ESL Assistant is a prototype web-based writing-assistance tool that is being developed for English Language Learners. The system focuses on types of errors that are typically made by non-native writers of American English. A freely-available prototype was deployed in June 2008. User data from this system are manually evaluated to identify writing domain and measure system accuracy. Combining th...

In this paper, we propose a method which estimates the student’s subjective difficulty with a vibration sound on a desk obtained by a microphone on the back of the desk panel. First, it classifies the student’s behavior into writing and non-writing by analyzing the obtained sound data. Next, the subjective difficulty is estimated based on an assumption that the duration of non-writing behavior ...

The Writing Pal is an intelligent tutoring system that provides writing strategy training. A large part of its artificial intelligence resides in the natural language processing algorithms to assess essay quality and guide feedback to students. Because writing is often highly nuanced and subjective, the development of these algorithms must consider a broad array of linguistic, rhetorical, and c...

Current computer-based tools for writing instruction show high scoring accuracy but uncertain instructional efficacy. One explanation is that these systems may not effectively communicate valid and appropriate formative feedback. In this paper, we describe an exploratory method for developing feedback algorithms that are grounded in writing pedagogy. The resulting threshold algorithms are shown...

Research on pre-task planning has revealed that planned conditions have produced more fluent and complex language than unplanned conditions. To date, most of these studies have investigated the effects of individual planning on language production while collaborative planning has received scant attention. To determine the effects of pre-task planning on second language written production, the p...

This research is a quasi-experimental study investigating the effect of different types of teacher Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) on Iranian EFL learners’ writing accuracy in using two functions of English articles (the first mention and anaphoric reference) and simple past tense (regular and irregular). Ninety-four Iranian learners of English were assigned into three experimental groups of ...