Altura Alexa skill uses story-telling format and interactive quizzes to engage learners of all age groups

Bangalore, March 03, 2021: Today, Macmillan Education India introduced an interactive skill “Macmillan Altura” on Amazon Alexa for learners of all age groups to learn English. The Macmillan Altura skill offers curriculum grade English learning content in storytelling format, vocabulary building exercises, interactive quizzes on listening comprehension and English grammar structured in levels 1 to 5. The story telling and interactive format helps learners to improve English reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills. To get started, just say, “Alexa, open Macmillan Altura” or simply “Alexa, open my English reader.”

The Macmillan Altura skill uses curriculum grade English learning content and is designed to inspire curiosity among learners. The skill’s simple voice interface enables learners to learn in an interactive manner, at their own pace. The skill can keep learners motivated and engaged by awarding stars and badges. Learners can access Macmillan Altura skill on all Amazon Echo smart speakers, Echo Show smart displays, Alexa mic on Amazon shopping on their Android smartphones, or Alexa app on smartphones.

“The availability of Macmillan Altura English Skill on Alexa is a major step towards building learner autonomy. Harnessing the power of technology, it will give learners guided access to a bank of carefully curated resources, to explore the topics of interest. It will also encourage learners to build language skills without any kind of peer pressure,” said Mr. Rajesh Pasari, Managing Director- Macmillan Education India. “The combination of interactive learning and the simplicity of voice interactions with Alexa will make this (Macmillan Altura skill) a fun experience for learners.” he added.

"Be it the Echo device in the living room, 100+ Alexa built-in devices or your favorite smartphone, it is heart-warming to see users across the length and breadth of the country across age groups find value and adopt Alexa in their daily lives,” said Puneesh Kumar, Country Leader for Alexa India. “Learning English is an aspirational need for millions of learners across the country and we are excited to introduce this innovation in Education. We look forward to feedback from customers and building this further based on our learnings” he added.

About Macmillan Education:

Macmillan Education India (MEI) has an unrivalled reputation in the school market. MEI produces curriculum resources in both print and digital form and offer assessments along with teacher training. MEI has been in the school and higher education market in India for over 125 years and is today partnering with over 20,000 schools and reaching over 10 million learners. It is quite probable that every child from a private school in India would have read Macmillan Education content at some stage of life.

About Springer Nature:

Macmillan Education is part of Springer Nature, a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. Springer Nature is the world’s largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world’s most influential journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company numbers almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. Visit www.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature.