Int. J. Knowledge and Web Intelligence, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2013 79 Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Multiple-choice cloze exercise generation through English grammar learning support Ayse Saliha Sunar* Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University, Furu-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan, Email: saliha@watanabe.ss.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp *Corresponding author Yuki Hayashi Faculty of Science and Technology, Seikei University, 3-3-1 Kichikoki-kitamachi, Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180-8633, Japan Email: hayashi@st.seikei.ac.jp Toyohide Watanabe Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University, Furu-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan Email: watanabe@watanabe.ss.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp Abstract: Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is a learning support system which provides an individual learning environment to students. ITS gives learning contents to students according to the learning strategy based on their understanding degree. Many traditional ITSs, however, have static predefined contents without regard to individual preferences. It causes that students lose their motivation. Our research objective is to develop a system which automatically generates multiple-choice cloze exercises from input text according to the student’s understanding. Our target is supporting individual study of learning English grammar. In this paper, we propose a representation method of English grammar by Part-of-Speech (POS) tags and specific words as units and the semantic relations of the units. In addition, the calculation method for estimating understanding degree of the student and the learning strategy for generating the next exercise proposed regarding the understanding degree of student and the relations of grammar rules. Keywords: ITS; intelligent tutoring systems; English grammar learning; knowledge representation; student model; learning strategy; MAGIC. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Sunar, A.S., Hayashi, Y. and Watanabe, T. (2013) ‘Multiple-choice cloze exercise generation through English grammar learning support’, Int. J. Knowledge and Web Intelligence, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.79–92. Biographical notes: Ayse Saliha Sunar received her BE from Gazi University of Turkey in 2008. Currently, she is a Master student in Department of Systems