Robust English Knowledge Tracing via Profile-Driven Forgetting and Masked Consistency

Knowledge Tracing (KT) plays a pivotal role in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) by dynamically assessing learners’ evolving knowledge states. However, tracking the acquisition of English presents unique challenges. Existing KT models typically employ homogeneous, predefined forgetting mechanisms that fail to capture the highly individualized nature of linguistic memory retention. Furthermore, language assessment data is notoriously noisy, which leads models to overfit superficial performance rather than capturing true underlying linguistic competence. To address these issues, we propose a novel framework to robustly trace English language competence. First, we introduce a Learning-Profile-Driven Adaptive Forgetting mechanism. Unlike methods with shared forgetting rates, our approach constructs a dynamic and strictly causal profile from historical interactions to generate personalized cognitive parameters (e.g., individualized forgetting rates). These parameters synchronously modulate the decay of multi-level knowledge states, enabling the model to accurately capture the heterogeneous memory retention patterns of different learners. Second, we design a Masked Consistency Regularization training paradigm. By applying stochastic masking to historical responses and enforcing predictive consistency, we prevent the model from exploiting localized noise and “shortcut” learning, compelling it to mine robust and invariant language representations. Extensive experiments on real-world educational datasets demonstrate that our proposed framework significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in both prediction accuracy and noise resistance, offering a robust and interpretable solution for personalized language learning.