Classi to launch EnglishCentral for High Schools in Japan

Classi Partnership brings EnglishCentral to over 770,000 students in Japan

Tokyo, Japan September 11, 2019  – EnglishCentral, the leading provider of online English conversation solutions, will become a default option on Classi’s cloud- based learning platform, expanding EnglishCentral’s reach to over 2,000 schools and 770,000 students in the K-12 market in Japan.

Started in 2014, Classi is the largest provider of learning platforms to the K-12 market in Japan.  Classi is a joint venture between Softbank, one of the largest mobile providers in Japan, and Benesse, the largest educational service company in Japan.

Students using EnglishCentral on Classi will be able to practice their speaking  and listening using interactive video lesson, including EnglishCentral’s IntelliSpeech℠ engine to give students instant feedback on their pronunciation and fluency.    

Schools can adopt EnglishCentral for their curriculum in 3 ways:

1. Choose from one of over 10 courses designed by EnglishCentral for the K-12 market;
2. Design their own curriculum using EnglishCentral library of over 14,000 video lessons; or
3. Work with EnglishCentral to transform the school existing textbooks into an interactive version enabling speaking practice on EnglishCentral.  For instance, this March, the leading Japanese publisher,  Kirihara and EnglishCentral launched an interactive version of Kirihara’s government approved textbooks that is one of the textbooks on the platforms.  

Classi’s selection of EnglishCentral to be part of its platform for the K-12 market  is part of a larger trend in the Japan K-12 market to emphasize speaking and listening.  The catalyst for this is upcoming changes in the guidelines published by the Ministry of Education for university entrance exams starting in 2020 that prioritize speaking skills.

Many K-12 schools are therefore actively looking to boost students speaking ability in anticipation of these changes. During a recent onsite visit to an elementary school in Tokyo, Japan’s Minister of Communications highlighted EnglishCentral’s unique online English conversation solution as an effective method to improve student’s English speaking ability in the elementary school market as well.

EnglishCentral’s General Manager for Japan, Hiro Matsumura, explains the EnglishCentral program to the Minister of Internal Affairs & Communications at a Tokyo Elementary School.

“We are delighted about the increasing traction the EnglishCentral platform is gaining in the K-12 market,” said Hirofumi Matsumura, General Manager of EnglishCentral Japan.  “”We anticipate 2018 will be a break out year for speech enabled English solutions in the K-12 market”.