"One of the objectives of Langtern, a finalist application in the last edition of the SpinUOC entrepreneurship program of the Open College of Catalonia (UOC), is to facilitate the work of language teachers with tools that integrate artificial intelligence for more efficient lesson preparation. Laura Gutiérrez and Noé Casas, participants in the EduTECH Emprèn program, are the driving force behind the platform, a tool that allows teachers to create their own teaching materials easily and quickly thanks to a content search engine and artificial intelligence."
According to the authors, the project was created with the intention of "meeting the need of one of the founders as a Chinese student." This need arose from the fact that "no application was really useful to make the leap from the language level of textbooks to that of real material." This co-founder of the project is a programmer and has a PhD in artificial intelligence, so "he developed his own application."
When the authors started the project and investigated the market situation, they quickly realized that most language learners "don't see enough value in language applications to pay for them." Therefore - they explain - they decided to focus on language teachers, who they believe can offer greater value.
Mastering Copilot for business efficiency
Langtern's authors believe that their competition lies in textbooks, but also in platforms for language teaching materials. "In both cases, the material is canned," they point out. "These are texts that use simplified language, whose content is of little interest and which are not adapted to the students." They defend that their application offers language teachers "creative control over their lessons, providing them with tools that allow them to easily find real content on the desired topic and at the level required by their students, as well as an AI that automatically compiles this material from the selected content."
The strong side of the project
Compared to their competitors, Langtern's promoters see the strength of their project in "the "focus" "Our competition focuses on teachers who don't want to spend time searching for content and creating teaching material from it," they say. "We focus on teachers who put effort into their teaching and give them superpowers so they can get results without investing absurd amounts of their time."
One of the most important aspects of this project is undoubtedly the integration of artificial intelligence. "This is an important part of our value proposition," they emphasize. The authors of the project believe that "there is a lot of talk about AI replacing language teachers"," but instead they advocate "that AI empowers them" "Thanks to it and through Langtern, teachers can unleash the full adaptive potential that a language classroom can offer the student"," they add.
In the commercial boil-up phase
The project is currently in the "commercial phase"," which is about attracting the first customers, a phase that they are experiencing in better conditions, "not least thanks to the visibility that the UOC has given us with its stand at the 4YFN as part of the Mobile World Congress 2024." For the authors of the project, participating in SpinUOC is a "springboard" that gives them "the boost we need to boost our commercial activities"," they explain. "In addition, as a bonus, we take with us the fact that we have developed our message with top-class communication professionals."
The goal for this year is to "put Langtern on the map of the language teaching sector" Their main market is that of English and Chinese teachers, both in Spain and Latin America, "without losing sight of the potential of the Asian markets, where the demand for language teaching is enormous." The authors of the project are confident that their value proposition will attract language teachers from these markets and pave the way for them to enter other markets thanks to the support of new languages.
What does Langtern offer?
The platform offers a database of online materials such as YouTube videos, news and short stories that are searchable by keyword and difficulty level. The AI engine allows you to automatically create exercises from the same material, and the mobile app and web make it easy for students to do the exercises. Langtern adapts to the needs of both independent teachers and language schools and offers different types of subscriptions depending on how much service is needed."
