A CAI system for learning English as a second language

✍ Scribed by Teiji Furugori

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Weight: 642 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-9287
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-9287(89)80049-4

✦ Synopsis

We describe a cnx system for learning a second language: English. Our purpose here is to devise a practical system that serves educational aims, primarily for the Japanese junior high school students. The system works by generating sentences, using sentential patterns and a set of vocabularies, and then creating, from the sentences, four different types of problems for the students to learn: translation of Japanese words into English, word rearrangements, various grammatical transformations, and proper word selection problems.

The sentence generation mechanism is the center of the system. While it lacks elegance, our way of generating sentences serves its purposes well. It generates, within a limitation, both syntactically and semantically versatile, consistent, and, above all, realistic sentences from everyday life. We are able to create fresh problems for each drill from the sentences generated. The system is adaptable to the learners of any nationality who intend to practise English as a second language. And the power of the system can easily be multiplied by supplying different types of problems.