Project overview

Get to know DALAI-FIN
We develop research-backed tools to take your language skills to the next level

DALAI-FIN is a research project aiming to revolutionize adult second language teaching and learning for migrants who already have basic Finnish or Swedish skills, but require greater proficiency e.g., 

  • to become employed,
  • to support fluent communication at work or
  • to support their participation in the social, cultural, and political life in Finland.

Over the course of this project, we will develop a state-of-the-art, AI-boosted, research-backed language learning ecosystem together with Finnish and Swedish learners and teachers.

Project organization

Our work is distributed into five work packages, each contributing to the development of the ecosystem.

AI assistant development

This package is responsible for the overall technical development and integration of the AI ecosystem.

Pedagogical basis of AI-assisted learning

This package develops AI-based, pedagogically motivated exercises, and evaluating automatically provided feedback and assessment provided by the system. This work is developed together with language teachers.

Speech technology: Comprehension and production skills

This package develops and assesses automatic speech recognition (ASR) based tools for the system with two goals: to automatically assess speaking proficiency, and to create AI-based, pedagogically motivated listening comprehension and speaking exercises.

Large language models (LLMs) in teaching L2 and learner analytics

This package develops and assesses personalised language-learning content using large language models. Its second aim is to implement and evaluate a structured, AI-driven intervention integrated into formal adult education.

Cognitive basis for L2 learning in adulthood

This package investigates the cognitive basis of language learning in adulthood by carrying out experimental language learning studies in adult learners. The findings will be used to develop personalised AI-based applications e.g., to develop effective methods for teaching and learning prosodic and phonological characteristics of Finnish.