{"id":994,"date":"2026-07-15T11:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/?page_id=994"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:07:08","slug":"mining-moocs-to-assist-second-language-learners","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/mining-moocs-to-assist-second-language-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining MOOCs to assist second language learners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stadium.open.ac.uk\/stadia\/stadia\/speakerimages\/3407.jpg\" alt=\"Prof Ian Witten\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prof Ian Witten &#8211; University of Waikato<br><small>This event took place on Thursday 28 September 2017 at 11:00<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>MOOCs claim to offer access to affordable, quality education to&nbsp;anyone around the world. The language of instruction is invariably&nbsp;English, a second language for many students. MOOCs include extensive text&nbsp;in the style of academic language that characterizes the domain of study \u2013&nbsp;law, business, science, technology, whatever \u2013 and constitute an ideal&nbsp;environment to improve writing skills. This talk will introduce, and&nbsp;demonstrate, the FLAX language learning environment, which uses external<br>resources (e.g. collocations) derived from massive text corpora to help&nbsp;students notice academic language features and adopt them in their own&nbsp;writing. FLAX has been used in conjunction with Law MOOCs from Harvard and&nbsp;University London on edX and Coursera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stadium.open.ac.uk\/stadia\/preview.php?s=29&amp;whichevent=2905\">Watch the webcast replay &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/past-seminars\/\">View all past events<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-custom-css wp-custom-css-ac9b5317\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"213\" height=\"246\" src=\"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/07\/image-2.png\" alt=\"Maven of the Month\" class=\"wp-image-537\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-4fc3f8e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/maven-of-the-month\/\">Maven of the Month<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are also inviting top experts in AI and Knowledge Technologies to discuss major socio-technological topics with an audience that comprises both members of the Knowledge Media Institute, as well as the wider staff at The Open University. Differently from our seminar series, these events follow a Q&amp;A format.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prof Ian Witten &#8211; University of WaikatoThis event took place on Thursday 28 September 2017 at 11:00 MOOCs claim to offer access to affordable, quality education to&nbsp;anyone around the world. The language of instruction is invariably&nbsp;English, a second language for many students. MOOCs include extensive text&nbsp;in the style of academic language that characterizes the domain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"unity_related_person":[],"unity_sdg":[],"unity_research_theme":[],"unity_strategic_priority":[],"unity_enabler":[],"unity_general_category":[],"unity_stem_unit":[],"unity_related_project":[],"unity_related_archived_project":[],"unity_related_event":[],"class_list":["post-994","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/994\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"unity_related_person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_person?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_sdg","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_sdg?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_research_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_research_theme?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_strategic_priority","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_strategic_priority?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_enabler","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_enabler?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_general_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_general_category?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_stem_unit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_stem_unit?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_project?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_archived_project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_archived_project?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_event?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}