Automatically Suggesting Diverse Example Sentences for L2 Japanese Learners Using Pre-Trained Language Models

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Auteurs principaux: Benedetti, Enrico, Aizawa, Akiko, Boudin, Florian
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Benedetti, Enrico
Aizawa, Akiko
Boudin, Florian
author_facet Benedetti, Enrico
Aizawa, Akiko
Boudin, Florian
contents Providing example sentences that are diverse and aligned with learners' proficiency levels is essential for fostering effective language acquisition. This study examines the use of Pre-trained Language Models (PLMs) to produce example sentences targeting L2 Japanese learners. We utilize PLMs in two ways: as quality scoring components in a retrieval system that draws from a newly curated corpus of Japanese sentences, and as direct sentence generators using zero-shot learning. We evaluate the quality of sentences by considering multiple aspects such as difficulty, diversity, and naturalness, with a panel of raters consisting of learners of Japanese, native speakers -- and GPT-4. Our findings suggest that there is inherent disagreement among participants on the ratings of sentence qualities, except for difficulty. Despite that, the retrieval approach was preferred by all evaluators, especially for beginner and advanced target proficiency, while the generative approaches received lower scores on average. Even so, our experiments highlight the potential for using PLMs to enhance the adaptability of sentence suggestion systems and therefore improve the language learning journey.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_03580
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Automatically Suggesting Diverse Example Sentences for L2 Japanese Learners Using Pre-Trained Language Models
Benedetti, Enrico
Aizawa, Akiko
Boudin, Florian
Computation and Language
Providing example sentences that are diverse and aligned with learners' proficiency levels is essential for fostering effective language acquisition. This study examines the use of Pre-trained Language Models (PLMs) to produce example sentences targeting L2 Japanese learners. We utilize PLMs in two ways: as quality scoring components in a retrieval system that draws from a newly curated corpus of Japanese sentences, and as direct sentence generators using zero-shot learning. We evaluate the quality of sentences by considering multiple aspects such as difficulty, diversity, and naturalness, with a panel of raters consisting of learners of Japanese, native speakers -- and GPT-4. Our findings suggest that there is inherent disagreement among participants on the ratings of sentence qualities, except for difficulty. Despite that, the retrieval approach was preferred by all evaluators, especially for beginner and advanced target proficiency, while the generative approaches received lower scores on average. Even so, our experiments highlight the potential for using PLMs to enhance the adaptability of sentence suggestion systems and therefore improve the language learning journey.
title Automatically Suggesting Diverse Example Sentences for L2 Japanese Learners Using Pre-Trained Language Models
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03580