Impact of Intermediate Task Difficulty on Zero-Shot Cross-Lingual Transfer in XTREME-R

Abstract

Abstract: Using task-specific pre-training and leveraging cross-lingual transfer are two of the most popular ways to handle code-switched data. In this paper, we aim to compare the effects of both for the task of sentiment analysis. We work with two Dravidian Code-Switched languages - Tamil-Engish and Malayalam-English and four different BERT based models. We compare the effects of task-specific pre-training and cross-lingual transfer and find that task-specific pre-training results in superior zero-shot and supervised performance when compared to performance achieved by leveraging cross-lingual transfe

Research Question

How does the choice of intermediate task difficulty affect the zero-shot cross-lingual transfer performance on XTREME-R when using a multilingual intermediate task compared to a monolingual English task, measured by accuracy and task-specific scores?

Verification Level

Descriptive public verification status only; aggregate claim counts are public, but individual claim records are not exposed here.

Truth-Engine Gate Verdict

This record has not completed Gate 2 of the verification pipeline (a type-checked Lean4 proof for mathematical claims, or a sealed-sandbox reproduction for empirical claims). It is a literature synthesis only. VERIFIED requires an attached reproducible artifact (Lean4 proof source, or repro script and results) before this status can be set; it is not derived from review score or claim count.

Quality Tier

Descriptive public triage only; this tier does not alter current publication or DOI behavior.

Quality Dimensions

Automated triage signals derived from public fields; not human peer review or independent validation.

Correction Record

Public corrections are additive records. Current status does not claim the synthesis is error-free.

Provenance