Language Technology and Teaching Lithuanian as a Second Language

Abstract

A few decades ago, when the development of the information society started, the need has arisen to apply a modern language technology in the second language pedagogy. It should be noted that the digital language resources and language analysis tools have not entered yet into the process of the Lithuanian as the second language learning and teaching, however, other European countries can boast of a better integration of language technology (corpora, corpus tools and corpus-based materials) into language learning programmes. This article discusses the pedagogical application features of corpus and accentuator (http://donelaitis.vdu.lt) for Lithuanian as the second language learning and teaching. The first case study focuses on the use of the accentuator. The second case study focuses on a good practice in development, use and promotion of the corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian Language for language learning and teaching, with a focus on both technological and pedagogical innovation and on the direct use of this corpus in the classroom. Analysis of basic Lithuanian units showed that the corpora could effectively complement the traditional foreign language learning and teaching. However, attention is drawn to the fact that the contemporary Lithuanian technology still does not provide accurate data, so in some cases, the language tools should be used with caution.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.24.7067