Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A place for EHIEP in Pronunciation Utopia!

Photo credit: Japan Sumo
Association
For an excellent glimpse of the future of (at least Canadian) pronunciation teaching, by one of its leading theorists, see this paper, Utopian Goals for Pronunciation Teaching, from the 2009 Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference at Iowa State University, by Derwing. I'd agree with most all of the projections and recommendations, but would note one obvious omission (big as Asanowaka, pictured at the left, from our perspective.)

Recall the earlier post which quoted another important 2005 paper by Derwing and Munro, " . . . we would ask whether the aspects of a learner’s speech that cause problems for intelligibility are the focus of instruction, regardless of the teaching methods employed." "Utopia," is also "method-neutral."

EHIEP (Essential, haptic-integrated English pronunciation), by contrast, is an ordered, HICP method that is applicable to a wide range of learner populations--that, in essence, begins where Derwing leaves off--in the classroom. It comes with a basic curriculum and requires little formal training for the instructor, although the basic pedagogical movement patterns and anchoring protocols can be easily adapted for use with learners of any proficiency in any skill area syllabus or classroom. It focuses on teaching and anchoring productive use of what has been identified as essential, first for all learners (basic prominence, vowels, stress, conversational rhythm and intonation) and then goes on to attend to selected learner-specific consonants and other processes, as necessary. (See earlier posts on specifics.) When you are ready to "do" pronunciation, this side of Utopia, get in touch!

1 comment:

  1. For almost a decade when I was in Japan, I was a big fan of the sumo wrestler, Asanowaka. He was rather unconventional in technique and outlook, to put it mildly. His image would be my second choice for a trademark/logo! With the exception of the mid-section, there is a definite similarity there!

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