• Search Research Projects
  • Search Researchers
  • How to Use
  1. Back to previous page

Developing a diagnostic language assessment of Japanese EFL learners' English language email writing

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K00826
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
Research InstitutionThe University of Aizu

Principal Investigator

Nicholas Allan  会津大学, コンピュータ理工学部, 上級准教授 (50811048)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) BLAKE John  会津大学, コンピュータ理工学部, 上級准教授 (80635954)
Mozgovoy Maxim  会津大学, コンピュータ理工学部, 准教授 (60571776)
Project Period (FY) 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help
¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Keywordspragmatics / language assessment / sociocultural theory / email writing / language acquisition / pragmatic failure / writing / politeness / formality / assessment / corpus / Language Assessment / EFL / Writing / Pragmatics
Outline of Research at the Start

In this project, we create a computerised assessment of learners' English language emails, that can identify errors related to formality, politeness and organisation, and also give immediate individualised feedback to help learners improve. Effectiveness of the feedback is evaluated over time.

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research project, we developed a new kind of assessment for English email writing, focusing on politeness and formality. The developed computerised assessment automatically identifies problems in the learner's email texts, offers immediate feedback, which the learner uses to improve their email text. The innovative system uses an approach grounded in sociocultural theory. Feedback is initially highly implicit; if that fails to help the learner resolve the problem, feedback gradually becomes more explicit, until the problem is resolved. In this way, the programme both promotes learner development, and allows for assessment as well, as we can look at the frequency of feedback, and how explicit the feedback needed to be. We found the system to be effective in leading to sustained improvement in learner performance across time.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

私たちは、知識に対していくつかの貢献をしています。我々は、英語学習者の電子メール文章を対象とした初のコンピュータによる言語診断アセスメントを開発し、フィードバックに発達段階に基づいたアプローチを採用した初のアセスメントを開発した。このプログラムを実施したところ、学習者の文章に含まれる礼儀正しさや形式に関する問題が大幅に減少し、この改善が長期にわたって持続することがわかりました。また、多肢選択式テストのような個別の間接的なテスト項目で評価を行うのではなく、全文を評価するプログラムを初めて開発し、技術を進歩させました。

Report

(5 results)
  • 2022 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2021 Research-status Report
  • 2020 Research-status Report
  • 2019 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (17 results)

All 2022 2021 2020 2019

All Journal Article (6 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 4 results,  Peer Reviewed: 6 results) Presentation (11 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 9 results)

  • [Journal Article] Investigating pragmatic failure in L2 English email writing among Japanese university EFL learners: A learner corpus approach.2022

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M., Perkins, J.
    • Journal Title

      Register Studies (published online first, 2022)

      Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-51

    • DOI

      10.1075/rs.20016.nic

    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Identifying and Addressing Pragmatic Failure in a Learner Corpus of Request-Based Emails2021

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Journal Title

      The JACET International Convention Proceedings: The JACET 60th Commemorative International Convention

      Volume: 1 Pages: 115-116

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] EFL learners and English email writing: developing a computerised diagnostic language assessment2021

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M
    • Journal Title

      CALL and Professionalisation: Short Papers from EuroCALL 2021

      Volume: 1 Pages: 238-242

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] Annotating Pragmatic Errors in a Japanese Learner Corpus of English Emails2020

    • Author(s)
      Allan Nicholas, John Blake
    • Journal Title

      Learner Corpus Studies in Asia and the World

      Volume: 4 Pages: 94-109

    • DOI

      10.24546/81011995

    • NAID

      120006811192

    • ISSN
      2187-6746
    • Year and Date
      2020-03-17
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] A failure mode and effects analysis of pragmatic errors in learner e-mails2020

    • Author(s)
      Allan Nicholas, John Blake
    • Journal Title

      SHS Web of Conferences 77: 02001

      Volume: 77 Pages: 1-6

    • DOI

      10.1051/shsconf/20207702001

    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Diagnostic language assessment: Lessons learned from rapid prototyping2019

    • Author(s)
      Allan Nicholas, John Blake
    • Journal Title

      Chang. M. et al. (Eds) (2019) Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computers in Education. Taiwan: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education

      Volume: 1 Pages: 679-684

    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Computerized diagnostic language assessment: Evaluating Japanese EFL learners' L2 English email writing2022

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      The 57th RELC International Conference, Singapore
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] A Pragmatics-focused computerised diagnostic language assessment: Developing automated feedback sensitive to learners' ZPDs2022

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      EuroCALL 2022
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Pragmatics and L2 English email writing: Developing a computerised diagnostic language assessment for Japanese EFL learners2022

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      International Association for Teaching Pragmatics (ITAP) Spring Seminar 2022, June 10 2022. University of Barcelona.
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Japanese EFL learners and pragmatics: Developing and prototyping an online diagnostic language assessment of English L2 email writing2022

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      JALTCALL 2022
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
  • [Presentation] Development of a computerized diagnostic language assessment platform for Second Language Email Writing2021

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      TeLLT & CoLLT 2021
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Identifying and Addressing Pragmatic Failure in a Learner Corpus of Request-Based Emails2021

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      The JACET 60th Commemorative International Convention
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] EFL learners and English email writing: developing a computerised diagnostic language assessment2021

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A., Blake, J., Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      EuroCALL 2021
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Japanese EFL learners and email writing: Developing a pragmatics-focused corpus.2020

    • Author(s)
      Nicholas, A; Blake, J.; Mozgovoy, M.
    • Organizer
      The 55th RELC International Conference, March 15-17 2021
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] A failure mode and effects analysis of pragmatic errors in learner e-mails2020

    • Author(s)
      Allan Nicholas, John Blake
    • Organizer
      The 2nd ACM Chapter International Conference on Educational Technology, Language and Technical Communication (ETLTC 2020)
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Diagnostic Language Assessment: Lessons Learned from Rapid Prototyping2019

    • Author(s)
      Allan Nicholas, John Blake
    • Organizer
      27th International Conference on Computers in Education, Taiwan.
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Annotating errors in a Japanese learner corpus of English emails2019

    • Author(s)
      Allan Nicholas, John Blake
    • Organizer
      Learner Corpus Studies in Asia and the World, 4th Meeting, Kobe, Japan
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report

URL: 

Published: 2019-04-18   Modified: 2024-01-30  

Information User Guide FAQ News Terms of Use Attribution of KAKENHI

Powered by NII kakenhi