The Government of India lists a few guidelines on desired outcomes for children learning English as a second language in Classes I and II. These include that children should be able to talk about themselves, follow simple instructions, requests and questions, read simple and short sentences with the help of pictures and understand them, and write simple words, phrases and short sentences in English. However, 50 per cent of children in Class I cannot even identify capital letters in English. The gap between desired outcomes and real outcomes is obviously very huge. This proves that English rhymes that are being taught in English classes is not really helping the children to become affluent at the language.
Karadi tales – The concept
Karadi means bear in various South Indian languages, who is also the story teller in the animated series. The series displays popular stories from Indian Classics such as Panchatantra and Jataka. All the stories have strong Indian roots, but they speak of morals and ideals that are global. The makers of Karadi tales have formed English rhymes of all the stories, the words used comes from vast but easy vocabulary and entails the story beautifully. There are other characters as well in the series such as Meera the monkey and Dhondu the donkey.
Benefits of karadi tales
Karadi tales can be an amazing way to learn English language, as it is being told in the most exciting way as per children, i.e. cartoon series. Children really get attracted to the characters and start picking up the language. Another major breakthrough is that all the tales are in context to Indian culture and scenarios, this further adds up the learning, as whatever children hear and understand through karadi tales and are similar to the things they hear in Hindi in their respective homes and can blend in the information.
