A Tool for Creating Glossed Japanese Reading Materials

Abstract

We present a system that assists Japanese-language teachers with the creation of electronic reading materials which contain glosses. Although glosses are traditionally generated for only content words, we propose a hybrid method for identifying and glossing functional expressions and conjugations, which enables the system to both generate more glosses and display them in an appropriate manner for learners. Coverage analysis and empirical evaluations show that our hybrid method allows our system to cover more functional expressions and conjugations than previous systems while maintaining good performance. Feedback received during interviews with Japanese-language teachers show that they react very positively toward both the new glosses and the system in general. Finally, results from a survey of Japanese as a foreign language learners show that they find the new glosses for functional expressions and conjugations to be very helpful.