MyEnglish is not an average classroom. But as I waited in my virtual classroom with my virtual teacher for my virtual classmates to join in, a virtual sense of duty took over me and I wanted to ace the mini class that I was about to take part in. Introduced by the British Council, MyEnglish is a six week online course which offers a flexible and interactive learning experience.
I logged in to the freshly installed Zoom app through my phone and entered the classroom code. Despite a few glitches involving the turning on and off of the participants’ audio, everything was in place before Michael King, Managing Director of Examination Services, welcomed us saying “We have used technology that was previously unimaginable to us to create a course in an exciting way where the British Council classroom is available to everyone across the country.”
Neenaz Ichaporia, the host of the classroom, took over and the mini experiential classroom commenced. Our initial exercise was titled ‘Making questions polite’. I suspended my initial scepticism and began replacing and eliminating words in sentences to make them better suited for a formal environment. All the while, wondering if I had ever had the courtesy to add a ‘Could you please tell me’ to any of my sentences.
The real success of the classroom presented itself when it was time for me to read my answers out loud. In a successful replication of classroom etiquette, we were able to raise our hands and the host immediately recognised it on our individual screens without any delay or loss of time. Virtual duty grew into virtual eagerness and I found myself raising my hand and commenting on all of the exercise questions.
The session was followed by a group activity titled ‘Spot the error’ where the participants identified an unnecessary word or rearranged their order. As some of us dictated, a third person would use the pen tool to mark or add corrections to the text using the extremely impressive pen tool. For the final activity, we were divided into three teams where we practiced asking polite questions to each others borrowing the instructions that we had learned thus far. And the enthusiasm that followed took me back to my middle school classroom, everyone was eager to practice the small lessons that they had learnt.
After everyone had concluded, Beth Caldwell, Head of Blended Learning and Quality Standards said, “The minimum requirement is a broadband internet connection. The British Council assists the students with identifying the individual learning needs, course curriculum and help with the course platforms where required. People can literally take their classes wherever they are. And the best part is that they get instant feedback while they are at it.”
The course was a simple one. Considering the importance of learning english in this day and age and the constraints of time that come with it, it could also be extremely helpful. The programme which has already been launched in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru is all set to be introduced across the country.
