Haptic Pronunciation Training Rides Again! (at TESOL 2019)

The first haptic workshop, (Acton, W., Baker, A. and M. Burri. 2008). Haptic approaches to Intonation Instruction, was conducted 10 years ago at the 2008 TESOL Convention in New York.

Credit: Linda Liu

This coming March in Atlanta at TESOL 2019 will be the official roll out of v5.0  (v4.5 is still available) and a new workshop, Basics of haptic pronunciation training -- Acton, W., Baker, A. Hong, S. and M. Burri presenting. 

Even if you have attended haptic presentations before, join us for a serious upgrade of your haptic tool kit, both at the workshop and at our annual moving and touching "Haptic-o-logue" over-adult- beverages-get-together of hapticians and friends. (If you have a recommendation for a truly "haptic"  venue in Atlanta, please let us know!)

Keep in touch!

Bill

Haptic-pronunciation-assisted vocabulary teaching

New book chapter in the TESOL "New Ways" series by Michael Burri (Wollongong University) on using haptic pronunciation anchoring in teaching vocabulary. (Burri is probably the second-best haptician I have ever worked with!) His doctoral study on pronunciation teacher cognition includes for the first time examination of teacher response to haptic pronunciation teaching.


We have just begun to work systematically with using the haptic pronunciation protocols for enhancing memory and recall of vocabulary. All 10 of the basic techniques of AHEPS v3.0 could be used for that. The one that Burri uses in that chapter, based on the AHEPS Rough/short vowel pedagogical movement pattern, is especially effective, putting a strong haptic anchor (touch of both hands) on the vowel in the stressed syllable of a word or phrase.

Credit: TESOL

Keep in touch!

Full citation:
Burri, M. (2014). Haptic-assisted vocabulary and pronunciation teaching technique. In A. Coxhead (Ed.), New ways in teaching vocabulary (2nd ed.). (pp.189-191). Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

TESOL-Portland 2014 "Haptic" Schedule!

Let's just call Thursday, Haptic Pronunciation Day, this week at the TESOL convention!

9:30 -11:15 - Convention Center, F152 - Workshop: Essentials of haptic (kinaesthetic+tactile)-integrated pronunciation instruction (Kielstra, Baker, Burri, Rauser, Teaman and Acton)

11:30 - 12:45 - Convention Center, Room F152 - Research-oriented session: Exploring research supporting haptic (movement + touch) pronunciation teaching (Rauser, Acton and Burri)

1:00 pm–2:45 - Convention Center, D134 - Workshop: Teaching basic English intonation by non-native English speaking teachers (Lam, Hong, and Takatsu)

3:00 pm–3:45 - Convention Center, B110 - Practice-oriented session: Speak fast; speak easy: The Fight Club technique (Kielstra and Teaman)

Positive pronunciation anchors and pronunciation practice word lists

Clip art: Clker

Generally, when I refer to "anchoring" in HICP work, the focus is the multiple modality "hexus" of (a) the graphic representation of the word, (b) the linguistic context, that is the phrase or sentence in which the word appears, (c) the articulatory movements involved in producing it, (d) the pedagogical movement pattern we use in anchoring it, (e) the "sound" coming in through the ears and (f) the body resonance generated in producing it.

Likewise, the concept of "embodiment" in language teaching, as elaborated by Holme (2012) in a recent TESOL quarterly article, focuses, in effect, on new language ending up "in the body," or thoroughly absorbed and integrated with all senses (pick your metaphor there!) How it gets there can be in any number ways, including visual imagery, word association, meaning association, context dependency of a text--even "physical" approaches such as HICP to some extent. (Holme at least pays lip service to the clinical side of the field. For a cognitive linguist, that is big!)

A few earlier posts have alluded to the potential impact of relative positive or negative context on anchoring as well. For example, trying to anchor a new sound in a deadly boring, decontextualized, monotonous, mindless, pointless repetition drill, at the end of the day may not be the most effective setting for that. In fact, that sounds downright depressing.

This research by Dalgleish, Navrady, Bird, Hill, Dunn, and Golden of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, according to the Science Daily Summary, suggests an additional perspective in working with anchoring. In a study done with the chronically depressed, subjects were to use the "method-of-loci" strategy:

"The method-of-loci strategy consists of associating vivid (positive) memories with physical objects or locations -- buildings you see on your commute to work every day, for instance. To recall the memories, all you have to do is imagine going through your commute." 

The idea, apparently was to get the subjects to think "happy thoughts" more often, connecting them to physical objects or places, thus easing their depression. Here's a thought: Instead of working with haptic integration and embodiment to help students with remembering changed sounds . . . Actually, I am working with the "method-of-loci" strategy, exploring how to "embody" it with pronunciation of the Academic Word List in a workshop at the upcoming TESOL 2013 Convention in Dallas. A great venue to generate some pleasant memories at! 

"Haptic" pronunciation TESOL 2013 pre-convention institute is ON!

Clip art: 

Clker

Great news! TESOL is going to allow us to offer the full-day workshop on March 19th before the convention. Early enrolment is still low but I'm confident that it will be fully "embodied" by the time of the convention. Continue to spread the word, please. Cost of full-day PCIs at TESOL is "only" $205; convention cost is around $400 now. (And they wonder why attendance is not growing?) Will propose a similar, less expensive format to the PCI in a number of venues in the coming year, once the entire AH-EPS system is publicly available online. 

If you want to host one at your school or in your neighbourhood, let us know. Keep in touch. 

TESOL 2013 Haptic Pronunciation PCI

Just heard from TESOL that as of today there aren't enough registered for the Haptic Pronunciation PCI in Dallas to offer it. Registration closes at the end of the week. We had heard last week from one of our grads that it was closed due to enrolment  and let everybody know. Not so, apparently!!! If you had planned on signing up or know somebody who might, pass on the word! This is one party that we don't want to miss! If it is cancelled, will try to figure some kind of alternative venue for at least a meeting. 

Essentials of Haptic-Integrated Pronunciation Instruction all-day Workshop at TESOL 2013 in Dallas!

That'll be Tuesday,19 March 2013, 9 am-4 pm before the 2013 TESOL Conference begins (It is called a Pre-conference Institute), at the Dallas Convention Center, in fact. I'll be doing it with with Mike Burri, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Karen Rauser, University of British Columbia-Okanagan, and Brian Teaman, of Osaka Women's University, Not sure what the enrollment is limited to; the cost is something like $150, usually. (Well worth the fee, of course!) If you are interested in attending, let me know (wracton@gmail.com). If demand is a big as I think it'll be, I'll make sure we get a bigger room. (We could do the PCI with up to about 40 participants, given the current framework.) As mentioned earlier, after the PCI we'll locate a restaurant nearby for anybody who'd like to be present at the founding meeting of the International Association of Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation Researchers (IAHICPR . . . pronounced: I, a hiccuper!). Looking forward to it! Keep in touch for more details.

Haptic (HICP) TESOL 2012 Presentations

Coming toTESOL 2012? If so, we'll be "hapticulating" in at least a couple of talks.

The first is on the 29th in the SPLIS Academic meeting. I'm the closer of five presentations on "integration" of pronunciation work: "Post-Pronunciation pronunciation: Implications of the move toward (a) integration of pronunciation work throughout the curriculum, (b) advances in virtual reality technology and (c) increasing demand that pronunciation presented and  practiced in the classroom be more efficiently integrated into learners' spontaneous speech. "

The other one is on 31st in the morning. Five of us (Burri, Goertzen, Brodie, Teaman and myself) are doing this 45 minute demonstration: Getting Optimal Pronunciation From English Learner Dictionaries and Beyond: This demonstration introduces a set of haptic-based (movement plus touch) procedures for helping learners get pronunciation, meaning, and usage information from English learner dictionaries. Included are six techniques that are also created to be integrated into speaking and listening instruction, appropriate for use with ELLs of most levels and ages. 

Recall the (in)famous epitaph on W.C. Field's tombstone: It could be worse . . . It could be Philadelphia!

Getting (pronunciation) out of dictionaries and into the body!

Clip art: Clker

Have just heard that our proposal (Mike Burri, Alaina Brodie, Michelle Goertzen, Olga Ulyasheva and myself) for a 45 minute demonstration at TESOL in Philadelphia, "Getting Optimal Pronunciation from English Learner Dictionaries and beyond," has been accepted and will be on the program on the 31st of March, 2012. We are doing a similar presentation at the Tri-TESOL conference in Washington on the 22nd of October, next month, "Moving Pronunciation, Meaning and Usage from the Dictionary!" with Brian Teaman. (See earlier post on dictionary pronunciation for "dummies!")

In terms of demonstrating the applicability and effectiveness of haptic-integrated pronunciation work, this workshop format is promising. In about an hour or so, instructors get a good sense of the "felt sense" of the system. An earlier version at an ESL volunteer conference recently was (not surprisingly) "pronounced" a resounding success!