Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable multilingual capabilities, yet challenges persist in adapting these models for low-resource languages. In this study, we investigate the effects of Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) on multilingual Gemma models for Marathi, a language with limited resources. Using a translated Alpaca dataset with 52,000 instruction-response pairs, our findings reveal that while evaluation metrics often show a performance decline post-fine-tuning, manual assessments frequently suggest that the fine-tuned models outperform their original counterparts. The observations indicate improvements in target language generation capabilities but a reduction in reasoning abilities following language adaptation. These results underscore the need for improved evaluation methodologies and the creation of high-quality native datasets to accurately assess language-specific model performance in low-resource settings.
@article{arxiv.2411.18571,
title = {Challenges in Adapting Multilingual LLMs to Low-Resource Languages using LoRA PEFT Tuning},
author = {Omkar Khade and Shruti Jagdale and Abhishek Phaltankar and Gauri Takalikar and Raviraj Joshi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.18571},
year = {2024}
}