EnglishBuddy–An approach for structured answer evaluation and feedback for O/L English language examinations in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

At present, English has become a universal language. It may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language in a large number of countries. Proficiency in English both spoken and written has become a basic and a crucial requirement to get a decent white collar job and also to pursue higher studies or career development. Therefore, passing O/L with a good grade for English has become critical. But due to the busy life styles of students, teachers as well as parents, do not see this as a major problem and pay less attention to English compared to the other subjects. Since there is a limited time available for each subject at school, teachers might not be paying their full attention to the students who need teachers’ help. Sometimes parents also feel it is difficult to attend to the parents meetings and they might not know the actual grades of their children until the final results are given. This research provides a solution to the above problems by developing an automated system called “English Buddy” which will mark student’s structure based answers in English and help the students to learn and evaluate their knowledge alone. This web solution will be useful for teachers to upload material and check progress of the students and for students to learn and practice exercises and get feedback. It’ll be helpful for parents to be alert and follow the progress of their children. The systems is mainly build using techniques in Natural Language Processing and checked for accuracy with manual marking.