Laureate International Universities has contracted with Alelo to expand its suite of English language learning simulations, to help learners achieve higher levels of proficiency.
People learning foreign languages often have insufficient opportunities to practice with native speakers. Alelo’s “virtual role-play” simulations let learners practice their conversational skills with simulated native English speakers in lifelike situations. Learners get immediate feedback and quickly make progress toward proficiency. The simulations also can also help learners brush up and maintain proficiency over time.
Alelo’s cloud-based Enskill platform uses speech recognition and natural language technology to analyze and interpret learner speech and generate responses. It creates personalized learning plans for each learner based upon their performance. Enskill continually collects data from learners, which is used to retrain and improve Enskill’s models of spoken dialogue and learner errors.
Simulations are aligned with the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) proficiency standards, which helps learners make measurable progress toward proficiency. Current simulations provide a foundation at the CEFR A level; future simulations will help learners transition to the CEFR B level. Many English students and even teachers around the world fail to progress beyond the CEFR A level.
Alelo will deliver this learning suite to Laureate’s worldwide network of institutions in 25 countries. Alelo also offers subscriptions to other schools and institutions around the world.
Alelo will demonstrate the expanded English-language Enskill suite at the upcoming TESOL conference in March 2018.
About The Author
Lewis Johnson
Dr. W. Lewis Johnson is President of Alelo and an internationally recognized expert in AI in education. He won DARPA’s Significant Technical Achievement Award and the I/ITSEC Serious Games Challenge, and was a finalist in XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling. He has been a past President of the International AI in Education Society, and was co-winner of the 2017 Autonomous Agents Influential Paper Award for his work in the field of pedagogical agents. He is regularly invited to speak at international conferences for distinguished organizations such as the National Science Foundation.