Quizzes on tap: Exporting a test generation system from one less-resourced language to another

Abstract

It is difficult to develop and deploy Language Technology and applications for minority languages for many reasons. These include the lack of Natural Language Processing resources for the language, a scarcity of NLP researchers who speak the language and the communication gap between teachers in the classroom and researchers working in universities and other centres of research. One approach to overcoming these obstacles is for researchers interested in Less-Resourced Languages to work together in reusing and adapting existing resources where possible. This article outlines how a multiple-choice quiz generator for Basque was adapted for Irish. The Quizzes on Tap system uses Latent Semantic Analysis to automatically generate multiple choice test items. Adapting the Basque application to work for Irish involved the sourcing of suitable Irish corpora and a morphological engine for Irish, as well as the compilation of a development set. Various integration issues arising from differences between Basque and Irish needed to be dealt with. The QOT system provides a useful resource that enables Irish teachers to produce both domain-specific and general-knowledge quizzes in a timely manner, for children with varying levels of exposure to the language. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.