Error Typology and Remediation Strategies for Requirements Written in English by Non-Native Speakers

Error Typology and Remediation Strategies for Requirements Written in English by Non-Native Speakers Marie Garnier1, Patrick Saint-Dizier2 1CAS, Université Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, 5 allées A. Machado, 31058 Toulouse France 2IRIT-CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne 31062 Toulouse France E-mail: mgarnier@univ-tlse2.fr, stdizier@irit.fr Abstract In most international industries, English is the main language of communication for technical documents. These documents are designed to be as unambiguous as possible for their users. For international industries based in non-English speaking countries, the professionals in charge of writing requirements are often non-native speakers of English, who rarely receive adequate training in the use of English for this task. As a result, requirements can contain a relatively large diversity of lexical and grammatical errors, which are not eliminated by the use of guidelines from controlled languages. This article investigates the distribution of errors in a corpus of requirements written in English by native speakers of French. Errors are defined on the basis of grammaticality and acceptability principles, and classified using comparable categories. Results show a high proportion of errors in the Noun Phrase, notably through modifier stacking, and errors consistent with simplification strategies. Comparisons with similar corpora in other genres reveal the specificity of the distribution of errors in requirements. This research also introduces possible applied uses, in the form of strategies for the automatic detection of errors, and in-person training provided by certification boards in requirements authoring. Keywords: requirements authoring, error analysis, error correction 1. Motivation In most international industries, English is the main language of communication for technical documents. Product specifications, business rules or requirements form a specific genre in technical documentation (all instances of this genre will hereafter be called 'requirements' for the sake of simplicity). These documents are designed to be easy to read and as efficient and unambiguous as possible for their users and readers. They must leave no space for personal interpretation. In the case of international industries based in non-English speaking countries, the professionals in charge of writing requirements are very often non-native users of English, and these professionals rarely receive adequate training in the use of English for this task. As a result, requirements can contain a relatively large diversity of lexical and grammatical errors. One of the standard ways of simplifying the task of writing requirements and harmonizing results is the use of a chosen controlled natural language for any particular business or industry. However, resorting to the use of controlled languages only offers a limited solution to the linguistic problems encountered by non-native English users: having been designed for native or near-native users of the language, controlled languages do not address the proper use of English grammar and lexicon, nor do they issue warnings about the loss of intelligibility that may occur as a consequence of lexical and grammatical errors (even though they do issue such warnings on other aspects linked to intelligibility). As a result of this situation, requirements may include errors that decrease readability, increase the risk of ambiguity and misinterpretation, and possibly lead …

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