Hiroyuki Obari

Evaluation of automatically generated English vocabulary questions

This paper describes details of the evaluation experiments for questions created by an automatic question generation system. Given a target word and one of its word senses, the system generates a multiple-choice English vocabulary question asking for the closest in meaning to the target word in the reading passage. Two kinds of evaluation were conducted considering two aspects: (1) measuring English learners’ proficiency and (2) their similarity to the human-made questions. The first evaluation is based on the responses from English learners obtained through administering the machine-generated and human-made questions to them, and the second is based on the subjective judgement by English teachers. Both evaluations showed that the machine-generated questions were able to achieve a comparable level with the human-made questions in both measuring English proficiency and similarity.

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Case Study: Smartphone App LINE for EFL Peer Learning

The first of three case studies in this book addresses online interaction in EFL with smartphones via LINE, a communication tool that is free and familiar to Japanese students. This chapter introduces two kinds of group interactions aimed to accord with both sociocultural theory and the psychological contours of students in the instructor’s culture. First, learners wrote L2 messages and posted them on a closed group board in LINE. In the second experiment, a bot instantly and automatically translated L1 messages they posted into L2. After their one-month interactions, both groups showed improvement of their English language competence in both receptive and productive skills. The results of the questionnaire also proclaimed their active participation with positive feedback about the L2 online interaction.

Automatic distractor generation for multiple-choice English vocabulary questions

The use of automated systems in second-language learning could substantially reduce the workload of human teachers and test creators. This study proposes a novel method for automatically generating distractors for multiple-choice English vocabulary questions. The proposed method introduces new sources for collecting distractor candidates and utilises semantic similarity and collocation information when ranking the collected candidates. We evaluated the proposed method by administering the questions to real English learners. We further asked an expert to judge the quality of the distractors generated by the proposed method, a baseline method and humans. The results show that the proposed method produces fewer problematic distractors than the baseline method. Furthermore, the generated distractors have a quality that is comparable with that of human-made distractors.

Controlling item difficulty for automatic vocabulary question generation

The present study investigates the best factor for controlling the item difficulty of multiple-choice English vocabulary questions generated by an automatic question generation system. Three factors are considered for controlling item difficulty: (1) reading passage difficulty, (2) semantic similarity between the correct answer and distractors, and (3) the distractor word difficulty level. An experiment was conducted by administering machine-generated items to three groups of English learners. The groups were determined based on their standardised English test scores. In total, 120 items, generated using combinations of the above three factors, were tested. The results reveal that the distractor word difficulty level had the greatest impact on item difficulty, but this tendency changed depending on the proficiency of the test takers. These results will be of use when implementing a fully automatic system for administrating tests.

Conclusion: Implementing Language Learning in a Mobile-Oriented Society

This concluding chapter summarizes the main points of the previous five chapters, with conclusions and further recommendations for other institutions. It reiterates the methodology introduced in Chap. 1 to define mobile language learning, then briefly summarizes its history in Japan. Some recurring issues led to conclusions such as that small screen sizes could be tolerated because of Japan’s long tenure as a mobile-oriented society. The sociocultural approach in Chap. 2 represented a global consensus among humanistic educators that inspired the pedagogy behind the case studies in Chaps. 3, 4 and 5. Mobile learning was found to bring out aspects of sociocultural theory through factors such as user autonomy. Its effectiveness for EFL should encourage readers to implement m-learning in their own contexts.

Mobile Language Learning Pedagogy: A Sociocultural Perspective

This chapter provides a theoretical framework for mobile language learning from a sociocultural perspective. While the advantages of personal computers over previous modes have been discussed in terms of e-learning, m-learning with mobile devices opens up new horizons that can enhance user-centered learning. Characteristics of mobile devices such as ownership and mobility can help to personalize language learning. For instance, generating target language contents from learners’ life-worlds can help to develop the autonomy and agency required for effective learning in this era of new technology. This chapter reviews the literature important for mobile language learning with the aim of applying the theoretical framework to pedagogies in local settings as seen in the following chapters.

Introduction: Contextualizing Mobile Language Learning in Japan

This chapter first introduces the organization of the whole book and its genesis in the collaboration of the authors at an international applied linguistics conference. The first section also touches upon the variety of universities represented, and how the case study chapters follow a similar structure. Next, mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is defined within e-learning and technology-assisted language learning (TELL) fields by contextualizing MALL into cultural, disciplinary, and historical dimensions. Then the development of MALL in Japan is traced from the mobile Internet, about which little has been published, to the early mobile phone stage and recent smartphone and tablet era, through a literature review. Data on Japanese infant use of handheld devices lastly provide a glimpse of the future.

Aoyama Gakuin University Case Study: Blended Learning and Flipped Classrooms Utilizing Mobile Devices

The third and last case study examines blended and flipped classrooms utilizing mobile devices in teaching EFL in Japan. M-Learning can offer a rich, motivating, informal, contextual, and ubiquitous learning environment, where students control their learning time, environment, and pace. Third-year economics majors were given iPads, with e-books integrated into the curriculum. Three empirical studies examined the effectiveness of blended and flipped learning with various emerging technologies from voice recognition to Web-based applications accessed by iPads and smartphones. Results of computer assessment tests such as the CASEC, OPIc speaking test, and TOEIC indicated that blended and flipped lessons helped students to improve their overall English proficiency better than traditional approaches.

Osaka Jogakuin University Case Study: Mobilizing the EFL Curriculum and Campus Infrastructure with iPods and iPads

The second of three case studies in this book covers a combined university and two-year college that have not been deterred by its small size and all-female student body from technological innovations. It was first in the world, a half year before Duke University which usually gets the credit, to give an iPod to all incoming first year students, loaded with faculty-made English listening materials. Then it was among the first, certainly in Japan, to give an iPad to all incoming students, and this time faculty-made e-books were integrated into the curriculum. With campus-wide Wi-Fi, students and teachers could also readily access the Internet in classes. Student focus groups have sharpened annual surveys with quantitative and qualitative feedback to continually refine the pedagogy behind utilizing mobile devices.

Investigating the effectiveness of Globalvoice CALL software in native Japanese English speech

Many variables exist in the evaluation of the speech of non-native speakers of English. In previous research, rhythmic accent and pauses are more salient than segmental features in English utterances to make one’s speech more intelligible. In this regard, prosodic features such as intonation and rhythm are crucial in comprehensible speech. One of the main goals of English education in Japan is to help Japanese students speak English more intelligibly in order to be more clearly understood while taking part in international communication. In this talk, several key parameters such as speech duration, speech power, and F0 (pitch), are all introduced to help determine to what extent Japanese students are able to improve their English pronunciation through the use of Globalvoice CALL software. Globalvoice CALL enables students to input English words or sentences for the purpose of practicing their pronunciation and prosody in order to reduce their Japanese-accented speech. The purpose of this paper is to inves...