Closing Ceremony of Field Testing of Key Component of Funded Project “Adaptive English Language Teaching Tools”

Lahore, June, 2010:  The closing ceremony of one of the key deliverables of funded project titled “Adaptive English Language Teaching Tools” was arranged by FAST-NU Lahore at Comprehensive High School for Girls, Lahore. The projects aims to develop a computer aided language learning system for imparting English language skills to Class IX students according to the objective set out in “National Curriculum of Pakistan” developed by the Ministry of Education.  Two main tasks of the adaptive system are to identify the concepts (and corresponding contents) that the student needs to learn and tailor the contents and teaching methodology to suit the student’s need.

Pertaining to this, field testing was conducted in a local public school (Comprehensive Girls High School) in Lahore to test the effectiveness of the tool and to identify the most effective teaching methodology. The tool is developed using a multi-modal interface with examples and illustrations which are relevant to local and cultural settings. AELTT tool is based on state of the art techniques in artificial intelligence and human computer interaction using intelligent user modeling.

For this field testing, 50 students who had passed 9^th class were categorized into three groups with each group being taught English grammar with different teaching methodology. The objective here was to identify the most effective teaching methodology. The results of this field testing data are now under analysis.

Dr. Arshad, Executive District Officer Education was the chief guest on this occasion. The ceremony was also attended by the team developing this tool which includes professionals from FAST-NU, Institute of Education and Research and National College of Arts. The ceremony was concluded with the distribution of certificates of distinction based on student’s performance in field testing and certificates of participation.

National ICT R&D Fund strongly promotes e-learning facilities to reach out to rural, semi-urban and urban population thus enhancing learning opportunities for all. National ICT R&D Fund remains committed to facilitate high-quality ICT initiatives by providing funding opportunities.