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Main Authors: Wang, Qiao, Rose, Ralph, Orita, Naho, Sugawara, Ayaka
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02078
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author Wang, Qiao
Rose, Ralph
Orita, Naho
Sugawara, Ayaka
author_facet Wang, Qiao
Rose, Ralph
Orita, Naho
Sugawara, Ayaka
contents A common way of assessing language learners' mastery of vocabulary is via multiple-choice cloze (i.e., fill-in-the-blank) questions. But the creation of test items can be laborious for individual teachers or in large-scale language programs. In this paper, we evaluate a new method for automatically generating these types of questions using large language models (LLM). The VocaTT (vocabulary teaching and training) engine is written in Python and comprises three basic steps: pre-processing target word lists, generating sentences and candidate word options using GPT, and finally selecting suitable word options. To test the efficiency of this system, 60 questions were generated targeting academic words. The generated items were reviewed by expert reviewers who judged the well-formedness of the sentences and word options, adding comments to items judged not well-formed. Results showed a 75% rate of well-formedness for sentences and 66.85% rate for suitable word options. This is a marked improvement over the generator used earlier in our research which did not take advantage of GPT's capabilities. Post-hoc qualitative analysis reveals several points for improvement in future work including cross-referencing part-of-speech tagging, better sentence validation, and improving GPT prompts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_02078
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Automated Generation of Multiple-Choice Cloze Questions for Assessing English Vocabulary Using GPT-turbo 3.5
Wang, Qiao
Rose, Ralph
Orita, Naho
Sugawara, Ayaka
Computation and Language
A common way of assessing language learners' mastery of vocabulary is via multiple-choice cloze (i.e., fill-in-the-blank) questions. But the creation of test items can be laborious for individual teachers or in large-scale language programs. In this paper, we evaluate a new method for automatically generating these types of questions using large language models (LLM). The VocaTT (vocabulary teaching and training) engine is written in Python and comprises three basic steps: pre-processing target word lists, generating sentences and candidate word options using GPT, and finally selecting suitable word options. To test the efficiency of this system, 60 questions were generated targeting academic words. The generated items were reviewed by expert reviewers who judged the well-formedness of the sentences and word options, adding comments to items judged not well-formed. Results showed a 75% rate of well-formedness for sentences and 66.85% rate for suitable word options. This is a marked improvement over the generator used earlier in our research which did not take advantage of GPT's capabilities. Post-hoc qualitative analysis reveals several points for improvement in future work including cross-referencing part-of-speech tagging, better sentence validation, and improving GPT prompts.
title Automated Generation of Multiple-Choice Cloze Questions for Assessing English Vocabulary Using GPT-turbo 3.5
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02078