SoapBox Labs Powers Automated Assessments for Lingumi’s Preschool English learning platform

Research shows that learning a new language is easier when you’re young, but until recently very few tools existed to support younger children in language learning outside of a school setting, especially where parents lacked the knowledge to step in and help. Enter Lingumi, the company behind a platform that makes English learning effective and affordable for children aged 2-6.

Today, SoapBox Labs, the company whose award-winning speech recognition technology is specifically designed for younger children, has announced its partnership with Lingumi. Following a successful trial period, SoapBox’s technology is now embedded into the Lingumi app to provide automated pronunciation assessment for tens of thousands of families. See it working here:

SoapBox Labs’ speech recognition technology was built for young children and is used to power assessment for literacy and language learning products as well as for interactive voice features in toys and home devices. With this partnership, SoapBox’s technology enables the Lingumi app to ‘listen’ as children complete speaking tasks, and then assess the child’s pronunciation and fluency. The feedback is immediate, just as it would be from a helpful adult.

Welcoming the Lingumi partnership, SoapBox Labs CEO Dr Patricia Scanlon said: “The team here at SoapBox Labs are big fans of Lingumi’s highly engaging and innovative approach to English language learning for young children, so our partnership with them really represents a meeting of minds and of missions. By integrating the SoapBox API, Lingumi can now assess and track the English speaking progress of thousands of children every day, motivate them to accelerate their learning, and provide feedback to their parents, all in a scalable and cost-effective way.”

Toby Mather, CEO and Founder at Lingumi continued: “At Lingumi we’re developing the first genuinely effective English teaching platform for pre-school children, providing a foundation in English for non-English speakers before they reach primary school. Today’s partnership with SoapBox Labs means we can integrate automated assessments of spoken language into our sophisticated assessment engine, which is a huge step forward in the value we bring to our young learners and their families.”