Anyone who has studied a second language knows that pronunciation is one of the hardest aspects to master. In a classroom setting, beginners often don’t get enough individual coaching on how to produce completely new sounds. Sylby – a new app being developed with the support of Profund Innovation, the service institution for knowledge and technology transfer within the research division of Freie Universität Berlin – is set to change all this, with detailed explanations, measurable progress, and instant, personalized feedback for language learners.

It’s easy to get lost in the crowd when learning a new language – sometimes you just can’t get the hang of something and it takes a little longer to internalize it. This is especially true for pronunciation, as teachers of language courses tend to favor call and response when getting students to first try out words and phrases. “Repeat after me…” produces a chorus of speech sounds, but it is difficult to pinpoint who is having problems with specific words, especially with a diverse group of students with a variety of first languages.

This is where Sylby comes in. The educational app offers language learners individually tailored pronunciation lessons as a supplement to other modes of instruction. It utilizes AI and speech recognition technology to help users focus on sounds that are particularly difficult for them. For example, the sound [t͡s] in German (in words like Zahn, zehn, or Kiez) can be a challenge to people whose first language is Vietnamese or French. Sylby not only identifies which speech sounds are causing problems, but also includes video tutorials and exercises targeted specifically at improving them.

Pronunciation Issues Impact Everyday Life

For the founders of Sylby – Vera Scholvin, Paras Mehta, and Arthur O’Connor – the importance of proper pronunciation goes beyond the classroom. They see serious social and cultural implications for people who struggle with pronunciation as they try to make their way in a foreign country. Indeed, empathy for second-language users is a driving force for the three founders.

French grocery stores are just one of the reasons Vera Scholvin feels that a focus on pronunciation should be a more prominent part of foreign language learning. Scholvin, who received her doctorate in linguistics from Freie Universität Berlin and Sorbonne Nouvelle, remembers going shopping as an Erasmus student in Aix-en-Provence with a fellow exchange student from the UK. She was struck by the different treatment she and her friend received: Scholvin had put a lot of effort into French pronunciation; her friend had worked more on grammar. “She had a much stronger grasp of the language,” Scholvin recalls, “but because pronunciation was no communication barrier for me, the store employees treated me with more respect.” This type of discrimination based on pronunciation difficulties is widespread, Scholvin says. The entire Sylby team can personally relate.

An App for Multiple Language Combinations

“We’ve all experienced what it’s like to be treated differently because of our pronunciation,” says Paras Mehta, a computer scientist with a doctoral degree from Freie Universität who has lived in the UK, Spain, Greece, and India.

Mehta is a co-founder of Sylby, which is the second start-up he’s been a part of. In addition to the technical know-how that he brings to the team, Mehta is also deeply invested in promoting intercultural understanding. His blog and podcast “India2Germany” (https://india2germany.com) cover a range of topics for expats living in Germany – from building a career in game development to German fairytales.

Mehta hopes that the scalability of Sylby will mean a large number of people benefit from the language tools he is developing with his team. “Other products only focus on one language and are English centered. Our scalable approach will allow us to reach a much more diverse audience as we develop the app for a variety of language pairings.”

Quick and Personalized Support for Language Learners

From Swedish to Japanese to Estonian, Arthur O’Connor loves to explore different types of languages, learning techniques, and other language learning apps. He is the third co-founder of Sylby and is in charge of product design. O’Connor wants the app to provide an engaging and enriching user-centered experience, but also one that has a real positive impact.

“There are all kinds of apps that are focused on traveling, backpacking, and having fun. Sylby can help people like that, too, but we are focused on users who live in a foreign country and have struggled a lot. They aren’t necessarily doing this for fun, but actually need to work on pronunciation to improve something in their life: communication, relationships with others, social integration at work.”

Motivation and a Boost from Freie Universtität

Given their shared love of languages and unique professional and academic backgrounds, the founders of Sylby enjoy a special mix of expertise from linguistics, computer science, and communications. Starting a business together, however, was not necessarily on their radar before Profund Innovation, Freie Universität's own start-up support office, brought them together and provided them with the knowledge and tools they would need to launch a business and a new product. Scholvin says, “I would never have imagined that I would become the founder of a company, even just a year ago.”

Thanks to the research idea competition “Forum Junge Spitzenforschung,” Scholvin became aware of new possibilities to put her research into action – in the world of business. A post on LinkedIn for an event held by the NFUSION Entrepreneurs Network brought Scholvin and Mehta together; and O’Connor says that the Profund Innovation workshops on how to compose a proposal and business plan or how to conduct a market analysis have been invaluable.

EXIST Business Start-up Grant – a Stable Basis for Development

With the launch of the app scheduled for this summer, the team is looking forward to gleaning knowledge from their academic mentors – Judith Meinschaefer (a professor at the Institute of Romance Languages and Literature, Freie Universität), Raúl Rojas (a professor of computer science at Freie Universität), and Gerard de Melo (a professor of computer science at Universität Potsdam) – as they pursue the next steps in their business plan.

Mehta says he is particularly interested in hearing more about how to communicate with potential partners and reach out to investors. For now, he’s very grateful for the financial backing they’ve received through an EXIST Business Start-up Grant. “It means we don’t have to spend time worrying about how to cover our daily living expenses and can focus on developing our product.”

Start-ups Aren’t Just for Economics and Business Students

Scholvin would encourage fellow humanities scholars to consider the world of business as a place where their expertise is in high demand. “It seems like so many people in the humanities and social sciences undersell themselves and don’t think about how valuable their knowledge and skills might be outside of academia – for example, in mobile app development. Profund Innovation opened up new avenues for my professional life that I was definitely not expecting.”

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A German translation of this article is also available online in campus.leben, the online magazine of Freie Universität Berlin.