News Kyotango JHS employing generative AI for English classes

The ELSA Speak app is designed to improve the students' English pronunciation and speaking ability, and the education board says the initiative is the first of its kind at public junior high schools in Japan. The app, developed with the support of tech giant Google LLC's AI investment arm, will go into full-scale use at six junior high schools in Kyotango from mid-May, according to the municipal education board. The board said the app has 40 million users in 101 countries. Utilizing AI speech recognition technology, the app automatically evaluates each student's English pronunciation at the word and sentence level, helping them improve. The app can furthermore create an individually tailored curriculum by analyzing pronunciations each student is poor at, so they can swiftly identify and tackle their weak points.

Click to expand...

For example, if a student sets "I'm traveling in the U.S. and am lost" as the initial situation, the AI will become an English conversation practice partner for that situation. Afterward, the AI will check the student's pronunciation, grammar and overall conversation style, and indicate areas for improvement. The education board says the tablet can be taken home and "has the advantage of allowing students to practice English conversation repeatedly and without anyone watching them."

Click to expand...