Automated Translation Exercise Generation System

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current software lacks the ability to automatically generate translation exercises that evaluate language learners' specific translation difficulties, requiring instructors to spend excessive time creating assessment items.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that receive grammatical structures, translate text segments, and select prompts for translation exercises, utilizing machine translation and regular expressions to generate assessment items tailored to language learners' primary dialects and difficulties.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If instructors manually create translation exercises, then the exercises can be tailored to specific learner needs, but the time required to generate assessment items increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of creating translation exercisesVSAvoidtime required to generate assessment items

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables self-service by allowing instructors to input basic parameters (target language, grammatical structure, difficulty level) and automatically receiving generated translation exercises. The system performs the time-consuming manual translation and exercise creation work autonomously, with instructors only needing to provide minimal input and review the output.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical manual process of translating text segments and creating exercises with an automated computer-based system. The system uses algorithms to generate translations and assemble exercises, substituting the manual mechanical work of instructors with automated computational processes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Quantity of substance

If more assessment items are generated, then the evaluation of language learners becomes more comprehensive, but the time and resources required to create them increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenumber of assessment itemsVSAvoidtime required to create assessment items

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables continuous generation of assessment items by automatically producing multiple exercises based on the input parameters. Once the system is initialized with the target language and grammatical structure criteria, it can continuously generate new assessment items without requiring proportional increases in instructor time, maintaining continuous useful action.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The system utilizes parameter changes by allowing instructors to modify input parameters such as language pair, grammatical structure type, and difficulty level. The system then regenerates assessment items based on these parameter changes, enabling comprehensive evaluation coverage through parameter variation without manual recreation of each item.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Adaptability or versatility

If translation exercises are customized for specific grammatical structures and dialects, then the relevance to learner difficulties increases, but the complexity of creating targeted exercises increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetargeting of translation difficultiesVSAvoidcomplexity of creating assessment items

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies segmentation by breaking down the complex task of creating customized translation exercises into separate manageable components. Instructors input specific grammatical structures and dialect information as separate parameters, and the system processes these segmented inputs to generate targeted exercises, reducing the overall complexity of the creation process.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses parameter changes to achieve adaptability by allowing instructors to specify target languages, grammatical structures, and dialectal characteristics as adjustable parameters. The system then modifies the generated exercises based on these parameter specifications, enabling high customization without increasing operational complexity for the user.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS7762816B2Method and system for automated item development for language learners

Publication Date: 2010.07.27 EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE

AI summary

A method of developing a translation exercise is disclosed. A grammatical structure may be received. Each of one or more text segments in a first language may be translated into a corresponding text segment in a second language. Each text segment in the first language may include one or more sentences. A text segment may be selected as a prompt for a translation exercise. The selected text segment may include a text segment in the second language having the grammatical structure and/or a text segment in the first language corresponding to a text segment in the second language having the grammatical structure.