Open-source English ability test with automatic grading of speaking and writing
| Project/Area Number |
19K00829
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
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| Research Institution | Kochi University of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
Bateson Gordon 高知工科大学, 共通教育教室, 教授 (00340018)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2022)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
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| Keywords | four-skills / online test / essay auto-grade / speak auto-grade / open-source / four-skills online test / e-learning / Moodle / 4-skills test |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
A new open-source online English test will be developed that features the automatic grading of not only reading and listening, but also speaking and writing. This four-skills test will allow the general English ability of large numbers of students to be checked quickly online, thus making it suitable for use in entrance exams and placements tests.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The main research achievement of 2022 was to investigate how recently two released AI tools could be incorporated into the Essay (auto-grade) and Speech (auto-grade) plugins. In particular, the I investigated how the ChatGPT engine could be use to provide immediate and personalized feedback to students' written and spoken English. The engine can be prompted to give both formative feedback, in the form of suggestions to improve submitted work, and summative feedback, in the form of a grade and written comments.
A prototype page that provides this feedback was created and trialled on students at the researcher's university. Based on the feedback from this trial, the auto-grade plugins can updated and included in the Moodle site that will host the 4-skills test.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
(1) My university has requested that the English curriculum be redesigned so I have spent significant time on redesigning the English course.
(2) The release of the recent versions of Moodle (4.1 and 4.2) have required that I spend time updating current question-type plugins, including the Essay (auto-grade) question type, to be compatible with those versions.
(3) Family situation required that I return to the UK for December to attend to the affairs of my recently deceased father.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
1. I will incorporate the work I have done with the Speech-to-text (STT) and Text-to-speech (TTS) to develop the Moodle plugins to use browser functionality instead of relying on the Poodll plugin.
2. I will create a preliminary test using Essay and Speech questions and collectdata at my open university about their performance and reliability.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(6 results)
