Abstract A Model of “Knowledge Evaluation“ for Foreign Language Distance Learning

pages 225-235 The concept of intelligent multimedia systems greatly interests foreign language teachers. The use of computers and networks gives direct access to media that support such communication, and makes the teaching much easier to individualise. Furthermore, individual distance work creates a didactic situation we do not yet know much about, different from the usual direct teacher-student interaction. This paper describes the GCSE server (General Certificate of Secondary Education), a system for evaluating French language learning. The goal of the project is to design an interactive environment that motivates the student in language learning by the use of multimedia and natural language techniques. Our main interest is focused on the evaluation of the student’s written response. We describe how the design of a test environment for languages is difficult to manage: the modelling of the linguistic context and the treatment of language are badly understood, the learning of the language is relatively contextual, and interactive computer use creates a particular didactic situation which is unfamiliar. Finally, we show that the particular student-computer interaction during language learning can be progressively modelled with an iterative development methodology using a model of “Situation of Knowledge Evaluation“. Key-words: French language learning, knowledge evaluation, web sit