The Reliability of the Korean-Automatic Language Analysis System (K-ALAS): A Computerized Language Analysis System for Language Assessment

Abstract

Objectives: Although language sample analysis is essential for language evaluation, it is not widely conducted due to time constraints and difficulties in analysis. This study was conducted to evaluate the Korean-Automatic Language System (K-ALAS), which was developed to support language sample analysis.Methods: 50 language samples of young children aged 2 to 6 were analyzed by K-ALAS and a language analysis expert. The percentage agreement of the analysis results between K-ALAS and the expert on Eojeol, words, and morpheme, which are the basic units of language measurement, were calculated, and <i>t</i>-test and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted on the main language measures (MLUe, MLUw, MLUm, NTJ, NTE, NDJ, NDE, NTW, NDW, TTR) measured by K-ALAS and the expert.Results: The percentage agreement of the eogeol, word, and morpheme analysis between K-ALAS and the expert, was found to be very high at 97.87-99.88%, and the <i>t</i>-test results showed that there was no significant difference between all language measures measured by K-ALAS and the expert, and the result of correlation analysis was also very high with <i>r</i> = .972-1.000.Conclusion: This study confirmed that K-ALAS analyze language samples and measures the main language measures very accurately. We discussed the implications of clinical use of K-ALAS in relation to language diagnosis and intervention.