Learning Synchronous Grammar Patterns for Assisted Writing for Second Language Learners

AbstractIn this paper, we present a method for extracting Synchronous Grammar Patterns (SGPs) from a given parallel corpus in order to assisted second language learners in writing. A grammar pattern consists of a head word (verb, noun, or adjective) and its syntactic environment. A synchronous grammar pattern describes a grammar pattern in the target language (e.g., English) and its counterpart in an other language (e.g., Mandarin), serving the purpose of native language support. Our method involves identifying the grammar patterns in the target language, aligning these patterns with the target language patterns, and finally filtering valid SGPs. The extracted SGPs with examples are then used to develop a prototype writing assistant system, called WriteAhead/bilingual. Evaluation on a set of randomly selected SGPs shows that our system provides satisfactory writing suggestions for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners.