Tests To Establish A Better Teaching Method

 

Character Speed for Initial Learning?
The obvious goal was to meet the International requirements. The question is how best to get there. Would it be better to begin from the first using a 100 character rate per minute, or some lesser speed? This experiment was tried. For the average student it was found that the demands on his concentration were significantly greater at 100 letters per minute than at 12 letters per minute, especially as more and more new characters were introduced. (Above average students did well, however, at the higher initial speed.) But, of course, if one learns initially at some lower speed, speed is going to have to be increased to meet the requirements.

 

Various tests showed that about 12-wpm was an optimal speed for most people to begin learning. It is far enough above the 10 wpm plateau to avoid it. Further tests showed that once the student had mastered all the code characters at 12 wpm, it was relatively easy for him to advance to 70 letters per minute, and by continuing to practice using the same principles, to advance fairly rapidly, step by step, to the required speeds. Thus a 12-wpm beginning speed seemed well justified.

 

Can the Rhythm Patterns Be Enhanced?
Koch observed that in the early stages of learning, the beginner has to concentrate intensely to catch the letter rhythm-patterns. Is there anything which could be done make this easier for him?

 

He observed that some teachers were speaking, or even almost singing, the sound patterns of code characters using the syllables "dit" and "dah", whose vowel qualities and lengths make sound patterns stand out somewhat like little melodies. This helps accentuate the differences between sound patterns and simultaneously promotes an immediate sense of meaningful unity of the acoustic patterns.

 

Could the use of two different pitches, one for dits and the other for dahs, make it easier for the new student to recognize the wholeness of the rhythmic pattern ("melody") of a code character, and make it easier to learn? Could it help reduce the stress caused by the intensity of his concentration in the early learning stages, while he is being introduced to the rhythms and trying to get accustomed to them? It looked worth a try.

 

He conducted two classes simultaneously to evaluate the merits of the two-tone approach. After the first lesson, at each stage the two-tone group averaged two lesson periods ahead of the monotone group. (For the two-tone class the pitches were gradually merged into one by about mid-course.) Results: - the two-tone class in 24 sessions reached what took the monotone class 28 lessons to achieve. Total teaching time was 12 (two-tone) to 14 (monotone) hours. (With both groups there were the usual, occasional short plateaus, each lasting generally no more than one lesson period.) Conclusion: - this is a worthwhile improvement to help the beginner.

 

What Letters Should Be Taught First?
1) Distinguishing Between Similar-Sounding Patterns.
What characters should first be presented to the student? Although tests had shown that students can, in their first lesson, readily learn to distinguish similar patterns such as the series e-i-s-h, the degree of concentration required had a negative effect on them. Experience has shown that many sound patterns, as speeds rise, can be mistaken for similar sounding patterns, especially in regard to the number of dits which become pretty short at higher speeds: e.g., S and H, or U and V. The dah characters do not run this risk so much: e.g., W and J. In addition some beginners do experience temporary confusion between mirror image characters, such as B and V, D and U. Thus it seems best to begin with sound patterns which are distinctly and obviously different. In this way the student can learn more gradually to discriminate between smaller differences.

 

2) Letters that Tend to be Troublesome
Koch says these (for German students) are generally x y p q. (Z is very frequent in German.) If these are introduced during the first third of the program, there is more opportunity to give them adequate practice, and this generally results in shortening the total program.

 

When To Introduce A New Character
His tests showed that it is safe to introduce a new character into the list only after the student knows thoroughly all the characters he has already studied. He set his working standard at a minimum of 90%: that is, not to introduce a new character until the students were getting at least 90% correct copy at any stage. This provided a good measure for comparison, and at the same time let the student evaluate his own progress. It is indeed interesting that the test classes showed that students learned new characters almost in exact proportion to the number of lesson periods (total hours). The experiments also showed that three to four new characters were about optimum for any one lesson period.

 

Should Practice Be By Groups of Letters?
The question he asked is this: should the student practice one group of characters until he knows them well, then work on a second group separately in the same way, and after that combine the groups?

 

He began this teaching test with characters composed of dahs only: t m o ch (German single character ch). After enough practice (a couple of class sessions) to "master" this group of letters, he began teaching the dit group e i s h by itself in the same way. Next he combined these two groups together, and found that somehow during the intensive study of the second group, the students had forgotten the first group almost completely, and their confidence was badly shaken. He had to begin all over again teaching these eight letters together until they were mastered together.

 

After this, when these eight letters had been practiced to the point where they were correctly and consistently identified, two new groups were studied separately in the same way as the first two groups. First the group d b g, then after that the group u v w. Next, when these two new groups were mixed together, it was found that the d b g group had been forgotten. But worse, after these two groups had been re-learned together (d b g u v w) to the point of correct identification, and then combined with the first 8 letters, alas, the (combined) first two groups of 8 letters had been virtually forgotten!

 

It appears that the student's intense concentration upon a new group of characters by itself causes that group to override and replace what had been previously "learned". He sensibly concluded that teaching by groups is wrong-headed. Therefore, the most efficient way is to introduce one new letter at a time and then immediately integrate it into the group of letters already learned, until finally the whole alphabet is complete. In this way all the previously learned characters are under constant review and repeated frequently without lapses.

 

Troublesome Characters
Experience has shown that quite a few students have some trouble identifying one or more individual characters, tending to miss or confuse them. They show up as little plateaus on his record of advancement. What letters these are varies greatly from student to student. The five-column copying forms described below serve to help identify which these troublesome ones are -- needing more practice.

 

How Long Should Lessons Be And How Distributed In Time?
He cited B. Jost's researches which found that people learn more quickly and retain it longer for a given total learning time, when the lesson periods are shorter and widely separated in time. E.g., for a total of 24 lesson periods (which always include reviews): - to schedule four lesson periods a day for six days is four times more effective than to schedule eight lesson periods a day for 3 days, and that to schedule two lesson periods a day for 12 days is eight times more effective. That is, spread out the lessons in time.

 

What is the ideal length of a lesson period? -- Koch found by testing that to have a long morning lesson, and then after corresponding length of rest period to continue in the afternoon, demanded too much intense concentration. The students got tired too quickly and the repetition practice was not as effective as it should be. By trial he determined that a half-hour lesson period was about optimum. (Even a 45 minute period began to show diminishing returns.) He finally recommended two half-hour periods, one in morning and one in the afternoon as optimum.

Several courses using various of these principles were conducted. However, at the time of this report, he had not had classes where he could combine all the optimum test conditions. The students savable were people who were interested, but not primarily, at least, for professional purposes. Furthermore, they were employed at full-time work during the day, and were often tired by class time, which had to be scheduled in the evenings. Also, he could schedule only two or three half-hour lesson periods per week. Hardly ideal.

 

In spite of this progress was good, and no difficulties were encountered. Three to five characters were presented and learned in the first half-hour period. He aimed for many repetitions during each lesson, never less than ten repetitions of each character during a given lesson period, even after the entire alphabet had been introduced. Each successive period began with a lively review of what had been learned up to that point.

 

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