This startup is using artificial intelligence to improve spoken English skills

How Elsa's AI & speech recognition tech is helping non-native English speakers

English has emerged as the world's most popular speaking language, with more than 10 per cent of India's population well versed and fluent in it. The power of the ELSA app is to recognise what you are speaking at the lowest common denominator or phoneme level. Every sound you are articulating on the app gets recorded, analysed, and then you get pinpoint feedback as to the areas you are strong in and where you need improvement. India is diverse, with over 22 major languages and over 720 dialects. The accuracy of ELSA's AI is the highest in the market because ELSA possesses the largest audio dataset of non-native speakers, and its AI can adapt depending on the speaker's native tongue. ELSA ensures that one is fluent when speaking the language. The app's technology caters to different dialects so that the feedback is provided with remarkably high accuracy leading to constant improvement in users. With our proprietary AI speech recognition technology, we can accurately detect whenever users make pronunciation errors, identify the type of error, and give detailed feedback on how to correct it.

How Elsa is driving English proficiency for organisations to gain a competitive edge and transformative growth in the market?

English has become the choice, and due to its widespread nature, English is used in all communications of the majority of the company. The higher your level of fluency in English the better it is for your employer. This presents a more efficient, professional image for your company when doing business with others. In India, ELSA is working with organizations across several domains and verticals, including hospitality, airline, retail and IT/ITES/KPO/BPO. ELSA is currently empanelled as a fluency coach and learning tool in a top four ITeS company in India and one of India's largest private-sector airlines and a top three hospitality brand in India. With these strong partnerships in place, ELSA is expanding its B2B presence across other customers in similar sectors.

How ELSA is helping with the right pronunciation in India?

The app is built in a way that has the ability to practise with you. Using artificial intelligence, will keep repeating, hearing back and training, and this is one solid point of what this app can do. The company has the largest number of non-English speaking voice samples. It offers four-lesson types — listening, syllable stress, word pronunciation and dialogue, covering 40 topics and 1600 lessons. Once you download the app, you have to take a 5-minute assessment test which identifies the user's pronunciation proficiency and checks the current base-line level. This then can be used to build out a personalised and adaptive curriculum tailored to the user's current abilities.

Recently, Telangana government instructed teachers to take English classes to encourage English medium in government schools, how did it impact you?

Teachers were teaching in Telugu and were recently instructed to take their classes in English medium as a part of the State government's initiative to encourage English medium in government schools. This saw a number increase in ELSA app downloads in the State as it helps children and teachers improve their English pronunciation. In just eight months, we have received over 15 lakhs downloads. ELSA's app is available in both iOS and Android devices, where advanced features are provided for subscribed users.

Telangana State is also one of the largest in terms of sending students abroad for higher education, especially to the US. A large number of such international education aspirants are keen to hone their oral communication skills and they find the non-invasive and personalized approach of ELSA to be quite compelling.

How ELSA works differently from any other English learning app

The app works differently from any other English learning app because it is designed to make it easy for a user to speak the language and practice regularly. ELSA Speak is the only English speaking & communication learning app that can pinpoint your mistakes in every sound you make, compared to a native speaker, and gives you instant feedback. There are currently five main lesson types in the app:

1) Pronunciation: users learn to pronounce words, phrases, and sentences.

2) Word Stress: users learn how to stress syllables within words.

3) Listening: users learn how to hear the difference between similar sounds.

4) Conversation: users learn how to pronounce sounds in the context of conversations.

5) Intonation: users learn how to stress words within sentences.re4

How many users does ELSA have in India?

We have over 3 million downloads in India recorded last month, resulting in more than 40 million users globally. The app saw maximum downloads from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi. In addition to growing its user base, ELSA has partnered with more than ten enterprises from diverse industries, including hospitality, airlines, higher education, and edtech such as Uolo, Stones2Milestones, Sahi.ai etc.

What are some of the key features available on the ELSA application?

Users can also use the 'listening feature' where they can learn how to hear the difference between similar sounds. The app also allows the user to have Conversations & Intonation where users learn how to stress words within sentences. ELSA offers more than 1600 practical lessons and 30,000,000 practice exercises. Elsa has more than 1500+ lessons covering 5000 phrases, words, and sentences, 40+ daily topics & 21 pronunciation skills corresponding to 21 planets.

Users can practice a variety of accent skills through different lesson types. App has features where users can improve their pronunciation by learning to pronounce words, phrases, and sentences. Another feature is Word Stress, where users learn how to stress syllables within terms.