Selecting English multiple-choice cloze questions based on difficulty-based features

Abstract

English multiple-choice cloze questions require learners of various grammatical and lexical knowledge. Since the knowledge of learners is different, it is difficult to provide appropriate questions suitable for learners' understanding levels. This research determines features that affect to difficulties of questions and proposes the method for selecting questions according to the features for the stepwise learning. In order to manage the relations among questions, a question network is introduced in which questions are structured based on differences of each feature. Questions are selected by following appropriate links according the learners' answers. By following this question network, learners are able to tackle questions from easier one to difficult one according to their understanding levels. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.