Enhancing English education with Natural Language Processing: Research and development of automated grammar checking, scoring systems, and dialogue systems

Abstract. In this paper, we investigate the scope for transformational change that these technologies offer to English education. We examine how NLP can support English education through automated grammar checking having students text checked for grammatical errors in real time, automated scoring systems which evaluate written and verbal English against predefined criteria, and dialogue systems which interacts with learners in English to help develop their speaking and listening skills in an engaging and non-judgmental environment. We document the current status of these NLP applications, examine their educational benefits, highlight some of the challenges faced by the technologies and finally discuss the way forward for large-scale adoption of such technologies, bringing the research to a logical conclusion. We hope that this study will provide a comprehensive understanding of how NLP can be employed to transform education in English and also highlight some of the associated challenges and ethical dilemmas.