A classroom simulation involving Chennai Corporation students, on the last day of The Hindu Lit for Life 2015, demonstrated how technology could be effective in language education.
A teacher from a Corporation school showed how ‘ReadToMe’, an English-language learning software, helped her students pick up words easily.
The software, developed by a company called English Helper, is being used by seven Corporation schools in the city.
P. Shobana, English teacher at a Corporation school in Kodungaiyur, has been using ‘ReadToMe’ with her class VII students for two years now.
She demonstrated to the audience a typical session in which a speed-modulated voice reads out a passage from the syllabus, after which about 30 students repeat the same. In the process, they revise difficult words in the passage and look at pictures associated with the objects.
Ms. Shobana said such tools eased a teacher’s job. “I may not know all the words in the English language but this tool helps us to learn new things every day,” she said.
According to Sanjay Gupta, chief executive officer of English Helper, the software provides tools that make learning from prescribed curriculum more effective.
“Learning outcomes can be determined as well the pronunciation of words enhanced,” he said, adding the aim was to provide the software to all government schools.
