Automatic Assessment to Enhance Online Dictionaries Consultation Skills

Abstract

We live in a digital world and our students are surrounded by technologies: it is essential that they learn how to use the digital tools available for education purposes. As for language teaching, among the most recent technologies we can find online dictionaries. They could play a key role to foster language competences, and yet they are not very popular in schools. In order to increase the use of online dictionaries among students, the University of Turin has promoted the nationwide project 'Esplorare (con) i Dizionari Digitali'. This project makes the most of a Learning Management System (https://esploradizionari.i-learn.unito.it/) that allowed the creation of a student-centered environment. The integration of the platform with an Automatic Assessment System allowed the design and creation of tests to be carried out through the consultation of online dictionaries. In this paper, we analyze the answers given by almost 600 students in 5 different tests on different languages, and we try to understand whether the methodologies and technologies adopted have been influential in making students "meta-linguistic aware" and researchers "meta-design aware". The results obtained show in a statistically significant way that the students who made a larger use of online dictionaries performed better in the tests.

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