The English Machine

[megaclom]

THE ENGLISH MACHINE

Over the last six weeks I have been working on a new method of using the text and work books. I call this method The English Machine. While trying to cover homework and textbook and workbook exercises, a problem became evident:

THE PROBLEM

In large classes, students were invariably too poorly organized to act out the exercises in the text without it taking an imponderable time to move around the class and through the exercise. It might take as much as ten minutes to complete an exercise properly, as it was envisioned to be done. The students who did number one would have to sit idle and bored for about nine-and-a-half minutes before their turn to participate would return. Granted, it would be possible to treat every exercise as a mass "listen and repeat drill," however, this would preclude the students from thinking and arriving at the answers themselves.

SOLUTION

Therefore, The English Machine emerged as a method of allowing the exercises to be done more or less as intended by the creators of the texts, without taking an inordinate amount of time.
It was initially difficult to make The English Machine operate any more efficiently than asking students pell-mell to perform the exercises. However, after only two classes, the huge advantages of an orderly and systematic movement through exercises became evident. What had previously taken ten minutes or more could now be perfectly executed in not more than two minutes and forty seconds. Exercises that had previously been clumsy, slow and disorganized became precision clock-work mechanisms, with each student operating as an effective component in The English Machine

OPERATING THE ENGLISH MACHINE

In brief, The English Machine functions as follows. Students are grouped into pairs. Each pair is assigned one or two numbers. These numbers indicate the number within the exercise which the students will perform. One member of each group is designated the Q. The Q first executes the first part of a given exercise. The other member is assigned the role of A. Each group presents in the form Q-A-Q-A, therefore each member of the group functions as the Q and as the A. For example:

1. John: Q: Sam is busy. Mrs. Golo is busy.
Peter: A: Sam is busy and Mrs. Golo is too.
Peter: Q: Sam is busy. Mrs. Golo is busy.
John: A: Sam is busy and Mrs. Golo is too.

2. Brian: Q: Maria is pretty. Barbara is pretty.
Alan: A: Maria is pretty and Barbara is too.
Alan: Q: Maria is pretty. Barbara is pretty.
Brian: A: Maria is pretty and Barbara is too.

A schematic of The English Machine should stand on the board so that each member of the class can easily determine what part of the exercise to execute:

____Q1,8A____________Q4A
____Q2,9A____________Q5A
____Q3,10A___________Q6A
_____________________A7

At the beginning of any exercise, members of the class have immediate knowledge of what operation they will perform in the exercise. The class should be given two to three minutes to complete first the number of the exercise they will be performing, and then to start completing the other problems in the exercise. The class should perform the exercise robotically, each member of each group of the class is perfectly clear as to his or her designated input in the exercise and at what point in the exercise he or she is to execute that function.

On first running The English Machine, it will be helpful to time and record each group's performance and to time and record the class as a whole. Mark the times on the board. Repeat the exercise and again mark the times on the board. You and the class will be shocked as their execution time halves. This drill can be made into a game, the fastest group receives an "Efficiency Award," whereas the slowest group is punished.

VARIANTS

When students read a lengthy passage in class, invariably those students who are not reading do not follow the reading, and when a student is randomly asked to read, there is a hold up as the student attempts to determine where in the passage to begin. The English Machine makes short work of this problem. The members of the class are assigned numbers in a logical progression about the actual classroom. The numbers are indicated by a schematic on the board. Each student reads exactly one sentence. Any student who hesitates or asks "Where?" on his or her turn is punished. Time and record the reading of the entire passage. Mark it on the board. Perform the reading twice then thrice. Mark the execution times on the board. You and the class will marvel at their improvement from their first attempt. Each student will follow the passage closely as it is being read, and no student will be bored waiting to be called on.

OPPORTUNITIES

At the beginning of class, when The English Machine schematic is drawn on the board, students will groan, knowing the exacting and mechanical operations they will function at performing for the next hour. However, given the enormous benefit: orderly and comprehensive completion of all exercises, these groans should be ignored. Be that as it may, English students are not robots nor should they for long be treated as cogs in The English Machine. Therefore, fun variants such as timing groups and the class should be employed. Furthermore, with the whopping amount of time that is saved by using The English Machine, there will be plenty of opportunity for free-talk and games at the end of the class or as interludes to the optimal executions of exercises.