Monday, November 29, 2004

Social Language Learning 

Social Language Learning
Author: Luc Steels Format: PDF Year Published: 2004
"This paper explores a theory of learning which emphasises social interaction and cultural context. The theory contrasts with individualistic theories of learning, where the learner is either seen as passively receiving large sets of examples and performing some sort of induction to arrive at abstract concepts and skills, or as a genetically pre-programmed organism where the role of the environment is restricted to setting some parameters. I focus the discussion on the question how meaning is constructed, in other words how people go from information to knowp ofledge. I am particularly interested how grounded meaning arises, i.e. meaning
anchored in sensori-motor experiences. This is the question raised earlier (in Chapter 1) in the discussion on how information turns into knowledge. I am also interested in how shared meanings can be developed through communication and negotiation. The meanings used by a speaker cannot directly be observed by the listener, so how can a listener who does not know the meaning of words ever learn them?

The paper explores social and cultural learning using a novel methodology, namely the construction of artificial systems, i.e. robots, that implement certain theoretical assumptions and hence allow us to examine with great precision how certain learning mechanisms work and what they can achieve or not achieve. Some implications for education are presented towards the end."

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