Voices of the future: CTI's journey in AI-powered language education

The Chinese Testing International Company Limited (CTI) was established in 2007. CTI is a professional international Chinese education and test service company, operating a series of Chinese proficiency tests with HSK—short for Chinese Pinyin ‘Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi’, the English abbreviation of which is HSK, an international standardized test of Chinese language proficiency—as the flagship brand. After years of development, HSK has become the third-largest language test after IELTS and TOEFL. CTI specializes in providing international Chinese language education with a focus on catering to Chinese language learners across the globe. There are more than 1,000 certified teachers from universities and research institutes for the test item design and the test scoring in CTI.

CTI practices operations and the concept of learner-centered and adheres to development concept of scientific research to empower international Chinese education to maximally meet the global demand for Chinese language learners and Chinese education institutions. CTI has established several research funding projects focusing on AI and partnered with Microsoft Research Asia and Microsoft Azure AI Speech since 2021.

Rapid development is key to enable the international Chinese language education and test service company to meet the global demand for Chinese language learning and institutions. Presently, CTI has set up 1,330 test centers across 162 countries, catering to over 50 million Chinese learners worldwide. CTI has a mission to promote the deep integration of international Chinese language education with AI. As part of this effort, the company is expediting the development of advanced facial recognition, test recognition, and intelligent assessment tools, including automatic proposition and scoring systems. By utilizing adaptive testing as well as cloud technology as breakthrough points, CTI had hopes of upgrading online learning and testing to intelligent learning and testing. “The role of pronunciation in second language learning cannot be overstated," says Xie Nini, Deputy Chief Test Design and Research Officer. "Many Chinese learners have limited exposure to the language, resulting in imperfect pronunciation which affects their oral expression. This has become a major pain point for many learners, and CTI is concerned about addressing this need. We aim to introduce Microsoft's speech technology for learning and correction purposes.”

Using Azure AI Speech Services, CTI built an application, Learn Pronunciation to HSK that reflects intelligence, integration, and diversity to enable a new module of Chinese learning and facilitate development of digital education and teaching resources. Its first key feature is intelligent pronunciation assessment technology.

The application leverages Azure AI Speech pronunciation assessment to provide instant, accurate, and targeted pronunciation assessment feedback to Chinese language learners around the world, thus helping them improve their communication skills. By providing assessment feedback that targets weaknesses in pronunciation, learners can build good pronunciation habits for real-life communication. “Our technology is equipped to provide comprehensive feedback, and it also employs a reinforcement loop to help users improve on their weaknesses," explains Wang Hua, Project Supervisor. "For instance, if a user struggles with a particular error, our system will offer related practice to help them improve.”

Integration of learning links of Learn Pronunciation to HSK provides the Chinese learners complete learning loop of teaching, learning, practicing, testing, and assessment. The application is banded with a multi round learning mechanism. The system looks on the points where Chinese learners have made mistakes, and the application will send out the corresponding contents of the practice and quiz parts so that learners can practice repeatedly. Helping Chinese language learners to overcome difficult pronunciation, effectively improving the efficiency of pronunciation learning and consolidating the foundation of pronunciation.

Learn Pronunciation to HSK also covers the course content of different difficulty levels which can meet the needs of Chinese language learners at different levels to a certain extent, the course content is scientific, practical, and interesting, and includes word phrases dialogues, tongue twisters, and ancient poems allowing the Chinese learners to experience Chinese culture while learning Chinese with the support of AI technology.

CTI provides services for Chinese language learners globally, focusing on their pronunciation. They partnered with Microsoft Research Asia and Microsoft Azure AI Speech team, leveraging expertise in linguistics and AI for English as a second language assessment, and applied this technology to Chinese scenarios, integrating it into CTI's Learn Pronunciation to HSK app. This integration provides learners with precise, immediate feedback on pronunciation, fulfills assessment needs, and promotes further digital transformation at CTI. CTI chooses to collaborate with Microsoft because Microsoft speech-related technology has been successfully applied to English as second language scenarios with advance technology and accurate assessment result. CTI believes that the operation with Microsoft Speech team, which combines linguistics and AI will migrate pronunciation assessment to Chinese scenario and embed it to Learn Pronunciation to HSK, which will provide Chinese learners instant, reliable, and fine graded feedback. CTI aims for Chinese learners all over the world to build the digital pronunciation learning application, which empowers intelligence, diversity, and cultural value.

Learn Pronunciation to HSK utilizes Azure AI technology to create a mobile Chinese pronunciation learning classroom for Chinese learners around the world, where every Chinese learner has a dedicated Chinese intelligent pronunciation assistant teacher. Learn Pronunciation to HSK aims to listen to Chinese learners' voices and CTI is committed to helping learners overcome the challenge of difficult pronunciation and improving overall proficiency. “With the continuous upgrading of computer hardware and software, as well as the significant increase in computer power, information technology has permeated the whole process of psychological and educational measurement, making it more intelligent and convenient,” says Zheng Chanjin, Associate Professor, The Department of Educational Psychology, East China Normal University.

The utilization of Azure AI Speech by CTI provides consistent and highly accurate evaluation results for students to practice with, resulting in increased productivity, material resources, manpower savings, and enhanced educational experiences.