Language Learning from Positive Evidence - Article Example

Running Head: Critical Appraisal Critical Appraisal Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 21st March, 2013. Introduction This paper critically analyzes the article Hsu, A.S, Chater, N. &Vitanyi, P (2013). Language Learning from Positive Evidence, Reconsidered: A Simplicity-Based Approach, Cognitive Science 5 (2013) 35–55 with the aim of establishing the trustworthiness, value and relevance of the results of the research presented in the article. Through the critical appraisal of this article one is able to establish whether the evidence gathered can be used to further research in the area of linguistic education. Secondly, valid research produces findings that can be practically applied to any field to make the lives of people better. Although research is important in advancing the knowledge in a particular field not all research produces valid results and thus may lead to people drawing false conclusions. Critical appraisal enables a person to establish the reliability and validity of any primary research that is published. Through the critical research of the article we will be able to establish: Whether the way the research was undertaken makes its findings reliable. Whether the resulting findings make sense. What is the implication of the results in the linguistic learning process. The report starts by introducing the article to be reviewed then provides a brief summary of the article being reviewed. In the second section, the report critically analyzes the article that on various criteria’s. The critical analysis of the article makes use of sources in the field of research to evaluate the quality of this research article. Finally, the report presents a general overview of the article. The research concludes that the research article presents doubtful research findings that would be of little implication in the field of language learning or that can help point the direction for future research. Summary of Article The author commences the paper by wondering how children come to learn a language in a mixed culture environment. Language is enhanced by cognitive machinery in the child brain that enables them to have a natural ability to acquire a specific language (Hsu, Chater and Vitanyi, 2013). The brain is adopted and is shaped to that particular language. Research indicates that learning a language is influenced by the poverty of stimulus in the brain meaning language learning is akin to the development of an organ. This thereby means that for a child to properly acquire a language, the simplicity principles have to be applied where hypothetical situations have to be applied in order to encode data. In a language perspective, the type of data here is sentience and the hypothesis is grammar in the preferred linguistic (Horning, 1969). The learner is able to capture patterns in the linguistic that enables them to interpret the language in a simple manner. This can also be taken as an example in a computer where there is coding and encoding of programs. Language encoding of grammar helps in the interpretation of the language. According to Hsu, Chater and Vitanyi (2013), Simplicity learning helps a learner to avoid too much general grammar which is used when learning through positive evidence. This is because this approach provides simple explanations that are measured in terms of length. Taking the example of hi? Or bye which may be easier to interpret for a starting learner. Though it largely depends on the programming language used, the length plays a great role in encoding a language. Li & Vitanyi (1997) describes two universal languages that are used in programming where the length of the shortest program is attributed by a fixed constant. This can be assumed that provided the language being used to code is universal, no specific account should be used by different learners. Using the prediction theorem, learning by simplicity converges to probabilities that predict linguistic material where the learner finds it easy to learn language structures. With sufficient evidence that is positive in learning materials, it can be deduced that there is sufficiency in inputs of the language which helps in coding of data in a simple way. This is due to reduced restrictions which make the learner have the ability to predict grammatical errors (Hsu, Chater and Vitanyi, 2013). The theorem is suitable for an ideal learner as it is through the positive evidence that a learner is able to capture language structures. The authors note that logical problem has been the main cause of having overgeneralization of grammar in most linguistic languages. This is because it has been a situation of a learner hearing finite sentence. This becomes difficult for the learner to get the right meaning of a sentence as compared to a situation where there are infinite sentences .Using the overgeneralization concept, there is simplicity in language learning which helps in the elimination of overly general grammars (Hsu, Chater and Vitanyi, 2013). By the use of probability distribution and the principle of simplicity, it has been seen that grammatical judgement can be used to avoid both over and under generalization. Supported by linguistic theories, grammatical judgements have played a big role in coming up with linguistic analysis and help in sentence structures and syllables (Christiansen and Chater, 2007). A practicable method that has worked in assessing a learners ability to learn is called scaling down simplicity where general principles are used with models that have previously worked and through them, analytical analysis is done where different variances are shown using different presentation of linguistics (Christiansen and Chater, 2007). A code length is given where there is application of grammar rules. In the evaluation of the learner, a positive evidence of learning is gotten when there is a balance of accurate grammar which largely depends on the corpus. In learning a language, the corpus of a linguistic experience plays a role in determination of good grammatical sentences and it is also through this that one can gauge the level of positive evidence in a sentence structure. Critical Appraisal Hsu, Chater and Vitanyi (2013), have chosen a very appropriate title for the research report. The Language Learning from Positive Evidence, Reconsidered: A Simplicity-Based Approach immediately gives any reader a good idea of what the article is concerned with. Every section of the article is congruent with the title as it is either discussing language learning or the simplicity approach used to undertake the research (Thody, 2006). Despite the congruence of the article with the content of the article, the abstract not offer a clear summary of the research as it does not outline the stages of the research or outline the findings of the research. The abstract touches vaguely on the simplistic approach of the research. However, information on the number of participants who were involved in the research is conspicuously missing from the abstract. The abstract indicates a review of evidence in published research as the main method of data collection. The findings of the research are also not clear from the abstract. The article does not contain an identifiable introduction section. However, there is a brief introduction in the section that follows the abstract (Hood, 2004). In the introduction on how children learn language by being exposed to the language. Therefore, the paper lacks a discussion on the significance of the study, making the research significantly weaker. Although the paper does not identify a particular section as literature review, most of the text of the article is obtained from a review of literature. The literature review in the paper makes use of both old and current sources of literature on the learning of languages. Christiansen & Chater (2007) and Chater & Vit anyi (2002) are the most current sources of knowledge used in this case study. The literature review has a very high number of old sources, dating as far back as 1956. Mach (1959), Angluin,(1980; 1988) and Wharton (1974) are among the older references used in the literature review leaving any reviewer with a question why the authors used older literature (Hood, 2004). Older literature in this research is mostly applied as there is scant recent research on the issues addressed by the works of Angluin (1980, 1988) and Wharton (1974). Furthermore, the concepts of learnability of language remain the same despite the passage of time (Porte, 2010). Thus, any update of the research would be redundant and would most likely produce insignificantly different results. The older research also enables the author to trace the development of the learn ability of language from positive evidence. Updated sources of literature would not be able to provide equally valuable information on the development of the research. Another major weakness of the research that can be noted is the failure to clearly state the purpose of the study (Porte, 2010). Every major research report must include a concise and clearly stated statement of the purpose. The importance of this statement is to present to the reader a simplified statement of the goals of the research project. It guides the reader through the technical terms and data used in the research. If the readers do not understand the significance of any research they will not be interested in reading it. Hsu, Chater and Vitanyi (2013) lack this essential part and therefore the readers will be most likely get confused by the technical language used in the research. The article also fails to clearly outline the aims and hypothesis of the research. However, the readers can deduce that the aim of the research is to show language can be learned through positive evidence. The research reported in this paper uses the method of the literature review to analyze several sources of primary data on the learnability of language. It can be classified as phenomenology as it seeks to study the phenomenon of learning language (Hood, 2004). One of the major strengths of this research is the effort it makes to explain the methods of the research. The simplicity principle is extensively discussed as the base for the practical method used to research into the learning of the language (Saffran, 2003). From a description of the principle to it’s linking with experimental data in section 7 the article sets out its method in a logical manner that the reader is able to understand. The article does not also avail information on the sampling, the setting and recruitment of the subjects for the research. Information on whether the research was ethically approved is also unavailable although the research raises a number of ethical concerns (Hood, 2004). As the study involves small children in the study should answer the question of who the researchers should seek approval from in order to interview the children. The research findings are not empirical in nature as the paper has not collected it own data and therefore the research findings do not flow from primary data gathered from the research. Instead, the research presents its findings from the consistent findings of several research sources it reviews. The research also shows gaping gaps as it does not give the implications of the study in the field of language learning (Hood, 2004). Also conspicuously lacking from the research is a statement of the limitations of the research. Such limitations as the influence of other factors on the learnability of a language can be noted to possible limitations to the present study (Davies, 2007). Overall comments/conclusions about the research article Overall the research article provides valuable knowledge about the phenomenon of learning language. It contains terminologies that are too technical and the fact that the research does not provide a clear statement of purpose makes the technical wording vaguer. The article fails to provide a clear statement of the research aims and hypothesis. The general lack of information on many aspects of the research means the validity and reliability of the research is in doubt. Which paradigm is used in this research study? The paradigm of this research is interpretive paradigm. Research in this paradigm seeks to understand the phenomenon of learning language from the perspective of the authors (Davies, 2007). Does this study use a theoretical or conceptual framework? If yes, is it clearly stated? Does the framework fit the research question? Does the framework serve the intended purposes? The research uses a theoretical framework as it uses theories already developed by other researchers to present the research (Davies, 2007). Is this study qualitative or quantitative? Is this an appropriate choice? The research is qualitative as it does not involve the comparison of data but rather draws from research where generalization has already taken place (Davies, 2007). Nature of the Research The research is explanatory in nature as it seeks to enable readers to understand empirical evidence on the learning of language through positive evidence (Davies, 2007). References Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2007). Generalization and connectionist language learning. Mind & Language, 9, 273–287. Davies, B. D. (2007). Doing a Successful Research Project: Using Qualitative or Quantitative Methods. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Horning, J. J. (1969). A study of grammatical inference. Technical Report CS 139. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University. Hsu, A.S, Chater, N. &Vitanyi, P (2013). Language Learning From Positive Evidence, Reconsidered: A Simplicity-Based Approach, Cognitive Science 5 (2013) 35–55 Li, M., & Vit_anyi, P. (1997). An introduction to Kolmogorov complexity and its applications (2nd ed.). London: Springer. Thody, A. (2006). Writing and presenting research. New York: Sage Publications Limited. Hood, S. (2004). Appraising research: Taking a stance in academic writing (Doctoral dissertation, University of Technology, Sydney). Porte, G. K. (2010). Appraising research in second language learning: A practical approach to critical analysis of quantitative research (Vol. 28). London: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Saffran, J. R. (2003). Statistical language learning mechanisms and constraints. Current directions in psychological science, 12(4), 110-114. Read More