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Textometr: an online tool for automated complexity level assessment of texts for Russian language learners
- Authors: Laposhina A.N.1, Lebedeva M.Y.1
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Affiliations:
- Pushkin State Russian Language Institute
- Issue: Vol 19, No 3 (2021)
- Pages: 331-345
- Section: Mediadidactics and electronic means of instruction
- URL: https://journals.rudn.ru/russian-language-studies/article/view/27498
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.22363/2618-8163-2021-19-3-331-345
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Abstract
Evaluation of text accessibility seems to be an extremely urgent and labor-consuming task in the process of preparing texts for teaching Russian as a foreign language. On the other hand, the procedure of assigning a text to one of the levels on the CEFR scale (from A1 to C2) is well-formalized and described in the professional literature, which opens opportunities for its automation. This paper presents Textometr - a new free web-based tool for estimating CEFR level and other key statistics from any given text in Russian that can be relevant for adapting it for foreign students. The automated assessment of the text level here is based on a regression model, trained on the dataset of more than 800 texts from Russian textbooks for foreigners, applying several machine learning and natural language processing methods. In addition to the CEFR level, the tool provides information relevant for adapting the text to educational tasks: lists of keywords and words for a potential vocabulary list, statistics on the text coverage by frequency lists and CEFR-graded vocabulary lists (lexical minima), a frequency list of the text, a forecast of the time needed for reading. The tool shortages at the current stage of development and suggested ways to solve them are also discussed. Finally, the results of the test on the tool quality and the vectors for its further development are reported. Textometr can provide helpful information not only to teachers and guidance teachers, but to authors of textbooks and publishers to check the compliance of the text content with the declared level and educational goals.
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Figure 1. Interface of Textometr
Parameter values of the text from “Zhili-byli” textbook obtained by Textometr
Parameter | Value |
Text level declared in the textbook | А1 |
Predicted by Textometr level | A1. Elementary level |
Words | 200 |
Unique words | 121 |
Lexical diversity | 0.6 |
Sentences | 22 |
Average sentence length | 6.57 |
Keywords | Крым, Ялта, поезд, Симферополь, |
Most useful words | Берег, деревня, во-первых, купе, выбирать, |
Text coverage by A1 vocabulary list | 87% of text |
Words out of A1 vocabulary list | Во-первых, выбирать, ботанический, уютный, экспресс, |
Text coverage by A2 vocabulary list | 92% of text |
Words out of A2 vocabulary list | Современность, чудесный, во-первых, купе, |
Text coverage by B1 vocabulary list | 95% of text |
Words out of B1 vocabulary list | Современность, чудесный, купе, ботанический, |
Text coverage by B2 vocabulary list | 98% of text |
Words out of B2 vocabulary list | Современность, городок, ореанда, ботанический |
Text coverage by C1 vocabulary list | 98% of text |
Words out of C1 vocabulary list | Городок, ореанда, ботанический |
Text coverage by frequency list 5 000 | 96% of text |
Useful words that are out of lexical minima | Узнавать |
Rare words | Экспресс, ботанический, ореанда |
Detail reading for details will take | 7 min |
Skimming reading will take | 4 min |
Possible grammar topics | Prepositional case |
Frequency list of the text | В 13; мы 13; и 9; быть 6; на 6; я 5; |
About the authors
Antonina N. Laposhina
Pushkin State Russian Language Institute
Author for correspondence.
Email: ANLaposhina@pushkin.institute
leading expert, Laboratory of Cognitive and Linguistic Studies
6 Akademika Volgina St, Moscow, 117485, Russian FederationMaria Yu. Lebedeva
Pushkin State Russian Language Institute
Email: MULebedeva@pushkin.institute
Candidate of Philology, leading researcher of the Laboratory of Cognitive and Linguistic Research, Associate Professor of the Department of Methods of Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language
6 Akademika Volgina St, Moscow, 117485, Russian FederationReferences
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