The E:P:N Classroom Consortium of China, Inc.

 

 

The Corporate Structure:

 

These first 45 individuals—the consortium—are not going to be in a classroom, yet they would do well to be structured in a fashion similar to the E:P:N classroom, i.e., with two groups of 9, two groups of 6, three groups of 3, and three groups of 2. Each of these ten groups elects to perform a specific task of the over-all project. Needed are:

 

1.      Trainers of facilitators for the E:P:N classrooms                          (2)     Neutrons

2.      Collectors of organizational data (to help new countries)              (2)     any

3.      Collectors of performance data (to build archives of averages)     (2)     any

4.      Marketing the E:P:N process to universities                                  (3)     Neutrons

5.      Marketing the E:P:N process to the private sector schools            (3)     Protons

6.      Marketing the E:P:N process to failing schools                             (3)     Protons

7.      Marketing the E:P:N process to rural schools                               (6)     any

8.      Media teams (3 working the papers, 3 the electronic media)          (6)     Protons

9.      Adding the Esperanto translations to all new corpora                    (9)     any

10.  Translators of corpus into the country’s official language             (9)     any

 

If you wish to join EPN-CCC, with[1] or without money (money paid or received during the research period), please offer a specific talent that you wish to contribute . . . understandably, in the E:P:N style. That is: You elect to be one of the consortium’s 16 electrons, if you offer technical expertise, one of the 16 protons, if you have marketing skills, and one of the 13 neutrons, if you offer to train facilitators and help with reporting, in a consensus fashion, the project’s progress. (During the formation of subsequent EPN-CC? groups, these thirteen people should be the most logical ones to help with the training of new leaders, either on a temporary or permanent basis.)

 

The E:P:N classroom format: (55 minutes)

 

For the first 5 - 10 minutes, in "category" seating, each reports the results of their take-home research, including the sayings' E:P:N ratings.

For the second 5 - 10 minutes, in "group" seating, everyone reports to team members the same results, including reported ratings from others, before discussing the value of the selections. That process ends with a vote on the most appropriate sayings for their scrapbook.

During the next 20 minutes, in group seating, the groups restore C-Test texts. This is the "problem solving" period. The younger students also spend time on trying to improve their last best time on doing addition and multiplication problems. Note: These are individual scores, not group score.

Every session (except the last) finishes with groups selecting a new saying/expression/proverb, switching their seating to category style, handing a copy of their choice to the Hydrogen group in charge of compiling and printing them, and then discussing strategies for soliciting input from family and friends.

 

NOTE!

 

By means of just one E:P:N classroom, if occupied eight hours a day, almost 2,000 learners (45x8x6) would be accommodated every week.

 

Including the cost of equipping and staffing the classroom, the estimated cost of maintaining a fully utilized room is about $1.10 dollars per student per week, i.e., about $2,200 per week.

 

If financial underwriters want proof that this process is actually better for enhancing motivation and increasing language production, the new TOEFL iBT, though expensive, might be the best test to measure the influence of this process. A much less expensive proof of progress would be to simply measure language and math scores before and after a year of supplemental E:P:N classroom training. For info on the TOEFL iBT, go to www.ets.org/....