Thursday, 12 October 2006
Dr Michael Harrington, LanguageMAP team member
A new online test, backed by rigorous Queensland research, will allow teachers and students learning English to cheaply and independently assess student progress.
LanguageMAP is the brainchild of experts in applied linguistics, second language learning, and IT at The University of Queensland (UQ), and is currently in the testing and commercialization process.
"There are millions of people all over the world learning English as a second language," Dr Michael Harrington said, senior lecturer in linguistics at UQ.
"Reliable and accurate English tests are traditionally expensive, labour-intensive, and time-consuming."
Developed to fill a gap in the massive global market for English language learning, LanguageMAP has access to a global demographic of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, so test results are normalised, allowing the student's progress to be compared to an appropriate peer group.
"LanguageMAP has developed an innovative and simple way to test the skills of English students in real-time, in as little as 10 minutes," Harrington said.
The innovation is a suite of tests designed to assess all aspects of the English language skill of a speaker - grammatical, vocabulary breadth and fluency, and pronunciation.
LanguageMAP employs leading edge speech utterance capture and processing technologies which are used to assess a student's phonological competence.
According to the LanguageMAP team, the system is designed to test practical, micro-level language skills, and to provide specific, diagnostic feedback.
"LanguageMAP is globally accessible, provides independent student evaluation, is low cost, and is certified by UQ," Harrington said.
"There is proven research behind LanguageMAP and we've completed trials successfully in both Australia and internationally. We're ready to launch and take LanguageMAP around the world."
A finalist in UQ Business School's Enterprize competition, LanguageMAP would use the $100 000 to secure further funding and form a spin-out company with a trademarked brand name.
Other finalists are GetCracking (concrete roads will be cheaper to build and last longer), Pepfactants (technology break-through for industries using emulsions and foams), BioShield (vaccine for a virus that has devastated the aquaculture industry globally), Ausonex (hearing test instrument that doubles speed of testing), Neutropharma (transfusible neutrophils), and Imprezzeo (image recognition software).
To secure your place at Enterprize Pitch Day on Friday 13 October, contact Amy Hsylop a.hyslop@business.uq.edu.au
Press quality photos are available.
Media enquiries:
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