With key players like Duolingo, Babel, and Memrise continuing to rise through the ranks, the digital language learning market is crowded. But that hasn’t stopped one Boston-based company from entering the multibillion-dollar space.
LIT, founded by Babson College student Mati Amin earlier this year, is a language learning application that provides “Language Proficiency through Digital Stories.”
With LIT, students in fifth to 12th grade receive digital stories from six different levels ranging from “Novice Low” to “Intermediate High.” These animated stories combine high-frequency vocabulary, common language functions and visual cues to increase language acquisition for students. Eventually, the company will serve students in kindergarten to fourth grade as well.
“The traditional methods of language learning, they're outdated—so memorization doesn't work,” said Amin, who heads up LIT as CEO. “What works is listening to comprehensible input, which is comprised of whole complete language with context. So even if you didn't speak Spanish, and I read out three sentences and showed you a picture, you would actually be able to understand the meaning. You won't have to force yourself to memorize. Then, I show you that same picture and those three sentences again, and over time, you will be able to naturally acquire that language and become proficient.”
LIT provides postwork activities, grading tools and progress-tracking for teachers. Instead of focusing on immediate output, such as memorizing and regurgitating grammar instruction, the startup’s postwork focuses on four domains of language learning: listening, reading, writing and speaking. It includes exercises like true and false, visual image matching, reading and translating paragraphs and having students record themselves speaking the language.
Lit’s Gradebook and Progress Management features allow teachers to allocate and evaluate assignments from a singular location. Teachers are also able to track the progress of individual students and full classes over the course of a year.
Founded at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the startup was officially incorporated in April. In mid-July, LIT launched a beta version of its software. The beta version, which offers Spanish, is free to test out and currently has 5,000 users who have completed more than 125,000 activities with the software.
Once the beta testing is finished, Amin plans to operate LIT on a subscription-based model. The startup will charge teachers per month or year for access to the company’s digital library, postwork and the ability to add classrooms and students to the digital learning environment.
Later on, the company will also offer a subscription package to independent learners who want to learn a language on their own.
Amin isn’t concerned about entering a crowded market. He says apps like Duolingo “gamify” language learning and put too much focus on low-frequency vocabulary and immediate output with little focus on repetition.
“In the content that we provide, in addition to high-frequency vocabulary and common language functions, there is a ton of repetition,” Amin said. “The other thing is, popular language learning platforms focus too much on immediate output. With immediate output, such as learning vocabulary and doing a quiz afterward, you don't remember that if there's not enough repetition—if there is not enough connecting dots and making it comprehensible. Kids remember stories better, not games.”
At the end of the day, LIT has entered the market to achieve one goal—“to literally be in every classroom,” said Amin.
LIT is one of BostInno’s 2020 Inno on Fire. Celebrate LIT and the other winners at our virtual awards ceremony Dec. 3. Register here.
Emma Campbell is a contributing writer for BostInno.
