LATIC
What is LATIC?
LATIC is a Linguistic Analyser for Text and Item Characteristics. The software enables the analysis and counting of various linguistic text and item characteristics in English, German, French and Spanish. For this, the Natural Language Processing tool Stanford CoreNLP (Manning et al., 2014) is used.
By means of LATIC, texts and items can be examined in terms of their linguistic structure and difficulty at different levels. At the word level, for example, parts of speech can be annotated and counted (e.g., prepositions, pronouns). At the sentence level, sentence length can be calculated in various ways. On the text level, LATIC’s functions include annotating the whole text or item and calculating readability indices (e.g. LIX), among others.
Who can use LATIC?
LATIC can be meaningfully used by both researchers and practitioners, such as educators.
In practice, it may be relevant to tailor written texts and tasks to specific target groups. To achieve this, it can be helpful to examine linguistic features, such as average sentence length, in order to simplify texts and tasks linguistically if necessary. In this regard, readability indices can also be particularly beneficial as they assess texts and tasks in terms of their difficulty.
In research, LATIC can be used, for instance, for studies that require coding linguistic features in texts and items. This can help answer questions about the extent to which linguistic features are related to the performance of school children. Here you can find some examples of how researchers have used LATIC in their investigations:
- Heidari, N., Cruz Neri, N., Schwippert, K., & Sprenger, S. (2024). Metacognition and lexical complexity in sketch mapping – A secondary analysis of think-aloud protocols and sketch maps. European Journal of Geography, 15(3), 177–189. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.n.hei.15.3.177.189
- Jansen, T., Höft, L., Bahr, L., Fleckenstein, J., Möller, J., Köller, O., & Meyer, J. (2024). Comparing generative AI and expert feedback to students’ writing: Insights from student teachers. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 71(2), 80–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.2378/peu2024.art08d
- Tiffin-Richards, S. P. (2024). The effect of word transpositions on grammaticality judgements in first and second language sentence reading. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77(1), 204-216. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231161433
- Cruz Neri, N., & Retelsdorf, J. (2022). Do students with specific learning disorders with impairments in reading benefit from linguistic simplification of test items in science? Exceptional Children, 89(1), 23-41. http://doi.org/10.1177/00144029221094049
How can I use LATIC?
LATIC can be used on Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems. You may download the LATIC software for free. Further information about LATIC and its features can be found in the latest dokumentation.
