Language Learning from a Computational Perspective

Language learning is a fundamental aspect of human intelligence. Our project takes an interdisciplinary approach to this topic, integrating methodologies and theories from linguistics and psychology with modern computational modelling tools from Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computational linguistics. We conduct empirical studies of language production (writing) as well as language comprehension (reading), with particular focus on the role of a first language in second language acquisition and prepossessing. We harness insights from such studies to develop NLP applications for learner language.