Subject: Re: [lojban] LogFest 2000 starts!!!

From: Jim Carter <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 22:53:34 -0700 (PDT)

On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Bob LeChevalier-Logical Language Group wrote:
> Mark has already mentioned one new idea used by the Klingon group that I 
> will pose for discussion by the list while we contemplate it here - the 
> idea of setting up skills tests for 3 or 4 or however many levels of skill 
> in the language, and awarding recognition of achievement of a certain level 
> of skill by passing the appropriate test.

Good idea. Having specified, graded skill levels (6th dan :-) would be
motivational. However, assessing levels would be hard. We'd want to
assess the person's ability to *use* the language, which to my mind means
the predominant forms of test question would be translations (from what
natlang, just guess) and understanding and responding coherently to
questions in Lojban. The results would be rather free-form. Somehow I
don't see a lot of human volunteers to be on the scoring panel, and it's
going to take a pretty hairy artificial intelligence to do the job.

There's also the problem that we want people to achieve high levels, but at
present *very* few are at the desired level. In Japanese martial arts the
founder of the school is automatically at 10th dan, but we can't get away
with that.

Another point that Cyril Slobin recently brought up: there's a difference
between skill at reading and writing the language, vs. realtime verbal
conversation. We want to encourage both, but in the net environment the
verbal side needs a lot more encouragement. And is particularly hard to
score by machine across the net.

James F. Carter Voice 310 825 2897	FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet; 6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555
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