Motivating pronunciation change: keeping it going 2

Clip art: Clker

In an earlier post, Motivating pronunciation change: keeping it going, I looked at the relative value of discipline and fixed exercise development systems. The review of a just released study in the linked article adds an interesting refinement to our understanding how to achieve better exercise persistence--in our case, just ensuring that learners stay committed to the program and work outside of class. What the research found was that up front it was critical that learners are presented with a wide range of options and are generally not moved too quickly into the "grind" of repetition and form-based exercise. Once they begin to experience a little buy in and success, however, they readily accept a more and more limited set of regular fitness-building exercises, as guided by their coach or trainer. There are any number of possible psychological and physiological explanations for that effect, but the bottom line is that the progression to strong, disciplined routine needs to be gradual and experientially grounded--not simply adhered to because of persuasive motivational pep talks to "tough it out" for a while. (Although I do like the textural metaphor there!) That is a potentially fascinating insight into setting up the process so that pronunciation work "Stick!-s!"