コンピュータによる英文,英単語の計量的比較法 : 英語教材の客観的比較,検討法開発の試み

抄録

The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the functions of a set of computer programs developed locally at The Takefuta Laboratory of Linguistic Engineering to examine and compare English passages objectively. The first program counts the frequencies of the various linguistic units appearing in the passages, and then the other programs accomplish several kinds of data processing, including transformation of the frequency data, extraction of quantitative and qualitative features, application of a factor or a cluster analysis, etc., in, order to analyze, compare, and classify the sets of passages. We hope that such methods as the ones described here will improve the reliability and the validity of the criteria for selecting appropriate teaching materials, or testing materials, for a better teaching of English as a second language in Japan. We want to acknowledge here that the facilities of the Computer Center of Tokyo University and those of the Data Station of Chiba University were used to develop and test the programs.