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 – 2025-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
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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 / AI-generated questions / 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 |
In 2023, I developed software to generate quiz questions automatically using AI tools. The motivation for this project was to speed up the generation of questions for the 4-skills test. This software allows the teacher to build prompts for ChatGPT that are composed of three distinct parts: definition of roles, definition of task, and definition of output format. Once the prompt produces suitable questions consistently and reliably, the importing of questions into Moodle can be set to proceed automatically. I presented this software at the MoodleMoot 2024 conference (Nagasaki, Japan) and the TEFL-Praxis 2024 (Kochi, Japan).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Although the project is not proceeding as quickly as was originally envisioned, I am in a position now where I can generate questions and build a 4-skills test before the end of the project.
The main reason for the delay is the recent re-design of the Englsh curriculum and consequent increased teaching load at my university. In addition, the continuing development of AI tools has led to me spending time on investigating those, and researching how they could be used beneficially in the correct project.
Unfortunately, this year was again marred by the death of an immediate family member. This significantly impaired my ability to carry out research tasks during the latter part of 2023.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
(1) I will collect data on AI-generated questions to determine which are judged to be suitable for testing and which are not.
(2) I will build the preliminary versions of the 4-skills test and collect data comparing students' performance on the test with external data such as TOEIC scores and course grades.
(3) I will present the findings of steps (1) and (2) at conferences in February and March of 2025.
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Report
(5 results)
Research Products
(9 results)
