Method and system for automatic generation of adapted content to facilitate reading skill development for language learners

• US 8,239,762 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2007
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Educational Testing Service
• Original Assignee: Educational Testing Service
• Inventors: Burstein, Jill C., Sabatini, John, Shore, Jane, Ventura, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton, Jr., Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): DEBROW, JAMES J
• Application Number:
  US11/688,715
• Publication Number:
  US 20070238076A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,967 Days
• Field of Search: 715/264, 704/5, 704/227
• US Class Current: 715/264
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for adapting a text, for example, for generating a text appropriate for the proficiency level of a language learner, are described. An original text is received and at least one portion of the original text to adapt is identified, where the adapted text will facilitate reader comprehension. An adaptation to be applied to the at least one portion of the original text is determined. The at least one portion of the original text is analyzed based on the adaptation, the adaptation is applied to the at least one portion of the original text, and the adapted text is provided.

Claims

1. A method for adapting a text, the method comprising:

electronically receiving an original text;

determining a relevance value for a plurality of sentences in the original text, wherein a higher relevance value is assigned to sentences with more relevance to subject matter of the original text;

identifying at least one portion of the original text to adapt based on the relevance values for the plurality of sentences and based on a language proficiency level of a reader;

determining an adaptation to be applied to the at least one portion of the original text in order to generate adapted text to facilitate reader comprehension;

applying the adaptation to the at least one portion of the original text;

wherein the adaptation includes identifying a difficult word in the original text with a measure of difficulty meeting a preselected value, and determining one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word;

displaying the adapted text; and

automatically displaying a marginal note along with the adapted text wherein the marginal note includes the one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a native language to be used when applying the adaptation to the at least one portion of the original text.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the adaptation to be applied is a translation of the at least one portion of the original text into the native language.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a machine translation program is used to translate the at least one portion of the original text into the native language.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

automatically displaying an additional marginal note along with the adapted text, wherein the additional marginal note notes arc summaries includes a summary of the original text.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the marginal note and the additional marginal note are provided in a margin of the original text.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the marginal note and the additional marginal note are translated into the native language and provided in the native language in the margin of the original text.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the adaptation to be applied is the identification of each cognate in the original text based on the native language.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the adapted text provided is a list of each cognate identified in the original text.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein each cognate is highlighted in the original text.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein a cognate is highlighted in the adapted text based on that cognate being identified as a cognate in the original text.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the adapted text is a native language text.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at least one portion of the original text comprises dividing the original text into sentences.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one portion of the original text is determined based on selecting a percentage of the total number of sentences.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the frequency which one or more words appears in a corpus of documents.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determination comprises identification of each word in the original text with a Standard Frequency Index (SFI) of less than or equal to a preselected value.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one synonym is generated for each word identified.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the adapted text provided is a list of each word in the original text with an SFI of less than or equal to the preselected value, and its synonym.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the preselected value is 60.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a thesis statement sentence, wherein the identified thesis statement sentence is assigned a high relevance value.

21. A system for automatically adapting a text comprising:

an input device for electronically receiving an original text;

a processor for determining a relevance value for a plurality of sentences in the original text, wherein a higher relevance value is assigned to sentences with more relevance to subject matter of the original text and identifying at least one portion of the original text to adapt based on the relevance values for the plurality of sentences and based on a reader'"'"'s language proficiency level;

wherein the processor applies an adaptation to the at least one portion of the original text in order to provide adapted text to facilitate reader comprehension;

wherein the adaptation includes identifying a difficult word in the original text with a measure of difficulty meeting a preselected value, and determining one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word;

wherein applying the adaptation includes automatically displaying a marginal note along with the adapted text wherein the marginal note includes the one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a display interface for displaying the adapted text in audio, graphic or alphanumeric format.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the processor further determines a native language to be used when applying the adaptation to the at least one portion of the original text.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the adaptation is a translation of the at least one portion of the original text into the native language.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a machine translation program to translate the at least one portion of the original text into the native language.

26. A device for automatically adapting a text comprising:

an input device for electronically receiving an original text;

a processor for determining a relevance value for a plurality of sentences in the original text, wherein a higher relevance value is assigned to sentences with more relevance to subject matter of the original text, and identifying at least one portion of the original text to adapt based on the relevance values for the plurality of sentences and based on a reader'"'"'s language proficiency level

wherein the processor applies an adaptation to the at least one portion of the original text in order to provide adapted text to facilitate reader comprehension;

wherein the adaptation includes identifying a difficult word in the original text with a measure of difficulty meeting a preselected value, and determining one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word;

wherein applying the adaptation includes automatically displaying a marginal note along with the adapted text wherein the marginal note includes the one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word; and

an interface for presenting the adapted text in at least one of a graphic or alphanumeric format.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising programming instructions for causing a processing system to perform a method for adapting a text, the method comprising:

electronically receiving an original text;

determining a relevance value for a plurality of sentences in the original text, wherein a higher relevance value is assigned to sentences with more relevance to subject matter of the original text;

identifying at least one portion of the original text to adapt based on the relevance values for the plurality of sentences and based on a language proficiency level of a reader;

determining an adaptation to be applied to the at least one portion of the original text in order to generate adapted text to facilitate reader comprehension;

applying the adaptation to the at least one portion of the original text;

wherein the adaptation includes identifying a difficult word in the original text with a measure of difficulty meeting a preselected value, and determining one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word;

displaying the adapted text; and

automatically displaying a marginal note along with the adapted text wherein the marginal note includes the one or more synonyms of the identified difficult word.