In India, the Tata Consultancy Services software group has created a CD to teach adult illiterates how to read and whrite with basic skills, even in the absence of a skilled teacher.

The CD uses animated graphics ans a voice-over to explain how individual alphabets combine to give structure and meaning to various words, using puppets as the motif in the teaching process.

Lessons are tailored to fit different languages and even dialects. They focus on reading, and are based on the theories of congnition, language and communication.

Accompanying voice over reinforces the learner’s ability to grasp the lessons easily, and repetition strengthers what is learned.

The multimedia format ensures that the pronunciation of the words betters is taught accurately through the system, rather than being left to individual teachers. This is particularely useful for languages (like Tamil un South India, where the same letter can be pronounced differently, based on the context.

http://www.tataliteracy.com/