Adaptivity in educational systems for language learning: a review

ABSTRACT

Adaptive and intelligent instructional systems are used to deal with the issue of learning personalisation in contexts where human instructors are not immediately available, so their role is transferred entirely or in part onto the computer. Even though such systems are mostly developed for well-defined domains that have a rather straightforward acquisition order, such as mathematics or computer programming, they found their application in ill-defined domains as well. Natural language learning is one such domain, and developing adaptive instructional systems for this specific purpose is notoriously complex and challenging due to the nature of language systems. The paper at hand examines the theoretical background of adaptivity and intelligence in instructional systems, and discusses their application in learning and teaching of natural languages. Moreover, the paper reviews adaptive and intelligent language learning systems in existence and identifies their characteristics in a systematic manner. The discussion section offers a more detailed view of selected systems for language learning that exhibit interesting and innovative implementation solutions. The paper concludes by suggesting possible developmental directions and future work in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptive educational systems
• computer assisted language learning
• intelligent systems
• adaptive hypermedia systems
• personalisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Often used synonym found in literature is mobile learning which most probably appeared because mobile or handheld devices are used to deliver such (adaptive) instruction, i.e. learning is seen as mobile in essence. Even though we acknowledge the existence of this term, we continue using the term ‘ubiquitous’ throughout the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Rijeka [grant number 13.13.1.2.02].

Notes on contributors

Vanja Slavuj

Vanja Slavuj is a junior researcher and a PhD student in the Department of Informatics, University of Rijeka. He has received his MA in Informatics and English language and literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka. His research interests include CALL, ITSs, adaptive instruction and informatics teaching methodology.

Ana Meštrović

Ana Meštrović gained her BSc degree in mathematics and informatics from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Rijeka, in 2001. She gained an MSc degree in informatics in 2005 and PhD degree in informatics in 2009 from the Faculty of Organization and Informatics Varaždin, University of Zagreb. Since 2001 she has been working at the Department of Informatics, University of Rijeka. She is currently an associate professor. Her research interests are in knowledge management, knowledge representation, semantic technologies and NLP.

Božidar Kovačić

Božidar Kovačić gained his BSc degree in electrical engineering from the Military Technical Academy in Zagreb in 1991. He gained his MSc degree in electrical engineering in 1996 and PhD degree in informatics in 2004 from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb. Since 1996 he has been working at the Department of Informatics, University of Rijeka, and is currently an assistant professor. His research interests are in development of educational systems with a special emphasis on dynamic web applications, knowledge representation, development of interactive interfaces and adaptive e-learning.