South Korea's LG CNS announced on Thursday it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Aeon, an education company operating over 300 direct language schools in Japan, to enter the Japanese education technology (EdTech) market.
LG CNS, a cloud computing services arm of South Korea's LG Corp, will implement digital transformation technologies across Aeon's educational businesses.
This includes developing an AI English conversation tutor app for Japanese public education, renewing the AI Speak Tutor 2 app, enhancing Aeon's online learning management system (LMS), and integrating and analysing online and offline learning data.
The two companies plan to launch a provisional AI Speak Tutor for School app, specialized for elementary and middle school students, based on the currently available AI Speak Tutor 2 for adult users.
Through this, they aim to enter the Japanese English public education market, providing AI-driven English conversation services using school textbooks to local elementary and middle school students.
Although Japan boasts a laptop and tablet PC penetration rate of over 99% among elementary and middle school students, there is a lack of available AI-based English conversation content.
AI Speak Tutor 2 will be revamped into an integrated English learning app that offers conversation, reading, listening, and testing features.
The AI in AI Speak Tutor 2 analyses users' English pronunciation, speech speed, and answer accuracy to assess their conversation skills and diagnose their proficiency levels.
LG CNS also plans to equip Aeon's online LMS with AI and big data-based integrated data management functions for students, instructors, and learning.
Through the LMS, Aeon will collect and analyse data such as consultation records, lecture attendance, and test results from both online and offline channels, enabling the provision of personalised 1:1 learning courses tailored to individual needs.