded initiatives. • Objective 7: • => Creating an association that takes over after enetCollect ends.

10. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working Groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

11. Approach and expected impacts Approach • EnetCollect distinguishes crowdsourcing approaches as either: • Explicit, i.e. the crowd intentionally participates (WG1), • Implicit, i.e. the crowd is not necessarily aware of its participation (WG2). • EnetCollect will also research factors and conditions related to user-orientation, usability, technology and practical application (WG3, WG4 and WG5). • EnetCollect has devised sophisticated Outreach, Dissemination and Exploitation Plans with several mechanisms (e.g. Collective Workforce). • EnetCollect follows an Open Access, Open Data and Open Science logic.

12. Approach and expected impacts Expected impacts • In the short term, • an interdisciplinary core community with practical experience in collaborating, • a R&I trend with a theoretical framework, prototypical data and a shared agenda. • In the short-to-long term, • enhanced creation of language learning material and the enhanced production of language-related datasets. • Because of its unique multilingual nature, the European area will be the main beneficiary of such impacts! • Since a massive crowdsourcing potential is available for all language, less-resourced languages will be the ones benefitting the most!

13. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

14. Stakeholders and Working Groups Stakeholder groups • The relevantstakeholders belong to 4 profiles: • content-creation experts (ranging from teachers to researchers), • content-usage experts (teachers for most), • (3) crowdsourcing experts (researchers for most), • (4) Learning/Content Management Systemdevelopers (LMS/CMS).

15. Stakeholders and Working Groups Working Groups [WG1] R&I on Explicit Crowdsourcing for Language Learning material production Stakeholders: content-creation experts and crowdsourcing experts. [WG2] R&I on Implicit Crowdsourcing for Language Learning materials production Stakeholders: content-usage experts and crowdsourcing experts [WG3] User-oriented design strategies for a competitive solution Stakeholders: content-creation experts and content-usage experts [WG4] Technology-oriented specifications for a flexible and robust solution Stakeholders: CMS developers and crowdsourcing experts [WG5] Application-oriented specifications for an ethical, legal and profitable solution Stakeholders: all stakeholder groups

16. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

17. Relevance for lexicographers Relevance for lexicographers WG1 gives room to research the most effective ways to collaboratively devise lexicographic content as language learning content and assess its effectiveness. WG2 gives room to research ways to generate exercise content from language resources (e.g. lexica) and to crowdsource manual validation of automatically generated new entries (e.g. neologisms).

18. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

19. Some interesting facts Some interesting facts • The network of proposers included • 68 members from 34countries • the 4 targeted stakeholder groups, • a wide variety of languages and linguistic backgrounds (26 languages belonging to 8 different language families), • a large spectrum of private and public institutions. • The network of proposers exhibited an appropriate balancing in • gender (44% Males, 56% Females), • seniority (39 “Early Career Investigators” out of 68 proposers), • nationalities (34 countries), • inclusiveness balancing (54.8% of “Inclusiveness Target Countries”). The current Management Committee already includes 27 countries and around hundred persons are ready to join the Action as soon as possible !

20. Summary Summary • Introduction • Objectives • Approach and expected impacts • Stakeholder and Working groups • Relevance for lexicographers • Some interesting facts • Next steps

21. Next steps Next steps • (1) Kick-off meeting in Brussels on the 7th of March • (2) Kick-starting the organization of the WGs • (3) First annual Action-wide meeting within 6 months

22. Many thanks for your attention. Any questions ?