SJM_MINDS@DravidianLangTech@ACL2026: Machine Learning Approaches for Hope Speech Detection in Code-Mixed Tulu
Summary
The SJM_MINDS system, submitted to the DravidianLangTech@ACL 2026 shared task, addresses hope speech detection in code-mixed Tulu. This system participated in two tasks: Coarse-Grained Hope Tone Classification (Task 1) and Fine-Grained Hope Type Classification (Task 2). Researchers experimented with classical Machine Learning approaches, specifically Logistic Regression (LR) and Linear Support Vector Classifier (LinearSVC), trained on Term Frequency and Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) of word ngrams (n=1, 2). LinearSVC achieved a macro F1-score of 0.51 in Task 1, securing 4th rank, while the LR model obtained a macro F1-score of 0.37 in Task 2, ranking 5th. These results highlight the continued effectiveness of traditional ML methods for low-resource, code-mixed language scenarios.
Key takeaway
For NLP Engineers developing text classification systems for low-resource or code-mixed languages, you should consider classical Machine Learning approaches. Your team can achieve competitive performance by employing models like Logistic Regression and LinearSVC, especially when combined with TF-IDF word ngrams. This strategy offers a robust and often simpler alternative to complex deep learning models, proving effective for tasks like hope speech detection.
Key insights
Traditional ML models effectively detect hope speech in low-resource, code-mixed Tulu.
Principles
- Classical ML models remain effective for low-resource NLP.
- TF-IDF with n-grams is a viable feature extraction method.
Method
Train Logistic Regression and LinearSVC models using TF-IDF word ngrams (n=1, 2) for coarse and fine-grained hope speech classification in code-mixed text.
In practice
- Apply LinearSVC for coarse-grained text classification.
- Use Logistic Regression for fine-grained classification.
- Consider TF-IDF n-grams for low-resource languages.
Topics
- Hope Speech Detection
- Code-Mixed Languages
- Tulu Language
- Machine Learning
- TF-IDF
- Text Classification
Best for: Research Scientist, AI Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, NLP Engineer
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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Paper Index on ACL Anthology.