A presentation on how Pashto of Afghanistan can be a learning resource for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses, especially for courses in machine learning .
1. The Pashto
Language as a
Learning Tool
for STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics with Pashto as a Resouce
2. In part of Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is a
region that is general at an economic disadvantage
to neighboring communities.
Women and girls are often at an even greater
disadvantage in terms of access to science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
courses.
These communities speak Pashto, which can
create a language barrier for educational
resources.
3. The proposed solution is a program where the
language Pashto is a learning resource.
The mother of a child instructs the child on the
proper use of their language.
The skillset for ensuring the precision of the
local language can be a resource for learning
STEM topics.
This is accomplished by means of making
analogies to the Pashto grammar to STEM topics.
4. There are two key parts of Pashto:
Circumposition and Split-Ergativity
Circumposition
In a variety of languages, phrases such as "from
ages ago" is often used for a variety of phrases. In
English, it is more rarity.
5. CIRCUMPOSITION (CONTINUED)
In machine learning applications
such Simulated Annealing
and Quantum Annealing, this use of
prepositions before and after a word
help explain the way the systems work.
6. CIRCUMPOSITION (CONTINUED)
Although beyond the scope of this
presentation, it would be able to
describe action of find minimums by
going from a point to another point...
An action going
from one point onward
(as best as can described in English).
7. The Split-Ergativity
The glass breaks, the ship sinks...
These are examples of ergativity in English.
The objects have almost a character of their own in the examples given here.
In Pashto, the language is rather unique in that is has what is called
split-ergativity
...some sentences based on theme or "theta role" are ergative and some are not.
8. This can help with a course in Machine Learning:
DATA PREPARATION: Loading the Data
In order to begin a machine learning exercise, data needs to be
loaded.
"Loading data" is an example of a sentence that will translate
into Pashto as an ergative sentence.
Pashto-speaking women in a machine learning course can have
the confidence to now that their language has a unique grammar
for the computer science exercise.
9. VOLITION
Not all datasets are of events where people decided to take an action.
Datasets could be of unexpected events such as weather.
However, datasets on actions taken help to forecast what effect from actions against global warming
may have for the future and can be learning tool for predictive analytics.
Volition or actions willfully taken by people is also another condition where the Pashto ergative is used.
10. THE DEEP NEURAL NETWORK
The ice melts as the rice cooks on the oven.
What is seen is that the subjects in the sentence carry on an action. In the deep neural network (DNN),
a layer passes information from a previous layer and passes it onto the next layer.
If someone uses a language that uses ergativity, this process can be explained in the language.
The above ties into circumposition as well.
11. All in all, the use of the Pashto language can give
confidence and assist in teaching machine learning
concepts that might otherwise be overwhelming.
At the same time, it encourages the use of the native
language and may encourage communities to support
a solution such as this one.
12. This has been a brief presentation for
a proposed online course.
Thank you for watching the video.
