Lingua.ly 融资 100 万美元，欲将互联网变成语言学习工具
语言学习应用 Lingua.ly 已经完成 100 万美元融资，投资方包括乌蒂·尼特泽（Udi Netzer）、沙伊·莱帕里（Shai Rephaeli）、Yochy Investments 和 Seed Fund 1776 等天使投资人或投资机构。Lingua.ly 的目标是将学生从枯燥的传统语言学习模式中解脱出来。
Lingua.ly 的网站和应用会基于词汇表和每名用户的兴趣，从互联网上抓取文章。2014 年 4 月份，Lingua.ly推出了免费的安卓版应用（现在 iOS 版应用也已上线），当时 TechCrunch 网站对这家创业公司进行了报道。
随着新一轮融资的完成，Lingua.ly 的融资总额已经达到 180 万美元。语言学家、Lingua.ly 公关负责人梅雷迪思·塞西莉亚（Meredith Circerchia）表示，该公司会利用新的融资将 Lingua.ly 免费工具推向新的平台和新的市场，这些工具目前已作为 Chrome 扩展件和安卓版和 iOS 版应用上线。Lingua.ly 计划通过高级会员功能来创收，它将在今年晚些时候将这种功能整合到网页端和应用上。
Lingua.ly 对于想要学习各种语言的人来说是一个非常棒的学习工具，因为它上面配有抽认卡（flashcard），抽认卡有提前录制的发音、词典和重复性游戏来帮助学员记住单词，同时软件上还有多种文章可供浏览，文章中出现的词汇是常用的，而不像传统课本中经常出现的单词那么正式和呆板。
“根据从上下文获取词汇方面所做的研究，我们获得了 Lingua.ly 的算法，”塞西莉亚说。“它推算出你对一门外语掌握的词汇量，然后在报纸上专门为你找到一些文章，这些文章中的大部分词汇是你认识的。”
“这是因为当你熟悉句中的大多数词汇时，你便可以根据上下文推测新词的含义。即使你猜错了，花费一些精力思考一个词的含义，也有助于加深记忆，”她补充说。
根据用户兴趣提供更加全面的上下文和量身定制的内容，恰恰是 Lingua.ly 区别于其他语言学习软件（如 多邻国和 Memrise）的地方，也可以成为其他软件的有益补充。塞西莉亚说，Lingua.ly 主要是针对已经掌握了大量词汇的中高级学生，这些学生还想要改善和巩固他们的语言技能。
Lingua.ly 应用已支持 10 种语言：英语、法语、西班牙语、意大利语、葡萄牙语、德语、荷兰语、俄语、阿拉伯语和希伯来语。学习其他语言的用户可以自己制作抽认卡，在 Lingua.ly 字典中查找词汇，但是他们享受不到发音和查找相关文章的妙处。很多人还要求该公司添加北欧和亚洲的一些语言。今年晚些时候，Lingua.ly 有望添加几种语言，并优化支持印度语和波斯语等语言的词典。
Lingua.ly 将来的功能将基于语言的自然形成过程，这有助于它针对每个用户对文章进行量身定做，并且更加多样化。塞西莉亚表示，这个网站及相关软件将为初学者增添更多学习工具并向多媒体方向发展，因为初学者还没有深入阅读文章的能力。同时，Lingua.ly 也在开发适合教室使用的功能，如老师可以使用的电子板。
Lingua.ly, Which Turns The Internet Into A Language Textbook, Raises $1M
Lingua.ly, which saves language students from the tedium of traditional textbooks, has raised $1 million. Participants in the round include Udi Netzer (a returning investor), Shai Rephaeli, Yochy Investments, and Seed Fund 1776.
The site and apps pulls articles from the web-based on vocabulary lists and each users’ interests. TechCrunch last covered the startup when it launched its free Android app in April 2014 (it is also now available for iOS).
The latest funding brings Lingua.ly’s total raised so far to $1.8 million. Meredith Circerchia, a linguist and the startup’s director of communications and e-learning, says the fresh capital will be used to bring Lingua.ly’s free tools, which are available online as a Chrome extension and as Android and iOS apps, to new platforms and markets. The startup plans to monetize through premium features that it will release on the web and its apps later this year.
Lingua.ly is a nifty tool for aspiring polyglots because it has flashcards with recorded pronunciations, a dictionary, a repetition game to help with memorization, and several categories of articles to browse so users can see the words in common usage, instead of the more formal and stilted examples often found in textbooks.
“The Lingua.ly algorithm is based on research concerning vocabulary acquisition from context,” says Circerchia. “It estimates your vocabulary in a foreign language and then finds newspaper articles that contain mostly words you know.”
“This is because when most of the words in a sentence are familiar to you, you can take a more informed guess at the meaning of new terms. Even if you guess incorrectly, expending extra cognitive energy thinking about a word helps dig the memory in deeper,” she adds.
Providing deeper context and tailoring content to users’ interests is what sets Lingua.ly apart from (and makes it a good complement) to other language learning apps like Duolingo and Memrise. Circherchia says Lingua.ly is targeted at intermediate and advanced students who have already know a lot of vocabulary, but want to improve and maintain their language skills.
The app already has full support for 10 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew. Users studying other languages can make flashcards and look up words in Lingua.ly’s dictionary, but they lack the benefit of audio pronunciations and articles. The startup has had a lot of requests for Scandinavian and Asian languages, however, and hopes to add several later this year, as well as better dictionary support for languages like Hindu and Farsi.
Future features will be based on natural language processing technology, which will help Lingua.ly pull up a more personalized and diverse assortment of articles for each user. Circherchia says that the site and app will also add more tools for beginning learners who aren’t ready to dive into articles yet, as well as multimedia. Classroom-oriented features, including a dashboard for teachers, is also in the works.
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