Revita is a smart platform for teaching and learning languages developed at the University of Helsinki. With the help of artificial intelligence, it adapts assignments to the student’s personal skill level.
Revita personalises the material for each individual student, continuously analysing their performance in different areas of language and adapting the student’s personal learning path and exercises accordingly.
“Instead of being too difficult or easy, exercises must be precisely at the right level,” says Associate Professor Roman Yangarber from the University of Helsinki, the project leader.
On the platform, students can choose the content from among topics of interest to them.
“For instance, medical students can study Finnish using medical books available on the platform. This way, you can read what you are interested in while learning the vocabulary of your field.”
Revita is targeted at advanced students who have reached level A1 in language studies and who are studying the language in a goal-oriented manner due to, for example, work or studies.
So far, there are no fit-for-purpose programs for independent or supervised language learning. Instead, learning takes place primarily under the direction of a teacher.
“You need a lot of practice when learning the basics.”
Globally, Revita has a large number of potential users.
“In Europe, for example, people are highly mobile, and many people need to learn a new language to get a job. We could offer our services to, for instance, large national language institutes whose mission is to teach a specific language around the world.”
Revita is not aimed at replacing teachers, but providing students with the opportunity to undertake additional studies flexibly in various environments and according to different schedules. The platform can also help teachers save time for other questions related to teaching.
The goal is to make language learning increasingly accessible.
“Learning languages is important. It expands your worldview. Learning other languages and cultures makes societies better.”
Revita is a project coordinated by the Department of Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki. At the moment, it is at the pilot stage. Next, the project will be developed further on the basis of data collected on students’ and teachers’ user experiences and related analyses.
One of Revita’s key strengths is the exceptional cross-disciplinary team behind the project, which includes top-level expertise in computer science and pedagogy. Revita is based on solid research in data science associated with artificial intelligence, linguistics and learning.
“The fact that people learn at their own pace is a major global issue. Not many have previously applied these techniques to languages, since teaching languages is much more complex than teaching, for example, biology. In addition to knowing the rules, you have to practise.”
No fit-for-purpose software solutions are available for advanced language learners to support their studies and learning.
Revita is a smart platform for language teaching and learning targeted at this group. The platform continuously analyses the student’s performance in different areas of language and adapts their personal learning path and exercises accordingly.
We are looking to partner with operators that provide language instruction who are interested in state-of-the-art technical solutions.