Linguistically aware information retrieval: Providing input enrichment for second language learners

Abstract

How can second language teachers retrieve texts that are rich in terms of the grammatical constructions to be taught, but also address the content of interest to the learners? We developed an Information Retrieval system that identifies the 87 grammatical constructions spelled out in the official English language curriculum of schools in Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and reranks the search results based on the selected (de)prioritization of grammatical forms. In combination with a visualization of the characteristics of the search results, the approach effectively supports teachers in prioritizing those texts that provide the targeted forms. The approach facilitates systematic input enrichment for language learners as a complement to the established notion of input enhancement: while input enrichment aims at richly representing the selected forms and categories in a text, input enhancement targets their presentation to make them more salient and support noticing.