The Role of Centering Theory's Rough-Shift in the Teaching and Evaluation of Writing Skills

摘要

Existing software systems for automated essay scoring can provide NLP researchers with opportunities to test certain theoretical hypotheses, including some derived from Centering Theory. In this study we employ ETS's e-rater essay scoring system to examine whether local discourse coherence, as defined by a measure of Rough-Shift transitions, might be a significant contributor to the evaluation of essays. Our positive results indicate that Rough-Shifts do indeed capture a source of incoherence, one that has not been closely examined in the Centering literature. These results not only justify Rough-Shifts as a valid transition type, but they also support the original formulation of Centering as a measure of discourse continuity even in pronominal-free text.