ASHAN (´Alphabets and Scripts by Hand and Audio, Naturally´) - A Tool for Learning Scripts and Languages

This paper describes a new tool - ASHAN (´Alphabets and Scripts by Hand and Audio, Naturally´) - for learning scripts and languages. The problem of illiteracy is universal affecting about 16% of the human race. Only technological tools can accelerate the process of meeting the millennium goals as the paradigms of learning and teaching are changing. ASHAN - a computer with a touch screen and special S/W - can enhance the learning of the scripts of any language. The screen monitor may be divided into two or three logical windows. One window will render the script that is pressed on the keyboard to show how the script is formed while a recorded voice would pronounce that script. On the second window the learner draws or writes the alphabet using the index finger looking at the second window, and pronounces it. A prototype is ready for Devanagari script that is used for several Indian languages including Hindi.