Tuesday, September 29, 2020

(New) v5.0 Haptic Pronunciation Teaching as "Metanique": any text, story, class or time

If you are new to haptic pronunciation, here is a quick history. (If not, drop down to after the bullets!) To understand the importance of this new development, Haptic as Metanique, a little background is helpful:

  • 1970's - I was trained in pronunciation teaching, especially from a speech pathology, highly tactile and kinesthetic perspective
  • 1980s - Extensive work in accent enhancement involving both kinesthetic and psychological models
  • 1990s - Large class teaching of pronunciation in Japan and research on uses of gesture in ;pronunciation teaching
  • 2000 ~ 2020 - Development of haptic pronunciation teaching, inspired in part by work in psychotherapy for PTSD, especially use of the visual field and touch.
  • 2020 - v5.0 Haptic pronunciation teaching as "metanique" (a system of procedures where attention to pronunciation can be mapped on to any meaning or narrative-based classroom teaching text or technique. 

Haptic (Pronunciation Teaching as) Metanique is, in effect, a series of complementary overlays to any L2 instruction that can be applied in any class any time that any learners (all ages and contexts) are engaged in meaningful texts or interpersonal communication practice. 

We use the Butterfly above as our symbol of metanique, in general, a gesture complex that, in a sense, floats above or lands on any word, phrase, clause of sentence, embodying it. The Butterfly pedagogical movement pattern has been central to the haptic system from the outset. (See a demonstration of early butterfly and other PMPs.) and others from v1.0. Here is an example of how  metaniques, in this case the Butterfly and the intonation PMP, Touchinamis, might be applied to presentation of a model dialogue to embody lexical items (words), the rhythm patterning or the intonation contours:

X is Y /and Z, / but A, / who is from B, / is very much C, / to be sure. 

ooO        oO       oO              oooO                 ooooO                 ooO  (using Butterfly)

--/           -/          -/ \               ---/ \                  ----\                     --/ \   (using Touchinamis)

The concept is that anything that is the focus of instruction, where it is embedded in a vivid context or narrative, where some complementary attention to form would fit in relatively seamlessly without disrupting comprehension or production, can be "metaniqued!"

For more on metaniquing and v5.0, join us at the upcoming webinar in November (or possibly the webinar upcoming on 10/2 -- if you hurry and register at info@actonhaptic,com!





3 comments:

  1. Great summary - thanks. I just realised now why the PMP abbreviation for Pedagogical Movement Pattern had caught my eye. I worked with a multi-disciplinary therapy team led by Occupational Therapists in what was called a Perceptual Motor Program (PMP). At that time (the mid 70s!) it was an innovative approach with great outcomes for the many children who participated. And thru working on that program I learnt the importance of tactile-kinesthetic perception by seeing it in action.

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  2. I really like the term 'metanique'. In my first ever class on Methods of Language Teaching, there was a very clear distinction made between approach, method and technique. And I can see exactly how method and technique come together.

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    1. Interesting. For some time I had been talking about the haptic "method" as something independent from the method or approach of the classroom practitioner integrating in the PMPs. This new insight has been a real game changer to me, too!

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