Developing a Pedagogically Oriented Interactive Reading Tool with Teachers in the Loops

Abstract

Reading is crucial for students' academic success and essential life skills. Particularly, the need for students to read in L2 English has grown due to its global significance. However, L2 readers often have limited opportunities for meaningful, interactive reading practice with immediate support. This paper introduces System A (Anonymized), a pedagogically oriented, web-based ICALL system designed to enhance L2 reading experiences, developed through an action research design involving teachers. System A offers a range of interactive features for students, including not only the autonomous identification of vocabulary and more than 650 grammar constructs, but making them interactively explorable in the text, providing detailed explanations and practical examples in contexts. To support effective teaching, System A employs a LLM for generating tailored reading comprehension questions and answer evaluation, with teachers actively involved. We present the development and application of the system from both technical and pedagogical perspectives to advance L2 learning research and refine educational tools.