The tech giant Google recently launched a new English learning feature in its Android app. This initiative aims to help users improve their English skills through 3-5 minute interactive sessions.
A new way to learn English
Google’s new feature activates when users use the search engine to translate English. Sessions are interactive and include questions based on real-life situations to help users practice words. Subsequently, Google analyzes the user’s pronunciation and provides other example sentences where these words could be used.
The process of learning English through the Google app is similar to that offered by Duolingo for several years. There is a calendar to schedule your sessions and a list of words you have learned or practiced. The latter includes a color code to indicate whether you have pronounced the sentence correctly.
Personalized feedback to improve your English
To implement personalized feedback, Google partnered with teachers and English teaching specialists. The tool uses authentic context and relies on repetition to improve retention. Users will know if their answer is correct or if it is understandable to an interlocutor.
You can translate it individually if you don’t know a word or phrase. To avoid problems related to out-of-context translation, Google considers the relationship between the words and the sentence. This way, users will understand that certain words will have a different meaning depending on the place or words that precede them.
Using artificial intelligence for learning English
One of the most important features of this tool is semantic analysis. Google uses its LaMDA and PaLM models to judge whether an answer makes contextual sense. This is combined with a coding architecture to compare the input with a set of accepted answers.
“One of the main goals of conversation is to clearly communicate intent. So we designed a feature that visually tells the learner whether their answer was relevant to the context and whether a speaker would understand it,” Google said in a blog post. “We had to carefully balance this technology to focus on the clarity of intent rather than syntax correction.”
Availability of the English learning tool
English practice will be available for users in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, India, and Indonesia. This function will be integrated into the Google application on Android in the coming days, so you need to keep it updated. Google has promised to expand this feature to other countries in the future but has not committed to a specific date.
In conclusion, this new feature from Google is great news for anyone who wants to improve their English skills. Thanks to artificial intelligence and short, interactive sessions, learning English has never been so easy and accessible.
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