Functional illiterates (people suffering from dyslexia or
reading impairments) cannot read well. Complete illiterates don't read at all.
They either don't know how to read or lack an understanding of the art of
reading. Studies have revealed that every fifth human is either low literate or
illiterate. Thus, developing countries having low literacy rates could find
speech technology an impactful solution.
Psycholinguists have argued that a machine shouldn't replace
learning how to read. They believe good readers are good at predicting words.
And, relying on artificial intelligence or speech technology could hamper cognitive and recognition
skills. Benefits of literacy go far beyond reading and writing.
Contemporary reading and writing habits are different from
traditional forms of print media. Social media engagement has changed the way
of understanding language. It can give an insight into the vocabulary world,
improve general knowledge and, enhance short term memory. However, long term
benefits are not visible in all cases.
Readers develop the habit to understand language through
physical reading in a better way. A child, learning to understand language is
the best example here. Reading and writing the text in several different ways
can help understand the use of different parts of speech in a sentence. Studies
have also revealed that amongst children, good readers can read 4 million words
a year and not-so-good readers only 50,000 words. Good readers know how to
create a connection between words. They can read multiple words at a glance,
thus, optimizing the reading process.
Over the years, physical reading and writing methods have
assured proper language learning. With the use of artificial intelligence-based speech technology, can
we see illiteracy getting eliminated to its core?
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