HIIP (Haptic-integrated Integrated Pronunciation)

One of the clearest themes emerging from the SPLIS (Speech-pronunciation-listening Interest Section) presentations at the 2011 TESOL conference has been the need for integration of pronunciation into skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) classes, and content classes. Next year's academic session may, in fact, focus on just that. The "problem" is that simply doing pronunciation exercises in a skills class, regardless of how communicative or clever, often does not work--unless there is a strong connection to the language content being learned--not just practice of the process or sounds themselves.In other words, sticking in pieces of a pronunciation text in "regular" classes is not the answer. Research has been telling us for some time that we need much more anchoring and integrated practice if the instructional "stuff" is going to stick.(Why that is the case will be the subject of a later post.)  Haptic-integrated protocols are, in essence, teaching techniques that are used throughout the curriculum, exploiting any text or conversation where oral or listening comprehension is involved. The impact of haptic work, referenced in many of the earlier posts, is to powerfully anchor new learning and provide learners with techniques to use outside of the classroom as well.