Designing interactive exercises for corpus-based english learning with Hot Potatoes software

Abstract

Hot Potatoes is a popular software which can be conveniently used to create interactive Web-based educational exercises. Though there have been a number of studies on the use of this software in designing English learning exercises, no one has reported its application in designing corpus-based learning exercises to our knowledge. In the corpus-based English learning project carried out in a university in mainland China, English teachers with limited computer knowledge feel hard to design autonomous learning exercises to encourage students’ data-driven learning, so we find it necessary to resort to self-authoring softwares such as the Hot Potatoes. Therefore, in this paper we explore how to design interactive exercises for corpus-based English learning with embedded programmes in Hot Potatoes, namely, JQuiz, JCloze, JMix, JMatch, and the Masher. It is found that this software is very helpful in designing online exercises for students to carry out autonomous English learning based on corpora, but it would be more useful for data-driven learning if it could allow the direct loading of self-built corpora.