Understanding the Dynamics of Second Language Writing through Keystroke Logging and Complexity Contours

Elma Kerz, Fabio Pruneri, Daniel Wiechmann, Yu Qiao, Marcus Ströbel


Abstract
The purpose of this paper is twofold: [1] to introduce, to our knowledge, the largest available resource of keystroke logging (KSL) data generated by Etherpad (https://etherpad.org/), an open-source, web-based collaborative real-time editor, that captures the dynamics of second language (L2) production and [2] to relate the behavioral data from KSL to indices of syntactic and lexical complexity of the texts produced obtained from a tool that implements a sliding window approach capturing the progression of complexity within a text. We present the procedures and measures developed to analyze a sample of 14,913,009 keystrokes in 3,454 texts produced by 512 university students (upper-intermediate to advanced L2 learners of English) (95,354 sentences and 18,32,027 words) aiming to achieve a better alignment between keystroke-logging measures and underlying cognitive processes, on the one hand, and L2 writing performance measures, on the other hand. The resource introduced in this paper is a reflection of increasing recognition of the urgent need to obtain ecologically valid data that have the potential to transform our current understanding of mechanisms underlying the development of literacy (reading and writing) skills.
Anthology ID:
2020.lrec-1.23
Volume:
Proceedings of the Twelfth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference
Month:
May
Year:
2020
Address:
Marseille, France
Editors:
Nicoletta Calzolari, Frédéric Béchet, Philippe Blache, Khalid Choukri, Christopher Cieri, Thierry Declerck, Sara Goggi, Hitoshi Isahara, Bente Maegaard, Joseph Mariani, Hélène Mazo, Asuncion Moreno, Jan Odijk, Stelios Piperidis
Venue:
LREC
SIG:
Publisher:
European Language Resources Association
Note:
Pages:
182–188
Language:
English
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2020.lrec-1.23
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Elma Kerz, Fabio Pruneri, Daniel Wiechmann, Yu Qiao, and Marcus Ströbel. 2020. Understanding the Dynamics of Second Language Writing through Keystroke Logging and Complexity Contours. In Proceedings of the Twelfth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, pages 182–188, Marseille, France. European Language Resources Association.
Cite (Informal):
Understanding the Dynamics of Second Language Writing through Keystroke Logging and Complexity Contours (Kerz et al., LREC 2020)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2020.lrec-1.23.pdf