LINGUISTICS.comLINGUISTICS.com: Evaluating Language Resources on the Internet

Adams BodomoDepartment of LinguisticsThe University of Hong Kongabbodomo@hku.hk 14 December 2001

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Introduction

The Internet A massive surge of the internet and allied Information

and Communication Technologies (ICTs) a powerful tool for research analysis, dissemination,

and documentation

Aim To examine how the Internet can be used as a useful

source of information for learning and doing research about language and linguistics

BASIC TERMSBASIC TERMSHTML

Homepage

HTTPHypertext

URLInternet

WWW

Webpage

Website

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Internet ‘a worldwide network of interconnected networks, connected together

using recognized standards to enable electronic communication and the exchange of information’(Cooke 1999:155)

HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol Hypertext

Contains cross-references or links to different parts of the same page or to different pages

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language WWW: World Wide Web URL: Uniform (or Universal) Resource Locator Website: a collection of linked HTML Webpage: an individual HTML page Homepage: the opening of any site on the WWW

LANGUAGE LANGUAGE WEBSITESWEBSITES

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What is a language website? A collection of linked html pages available via

the World Wide Web for the purpose of providing information about some aspects of language and linguistics

Authors: Individuals or groups of linguists or other language

experts and enthusiasts

Example: the Linguist List http://www.linguistlist.org

TYPES OF TYPES OF LANGUAGE WEBSITESLANGUAGE WEBSITES

E-dictionaries

E-journalsE-books

Bibliographies

Online Language Courses

E-libraries

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Language and Linguistic Association websites

Linguist List (http://www.linguistlist.org) Linguistic Society of Hong Kong

(http://www.hku.hk/linguist/lshk) Linguistic Society of America (LSA) (http://www.

lsadc.org) Linguistics Association of the Great Britain

(LAGB) (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/aboutlag.htm)

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University and Institutional Departmental websites

HKU Department of Linguistics (http://www.hku.hk/linguist)

Stanford University Department of Linguistics (http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu)

NTNU Department of Linguistics (http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/index_en.php )

University of Ghana Department of Linguistics(http://www.ug.edu.gh/pages/lingdept.htm)

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Theoretical Linguistics websites

LFG (http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/) HPSG (http://hpsg.stanford.edu) Minimalism (

http://www.minimalism.linguistics.arizona.edu/) OT-LFG

(http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/ot-lfg/ot-lfg.html)

GB (http://www.jtauber.com/linguistics/synthinar/)

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Dictionary and Glossary websites (e-dictionaries and e-glossaries)

SIL Linguistic Glossary (http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/)

Oxford English Dictionary (OED Oniline) (http://www.oed.com)

Cobuild (http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/) Merriam Webster

(http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm) Web of Online Dictionaries

(http://www.yourdictionary.com)

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Individual or Language Group (Grammar) websites

Chinese (http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/China/linguist.html)

Japanese (http://www.twics.com/~kenbutle/learning_japanese.htm)

French (http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/ir/info/french.html)

English (http://www.chompchomp.com/)

Swahili (http://www.yale.edu/swahili/)

Dagaare (http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/_ab.DagaareProficient.html)

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Online Language and Linguistic Course websites

WebCT course websites (http://ecourse.hku.hk:8900)

Let’s Speak Dagaare (http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/_ab.DagaareProficient.html)

Online phonology course (http://www.stir.ac.uk/epd/celt/staff/higdox/stephen/phono/phonolg.htm)

Internet Grammar of English (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/home.htm)

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Bibliographical Databases Bibliography of Dagaare Studies (http://www.

hku.hk/linguist/staff_ab.DagaareBibliog.html) Lexical-Functional Grammar

(http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/bibliography.html)

Chinese studies (http://deall.ohio-state.edu/chan.9/g-bib.htm#c-bib)

(others: see Linguist list)

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E-linguistic resource websites: e-librariese-libraries The World-Wide Web Virtual Library:

Linguistics (http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/www-vl.html)

Linguistics bookshelf (http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/Linguist.html) Lancaster University Library

(http://libweb.lancs.ac.uk/g47.htm) UCLA Library Collections and Internet

Resources in General Linguistics (http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/url/colls/ling)

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E-linguistic resource websites: e-books / e-encyclopediae-books / e-encyclopedia

MSN Encarta (http://encarta.msn.com/)

Encyclopedia.com (http://www.encyclopedia.com)

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E-linguistic resource websites: e-journalse-journals

Language and linguistic science Electronic Journals (http://www.york.ac.uk/services/library/ejournal/linguist.htm)

Penn Library: Electronic Journals (http://www.library.upenn.edu/webbin5/resources/ejspublic5.cgi?homepage=http://www.library.upenn.edu/&community=Linguistics)

UM Library: Electronic Journals & Newspapers (http://www.lib.umich.edu/ejournals/lists/lingui.html)

UCL Library: Linguistics Internet resources(http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Resources/Arts/phonling.htm)

Journal of Dagaare Studies(http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff_ab.DagaareJournal.html)

DESIGNING DESIGNING LANGUAGE WEBSITESLANGUAGE WEBSITES                                                                                                                                                                        

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Designing a language websiteDesign of website:

The creation of a website and the subsequent arrangement and rearrangement of its contents

A good design of a language website depends on how adept we are at manipulating the technology involved and how artistically sophisticated we are

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Tools for creating language websitesHypertextHTML editorsWYSIWYG-editorsNetscape CommunicatorDreamweaverMicrosoft FrontpageWebCT

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Creating a webpage by using Microsoft Frontpage editorWhat do you need?

The editor: Microsoft Frontpage The software for uploading your pages

(e.g. CuteFTP, WsFTP) A server for storing your pages (e.g.

YahooGeocities) Pedagogical tools

Web-based course tool e.g. WebCT

HOW TO EVALUATE A HOW TO EVALUATE A WEBSITEWEBSITE

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Searching for websites Evaluating a website begins with locating it on

the internet Search engines

Excite (http://www.excite.com) Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.com) Google (meta-search engine) (http://www.google

.com) WebCrawler (meta-search engine) (http://www

.webcrawler.com)

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Criteria for Evaluating a Criteria for Evaluating a Language WebsiteLanguage Website (Cooke 1999, Alexander and Tate 1999)

AuthorityAccuracyObjectivityCurrencyCoverage

AUTHORITY•Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page? •Is there a link to a page describing the purpose of the sponsoring organization? •Is there a way of verifying the legitimacy of the page's sponsor? That is, is there a phone number or postal address to contact for more information? (Simply an email address is not enough). •Is it clear who wrote the material and are the author's qualifications for writing on this topic clearly stated? •If the material is protected by copyright, is the name of the copyright holder given?

ACCURACY•Are the sources for any factual information clearly listed? •Is the information free from grammatical, spelling, and other typographical errors? (These kinds of errors not only indicate a lack of quality control, but can actually produce inaccuracies in information). •Is it clear who has the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of the content of the material? •If there are charts and/or graphs containing statistical data, are the charts and/or graphs clearly labeled and easy to read?

OBJECTIVITY•Is the information provided as a public service? •Is the information free of advertising? •If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly differentiated from the informational content?

CURRENCY•Are there dates on the page to indicate •When the page was written? •When the page was first placed on the Web? •When the page was last revised? •Are there any other indications that the material is kept current? •If material is presented in graphs and/or charts, is it clearly stated when the data was gathered? •If the information is published in different editions, is it clearly labeled what edition the page is from? •If the material is from a work which is out of copyright (as is often the case with a dictionary or thesaurus) has there been an effort to update the material to make it more current?

COVERAGE (and INTENDED AUDIENCE)•Is there an indication that the page has been completed, and is not still under construction? •If the page is still under construction, is the expected date of completion indicated?•If there is a print equivalent to the Web page, is there a clear indication of whether the entire work is available on the Web or only parts of it? •Is the intended audience for the material clear?

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Further Criteria (Bodomo 2001)

Evidence of Patronage How many ‘customers’ patronise a website

Evidence of Collaboration / Corroboration Whether the author(s) collaborate with other

linguists and language experts in that area of language and linguistics

Multilingual Retrievability Related to online dictionaries/glossaries

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An Optimal Model for Language Website Evaluation- - e.g. Online English language learninge.g. Online English language learning

 

 Key to abbreviations:ACC: AccuracyATH: AuthorityOBJ: ObjectivityCUR: Currency

 COV: CoveragePAT: Evidence of PatronageCOL: Evidence of CollaborationMR: Multilingual Retrievability

CriterionCandidate website

ACCACC ATHATH OBJOBJ CURCUR COVCOV PATPAT COLCOL MRMR Ranked Ranked OutputOutput

Internet Grammar of English

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/

2

English4ushttp://www.english4us.com/

1

English for Internethttp://www.study.com/

4

BBC Englishhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/

worldservice/learningenglish/

3

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Summary and Conclusion

The web is an important source of data But the web can also contain a lot of

inaccuracies and unethical material Hence the need for quality control and

consequently evaluation In this paper we have provided information

about language webpage creation before discussing criteria for Language webpage evaluation, ending up with proposals towards a model of language website evaluation.

References Alexander, Jan. E. and Marsha Ann Tate. 1996. Checklist for an Informational

Web Page. USA: Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University. URL: http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/inform.htm

Alexander, Jan. E. and Marsha Ann Tate. 1999. Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.

Bodomo, A. B. 2001. How to design and evaluation quality language websites. Ms, University of Hong Kong.

Cooke, Alison. 1999. Authoritative Guide to Evaluating Information on the Internet. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Grassian, Esther. 1997. Thinking Critically about Discipline-based World Wide Web Resources. USA: UCLA College Library. Available URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/discipline.htm

Kapoun, Jim. 1998. Teaching Undergrads Web Evluation: A Guide for Library Instruction. URL: http://www.ala.org/acrl/undwebev.html

Landsberger, Joe. 2000 Evaluating Website Content. URL: http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/webtruth/evaluate.htm

Skillman & Kirby Libraries. 2000. Evaluating Websites for Academic Use. URL: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~library/guides/evaluating.html

Wolinsky, Art. 1999. Locating and Evaluating Information on the Internet. USA: Enslow Publishers, Inc. URL: http://www.enslow.com/InternetLib.htm

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Referencing Internet Resources

Many different accepted formats Information to be included for citing web resources

Name(s) of author(s) Date/year of publication Title of the website/webpage Date of retrieval/access URL i.e. the address of the document

Useful resources: Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American

Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html) MLA Style: How do I document sources from the World Wide Web in my

works-cited list? (http://www.mla.org/www_mla_org/style/style_main.asp?level=2&mode=page&page=1&link=sty72800121438&section=sty51800124510 )

Evaluating and Citing Web Resources for Research (HKUST) (http://library.ust.hk/serv/lin/evaluate-cite.html)