AN INTELLIGENT LANGUAGE TUTORING SYSTEM

In this paper, we present the theoretical background and describe the design and implementation of an intelligent language tutoring system (ILTS). The most important properties of our system are: (1) The system is based on a very complete and "objective" grammar knowledge base; (2) Students can at any moment during an exercise ask the system questions about the grammar, and they are immediately answered without losing the exercise context. Thus the normal behaviour of a tutor is better simulated, which contributes to a user-friendly interface; and (3) It allows for individual correction of errors and reaction to errors. This is due to the fact that the system is firmly based on a linguistically well-founded analysis. The sentences formulated by the students are parsed and analysed. They are not simply matched against predefined answers as is still the case with many other more classically oriented systems. © 1990 Academic Press Limited.