Leonard West’s Research

Leonard West was a prominent researcher and expert on typing teaching methods.

Nonsense drills

Nonsense drills were used to teach the individual keystrokes for copy-typing on mechanical typewriters with high precision in the traditional typing method and again have been slavishly applied to the modern computer keyboard.

Combinations of characters such as ‘frf’ and ‘juj’ used in conventional typing tutorial software are not part of our language and imprint ‘junk chunks’ in the mind that need to be erased or ‘over-written’ before learning to type real words, such as ‘from’, for example.

Leonard West identified the problem of these nonsense exercises and recommended the minimal use of these in typing teaching methods (West, 1983). Because of his dependency on the Home Keys Technique, he was unable to eliminate these from his own teaching method.

TypeSmart teaches only the phonemes and syllables of our language and provides progression onto short, long words and phrases, etc. and employs the Direct Reach method, which helps typists to easily find any key.

West retired not long after his book was published. We believe that if he had continued his research he would have developed the eText method before us, as the next two sections suggest.

Direct Reach

Our close observations of high-speed typists (100 wpm or more) indicated that they do not reach out from the Home Keys and return while typing at high speed. Instead they have instinctively learned the Key-Finger Groups as a psychomotor skill (like driving or playing sport). They sometimes rested their hands on the Home Keys when not typing, but as just a habit.

The advantage of direct reaching was confirmed by the the prominent typing researcher Dr Leonard West in the 1970s and 80s. He recommended: “direct reaching for the keys will happen automatically. Do not discourage direct reaching for the keys; do not insist on a return to the home keys after each stroke” (West, 1983, page 69).

Thus, West is advising that typists have to drop the Home Keys Technique in order to become expert, fixation on these being an impediment to high-speed typing.

Expert typists do not waste time going to the Home Keys. They type like a concert pianist plays. Even though they invariably started with learning the Home Keys, they have let them go and correctly learned the Key-Finger Groups after hours of practice or years of experience. Out of habit they may rest their hands on the Home Keys when about to start or when not actually typing, but once they begin typing the Home Keys Technique becomes superfluous.

By comparison, the eText Method encourages direct reaching on the flatter and more compact computer keyboard right from the beginning. We disagree with West’s suggestion that direct reaching happens “automatically” — our research indicates it takes many hours (in excess of 20) of training and practice to break the Home Keys reach-and-return habit devoloped by conventional touch typing methods.

Typewriting rhythm

Easy keystrokes speed up the flow and awkward keystrokes slow it down.

The Home Keys Technique requires the mastering of many awkward finger-keystroke techniques resulting from keeping, or trying to keep fingers in contact with the Home Keys.  This means that any real flow to text creation is difficult.

This is consistent with the research done on type-writing rhythm reviewed by Leonard West who concluded: “there is no place whatsoever in type-writing instruction for so-called rhythm drills” (West, 1983, page 69).

typeSmart uses the Direct Reach method, rather than the Home Keys Technique. This brings all keystrokes to a more or less uniform level of required dexterity, except perhaps for the little fingers, thereby allowing for the possibility of flow or even rhythm. This is similar to expert typists who have been able to ‘let go’ of the Home Keys to achieve speed and flow.

Covering the keyboard

West concluded that the research indicated that covering the keys so that the student is forced to find the correct keys without looking at the keys provided no learning advantage. The eText method follows this conclusion by allowing the student to look at the keys initially at the same time as employing a method that encourages the student to look at the screen.

References

West, Leonard J. (1983) Acquisition of Typewriting Skills, Methods and Research in Teaching Typewriting and Word Processing. 2nd Edition: Bobbs-Merrill educational Publishing, Indianapolis (out of print).