Computer Interpretation of Natural Language Explanations in the Model-It Learning Tool:

A Prototype System

Summary: A prototype of a natural language processing system to interpret and respond to student input has been developed. A hypothetical use would be to critique explanations of relationships defined within the Model-It ecosystem simulation tool developed by the ScienceWare project at the University of Michigan.

The prototype has the following capabilities:

  1. Parsing of natural english sentences.
  2. Case frame semantic interpretation using extended feature unification.
  3. Extraction of semantic information into a First Order Logic knowledge base.
  4. Forward chaining deduction of the implications of the interpretation, comparing the explanation to the relationship defined in Model-It.
  5. Generation of responses in a prioritized list.
The prototype does not:

  1. Have a full-scale grammar or lexicon.
  2. Interpret ungrammatical or semantically inconsistent statements.
RTF and as postscript.