Personalized mobile English vocabulary learning systembased on item response theory and learning memory cycle

Source ︰ Computers & Education Author ︰ Chih-Ming Chen , Ching-Ju ChungDate ︰ 2008Reporter ︰ 鍾岳豪

Outline

1. Introduction 2. System design 3. Experiments 4. Conclusions

Introduction

Huckin, Haynes, and Coady (1993) indicated that reading ability and vocabulary knowledge are two of the most important components of performance in a second language.

To read English articles fluently, a learner must understand at least 2000 commonly used English words.

● TOEIC 700 UP , need 7000~10000 vocabularies

Introduction

Oxford (1990a) pointed out that language learners typically have significant difficulty remembering large vocabularies.

The brain when information is learned, gradually disappear over time.

German philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885). Ebbinghaus, based on experimental results, proposed the forgetting curve.

forgetting curve

Introduction

Item Response Theory (IRT): It is a widely used theory in education measurement,

typically applied in the field of Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) (Horward, 1990; Hsu & Sadock, 1985) to select the most suitable items for examinees based on individual abilities.

It is a body of theory describing the application of mathematical models to data from questionnaires and tests as a basis for measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables.

(wiki)

System design

The client mobile learning system, which consists of three intelligent agents and three databases.

● vocabulary recommendation agent

● learning performance assessment agent

● test agent

support off-line learning ● Data synchronized agent

Test:

System design

System design

System design

System design

System design

System design

Experiments

15 three-year university students who were majoring in the Department of English Teaching at National Hualien University of Education.

● two male and 13 female

● received the two hours PDA training course Experiments Time: Five weeks

● e-mail to remind Test:15 multiple-choice questions and 15 cloze questions

averagely selected from three vocabulary levels of GEPT in Taiwan.

Experiments

Experiments

Experiments

Experiments

Questionnaire analysis: ( questionnaire which involves 18 questions) ● the investigation of the learners’ learning attitude towards using the

proposed learning system

● the suggestions from learners’ feedback responses

● self-assessment of learners’ English vocabulary ability

Experiments

Experiments

Experiments

Experiments

Conclusions

Experimental results demonstrated that most learners believe the review strategy is very helpful when learning English vocabulary.

Personalized mobile English vocabulary learning system facilitates English learning without

constraints of time or place by mobile devices.