ApplyProof, a platform powered by ApplyBoard, has partnered with ETS and Pearson Education to make English language test scores easily verifiable. By enabling efficient verification of international student documentation, ApplyProof aims to make admission and study permit application processes more efficient.
Read the press release.
Still online and still loving it?! How has the pandemic affected your teaching? What does motivation mean and how can we, as teachers, create motivating lessons for our students online (and offline)? In this webinar, Rhona Snelling explores the meaning and role of motivation in the young adult/adult language classroom, and the positives of teaching online. This interactive webinar will discuss useful points to remember and present practical classroom activities and ideas.
Register here.
Please join us on Thursday, May 27th, from 5:30 to 6:30 EST for this exciting webinar being presented by Alan Schwartz, founder and CEO of EnglishCentral.com. He will talk about how far speech recognition software has come and how it can and is being used to help students learn English. He will also talk more about MiMi, EnglishCentral’s newest innovation.
Register by emailing salesandmarketing@englishcentral.net.
First ever English learning tool where learners can “say anything”
MiMism is the world’s first AI-powered, conversational English learning tool, where learners can say anything and get instant feedback on their vocabulary, grammar, nativeness, fluency and more.
Current chatbots for English learning use fixed dialogs, limiting learners to a fixed set of responses. For that reason, these “chatbots” are less effective helping students learn to speak English. With MiMi, users can speak freely, like they are speaking to a human, and get instant feedback.
How does it work?
MiMi is powered by our IntelliSpeech platform, which has been uniquely trained on hundreds of millions of lines of speech data gathered from non-native speakers in over 100 countries. To learn more about our Teacher-Machine Learning Loop, click here. This makes MiMi more accurate than even Google’s speech assistant on non-native speech.
Our vision
Being able to speak English allows people to expand the opportunities available to them, whether it be in their work, traveling the world, or pursuing their pastimes. The problem with most computer-based, English learning solutions is that they don’t effectively teach learners to speak, which is the key skill that is in demand.
EnglishCentral provides the most effective and affordable way to learn conversational English combining artificial intelligence with quality tutoring. Our vision is to provide everyone in the world with an affordable, personal English teacher.
MiMi is a key element to deliver on our vision. This version of MiMi integrates with our library over 15,000 authentic videos allowing users to discuss the videos with MiMi in their own words. Our plan is to continue to develop MiMi’s natural language understanding to become the world’s most capable virtual English teacher, delivering an affordable and personalised learning experience to English learners everywhere.
Human teaching remains at the core the EnglishCentral experience and we now have over 600 EnglishCentral teachers. MiMi doesn’t replace them; instead, she provides a great way for learners to warm up for live lessons, helping learners build confidence and motivate them to take lessons with live teachers. MiMi gives learners an opportunity to practice speaking English on their own, receive valuable feedback, gain confidence, and ultimately improve faster.
What’s Next For now, learners can say anything but MiMi is limited in her responses. Over time, MiMi will gain more dialog capabilities, allowing for more interactive conversations. By the end of the year, we will be able to drive a more personalised conversation, based on a user’s interest or specific learning objectives. Eventually, she will be able to teach and assess a learner’s ability to perform tasks, such as ordering a Pizza, or booking a hotel room.
Call or email us to find out more about EnglishCentral.com, becoming a BETA teacher or academic pricing.
The University World News recently published an article about the factors that have affected international student enrolments in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. All of these countries, with the exception of Canada, have seen their globla share of international students decline in recent years. The authors outline the reasons for decline (or increase) in each country as well as look at what needs to change in each country in order to promote sustainable growth going forward.
In what is undoubtedly good news for Canadian colleges and universities, it was announced on Friday that international students that have been kept out of the country because of the pandemic will be able to qualify for work permits even if they complete all of their studies online from out of the country.
Read more in The Star.
Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal has made it a goal to implement dual-language instruction in elementary schools across the state. The second language would not be the same everywhere; instead, it would be determined by local districts based on what would best serve their students.
Read more.
Recent surveys have shown that since the beginning of the pandemic, Canada has improved its desirability for international students. Viewed as both “safe and stable” and “open and welcoming”, Canada is now competing with the UK for top spot. We will point out that this means Canada has overtaken the US in this area.
Read more in CIC News.
While many of you may already be teaching online, there are many teachers who have been left unemployed by the pandemic. We came across a helpful article in the EL Gazette with information on how to get work teaching online, as well as tips on how to teach online.
Read Teaching Online.
As of October 20th, international students are again allowed into Canada provided that they are studying with an institution that has an approved covid-19 readiness plan. It will be interesting to see how quickly students return.
We should take this opportunity to give a shout-out to Languages Canada. They have been working hard since the outset of the pandemic to work with the government to advance the interests of this industry which, as we all know, has been hit particularly hard by this pandemic. They have pointed out that over 75% of English and French programs are at risk of permanently closing and that with international students contributing $22 billion to the economy every year, Canada needs international students as well. They developed the Study Safe Corridor, a well-thought out plan, that would ensure that students could get to Canada for their studies, ensuring that they depart safe, arrive safe and study safe.
Read more about the new regulations.
Read more about Languages Canada’s efforts.
