How the Course Works
This is a reading course, for your heritage desi language. It is a highly targeted course, which makes it an efficient way to learn to read.
The course is broken into 12 manageable lessons, each introducing a small set of letters and matras (vowels that attach to the consonants). They give examples, a set of vocabulary to practise then a quick test to unlock the next lesson, to ensure you are ready to learn more.
The course primarily works by managing your cognitive load, which is the amount of information you can easily take in at one time. The primary method used to do this is limiting the flow of content to avoid overloading your ability to retain the letters each day. In many ways, scripts are arbitrary and so thinking about them more is not as helpful for learning them as it is for other more complex bits of information. As a result, the key things that will help you learn an alphabet are limiting the amount you learn at a time and continuing to expose yourself to what you have already learnt as you progress. That’s why the tests act as a gate to the next lessons. If you haven’t cemented the previous letters, then the cognitive load for each new lesson increases as you need to utilise your brain power on old letters instead of being able to focus on the new characters. Consider this if you do not quite manage to pass the test the first time. It is not a punishment, more a sign that you need a little more time to lock in those letters. There are several ways to practise in the meantime.
Practise Activities
There are three activities we recommend at various points through your course. The recommendations come based on how recently your last lesson was completed and how you are going with your tests. You can do any of them at any time though!
Quick Revision
The first is just a quick general practice. This grabs 25 vocabulary words at random from your completed lessons. It will take about 2 minutes so if you want to get another point of exposure each day, this is a good way to do that.
Targeted Revision
The second is a targeted set of revision. This is where you select the characters you are struggling with and it will give you a set of flashcards with targeted vocabulary. This will be particularly helpful for characters that you are struggling with.
Full Revision
The final one is a full targeted revision. This one is best to save for if you have had a week or two away from the course and need to know what your points of revision should be. It will test every character and matra then generate a flashcard set for those you get wrong. It will also save automatically so you can skip straight to the flashcards the next day if you want to do them again.
Word Meanings
There is one more, which is not linked to learning to read. This is spaced repetition flashcard system to learn the meaning of words. This is ‘opt in’ flashcard system, so you just add any of the words you do not yet know. If you want to know more, just click on the activity link on your dashboard, or on the prompt after you finish lesson one.
You can start without an account. Your progress through the first three lessons is saved as you go, but until you add an email it belongs to a temporary account tied to your device. Just letting you know, those temporary accounts get wiped if there is no log ins for a month. When you add your email, it will allow you to log in on other devices and will retain your progress forever.