Teaching Computational Linguistics: Challenges and Target Audiences

Depending on the standpoint, Computational Linguistics can be defined as a subfield of Computer Science dedicated to the processing of specific data – natural language data – or as a subfield of Linguistics concerned with formal modelling of linguistic knowledge for computation purposes. These two perspectives reflect the two main paths to this interdisciplinary field, but also the challenges posed to its teaching. Namely, focusing on, and mastering, logic reasoning and formal models, for Language and Humanities students, and acknowledging and dealing with irregularity, variation and idiosyncrasy, for Computer Science, Engineering and Technology students. This paper discusses the major obstacles and handicaps that seem to stand in the way of teaching/learning Computational Linguistics, an area with high visibility, appeal and applicability potential, aiming at raising attention to some simple but usually overseen aspects that may improve teaching/learning results.