Learning design26 September 2026 · 9 min read
Why YNOVA lets learners think beyond English
How translanguaging shapes YNOVA's bilingual scaffolding: the learner's own language is a resource for building towards English, not the destination.
The AI tutor for international education
You already have the ideas. Let’s find the English.
NOVA is an AI tutor for the English tests that open international education. It scores your practice on the four IELTS Speaking criteria, coaches in your own language, and never invents your answer. IELTS Speaking is live and free to start. TOEFL and PTE are next.
NOVA listens while a learner speaks. Concept film.
Live today
IELTS Speaking, as it looks in the app.
NOVA · Part 2 practice
Cue card0:47 to prepare
Describe a festival that is important in your country.
- what the festival is
- who you celebrate it with
- why it matters to you
Listening
NOVA · hint in your language
You said “family come together”. Try: “a rare chance for the whole family to be in one place.”
Band snapshot
6.5estimated band
Practice estimate. Not an official IELTS result.
- Fluency and coherence6.5
- Lexical resource6.0
- Grammatical range6.5
- Pronunciation· AI estimate6.0
Recorded from the app.
Why we exist
Speaking is the one part of the test you cannot practise alone.
Reading, listening and writing come with answer keys. Speaking needs someone who listens, scores and explains. Most learners never get that before test day. NOVA is that someone, every day.
- 4M+
- IELTS tests taken in 2023, according to the IELTS partners.
- US$200–340
- per attempt. A retake is a real cost for most families.
- Bands, not reasons
- An official result tells you your score. It does not tell you why.
How it works
Five minutes a day. Scored like the exam.
Every session follows the real test: you speak under timing, NOVA scores, and the training loop rebuilds the weak spots. Small steps, every day, add up.
01
Speak
Short daily sessions on Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 questions, each under exam-style timing. NOVA listens and transcribes.
02
Get scored
A transcript and band estimates on the four official criteria: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, pronunciation. Labelled as practice estimates.
03
Improve
A five-stage training loop from ideas to independent talk, spaced review that brings words back at the right time, and a tutor that remembers what you struggled with.
- S1Ideas
- S2Vocabulary
- S3Sentence building
- S4Paragraph building
- S5Independent talk
What a session looks like
Recorded from the app. Not drawn.
Home, a cue card, a labelled report. The film on the right and the screens beside it are the real product on a phone, captured on a demo school with made-up learners.
Practice estimate. Not an official IELTS result.
Screens from the YNova Demo School, a synthetic fixture with made-up learners. The interface is the real product.
Bilingual scaffolding
Think in your language. Build the English.
Most learners do not lack ideas. They lack the English for the ideas they already have. NOVA bridges the two instead of translating everything.
- Ask NOVA a question in your own language when you do not have the English to ask it.
- Develop your answer first, then build the English from your own meaning.
- New vocabulary comes glossed in your language, tied to what you wanted to say.
- Support reduces as you improve. It is off inside timed exam sections.
Stance
Your languages are one repertoire, not a problem to remove.
Design
Ask in your language. Develop the idea first. Get English glossed in words you already know.
Shift
You set how much support you want, from minimal to heavy. Immersive mode is English only.
Informed by pedagogical translanguaging (García & Li, 2014; Cenoz & Gorter, 2020).
Products
IELTS today. TOEFL and PTE next.
One tutor, one engine, every English test on the way to studying abroad. Join a waitlist and tell us your test date. We build for the people who are waiting.
- 01Live
IELTS Speaking
Daily practice on Parts 1, 2 and 3. Scored on the four official criteria, coached in your own language.
See the product - 02Waitlist
TOEFL Speaking
The same speech and coaching engine, tuned for the four TOEFL speaking tasks. Join the list to shape the beta.
Join the waitlist - 03Waitlist
PTE Speaking
Read aloud, repeat sentence, describe image and re-tell lecture, with pronunciation feedback that says what it is.
Join the waitlist
Honesty
We would rather be honest than impressive.
A tutor students trust before a real exam cannot invent scores. These rules are built into the product, not written in a policy.
Every score is labelled
“Practice estimate. Not an official IELTS result.” sits next to every band NOVA shows.
No band without evidence
NOVA does not show an overall band the recording cannot support. A short answer gets feedback, not a number.
Pronunciation says what it is
Pronunciation bands are AI estimates and are labelled as such, separately from the other criteria.
NOVA never invents your answer
Drafts and sample answers are built only from ideas you gave. NOVA may not add facts, and the recording that counts is your own English.
Check it yourself
- 6
- checks every report must pass
- 20
- interface languages, 33 hint languages
- 2
- New Zealand schools marking on the portal
Quotes verified against your transcript, no band without evidence.
How scoring worksYou set how much first-language support you want.
Read the FAQNamed only with their consent, so not here.
How a pilot runsFor schools and teachers
One tutor for every student. Evidence for every teacher.
Teachers cannot listen to thirty students speak every day. NOVA can, and hands the teacher the evidence with a draft comment to edit.
A school pilot is live in New Zealand. Joining a class is a consent step: learners see what a teacher will see before they accept, can unshare any attempt, and their private chats with NOVA stay private.
Teacher portal
Class rosters, assignments and completion at a glance, grouped by class.
Marking with a NOVA draft
NOVA drafts a comment from the evidence. The teacher edits it, and the teacher’s mark is final.
Bilingual support built in
Every learner gets hints in their own language, without the teacher needing to speak it.
Pricing
Start free. Upgrade when you are ready.
Free
$0forever
Part 1 training, limited weekly sessions, basic feedback. No card required.
Pro
Most popularNZ$35/ month
All Parts, unlimited mocks and scoring, spaced review and NOVA memory. 7-day free trial.
Schools
Per seaton request
Teacher portal, rosters, onboarding by YNova staff.
From the learning design team
How we think about teaching.
Your next speaking practice is free. Today.
Open the app in your phone browser, pick a topic and speak. NOVA does the rest, and cheers you on.
No card required for the free plan. Pro has a 7-day trial and can be cancelled at any time.