This plug-in is developed using the Firefox Jetpack technology and intended as a candidate for Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge.
- Description
- Operation
- Mockups
- About the team
We propose a Firefox extension for language learning purposes which will generate fill-in and multiple choice exercises (cloze tests) from authentic pages on the Web. Any language learner worldwide will be able to turn any authentic text into an interactive exercise on the fly by clicking the ClozeFox Extension Button. Language teachers will be able to simply direct their students to a web page and students will have the authentic web page rendered as a fill in exercise thanks to this Firefox extension. Operation
ClozeFox first checks the page on the amount of usable and useful text, text structure and language ID based on page info or on trigrammes. It then makes a frequency list of the words in the text.
The ClozeFox generator hides words on the basis of a routine with scalable intelligence: as a simple random routine would not be interesting from a linguistic-didactic point of view, ClozeFox will select gaps according to frequency level, word category, and later on semantic field, contrastive-linguistic aspect in order to turn the exercise into a rich learning experience.
ClozeFox generates fill-in exercises (for complete words or word-parts on morphological level such as word endings) and multiple-choice exercises (with other words in the text as generated distractors).
The ClozeFox options menu (with 'remembered' options) will include:
- Number of gaps
- Min/max length of gap
- Per word category: nouns, prepositions, verbs, ...
- Exercise type: written (with option whole word / partial word) and multiple choice (with option number of distractors)
- Time limitation
- Send exercise to ... (completed to show to parents/teachers what you have done as a learner; or 'empty' to send it as a teacher to your student or as a students to your co-students)
ClozeFox as an application is highly scalable on the following levels:
- The complexity of the routine for selecting gaps.
- The intuitive intelligence of the system to adapt to the user based on learner behavior, performance and errors.
- The possibility to add a refined morphological analyzer and parser later on.
- The possibility to ask for pronunciation (through sound synthesis) or translation of the word to fill in or any word in context.
- Turn ClozeFox into a real collaborative Web 2.0 social exercise generator:
- Students will become able to exchange self-made exercises, store them in social collaborative repositories, teachers can ask them to do so and monitor progress.
- Language teachers worldwide are expected to encourage to use Mozilla Firefox in order to enrich their own learning environment with a powerful tool for autonomous and/or collaborative learning.
ClozeFox can be seen as a first product in a series of tools for enhancing the (language) learning experience.
Some mockups are available at here
Prof. Dr. Jozef Colpaert is professor of Instructional Design and vice-chairman of the Institute for Education and Information Sciences (IOIW) at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He is also director Research and Development at the Language Institute LINGUAPOLIS of the University of Antwerp, and editor-in-chief of Computer Assisted Language Learning, an International Journal (Taylor and Francis). For the last three years, he has been an active member of the executive committee of CALICO, the US organization for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). He has been designing and developing CALL programs for the last 23 years and organizes the biennial International Antwerp CALL conferences (XIIIth edition). He is currently working on Distributed Language Learning, a methodological and conceptual framework for designing effective language learning environments and for determining the role of technology.
Emre Sevinc is an experienced software developer who designed and coded various web platforms for the last 10 years. Prior to joining the University of Antwerp in Belgium, he was involved with the design and development of the first online MBA e-learning system in Turkey. His current research areas are primarily computer aided language learning (CALL), natural language processing, and data mining. Previously he published scientific articles about e-learning, natural language processing, multi-agent systems, cognitive science and automatic recommendation systems. Besides his professional roles, he is also an open source developer who likes to create projects for machine learning, web programming and user task automation.
Linguapolis is the Language Institute of the University of Antwerp (Belgium). The institute (almost 100 teachers and researchers) organizes language courses and carries out R&D projects related to language learning, teaching and testing.