WACL4 AT COLING’2025

WITH FOCUS ON ARABIC DIALECTS

https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/wacl4/ -------------------------

The workshop will be held online on January 20th, 2025 in conjunction with the 31st edition of COLING in 2025 in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

CALL FOR PAPERS

THE WORKSHOP TOPICS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

* Development and Utilisation of Arabic Dialectal Corpora * Advancements in Natural Language Processing Techniques for Arabic Dialects * Applications and Challenges of Large Language Models in Understanding and Generating Arabic Dialects * Morphological and Syntactical Challenges in Arabic Dialects * Dialect Identification and Classification * Speech Recognition and Synthesis for Arabic Dialects * Machine Translation involving Arabic Dialects * Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining in Arabic Dialects * Named Entity Recognition and Information Extraction for Arabic Dialects * Development of Open Access Resources for Arabic Dialects * Text Processing and Transliteration Challenges for Arabic Dialects * Cultural and Sociolinguistic Considerations in NLP Applications for Arabic Dialects * Resources and Tools for Computational Analysis of Arabic Dialects * Applications of Arabic Dialects NLP in Real-World Scenarios

Summary of the Call:

We welcome submissions of papers centred around Arabic Dialects NLP and resources, focusing on supporting and advancing language technologies tailored to the diverse range of Arabic dialects. We encourage submissions that span a spectrum from theoretical investigations to practical applications, aiming to address the unique challenges, solutions, and insights that Arabic dialects introduce to the field of NLP.

Submissions should adhere to the COLING 2025 standards. Authors are strongly encouraged to review and follow the COLING 2025 submission guidelines and author kit, available at https://coling2025.org/.

If authors are describing dialectal variations, we request that they include relevant linguistic details and sociolinguistic contexts to enrich the understanding of the presented work.

Submissions may be of two types:

* Long papers - up to eight (8) pages excluding references, presenting substantial, original, completed, and unpublished work. * Short papers - up to four (4) pages excluding references, describing a small focused contribution, negative results, or system demonstrations, etc.

Important dates:

* 1st Call for Papers Announcement: 13 August 2024 * 2nd Call for Papers Announcement: 01 October 2024 * Paper Submission Deadline: 8 November 2024 * Notification of Paper Acceptance: 6 December 2024 * Camera-ready Paper Deadline: 13 December 2024 * Workshop Date: 20th January 2025

Format:

The workshop will consist of a mix of invited talks, contributed talks, and panel discussions. The workshop will be held 100% virtually, allowing for greater accessibility and participation from scholars and researchers around the world. We anticipate 30 attendees and 2 invited speakers to the workshop. Scheduled for 20 January 2025, the workshop will be held in conjunction with the 31st edition of COLING 2025 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Anti-Harassment policy:

The workshop supports the COLING anti-harassment policy https://coling2022.org/policy

_Keynote Speakers:_

* _Speaker 1: Imed Zitouni, Google, USA_ (Confirmed) * _Speaker 2: Hend Alkhalifa, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia_ (Awaiting confirmation)

ORGANIZATION

ORGANISING COMMITTEE:

* Saad Ezzini, Lancaster University, UK (General Chair) * Hamza Alami, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco (Programme Co-Chair) * Ismail Berrada, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco (Programme Co-Chair) * Abdessamad Benlahbib, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco (Programme Co-Chair) * Abdelkader El Mahdaouy, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco (Review Chair) * Salima Lamsiyah, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Publication Chair) * Nouran Khallaf, Leeds University, UK (Publicity Co-Chair) * Hatim Derrouz, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco (Publicity Co-Chair) * Amal Haddad, University of Granada, Spain (Publicity Co-Chair) * Mustafa Jarrar, Birzeit University, Palestine (Advisory Committee) * Mo El-Haj, Lancaster University, UK (Advisory Committee) * Ruslan Mitkov, Lancaster University, UK (Advisory Committee) * Paul Rayson, Lancaster University, UK (Advisory Committee)

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

* Ahmed Ali, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), Qatar * Ahmed Abdelali, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), Qatar * Almoataz B. Al-Said, Cairo University, Egypt * Eric Atwell, Leeds University, UK * Haithem Afli, Dublin City University, Ireland * Hazem Hajj, American University of Beirut, Lebanon * Ignatius Ezeani, Lancaster University, UK * Imed Zitouni, Microsoft Research, USA * Karim Bouzoubaa, Mohamed Vth University, Morocco * Khaled Shaban, Qatar University, Qatar * Abdessamad Benlahbib, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco * Lama Alsudias, Lancaster University, UK * Mo El-Haj, Lancaster University, UK * Mariam Aboelezz, Birkbeck, University of London, UK * Nadi Tomeh, University of Paris 13, France * Nizar Habash, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE * Nora Al-Twairesh, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia * Abdelkader El Mahdaoui, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco * Paul Rayson, Lancaster University, UK * Scott Piao, Lancaster University, UK * Taha Zerrouki, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Informatique, Algeria * Tamer Elsayed, Qatar University, Qatar * Violetta Cavalli-Sforza, Al Akhawayn University, Morocco * Wajdi Zaghouani, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar * Hanane El Faik, Chouaïb Doukkali University, Morocco * Wassim El-Hajj, American University of Beirut, Lebanon * Ashraf Boumhidi, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, University, Morocco * Khadidja Merakchi, Heriot-Watt University * Ed-Drissiya El-Allaly, University of Moulay Ismail, Morocco * Driss Aboulhoucine, EMRO, WHO * El Habib Nfaoui, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco * Salima Lamsiyah, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg * Khaled Shaalan, The British University in Dubai, UAE * Ismail Berrada, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco * Maram Alharbi, Lancaster University, UK * Hatim Derrouz, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco * Nouran Khallaf, Leeds University, UK * Hamza Alami, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco * Mustafa Jarrar, Birzeit University, Palestine * Hanane Grissette, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco

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