The Hindu : Front Page : A website for honing English language skills

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 10, 2008
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A website for honing English language skills

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

Hyderabad: You have studied English; you can read, write and speak the language — but your vocabulary is rather limited. A common enough challenge in these intensely competitive times.

An Indian company that sports the tag “The Evolutionary Intelligence” is about to launch a Web-based service for those who master the gift of the gab — and more. The Hyderabad-based Evolgence is ready to launch ‘Activocab’, an application-based product, designed as an integrated solution for English language skills improvement across the four areas of reading, listening, speaking and writing, with ‘MIND’ (Mobile, Internet and Networking Dimensions) as the delivery mechanisms

The company will deliver a pre-fixed number of English words daily on to mobile phones. Those with GPRS (General Packet Radio Service, the Internet access technology) get it straightaway and those without the feature can download it using a USB port similar to how one downloads music.

Evolgence’s Chief Operating Officer P. Srikanth said it was a comprehensive application that could be integrated with different platforms like mobile phone, Internet and also offline on laptops or desktops.

Activocab also offered scope for networking with like-minded people interesting in improving their communication skills in an interactive mode, he said.

Nasscom studies indicated that only one of four students had skill sets for employment in a competitive world. Activocab addressed the urgent need to have newer, friendlier methods to impart linguistic communication skills and increase vocabulary levels.

The website www.activocab.com gives registered users free access to a visual thesaurus and a networking platform where they can get points and later gifts — all these while improving their speaking and writing skills.

Easy-to-learn mode

Activocab used Java programming and Flash tools to make the visual thesaurus attention-grabbing in an easy-to-learn mode.

Once users are familiar with the programme in the ‘free-to-use’ mode, they could opt for more add-ons for which Evolgence plans a subscription service.

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