Vocabulary learning support system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016293045-A1
Application number	US-201514675509-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 31, 2015
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method to build a learner's vocabulary includes accessing a personal vocabulary profile of the learner that includes one or more unstable terms being learned by the learner and one or more stable terms that have been mastered by the learner. The method also includes marking a term in an electronic document output to a display device as an unstable term in response to the term in the electronic document being included in the one or more unstable terms of the personal vocabulary profile. The method also includes receiving input that is effective to indicate whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term. The method also includes determining whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term based on the received input. The method also includes updating the personal vocabulary profile to indicate whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method to build a learner's vocabulary, the method comprising:
accessing a personal vocabulary profile of a learner from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein the personal vocabulary profile includes one or more unstable terms and one or more stable terms, the one or more unstable terms comprise one or more terms being learned by the learner, and the one or more stable terms comprise one or more terms that have been mastered by the learner; marking a term in an electronic document output to a display device as an unstable term in response to the term in the electronic document being included in the one or more unstable terms of the personal vocabulary profile; receiving input effective to indicate whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term; determining whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term based on the received input; and updating the personal vocabulary profile in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to indicate whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the term marked as the unstable term comprises a first term, the method further comprising:
receiving input effective to identify a second term in the electronic document as not understood by the learner; providing an explanation of the second term to the learner; and adding the second term to the one or more unstable terms of the personal vocabulary profile.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
extracting, from the electronic document, a first context sentence that includes the first term; extracting, from the electronic document, a second context sentence that includes the second term; adding the first context sentence and the second context sentence to the personal vocabulary profile; in response to receiving input effective to request an explanation of the first term or the second term in a second electronic document that includes at least one of the first term and the second term, providing a second explanation that includes the first context sentence or the second context sentence as an example sentence of the first term or the second term in context.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein providing the explanation of the second term to the learner comprises providing to the learner at least one of: a definition of the second term; a translation of the second term, or a sentence that includes the second term in context.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
updating the personal vocabulary profile in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to indicate whether the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term comprises:
zeroing out a confidence value included in the personal vocabulary profile and associated with the unstable term in response to determining that the learner does not understand the term marked as the unstable term; or
incrementing the confidence value in response to determining that the learner understands the term marked as the unstable term; and
the method further comprises, in response to the confidence value reaching a counter threshold value, changing the unstable term in the personal vocabulary profile to a stable term in the personal vocabulary profile.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
marking a plurality of terms in the electronic document as unstable terms in response to the plurality of terms in the electronic document being included in the one or more unstable terms of the personal vocabulary profile; generating an index that includes each of the plurality of terms that are marked as unstable terms in the electronic document; and in response to receiving input effective to select one of the plurality of terms in the index, at least one of:
navigating to a sentence of the electronic document that includes the selected one of the plurality of terms; and
providing to the learner an explanation of the selected one of the plurality of terms.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
estimating a current level of vocabulary knowledge of the learner; and recommending to the learner one or more vocabulary terms to learn, wherein the recommended one or more vocabulary terms to learn are determined based on the estimated current level of vocabulary knowledge.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein estimating the current level of vocabulary knowledge comprises:
identifying a plurality of terms in the one or more unstable terms and the one or more stable terms of the personal vocabulary profile that are also in a vocabulary database of a particular level of vocabulary knowledge, wherein the vocabulary database includes a total number of terms; calculating a first number of the identified plurality of terms that are included in the one or more stable terms; calculating a discounted second number of the identified plurality of terms that are included in the one or more unstable terms; calculating a coverage of the identified plurality of terms with respect to the vocabulary database based on the total number of terms in the vocabulary database, the first number, and the discounted second number; and one of:
when the calculated coverage is above a coverage threshold value, determining that the current level of vocabulary knowledge of the learner is at least the particular level; or
when the calculated coverage is below the coverage threshold value, determining that the current level of vocabulary knowledge of the learner is below the particular level.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising, prior to recommending to the learner the one or more vocabulary terms to learn:
performing a topic model analysis of a reading corpus that includes a plurality of electronic documents read by a plurality of learners to identify a plurality of topics covered in the reading corpus; assigning one or more of the plurality of topics to each of a plurality of vocabulary terms in a vocabulary database to generate a plurality of topic distributions, wherein each of the plurality of vocabulary terms has a corresponding topic distribution; identifying a subset of the plurality of topics covered in a subset of the plurality of electronic documents read by the learner; and determining the recommended one or more vocabulary terms to learn based on the estimated current level of vocabulary knowledge, the identified subset of the plurality of topics, and the plurality of topic distributions, wherein the recommended one or more vocabulary terms to learn include one or more of the plurality of vocabulary terms, and wherein at least one of:
each of the one or more of the plurality of vocabulary terms is categorized in the estimated current level of vocabulary knowledge; and
a topic distribution of each of the one or more of the plurality of vocabulary terms has at least one topic in common with the identified subset of the plurality of topics.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a report displayed on the display device to the learner, wherein the report includes at least one of:
a ranking, by repeated learning time for the learner, of terms; a ranking, by repeated learning time for the learner, of terms in the personal vocabulary profile of the learner; a ranking, by repeated learning time across a plurality of learners, of terms in a plurality of personal vocabulary profiles of the plurality of learners; and a ranking, by vocabulary coverage rate, of the learner with respect to others of the plurality of learners.

11 . A system to build a learner's vocabulary, the system comprising:
a profile module configured to access a personal vocabulary pr

Assignees

• Fujitsu Ltd

Inventors

• Wang Jun
• Uchino Kanji

Classifications

• G09B7/04

  characterised by modifying the teaching program in response to a wrong answer, e.g. repeating the question or supplying a further explanation · CPC title

• G09B19/00 Primary

  Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass (teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26) · CPC title

• G09B19/04 Primary

  Speaking (with audible presentation of the material to be studied G09B5/04) · CPC title