In this paper, we describe and evaluate two state-of-the-art systems for identifying and correcting writing errors involving English articles and prepositions. Criterion[superscript SM], developed by Educational Testing Service, and "ESL Assistant", developed by Microsoft Research, both use machine learning techniques to build models of article…

It is said that one important aspect of education is the production of coherent discourse (Halliday and Hasan, 1985). This is the speaker's or the writer's ability to organize relevant meanings in relation to each other, and this in turn requires the establishment of "chain interaction"--relations between components of a message--in a text. The…

The aim of this study is to explore the possibility of creating positive washback by focusing on factors in the background of the test development process and anticipating the conditions most likely to lead to positive wash-back. The article reports on a multiphase empirical study investigating the washback effects of a needs-based test of spoken…