Approaching Language Transfer Through Text Classification—Explorations in the Detection-based Approach

Language transfer refers to how speaking a particular first language directly or indirectly affects someone's use of a second language. Linguists in Belgium, the US, and Denmark contribute to the current interest in the phenomenon by looking at essays written in English by second-language English speakers with various first languages. They focus on being able to detect someone's first language by the word forms, word meanings, and word sequences they use in the written English, whether these are errors or not. There is no index. Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Scott Jarvis (Ph.D., Indiana University) holds the title of Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Ohio University, where his main research interests include crosslinguistic influence, cognitive linguistics, and research methods related to the investigation of language proficiency and the measurement of lexical diversity. His work in these areas has appeared in several authored and edited books, numerous book chapters and journal papers in the fields of second language acquisition and multilingualism. Professor Jarvis is also Associate Executive Director for the journal Language Learning.

Scott A. Crossley is an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University. His work involves the application of natural language processing theories and approaches for investigating second language acquisition, text readability, and writing proficiency. His current research interests include lexical proficiency, writing quality, and text coherence and processing.